Speaking Frankly, by Michael Frank

Tonight will be first time ever (for me) to "blog", or type on a Spanish keyboard. This should be fun...

It is the next to the last night for our group, and what an amazing week it has been. In case you have been reading the previous blogs, you are up to date on what an incredible group of people there are in this part of the world, who have and share their passion and hearts for God. You have no choice but to be humbled and know that there is a God and that he is bigger than you can comprehend. Today was the first day that all the leaders of the church were able to come together at the same time this week, along with a few of its members, and see the church for the first time after we completed our renovations. To see grown men overwhelmed with emotion at the sight of their "new" church was incredible. To break out into small groups with the leaders and members and just ask them questions on what they thought the direction and destination was for their church and their community...was also amazing. We heard their needs and their viewpoints, and it was humbling to know that there are people in other parts who have the same obstacles and challenges that we face in spreading His word.

And to preface this next part, I have heard of this done before on other mission trips, and thought the idea of it was cool, but I had no idea... To come across the ocean and listen to a new friend that you have met sing "Indescribable" (by Chris Tomlin) in his language really opens your eyes to see just how big of a part this thing is and how big God is.

It was another long, and awesome day. A morning workout on the beach across the street of our hotel. A devotion led by an incredible man, Bob Cox. A quick visit to the church that they are building here in Vilanova, and then the rest of the day with its members in Sitges. And to close the night with just our group at dinner here on the boardwalk, Oh, and we heard a very intriguing testimony by Carolyn Norton...this a great close to a beautiful day. In shorto, I have had a lot of funo. And I can´t wait to come backo hereo...

Michael and the Spain Team 2

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)

Church is Finished at Last

After luncho, we wento to the churcho (By the way, we are speaking a new language made up by Michael Frank that we call "Frank!"). At the church we worked hard until about 9:30pm painting and putting the finishing touches on the display case in the foyer. It looks magnifico! I (Cara) just know the church members who haven´t seen it yet are going to love the improvements and feel proud of their place of worship. We quickly ran back to the hotel to get changed to go to dinner with Tamar and Danny, two of the members of the church here in Vilanova. They took us to a restaurant on the sea where many of us had our first taste of paella, which was muy bueno! Then, we took a short walk down the street and have just returned home. Tomorrow, we will be cleaning the church and planning for Saturday. Hasta luego!

Cara (on behalf of Spain Team 2)

Late lunch by the sea....

The wind is blowing, the sky is the most brilliant blue you could ever imagine. The only thing inhibiting our view of the Med sea is the green tops of the palm trees. We are eating tortillas or bocadillos or "Subway" type lunch and then heading up the hill to finish our work on the church. Oh, and FANTA is our drink of choice!
Our friend, Alvaro is our tour guide today and he has skipped worked to make sure we are taken care of.(and we have been very well taken care of (Is that English I just spoke or Spanish? I dont know anymore.) Anyway, Alvaro keeps laughing at us because he is hoping to have a true Spanish style lunch with us today but as typical Americans, we are wanting to finish our work. But even a quick sandwich in the middle of Sitges (the town where the church is) is a treat here!
I may be writing too sappy for my team (as they sit throwing down a fast sandwich)and they can get on to me later but my senses are on overload!!! I think my heart wants to jump right out of my chest. Even eating lunch on the side of the street I can feel God at work. He is at work in me persoally, he is at work in the unity of the team even in the midst of 5 straight days together. He is at work in the lives of so many of the people we have met....Chave the chair salesman, Lars the fabulous tour guide at the winery (Okay, so that is another story and could take a whole afternoon to write but yes, we visited a winery during our half day of recooperation) and especially in the hearts and lives of every person we have met with the church here. My cup is so full right now and I am so grateful for each and every circumstance that has allowed us to be right here right now in this moment. Thank you, God, for the wind and the 78 degree temperature and no traffic and no humidity and for Alvaro and Sara and grapes that make wine and Eva and her heart. Thank you for bocadillos that nourish us for a busy afternoon to finish our work. Thank you for FANTA, thank you for your beautiful Spanish countryside. Thank you for allowing each one of us to be a part of something so large. On to work now - we promise - well, maybe after we stop and get a gelato on the way up the hill. It's a must for an afternoon of painting!

Tonight we will start to plan our "retreat" with the Spanish team on Saturday. We will be spending the whole day with everyone from the church here. Please pray for direction and pray that we would listen as we are guided in how to create a "retreat" with lasting impact. We feel and appreciate your prayers.

Ciao from Sitges.
Betsy and Team (and, yes, we have had gelato everyday! Rough rough life.)

Work hard, play hard...

The church where we have been working

Chave the Chair Salesman...Day 3

Happy 4th of July to our friends and family back home! Today we started (as we do everyday) with our morning meeting, where the ¨leader of the day¨ goes over plans for the day and gives a small devotion of some sort. Today was my day for that (carolyn) so I focused on the word ¨freedom¨ and had everyone start to think what that means to us as Americans and being ¨free in Christ¨. Then we headed to the church in 2 separate cars...and the van with most of us in it had a ¨European Vacation¨ moment where we went around the ¨roundabouts¨ too many times (ending up in FRONT of the car we were supposed to be following) and ended up getting lost on the way to Sitges. However, with Dave´s good driving skills and landmarks from the day before, we miraculously found our way. Some were saying on our team that (getting lost)was the first of several spiritual attacks today. Later in the morning, we realized we had oil based paint that we couldn´t use on the walls for primer, so as we were going to return it, we spilled it all over the sidewalks on the outside of the church. Scott, Julie, and David took a bath in turpentine trying to clean it up. Some of us have also had trouble using our credit cards over here, and it took a long time to get all paint and supplies that we needed. BUT, God is good, and by the end of the day, we had the entire church painted from top to bottom! Another great part of the day was when Alvaro came to help us, and he and I sat down and planned songs for the service on Sunday. I typed English words and he translated in Spanish. It is so amazing to see how music transcends culture. They love the same songs we do and listen to the same ones we listen to back home. It was a moment we won´t soon forget.

Another amazing thing that has happened on this trip is that we have met a chair salesman named Chave(pronounced Cha-Vee, who we affectionately call the ¨chair guy¨ and looks like Ray Romano). He has been coming to the church several times and showing us chair samples(bc- we decided that buying new chairs for their church was going to be one of our main projects) and each time he has been asking about this ¨church¨ that we are renovating. Julie has done an amazing job translating with him (and everyone else here who speaks little English). Basically he told us how people in Spain don´t go to church bc- only older people go and it means nothing to their life (no relevance). He was fascinated by the concept of ¨having a relationship with God¨and that younger people his age go to this church. By the end of the first day, he told us we were ¨fun¨ and today when he walked in, we all yelled his name and he had the biggest smile on his face! If nothing else happened this week, bringing Chave in contact with this church might be reason enough for us to be here.

We got back to the hotel late and showered and went to Ava and Isma´s house for dinner. THAT was the best part of the day to many of us. We sat on the floor with Isma and David (his brother) for hours talking about the future of their church and encouraging them to not give up. There are only 30 people that go to this church, and a majority of them have personally invested a lot of their own money to help build this church, even taking mortgages on their own homes in some cases. Scott made a good point of saying that ïf there is no struggle, it might not be worth doing¨ and that the enemy would want nothing more than to see this church fail. SO TRUE! So by the end of our talk with them, we felt that they were more encouraged and we all left feeling like God really IS showing up BIG this week just like we prayed.

Sorry this is so long but there is so much to say! On behalf of our entire team, we LOVE our support letters from all of you back home, and we love the comments you have put on our blog. We are praying for all of you too! Lots of love from our team.

Day 2 Recap

We got so much work done today! It´s 1:30 in the morning now, and we are about to turn in after a fun (and exhausting) day working on the current church facility in Sitges(about 15 miles away from Vilanova)! While the new church in Vilanova is in early construction, and likely won´t be completed for at least a year, the current facility in Sitges still needs to be "fixed up" during the transition. This is something we really prayed about in the months before the trip, as we really wanted the church leaders and the congregation to have a meeting place that they could be proud of as they invited others to come and worship.

We saw the church for the first time today, and immediately got to work on the walls in the sanctuary, the windows and walls in the foyer, and expecially the storage room. The plaster walls were originally covered with large sheets of burlap to cover large holes and cracks, but after we removed the coverings we got to work on the repair. It was wonderful to see the team work together in this capacity... whatever needed to be done, our team members would just shift jobs to complete the task. Jim and Frank moved heavy office equipment upstairs, Cara and Carolyn organized the cleaning of the storage room, Jen Tanksley spearheaded store trips to get supplies and the right paint colors for the building... I was amazed at how members of our team worked selflessly to complete even the smallest tasks. Although the walls have spackle all over them now, we are so excited to see what the place will look like tomorrow when we start applying the first coats of paint on!!!! Some of the church leaders like Isma, Eva and Alvaro plan on coming in tomorrow night to help out with the work! It´s so exciting to finally get to work on the project that we have been praying about the last several months.

This evening, we went to dinner with Tomas and his wife Pudi, as well as his son Alvero and his family. Even with a bit of a language barrier, it is such a joy to be with these people who in touch with what God is doing for their church, and they are so thankful to have us here helping them.

We can´t wait to see what happens tomorrow! Happy 4th of July from Spain!!!!