Surprises, Painting, Life, & God...

So, I have been thinking that I share all the highlights of my life here in Spain and might be giving you all the impression that life is just one party after another and that I never work, sleep, or do normal daily life things. Hopefully, I'll be able to remedy that a bit.

My life in does have daily living aspects to it..life in Spain is definitely more social though. A normal weekday for me involves dragging myself out of bed of a late morning (rarely do I get up very early, especially now that I don't have to get up and wake up the girls in the morning...explain that later), maybe exercising a bit or going running, cleaning up around the house a bit (vacuuming the girls' rooms is what I'm supposed to do, but I am not good at walking past a mess in the kitchen left from a rush to school and not tidying up a bit), maybe do a bit of laundry (when there's laundry to do), and then whatever else I want or need to do. Just normal stuff! Occasionally, I'll go spend some time with Susi my friend on these mornings when I have nothing else pressing going on. On Tuesday and Thursday mornings I have Spanish classes at the University. I help out in language lab for about 30 minutes on both days. I walk to the University (about a 25 minute walk) arriving in time to be available to students who are wanting to practice speaking in English. When there aren't any students to help, then I usually sit and use the resources available to study Spanish.. Then I have class for 1 1/2 hours with a bunch of Italians, a German gal, a girl from Holland, and a few from various other countries. It's quite entertaining most of the time. Our common language for communication is Spanish, the language we are all trying to learn...which can make things rather funny to sit back and simply watch. More than once I've been asked what I was smiling or grinning about...grin! I get out of my class at 2:30pm to speed walk home for lunch (it's quite common to eat lunch anytime between 2-4pm, and I've actually gotten quite accustomed to it). So, that's my free time for the mornings. Starting from when the girls get home from school I'm normally fairly occupied. Technically I don't start "work" until 4pm, but since I live with my work, I help out here and there with things and don't normally get much done for myself after they get home from school. Smile... At 4pm, I give each of them swimming lessons. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I take the younger two by car to swimming lessons in the evenings. Sometimes I go get groceries while they are in their lessons. Other times, I run the older gal and her friend to their dance class across town. Sometimes I have time to just sit and read or study or go running in this time, though lately I've been busy most of that free time. In the evenings, I get dinner together, make sure the girls do their homework, and other normal life stuff.... I'm technically "off work" at 9:30pm, but that varies too since I live with my work. Smile.. Some evenings I make plans to go out with a friend for a bit, but most nights I'm at home and ready to crawl into my bed and sleep. Grin!! That's a normal week for me. The weekends, well those are an entirely different matter and it's normally those that I spend the most time writing about!! Smile...so I won't go into details.

Life in Spain is social, as I mentioned earlier. People love to sit outside in the cafes and bars visiting, smoking their cigs, enjoying a drink (ranges from coffees & teas to various wines and beers), and just being with their friends. Shopping is big here as well, maybe because it's yet another "social" event they can participate in. I enjoy going out on an evening that is warm just to see all the people that are milling about the streets. Normally the streets are packed, the outdoor cafes and bars are full, and the plazas (kind of like neighborhood squares) are filled with bystanders, groups of people young and old visiting, and children running in between everyone and everything playing. It's quite a social gathering outdoors. The streets of the old part of town are all made from cut stone, and the buildings lining both sides are often made from stone as well..making it all quite lovely and old looking. This just adds to the atmosphere. Life isn't all grand here though...many people are lost spiritually. I'd say it's a fairly liberal country with much atheism and "live for the day" influence. In this aspect, there are many things that aren't so lovely about Spain and it can all be summed up in one word: sin. But then, that's all over the world so it doesn't make Spain different from the rest of those who are lost around the world, including in the USA. So, that's my interpretation of life in Spain and my little sermon to go along with it.. smile..

So, surprises...Last Sunday after church I hopped in my friend Mili's car headed to Susi's house. Susi had to work, so she hadn't been able to come to church. We headed to her place with developing plans to make her a surprise lunch to have ready for when she got off work at 3pm. Not long after we got there and got started, Mili (Susi's sister) remembered she had to be at her parents' house for lunch, so she left. I finished making lunch and had everything prepared for when Susi got home...she was nicely surprised. Smile. It's fun to bless a friend who blesses me sooo much and so often (though I don't think she realizes how much of a blessing she is to me). Sunday afternoon, we got a group together to play some basketball. I was smart and did some Michael Jordan "wanna be" jump to block the ball and ended up with a scraped up & bleeding palm, but other than that had a great time and came out in good shape. Joined a group of friends from church to watch a movie at the local theater. My first movie in a Spanish cinema. Good times, good popcorn, and an okay movie...Smile. We got out of the movie with most of the group hungry, so we headed to a restaurant for dinner.. I shared a HUGE sandwich with a friend of mine... I didn't order, just ate what I was given and it was fabulous. I'm pretty sure that the sandwich had two or three kinds of meat along with cheese and other stuff... Smile.. Yummy!! Great weekend!!
Monday of last week, I helped Susi paint her bedroom...we painted it two shades of purple and it looks great. We did paint the walls this time and managed to keep most of it off of us.. I was good and didn't get into any paint fights with her.. grin. Tuesday on the way to my Spanish class, I stepped off a walkway and twisted my ankle. Well, had to keep walking because I wasn't there yet...so I just prayed for it and kept going. Thank the Lord!!! My ankle never swoll up much (though it got slightly puffy around the ankle bone), and I was able to walk there and back...then took a LONG walk that night with a friend. PTL!!! It only ached a little for a day or two...PTL!!!

Thursday was bible study as normal. I just love being a part of a Bible study group here and learning from the Lord. I got a Spanish Bible given to me this Sunday.. PTL!!! I had been trying to buy one for weeks now, and now I finally have one and free!! PTL!!! I've been having trouble sleeping lately for some reason or another, so the people in my Bible study got together and prayed for me. What a huge blessing. Though I didn't sleep a lot that night, I slept great! PTL!!!

Friday, I hopped a bus to Noia to visit the Towners. They are in the midst of packing to return to the US. I think I have mentioned this before. Anyway, I went to try to help and mostly to be an encouragement. After a few weeks of packing everyday, it can get a bit discouraging I'm sure.. I ended up making lunch for them followed by craisin muffins... I helped pack a tiny bit, but guess I was more helpful in the kitchen. So thankful that Mom taught me to cook and that the Lord has been helping me with ideas. It's one thing when you have been planning something to cook and entirely another thing when you're put into a kitchen with rice cooking on the stove, some cooked chicken, and told to go at it. Smile. I was cutting veggies while asking the Lord what I was making. He's a great help!! It was a good day, but I was exhausted before reaching home and I still had to work that night. On top of that, my boss had invited over a few friends for us to entertain and she had mentioned to me that she'd have to leave part way through their visit.. I wasn't sure if she was expecting me to entertain her friends or what.. It turned out great though. The Lord gave me strength and we had a good time with my boss, two Greeks (one is her Greek teacher), and another American gal. By the time I finally got to bed that night, I was tired!! What experiences I get here...This weekend, a church about an hour from Santiago was having a special speaker. Occasionally on Sunday evenings, Susi and I have driven to this other church for their evening service... So, on Saturday evening and then again Sunday evening, we drove down with a few other people to hear the visiting speaker and enjoying the meetings. Both nights were a blessing. Great times in the presence of the Lord, great times of ministry, and good messages...All in Spanish, so sometimes a challenge to understand the messages, but getting easier. I understood the second night better than the first...smile!So, that's been what I've been up to lately. It's been busy, fun, and a little exhausting. I slept VERY late today....trying to catch up on some lost sleep over the weekend. Smile.. Please be in prayer for the church of Santiago. Right now they are going through some changes. They are starting a new church, which is in a neighboring town of Santiago. A large portion of the people at the church are from that small town and some are in confusion as to where they are supposed to go now that there will be a new church closer to their home. On top of that, the pastor has recently stepped back and allowed new leaders to step forward. Just praying that none will be lost in these changes as I was especially concerned for new believers and those who aren't such strong believers yet. Appreciate your prayers for wisdom for myself as well in encouraging those that I'm close to as they are expressing their uncertainty.

May the Lord bless you all!!

One Weekend: Fiestas, Picnics, & Food Fights

WoW!! Where to start? This last few weeks has been rather busy and doesn't seem to slow down much during the week...grin...maybe that's my fault! *G*

So, I believe that I mentioned in my last post visiting the village home of my friend Susana...well, on the way home from there she and I began making plans for a surprise birthday party for her sister, Mili. We got together Monday morning to compile the guest list and send out email invitations or cell phone messages to everyone on the list... That was an adventure... Then we headed out to buy a gift. I had no clue what to get Mili, so it helped to have Susi along to find something her sister would appreciate... ended up, we came up with a marvelous idea of making t-shirts for each of us with scripture on them.. We found some cheap shirts and on Thursday morning got together to complete our project. It was a little bit of a challenge to write in Spanish, because I was trying to be careful not to mess up and since Spanish is not my first language the spelling wasn't coming quite so naturally..smile...but between Susi and I we got our shirts completed!! Unfortunately, we also discovered that our surprise had been ruined slightly ruined because of a coinciding party for the same birthday girl, at the same time, with the same people invited...ooops.. Oh well! Wednesday afternoon was a bit different than our normal schedule. After all the language lessons were finished (which they have German, French, & English on Wednesdays), the youngest had a birthday party to go to...So, I hopped in the car and took her to the party across town...then I returned, parked, and Irenita and I headed out for a few hours of just having fun on the town. We walked around the old part of town, went for an ice cream, then walked to another place for a milkshake...smile!! We had a photo shoot in a few places and overall had a great time. It was exactly what the day called for!! Then back to the house to drop off Irenita and get the car to go pick up Helena. Back home to make dinner and get the girls ready for bed!! What a busy, but lovely evening. It is nice to have slight variations to our schedule occasionally.
Thursday evening after returning with the girls from their swimming lessons, I got in the mood to bake...hmmm...so, apple pies began forming, two large apple pies. I have Bible study on Thursday nights, so it was a rush to get the pies baked, dinner on the table, and the kitchen cleaned up before leaving, but with the help of my girls, we succeeded!! They were excited about the pie as they enjoy tasting desserts (typical kids...). It was fun to be able to take one of the pies to Bible study and share. It turned out we were having a small birthday party for a girl after Bible study (not the same gal, Mili) and so my pie was added to the rest of the fiesta foods! Smile... the girl for whom we had the little fiesta is an unbeliever and so the girls in the Bible took this opportunity to pray for her.. Grin!!After getting home LATE on Thursday night, I crashed and slept late on Friday! I woke Friday to one gorgeous day. I took advantage of the amazing sunshine by taking myself out to the terrace to read my Bible and drink my coffee. It was an answer to my heart's desire. I had been needing a chance to be able to sit and relax without the stress of needing to do something or having others around...some down time I guess it's called...smile! The Lord is so faithful to provide our needs, desires, and sometimes unvoiced prayers. PTL!!! What a loving God!!! My Friday was very restful. I met with a friend for a while in the evening just walking around the old part of town and enjoying the beautiful upper 70's weather. Friday evenings I normally work, but the family didn't arrive home until after 11pm, so I worked on a HUGE card for my friend's birthday party..

Saturday morning, I woke up to yet another amazingly beautiful day... The girls and I enjoyed playing Uno out on the terrace in the sunshine after their language lessons were finished. After lunch, Irene and the two younger gals took off to spend the weekend with a friend in a coastal city (they came back to say they'd spent most of the time at the beach). Since, the younger girls were gone and I was free for a while, Celia and I headed out to get some ice cream and see if the shops I needed to go to were open. Nearly everything here closes from 2-4-4:30pm for lunch. Celia had to leave to work on a project with some girls from school, so I once again had the house to myself and took myself back out to the terrace with a book for a short time.

Saturday nights we have youth meeting at the church, so after running to a nearby store to get a flashy child's crown for the birthday girl, I hurried to get ready for the youth meeting and fiesta following. What a lovely, relatively hot day. I walked down to the church near the trainstation and stood outside with another girl waiting for someone to come open the church. They were slightly late, but then that's fairly typical Spanish time (5-15 minutes). The Bible study was normal, good. It's an encouragement to go and fellowship and study the Bible with the other young people. After the meeting, we began making preparations to figure out how we were going to get everyone to where the party was. It's amazing how long things can take. By the time they finally got things figured out a little, I was ready to just walk (which would have been a long walk...grin). Anyway, I ended up in a car that flew down a tiny back road (barely wide enough for the car in places) only to find that the occupants had other plans before meeting up with the group at our randezvous to pick up others...grin...Finally another of my friends showed up with his car and eventually I drove off with him and one other gal to meet up with the others. Ooops! What'd I learn? Just be patient and things will eventually happen. Grin!! Finally, we were headed down the road again to the party that "we" were hosting...grin...the organizers of the party weren't even there on time. Haha.. Anyway... The party was held in a hotel belonging to a friend of the b-day gal. We ended up having about 25-30 people at the party with plenty of food and drinks (in fact we had leftovers). There were a couple games, lots of visiting, lots of picture taking, opening of gifts (rather haphazardly and sporadicly), then after the final guests arrived sometime after mid-night, the cake was brought out. Smile...yeah, things are a little later here than we'd normally do them in the USA. The party didn't even start until about 10pm. Anyway... Somewhere in that crazy rush of events, Susi and I gave her the scripture tanktop we'd made and removed our outer layer to reveal similar shirts we were wearing. After cleaning up a bit, I finally left a little after 1am to drive back to Santiago, grab some stuff, and head back to my friend's house for a big girls' sleepover... I think we got to bed somewhere around 3am as the others didn't reach the house until 2:30am!! Yeah, so that was just Saturday... The weekend still continues....

Sunday morning, I was awake too early for having gone to bed at 3am, but oh well...ready for church, I started the coffee while the others continued to sleep...grin...I had barely sat down with my coffee and Bible before I was joined by others who were smelling the scent of the coffee and it was drawing them from their beds...grin...oops. My mistake! Anyway...went to the ladies' Bible study before church with Susi (I normally go)... This Bible study encourages me to memorize the Word, which I have been enjoying doing lately. The service was quite a blessing. I'm able to understand more and more of the message these days and sing along with more of the songs, which helps in joining in the worship with music. I love to sing! It's exciting to me to be able to go to church and understand, though I also enjoy just going to be with others in the presence of the Lord. PTL!!! After church, we decided to have a picnic because the weather was fabulous (in the upper 70s) and we had quite a bit of leftover food from the fiesta the night before. So, getting a descent-sized group together, we went to a nearby park to enjoy our lunch and continue our fellowship out of doors. A few guys went to order some pizza and a few of the rest of us went back to the house to get some stuff...but before long, we were all enjoying ourselves. It was absolutely fabulous weather to be outside!!! PTL for such a beautiful weekend! Eventually, we brought out a cake that was left from the weekend's celebrations and cut that up to eat... My friend Mili decided I'd look better with a little icing on my nose and that's how the food fight began. Grin!!! So, no I didn't start it, but I sure helped finish it well!! Haha.. Before long, there were at least 5 of us in on the fight...grin...I definitely got Susi, but then got a good run myself to keep from getting got. I ended up wading through shallow creek to avoid being got, which was quite amusing to the rest of the group who stood by as spectators. Grin... They blamed it on my growing up in India...seems a lot of things get blamed on that. Fact is, they just saw a part of who I am...ornery, adventurous, and not a city girl I guess...hmmm... Anyway, I ended up having to go back to that creek to clean up, after getting egg, potatoes, and cake cream all over my face, arms, and my shirt...smile. Good times! We eventually started a real, more organized game that is a version of dodgeball (only different). It was fun and occupied us for a good while. Eventually the picnic began to disperse, but some of us weren't in a hurry to get home... So the day continues, now 5pm! I spent the rest of the daylight hours walking around the old part of town, which is quite an interesting place, with everything built from stone including the narrow roads. It is a place where only a select few cars are allowed to drive, where the streets are lined with shops, bars, cafes (in/outdoor), and people are out for an evening stroll.

Inside Mora's Chocolate Cafe

We stopped for a snack and drink in a small chocolate store/cafe that I had found previously...Eventually, the party broke up and many headed home to get some rest. Still a few of us remaining though, so we rented a movie and headed to Susi's house to enjoy the rest of our evening...it was a nice way to end a fabulous, busy weekend!! The movie was in Spanish, but with English subtitles, I had little trouble following along with what was happening. Smile...

Other than partying and hanging out with friends, I do work and have Spanish classes, as well as help out in a language lab at the University helping with English conversation sessions. All that is going well also. The family I live with is doing well. Continue to pray for them. My middle one mentioned to me this week, while she was upset about something and I was trying to calm her down, that she didn't believe in God and couldn't have as much patience as I had... WoW!! Out of her own mouth, without my having initiated that comment. It seems to me as though the Lord is working in her heart. I continue to pray for her and the others, desiring them to know the Lord and experience His amazing grace and love!! Spanish classes are going well. I was a bit frustrated last Tuesday because I kept getting lost in what was going on, but I'm learning from it. It's been great to start learning more and more of the past and future tenses...it's really hard to communicate clearly using only the present tense...grin...though that's what I have often been stuck with not having learned much future or past tense...Anyway, I learn a little more each day it seems. PTL!!! Continue to pray for my ability to learn this language in the remaining time that I have here..

Yes, my time to leave is slowly drawing closer. Not fully sure that I'm ready to leave Spain, but believe that the Lord will help me in that as well. There are times when I'm so ready to get back to the US and other times that I'm not all that interested in returning. I'm enjoying the extra time with the Lord here, the break from responsibilities of bills and such there in the US...imagine! Grin... Anyway... keep my return in your prayers as it means saying goodbye (or "until later") to a lot of good friends, to the family I live with, and to what I've known of Spain. Even when I do return, it won't ever be exactly the same. Guess this is part of the story of my life...but I'm content in that! The Lord is and has been teaching me a LOT here and it's great preparationg for whatever He has in store for me after this time here in Spain. PTL!!!

May the Lord bless you all.. I have heard about the flooding. Hope that you are all safe and staying dry.

Horseback Riding!

So, the newest adventure was horseback riding this weekend... Grin! Yes, it was quite an experience, especially since I lack experience & training in riding horses.

I discovered Friday afternoon that the church youth from Santiago was meeting up with the Noia youth to go horseback riding on Saturday. This was an all day event including lunch, time of worship and teaching, and ending with horseback riding in the evening. I worked Saturday morning, but a few others from Santiago had to work Saturday morning as well, so we all left late to catch up with the others and go horseback riding. We drove about an hour before we finally found the place...I enjoyed driving again on nice big highways, as well as through twisty, winding little country roads. We arrived just in time to join the horseriding expedition!!

of a lady in the church to the horse ranch or whatever it is called...I'd say there were probably between 25-30 of us. For those of us who wanted ride, which I wasn't so sure I wanted to ride, we had to go in shifts of 8. I was on the third shift along with my friend Ruthie Towner and many other friends from church. We began our little excursion into the nearby woods along a path. My horse, Marea, occasionally thought she'd like to stop for a bite to eat along the way...or just a drive-thru snack here and there.. Haha! dodge that branch... Occasionally one horse would decide to trot a bit faster and all the others would follow, so there I went bouncing and jolting along rather uncomfortably...trying to stay upright on my horse. I got a bit concerned about staying on my horse after watching another guy in front of me nearly fall off of his...grin! All was going well, we turned our horses around to head back...still fine...my horse is walking along at a perfectly comfortable pace for me, someone who has little to no experience riding a horse...then we find ourselves a little behind the others and the gap is growing. I have one guy further behind me as well though and think little of it, until.....my horse decided the gap was too big and she'd like a run anyway...so off we go at her desired pace (not mine that's for sure) galloping along to catch up with the others...not just a trot, but now we're at a gallop. Now I'm hanging on for dear life with my left hand, pulling back hard on the reigns with my right hand, and riding cowboys!! Grin... Of course the guys thought it was cool to have an American gal with them riding horses, because in there imaginations they were picturing an American cowboy (only I'm a gal). So, not sure what I looked like as I galloped along to catch up with the others, but I did notice that it was smoother going at a gallop than the jolting trot. grin...still, I was in NO hurry to try that again and especially not as we began to descend the hill we'd climbed up. Smile....so, safely back at the barn, I left that adventure with a story to tell and my smile still intact! So, that was Saturday....and then we had to turn our clocks forward and lose an hour.... Sunday!! What a great day.. Went to church and had a lovely time of worship. It is great to be learning to sing in Spanish and not have to simply stand there humming, praying, or singing along in English if I know the song. I love to sing, so I'm enjoying being able to join in more...

After church, I asked Mili (Susana's sister) what she wanted to do for the afternoon, if she had anything planned. I soon found myself in her car headed to her family village to visit her parents and grandparents. Smile!! I had told Susi recently that I'd love to meet her parents as I've heard interesting things about them and where they live. So, now I got my opportunity. Susana had to work until 3pm, but soon met us at her parent's place. We enjoyed a lovely (though very late) lunch made by her mother...very typical Spanish food. What's typical Spanish food?? A chunk of meat (pork or beef normally) cooked with potatoes, and a few spices (not many). It tastes quite good. This is normally eaten with fresh bread from the bakery. There were also beans with potatoes and chorizo (spicy sausage). Anyway...lunch was followed up with cake (known as "tarte" here) in celebration of their oldest sister's birthday. Yummy!! I was stuffed and sleepy...I'm sure you can imagine. After lunch, we girls (along with the oldest sister) took off down the lane to a neighboring village to visit their cousin and take her out for a coffee for her birthday. We eventually ended up in a coastal town enjoying the ocean view, sipping coffee, and walking along the beach. A great Sunday!! I did finally make it home about 12:30am, very satisfied and with plans for Monday morning (no sleeping in late...)

This week is filled with work, planning & organizing a surprise birthday party for Mili, Spanish classes Tuesday & Thursday, Bible study Thursday night (as normal), youth group on Saturday night, a surprise dinner later on Saturday, and whatever else gets included...That's a fairly normal week for me though other than the party planning...Smile.. Life has fallen into something of a normal schedule, which is good and bad...grin!

View from the kitchen window...I watched it change from sunny to pouring and it was gorgeous!

Appreciate all your prayers. The Lord has been teaching me a lot lately it seems...enjoying it, though sometimes it is challenging!! I am VERY thankful for this time in Spain in which I feel like the Lord is doing a lot of work in me, growing me up a bit...PTL!!! God bless you all....May He bless you and keep you and mae His face to shine upon you and give you peace!!!