Church

Life is crazy and language is all consuming and although blog posts run through my head all the time, they rarely make it to my fingers and the computer.  Don't take silence for lack of activity.  I'd love to tell you a story everyday, cause there are some really good ones, but reality is that I'd have to give up sleep or showers for that to happen - and you can remember all too recently the reality of no showers and just ask my family, no sleep does not make for a happy mama.

I contemplated trying to catch up on missed things I really wanted to tell you, but decided to forgo that and just go with the present.  Maybe one day I'll do a "reminiscing" kind of post.

We moved to Spain to help begin a new church in an area of Spain that has little to no evangelical presence.  We landed in Illescas in July and have been making friends, studying Spanish, talking about the future work, praying, planning, and anxiously waiting for God to give the go ahead for the next step.

In January we (my husband and our co-worker team) decided it was time to declare the new Illescas church "open."  We still don't have a name for the new congregation, but we held our second worship service today.

For now we are meeting once a month and alternate homes for meeting.  As the congregation grows and as word of mouth is spread and as people become interested in learning a little more we will increase the frequency of our gatherings.

It's a real service, regardless of the size. Time of worship, prayer, offering, sermon, and even communion.  These will be some special memories.

And today - only our 2nd gathering - we had a visitor!  She has lived in the area for about a month. About the time she moved here our co-workers were prayer walking and giving out tracts in the the area she lives.  On the back was our co-workers name and phone number.  A couple weeks ago she called and asked if he could recommend a church in the area and he invited her to church today.  And she came!

This afternoon I had to say God stepped on my toes when he asked me "so, why are you so excited about THIS visitor and yet when you were in the states you didn't rejoice in the same way each time I sent new people to your congregation."  OUCH!  Don't blame me after you read this if He asks you the same thing!

Life is good.  We are finding our roots.  We are studying Spanish like mad.  We are making friends (Maria came for dinner this week and it was so much fun to have our OWN friend over).  We have fabulous neighbors.  Alex is finding his way in the public schools.  We are seeing God open doors and move mountains.  We are praying, planning and dreaming of future ministries.  We can't wait to see what is in store next!