TGIF in Vilanova!

We began our day today with a team meeting where Michael Frank shared his testimony, which was a good start to the day. Isma met us for breakfast at 9:30...where some of us ate a traditional croissant but the more daring team members ate "bikinis." They actually turned out to be not so daring sandwiches of ham and cheese! We then divided and conquered. One group stayed and prepared for the training on Saturday and the rest went to clean the church and put it back together. The cleaning crew was very efficient and innovative. The vaccuum cleaner didn´t work well, so Jennifer made a "lint brush" out of a aersol can and simple roll of masking tape. Might sound funny...but, it worked!!! Bob and Michael swept the carpet...yes, you read that correctly, they "swept" the carpet with brooms. Julie straightened the sound area (cords etc.)...Jim moved chairs and did many other tasks. Melanie cleaned the foyer. Carolyn mopped the floors and ran errands back and forth to the store, and Cara cleaned the bathroom!! NOT a fun job, but very necessary. While we were there, David, Betsy, Jen and Scott stayed back at the hotel and planned for Saturday.

Around 2 pm we all went to Barcelona (Isma drove us in our van) and met up with the ¨planning¨team for lunch. Carolyn was even able to meet up with Ben, one of their Coca Cola Scholars who was in Barcelona too! We walked around and shopped and saw the sights for a couple of hours, and then took the train back to Vilanova. We had so much fun with Ava and Isma, and we´re already sad knowing we have to say goodbye to them in 2 days.

Tonight David played tennis with Alvaro and his brother Danny (at courts by their house), and he had a chance to talk to them about their vision for their church. Then, we split up and some of us went to dinner with Isma and his parents (Joseph and Mercedes) and the rest went to dinner with Danny, Tamar, Alvero, Raquel and their kids (at Danny´s house). Both dinners were outside under the stars. Our new friends in Spain are very hospitable and make us feel so welcome!
Those of us who were at Danny and Tamar´s house finished the night watching all of the pictures we´ve taken so far on this trip...on Danny´s movie projector at home. Truly, we feel like these people are FAMILY. God has been sooo good to us!

Tomorrow we have a big day of planning and training for church leaders. We will do icebreakers with them and then break into small groups and discuss different things that our church does at home that they want to learn. There has been a lot of division at this new church, so your prayers are needed for a great day of fellowship and ¨bonding¨ tomorrow (especially between the members and leaders of their church). We fully expect God to show up big again, so we´re not worried, but it´s been very tough for them lately. They work in their regular jobs all week and then spend all weekend preparing for church Sunday (unpaid of course), and the men especially also feel the pressure of being a good husband and father aside, so they are exhausted. We have told them how all of you back home are praying for them and it means so much to all of them, so MUCHOS GRACIAS from Iglesia Evangelist. (:

Hasta Luego....until tomorrow.
(Cara, Carolyn, Melanie...on behalf of Spain team)