So, what's it like here?

As time is always limited here, I'm going to summarize what's been happening in Spain. To the left is a picture of all the women in Valéncia who've been an active part of my life for the past month. Please keep them in your prayers. They are L-R beginning at the bottom: Raquel, Noemí, Moises, Ana Maria, Lucia, Anna, Bárbara, Ivana (bottom row), Hugo, Sonia, Marta, Noemí (standing/second row), Alejandra, Diyana (top row). I really love these women and am in awe of how quickly they have become family to me! I will be with them until mid January.

Life in Spain here is very relational! The women are almost always very talkative or social and nearly always moving or singing. They talk with their whole hands and body. Personal space is basically a non-existent concept here. All of this transfers into worship here. It's active to say the least and comes from the core of these women's hearts.

As for work here, our only day off is on Sunday, but we don't get much down time then. We have jobs in the house cleaning daily. When we work at home, we are cleaning clothes or tidying the entire house. If we work outside the house, it's either in Burjassot (a nearby town) in a "rastro" which is a thrift store selling clothes or organizing/boxing them upstairs or it's selling new clothes, jewelery, and shoes in the outlet store (the "tienda") here in Valéncia. Sometimes we take the trains into the city while other days the guys in Betel drive us to our jobs. Because this Betel center is a bit smaller than others, we get some interaction with the men of Betel; that wouldn't have been possible if I'd have stayed in Madrid.

Thank you for praying for this adventure and time of ministry. As a whole, I do enjoy it here. I pray that God will open doors for me to return to NYC after this season of ministry ends. Please keep that in your prayers for me as well. Well, I can hear the foot steps of the women awakening from their siestas which means I need to go shortly back to Burjassot. Hope to hear from yall soon! Much love and hugs from Spain!

REALLY good news!!!

Well, I didn't expect to have this opportunity and was afraid to even try, but this morning I was able to go with Rosemary (the British missionary) to a computer store to have my laptop checked out. I was afraid of even using it here because the voltage is different and on my first day in Spain I plugged in my battery charger for my camera and killer the charger within about 10 seconds! God is good though, and all is well with my computer ... which means ... I'm able to freely use the wifi in the space where we eat lunch when working outside the house. I can't tell you how delighted I feel to not be so isolated from the outside world! I have to go work in the store in about 10 minutes, so that's all the time I have for now.

PS: I know some of you must have been praying yesterday for me because I had the best interactions with the Valencia women and understood them more than I ever have! I am very grateful for your prayers and improved communication with them! Adios amigos.

Update from Valencia

Hello world! It´s me again. I´m sitting in an internet cafe now with limited time. This could possibly be my only time to use the computer and internet until another week passes. This is the first time since coming here that I´ve gotten to more or less even see a computer. So, in the interest of my limited time, I´m going to keep this short. Know that eventually, somehow some way I will get to publish each day´s journal entries. I´ve been able to capture each day in Spain on paper. Woot!

So, I´ve been in Valencia for a week as of today, three weeks in Spain total now with lots of work each day. The culture here is still something I am adjusting too along with the difference of language. I understand for the most part, but being able to spit back Spanish rapidly, on the spot is not where I´m at language-wise, but I knew that´d be the case. I had the opportunity to stay in Madrid and chose to come here to push myself with my Spanish. It´s going to pay off in the long run. I ask you to keep both the adjustment to a difference of language and culture in your prayers for me. To be honest, there´s so much I find annoying about Spanish culture. Yet, I´m called to be here and want to be as present as possible especially with the women.

Speaking of the women, I´m one of nine in my current house. There are also four kids ranging in age from five months to eight years old. I share a room with the baby and five other women. I think being here and serving here is honestly probably the hardest thing I´ve ever done in my life! Spanish culture in general is loud, VERY loud, with hardly a moment of quiet. Because I continue to feel bombarded by something or another I find myself retreating inwardly, listening rather than talking, and trying to just capture a moment of silence even if it´s in the bathroom or on our house´s roof. I don´t think that´s particularly good, but I don´t quite know how to cope as of yet. It´s like being burned to the third degree and being shoved into a hot, salty sea with no refuge.

Unfortunately, I´m going to have to go now. Please keep up those prayers. Send letters when you can. Christy, thanks for being the first to send one my way!!! It meant the world to me.

:(

Please pray for me. Today has been super frustrating, and to be quite real, I think it is safe to say that I´ll have more days like this while in Spain. This morning I cleaned a visitor´s apartment with two other women while a group of men did interior restoration. We were all crammed in a little space (at times with as many as like 15 people in the space), trying to get much work done, and (later I found out) were on a strict time limit of having everything done by 3 pm. There was so much miscommunication because of different cultures having different ways of doing things. Others thought I didn´t understand Spanish though I did which translated into my jobs constantly being taken away. And, there was a lack of tolerance and respect (again because of miscommunication and cultural differences). I broke down and cried several times this morning which didn´t add to the situations positively. It is what it is though.

In addition to the above, things with my visa to the UK have been up in the air until moments ago. For various reasons, there was miscommunication about me coming here to Spain and how long I´d be here which translated into problems with timing for my visa for the next part of the journey. It´s all a long story. At times this morning, it looked like I may even be going to Barcelona instead of Valencia. There is now clarity about all that. I leave for Valencia on Sunday, and regarding the UK, I will only be staying three months rather than a possible six months. Perhaps at some point I´ll get to return to Europe as my heart now desires that (though currently outside of Betel).

Thank you for your prayers! You have no idea how much they mean to me whether you let me know you´re praying or not for me. I need them and truly appreciate them. May God grant me much more peace in this very humbling, hard-working journey among deeply broken women. May His face shine upon me as I serve faithfully with love in Spain and elsewhere. Adios for now.