Is this football or rugby?

Quite possibly the longest football play I have ever seen. Had me laughing quite a bit.

Donde está mi mente?

I have finished one week of language school. (Notice the significant decrease in posts in the last five days.) I also started school 2 weeks late. So, I find myself asking myself (reflexive what?) the question posted above. Only I ask it in english, as I do not yet think in spanish.

Where is my mind? I have taken in so much information my mind is on complete overload. I think even my english is worse than it was 5 days ago. Some of the most consistent thoughts I've had this week as I study would probably go something like this: "I recognize that... I should know what it means. I can't remember. Where's my dictionary? Oh yeah." I am continually looking up simple things over and over. I guess brutal repetition is the best way to learn. I know I am learning, but it feels like I am taking in so much information that none of it is sticking. If I knew the spanish phrase for in one ear, and out the other, it would most definitely be appropriate.

The good news is this: I expected it, and am not discouraged. I get frustrated with it at times, but not discouraged. This is the road to learning it. I hold onto the long-term goal of becoming more conversational by the end of the semester, and even more so by the end of the year.

Curious Discoveries

Our education here is continual, and I feel like I see and hear new things every day. Here are just a handful of sights and experiences that might give you some insight to our daily doings.

Four-wheelers: You may know them as ATVs - Call them what you want. I am not very surprised to find them in Spain. I am getting used to seeing a few of them driving on the roads. I saw this once in the first couple of weeks, and assumed it was unique. Since then, I have had several sightings of guys driving their four-wheelers in and out of traffic. They wear helmets, and outfits that appear like that of a motorcycle rider. I guess the only difference is that their 'bike' has a few extra wheels.

Headlights: Our car has headlights that turn off when the car is turned off. Therefore, since we park in an underground garage, our headlights are on quite a lot - resulting commonly in us driving with our headlights on during daylight hours. This evidently is somewhat of a cultural anomaly, as we have now had quite a few locals tell us that our lights are on (even while driving). I think for the most part, they are telling us out of neighborly care, and really feel like they are doing us a favor. So for that, I am grateful. I am just amused that this action, being pretty common where I come from, is abnormal enough for a number of strangers to feel compelled to inform us of our error.

Regisration: It took me 3 days to register for my language course. Three!!
Day 1: I went to the school, purchased the application forms (that's 3.50 euros for the application, thank you), and was instructed to return the next day with the completed forms, and proof that I had paid for the course via a local bank. Complete forms, and go to a local bank and successfully pay for the course.
Day 2: Return to register. Informed that there is a new process, and I now need to get permission from the Ministry of Education to learn Spanish (since I am a foreigner). Also discover that the class I wanted to take was two hours earlier than I expected (my error).
Day 3: Drive around Coruña searching for the right office to get permission to learn Spanish. Find office, get a short letter with an official stamp from a nice lady. If you are following along at home, you can rest easy, because I am now cleared to learn Spanish. Return to the school to register, and discover the class I had been trying to register for all along was closed. So instead of completing Spanish one over one semester of 2-hour a-day classes, I will now complete it over the course of the entire year with 1-hour a day evening class.
Conclusion: So, it never looks like I expect it to look, and it never goes as planned. Nothing here seems to be as easy as I think it will be. The good news is I finally get some classroom time in my quest to learn Spanish. I start Monday. The other good news is that God has proven time and again to provide what we need in his perfect timing - regardless of what we thought might be coming. We can trust with confidence that, once again, his place for me is not exactly the same place I thought it might be. Hasta lunes!

The Courageous Solo Backpacker

This is our friend Jung. Faith and I both knew him at Wheaton College (class 97, yeah!!). I have some fond memories playing floor hockey with him. At any rate, he has earned the (dubious?) distinction of being the first backpacker to stay with us here in La Coruña. He is on a 6 week trip through Europe with a trip to China tacked on at the end.

At any rate, he is doing this backpacking thing alone. I have much respect for those that choose the adventure of traveling alone. We were blessed to hang out with Jung for about 36 hours. It was nice to catch up, and nice to hear about his travels. I am convinced as ever that something much more elemental than tourism occurs when people travel the world in this manner. Sure, hostels and hotels are booked, tours are taken, and meals are eaten. There is undeniably a sense of holiday for such trips. But that is just the surface for many backpackers. For many there is a sense of experience that goes much deeper than checking off landmarks. There is a sense of searching and finding. There is a curiosity to see where, and how others live. There is some thrill in watching other cultures live out their daily routines. There is often a desire to experience something larger and different from yourself. I am glad Jung has the opportunity to experience it.

I am also convinced that God likes it when we seek, and is invested in helping us find. The New Testament speaks of living as strangers and aliens where we are. When we leave comfort and familiarity behind, we can be surprised by what we find as an outsider in a new place. Jung, we wish you all God-Speed, blessing, and adventure for the rest of your journey.

News Briefs

Open-Air Worship

The status of our church, Vida Nueva, is still unresolved. We met outside again this past Sunday, and are awaiting a response from the city government this week. So far no news.

The Sling

As seen in these pictures, Ryan realized on Monday night that his arm was feeling better. He's been good as new since, and the sling has only been used as a cartoonish headband. Sorry - we didn't get any pictures of that.

Hospitality of Strangers

“Hospitality is as close as we will ever get to the face of God,”
declared a rabbi. Hospitality is at the heart of the Gospel. God
was not willing that we, who were estranged from Him by sin,
should remain strangers. The Father sent forth His Son to extend
an invitation to His home, welcoming those who would receive His
invitation into a holy comm-unity called the Church. His desire
was that we be one in community with Him even as Christ was,
that the world would be convinced of Christ and His mission.
Hospitality is to reach to strangers. In a very real and growing
sense, we are all strangers here. We must grasp the God-breathed
need for Christ-infused hospitality to reach the virtual strangers
around us, beginning with those virtual strangers right in our midst
in the household of faith. Hospitality is glorious, but not glamorous.
It is not an artificial marketing tool but the Master’s authentic
method for birthing and maintaining relational community."

This thought was forwarded to me in an e-mail. I would love to tell you who wrote it, but it was unattributed. I felt the thoughts expressed were worth repeating and spreading.

The italics added are mine. Because christians have found so much in Christ, I think it is easy for us to come across as insiders. Christianity here in Spain, but also around the world, often has an image problem among not-yet-believers. Often, this image problem is genuinely earned. This article highlights some statistics published by the Barna Group highlighting how young adults in the US view christianity. It is important for us to reclaim our position as strangers and aliens among our neighbers, co-workers, and friends.

I also wanted to highlight the comment about hospitality being glorious, but not glamorous. In my experience it is always rewarding to welcome others into your home and life. But it often involves serving, sacrifice, and the messiness that real interaction with others often includes. One thing I felt we heard too much as we prepared to move to Spain were well meant encouragements that often made it sound like we had chosen some sort of higher way of life. It just isn't that way - there is nothing glamorous about our move, or our vision. I feel as obedient in following Christ to Spain as I did into my corporate cubical in suburban Chicago. Not glamorous, but in both places, there can be glorious moments when God is at work.

May we all feel a bit like a stranger, and experience a little of the joy of hospitality.

Unplanned Experiences: The Sling

We continue to learn about how to live here in Spain, and continue on our pretty constant parade of 'firsts.' We made our first visit to the emergency room here in La Coruña Thursday evening. We were visiting another home, and Ryan fell in the simplest of ways. He was already sitting on the wood floor, and he spun around to do something, lost his balance, and fell over. It took us 5-10 minutes to discover that his arm was REALLY hurting, and he would not allow us to touch it.

Once again, God really provided for our needs. We happened to be with a number of bi-lingual missionaries at the time, and one of them, Leah, was so great to give up her evening and help us take care of Ryan. We had been planning on applying for the public health care system on this coming week, so obviously had not registered yet. The local clinic took a look at Ryan anyway, and suggested an x-ray was necessary. This meant a trip to the local children's hospital emergency room, where they also helped us. .

Overall, Ryan was an excellent 2 year old patient. Especially one who missed dinner and bedtime to check out the emergency room. He obviously did not enjoy having his sore arm poked and prodded. He spent most of the time in the hospital in my arms, whimpering or crying. He gave several dirty looks to the Doctors who poked and prodded him. Despite his misgivings, the Doctors were very nice to him, and tried very hard to figure out if anything was wrong. The x-ray showed no broken bones, which is good. But evidently with children this small it is very difficult to tell if there is any ligament damage. He refused to use the injured arm for the entire visit. They said it's most likely a sprain, and put him in a sling. They suggested he take ibuprofen, and if he wasn't using his arm in 5 days to visit the pediatrician.

Here is a picture of him taken on Friday.

For our first experience into socialized medicine, it wasn't that bad. We've heard that waiting for a long time is the norm. (The socialized system is known for it's slowness. Our friend Leah, who was helping us, hurt her knee almost a month ago, and will not get it x-rayed until December!!) But in our case, it didn't seem we waited any more at the public hospital here than I ever have at a US hospital. We now get to urgently complete our registration for the health care system on Monday in order for this visit to be covered.

At any rate, he perked up almost immediately after we walked out of the hospital doors. Thankfully, Friday was a holiday, so we've had a three day weekend. It's been two days, and he is still in his sling, and still not using the arm. He's terrified to take it off, even though we have made him take it off once each day since. Outside of the very noticeable sling, you'd have trouble recognizing he's operating with one arm. He climbs around, makes trouble with his brother, plays and eats normally. I've included three more photos below to prove he did just fine as we did some sightseeing in Coruña today, and at the park. You can feel a little bad for him, but not too bad. After all, he gets even more attention now than he was before when we go out.

Throwing rocks.

Looking tough at the Torre de Hercules (Tower of Hercules - the oldest working Roman lighthouse in the world).

Enjoying some time at the park.

Brazilian soccer player sings James Blunt

I found this on a soccer blog. Luciano Emilio is a Brazilian playing for DC United. He is tearing it up this year, leading the league in goals. He is also a large personality, and quite funny. One of his teammates posted this video in his blog. You can follow this link to read more about the set-up.

Kids

Kids

Going through this life change with the kids is most interesting. It is obviously more challenging to make this kind of move with kids than without. But it has been a lot of fun to see them enjoy the changes. They have been very natural ice-breakers with Spaniards - they LOVE little children here. I created an album of photos of the kids we've taken since our arrival. Click on the photo to be linked to the album. Enjoy.

Ruins

There is this enormous mansion in ruins just about a block away from our Piso. Along with the boats, this mansion is the other part of living there that has captured my visual imagination.

Wish I could have seen it in it's heyday.

What do you do...?

What do you do when the police show up at your church with orders to close it down and bar you or your congregation from entering the building?

This is exactly the situation the pastor of our church in La Coruña faced on more than one occasion this last week. One week ago, on Sunday night, during a new members class, the local police showed up at the door of Vida Nueva with orders to evict the church from their building. The building was not closed down, but everything was removed from the worship center.

On Wednesday the police returned during a training session for missionaries in Galicia. This time the worship center (sanctuary) was closed down, and they sealed the door with official tape barring entry. The church offices were allowed to remain open.

On Friday afternoon the police returned to close the offices. Instead of having a class session with other missionaries in Galicia, we helped remove important items from the church that would be needed. Imagine you knew you had two hours to get as much out of your house before fire hits - this is similar to how the church staff operated on Friday. Whatever we did not remove Friday afternoon is now sealed inside the church. Print and television media came Friday to cover the event. I didn't see it, but the local news report was favorable towards the church.

The church leaders still are not entirely certain what is going on, or where the pressure to close the church is coming from. In the eyes of many Spaniards evangelical churches are cults, so the evangelicals are viewed with suspicion. There has been some friction in the past with one neighboring business over noise issues. The order to evict the church from the building had something to do with sanitation. At any rate, it feels and smells of repression and persecution based on religious beliefs. Certainly, Vida Nueva is a very active church, and is involved in a number of significant ministries. There is no doubt that whatever human activity is driving this opposition, there is a more important spiritual battle going on.

So, today, for the first time in my life, I was privileged to experience a worship service with a church body who had no home as a result of religious persecution. It was both surreal, and surprisingly normal. It was obviously a little more emotional than most services. It was a little strange I think for the neighborhood residents to see a church service outside. And it's not every Sunday service that gets covered by the local media. But, the overall hallmark of the service was that of community, peace, and joy. There was no public display of anger or bitterness. There were a few tears. But we worshiped, shared communion, passed an offering basket, and listened to a sermon on the body of Christ just like any other Sunday. It was a concrete reminder that Christ lives and works in and through people. The church is the community of believers, and does not need a building to worship and minister together.

I've already written a lot, and there is much more I could say. I don't have pictures or video of the events to post at the moment, but if I can gleam any from other sources, I'll post them here.

What I do have is the photo above (I recognize it's not perfect, but will give you some sense of the staging). Faith and Ryan are at the door to the church offices. The door to the sanctuary is the white door in the center. The church has a front courtyard/parking area that is big enough for three Euro-sized cars. This is the space in which we worshiped on Sunday morning.

What happens next? It's uncertain at best. Truly, God only knows where it goes from here. But I'll close by describing a short conversation that truly struck me in the midst of this. It was on Friday afternoon, there were no less than four police cars and 8 uniformed policemen at the church. The pastor and secretary were in the offices, and no one else was allowed to enter the building. There was a medium sized crowd of folks milling about outside the church uncertain of what to do, or what would happen next. Our friend Jerry arrived and walked into the crowd with a large smile on his face. He has decades of ministry and life experience. He was positively beaming and said, "Isn't this exciting?" I checked his face for humor or sarcasm - there was none. He was as genuine as could be. Then he said this - "God is up to something. Whatever happens here, His name will be honored. It's very exciting"

Boats

I have been surprised by my desire to take pictures since arriving here. Typically in our family, Faith is the photographer. But I have felt drawn to try and capture at least some of what I'm experiencing on film. I'm not sure if this is some subconscious need to process the life change we are experiencing, or what. Regardless, I'll try to start sharing more photos here.

One thing that has captured my imagination are boats. We live near a tidal river - here it's called a ria. It's a freshwater river that is not that large, and sits in a river bed far to wide for it. Each high tide fills the river with salt water and makes the entire body of water much wider. It really is very cool. At any rate, in our ria, there are a number of these little fishing boats. Many of them old, some of them painted in lively colors. Some are of questionable sea-worthiness - even to my midwestern eyes.


At low tide these little boats rest on the exposed growth and rocks.

These mostly sunken boats infer more usefulness in some unknown past. But they retain some sense of quiet dignity resting in such a beautiful spot.

Each boat is small, and uniquely made. They are very close to the Atlantic Ocean, but not very fit for ocean travel.

While these boats are pretty obviously have year of wear, many proudly display fresh paint and bright colors. As if they are struggling with all their might to remain not only useful, but pleasant.

Entering a new culture, at times I feel a bit adrift and perhaps a bit beat up occasionally. But I find incentive to not only try to be useful, but to try my best to put the best and brightest of paints on to remain attractive. I find myself looking forward to times when the tide is out so I can rest for those precious moments, and soak in the environment around me.

I wish you could experience them with me, but I hope these pictures do some justice to how captivating these simple boats are.