August Update

Cataluña

Moving to the Barcelona area has felt at times like I’m starting over again with the transition to another culture. I don’t understand the parts of our church service that are in Catalan. I can’t read signs on the highway or in the stores. Fortunately, most people will speak Spanish to you if you don’t understand Catalan. And the folks at church are friendly and have welcomed us in. But I’m not fluent in Spanish yet, and adding another language to my learning process is very difficult. I would appreciate your prayers in this regard.

Support

I don’t like asking for money. I think that’s one of the hardest things for me to deal with as a missionary. Many of you are sacrificing a great deal to support me and I feel guilty even mentioning the need. Most missionaries probably live at an under-supported level, but when you combine the fact that we lose 1/3 of our money when it is transferred here due to the weakness of the dollar in Europe and the fact that I am short $300/month in my support, I am really feeling the pinch these days. So I am asking you to please pray that God will supply this need very soon, preferably through new supporters. I am very grateful to those of you who are already giving. May the Lord bless you abundantly!

This month’s quote:

“The plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations” (Ps. 33:11). But we must be prepared to wait on God’s timing. His timing is precise, for He does things “at the very time” He has set. It is not for us to know His timing, and in fact we cannot know it--we must wait for it...So take heart, dear child, when God requires you to wait. The One you wait for will not disappoint you. He will never be even five minutes behind “the appointed time.”

Robert Hall, Streams in the Desert

Praises:

1. A good visit with my daughter and her friend. The girls ended a 6 week European vacation here and it was very fun to hear about some of their adventures and spend a few days with them.
2. Enough gifts to my Ministry Account to cover moving expenses and part of the cost for upgrading my computer.

Prayer Requests:

1. Continue to pray for an additional $300 in monthly support.
2. The Haleys are still waiting for phone & internet service. There are not enough lines in the area where they live, despite the fact they were told otherwise before they rented their house. They are exploring other options, but they are expensive. Please pray for a good solution as this impacts our ability to work from their house, in addition to their being able to communicate with family and friends on a regular basis.
3. Pray for Carmen, a woman at the church in Cuéllar, as she grieves the loss of her husband. They had been married less than a year. He died in a car accident two weeks ago.

Font Mágica (Magic Fountain)

While Jen and Stacy were here, we were able to see this fountain in Barcelona. During the summer, they have a sound and light show on the weekends that runs about 15-20 minutes every half hour between 9:30 and 11:00 p.m. It's very cool!

My Patio Garden

(These are new photos from my original post, after making some changes and adding more flowers.)





I promised a few of you that I would post a photo of my patio after I had my plants and flowers potted and arranged. So here you are. I would still like to do something to add more interest, like putting some of the pots at different levels (on bricks, etc.) and maybe adding something else. I'm just not sure what. Any suggestions?

July Update

I think I am just about finished unpacking and organizing and putting together furniture. I put my last box into my storage room downstairs this week. I think we will all be glad when this phase is behind us and we can focus on other things. It has been a bit challenging at times to figure out where to put things. In the States, you take for granted that you will have closets and cabinets and a place for your washer and dryer. Here in Spain, closets are not always standard "equipment" and all of your appliances usually go in the kitchen, which means you have to decide between a dishwasher and a clothes dryer because there are normally two spaces and one has to be for your washing machine.

We just finished two days of meetings for the coordinators and professors of the EET (our online theology school). It's always good to be together. We're working on setting up a small office for me at FIEIDE headquarters. I already have an office at Jon and Kathy´s house, so I'll be splitting my time between the two places. We have a lot of projects to complete before the end of the summer. We would appreciate your prayers.

This month's quote:

"Exhaustion sets in when we are too accessible too much of the time. A soul-numbing sadness comes when we realize that a certain quality of life and quality of presence is slipping away as a result of too much 'convenience.' Breaks in the day that used to be small windows of replenishment for body and soul...are now filled with noise, interruption and multi-tasking. What feels like being available and accessible is really a boundaryless existence that offers no protection for those things that are most precious to us."

Ruth Haley Barton, Sacred Rhythms

Praises:

1. Safety on our cross-country trips, driving a moving van and truck. There were several trips made from Cuéllar to Barcelona last month.
   
2. Several of you have given over and above to help cover moving expenses and my computer upgrade. Thank you for your generosity.
   
3. A warm welcome from the church we are attending in Granollers (a town about 10 minutes away).
   
4. My daughter is coming to visit for a few days at the end of the month!
   

Prayer Requests:

1. Continue to pray that God will supply the additional funds needed for my monthly support.
   
2. Continue to pray for additional funding for moving expenses.
   
3. Pray for a smooth transition into my new work responsibilities and for good relationships with our new teammates.
   

¿Quién ha dicho que la "felicidad" no se compra?

I received an advertising brochure in my mailbox the other day with this question on the front. (Who said you can't buy happiness?) It was a brochure from a company that installs air conditioning units. It's interesting to me how similar the tactics used in advertising are to the ones we use in the States. (Of course, their use of sex to advertise products goes much further than ours, usually including a lot of nudity.) It's just another reminder of how much people are the same, wherever you might be in the world.