Viva Espana!

Being a brand new blogger, I've got this urge to go back & share some "Footage" (well, photos) of some events from past months. In September we were still having our college "summer break." I was able to take a fabulous missions trip with 6 others from Connexxion, our campus ministry, to Badajoz, Spain. We were on the border of Portugal for a week, ministering to students at the Extremadura campus, living in the dorms. And then spent the weekend in Madrid (photo of us on the Plaza Mayor, right; cafeteria below at univ.).



Stats (read 'em & weep):
-- there are 7500 cities in Spain with a population of over 10,000 persons
-- 7,000 of these cities have NO evangelical witness (as in NONE!)
-- the average church size is 50-70 members
-- overall population = 40 million people
-- no. of baptists == 7,000 people (total-- that's it, folks)

We did lots of bridge-building to meet students-- "paving the ground" with prayer walking (see Petra, Denise from Brazil, & Anja).

We met students on campus by asking for directions & introducing ourselves. We ate lunch with them, sat in outdoor Cafes drinking coffee & eating "tapas" (small side dishes, including smoked ham that's really raw pink!), played soccer & Fussball (did you know that word is German? Lukas is playing below with 2 Spaniards). David (middle; intern) and I are at a huge outdoor festival/ party with 3 students (and about 900 other students behind this photo!).

Shannon was our main host (the couple whom she works with had a family emergency so were in the US) -- she's from the US & living a 2nd year there helping our colleagues. She has simply taken time off from college & wanted to invest her life in something that would be eternal!

Verses God showed in my quiet times... Philippians 1:12 - "I want you to understand, brothers, that my experiences have turned out for rather than against the advance of the Gospel."

"...hope not to be put to shame at all, but that with perfect boldness... the honor of Christ may be enhanced in my body, either through living or through dying" (verse 20 -- UGH!)

My experiences? Living or dying? No biggie. The end result, the goal, is the same-- HE gets honored. It doesn't really matter, WHEN this is God's WILL for me-- if I'm in jail like Paul was or walking free... if I'm in Germany, the US or the Kongo... if I'm sick (or dying) or healthy... if I'm single or married, if I'm an introvert or extrovert, etc. I can't say I like that-- this "either through..." part. But whatever God does to me and shapes through me, it's about making HIM known all over the globe. And I get to be one page, of one chapter, of a book -- that's not about ME!

May you, Jesus, receive magnification -- egal was mir passiert ist (no matter what happens to me), oder eben weil was mir geschehen ist ( or even because something has happened to me). Paul did continue to stick around. To live, for awhile

anyway. Why? Because it made him feel good? Or he could go on the circuit to many churches & tell stories of how he got released from a possible death sentence? Or to have a cozy villa, a fun car or exciting vacations? Actually, he lived on, because it would help the believers go further in faith and have "gozo de la fe" (enjoyment in their faith; Phil. 1:25). Is that a goal that will drive my life in 10, 20, 30 years?