On The UP

Baptists Are Not Exempt

2011-08-02T14:44:00.000-07:00

I was thinking this week about Catholicism in Europe, and I thought of a great blog post while I was driving down the highway between Madrid and Alcobendas earlier this week. It is now two days later and I hope I can make this sound as good on our blog as it did in my head.

Often times when we talk to a Catholic and we tell them what we belive they have a difficult time understanding the difference. Ultimately the primary difference that we are not looking to The Church to save us. What we seek and desire is a personal relationship with the creator of the universe. Our creator, God, provided a way by the death of his son Jesus. Thereby, through Jesus we have a personal relationship with the Father when we believe that Jesus is his son, and that Jesus died and God raised him from the dead three days later. Simple right? A Catholic often get's hung up on this because they believe these things. The gap is that they only believe it in there minds, but not in their hearts. They are still trusting The Church to save them. Many of them still believe if they follow the rituals of The Church then they will be saved. Many believe it is confession to the priest that has the power to take away sin.

There is however a younger generation that does not believe that The Church has this power. This generation questions the authority of The Church and no longer believes that The Church is trustworthy. For the sake of argument I'll tag this generation as the under 45 (mas o menos) generation. Although distraught with the church, if asked, those within this age group will still claim to be Catholic. Why is this? If they no longer trust the church and no longer attend the mass then why would they claim to be something that they obviously are not.

The best answer that I have is that being Catholic is no more than an identifier. It is an identifier that they are not Muslim, Mormon, Jehova's Witness, or evangelical. Does this sound familiar? Is this not the same where you live? How many people do you know who say that they are Christian, yet they rarely darken the door of a church? At most they might attend once or twice a year. Even the most nominal Christian would never miss the Easter Service. I know some of you are thinking, "You don't have to attend church to be a Christian." It is true that church attendance is not going to get you into heaven. I would not argue this point. However, it is clear in the book of Hebrews that Christians should not stop gathering together.

As a Christian I can tell you that I feel most at home around other Christians (most of the time). Let me explain my parenthesis. I feel at home around other Christians when I am walking in the light and when they too are walking in the light. When I am not walking in the light or if I sense that they are not walking in the light that is when I don't feel at home. I don't feel at home when I sense that I am in a church where the people are merely playing church. They might truly love one another, but they are only there for themselves and their friends. Perhaps a quote by a former pastor will shed so light on my thought. He said, "The church is the only social club in the world that is not there for it's members." How true this is, yet most of us attend church with the attitude that the church is there for us, and when we do we make the church our own personal playground.

Many people claim to be Christians, but many are not truly Christ followers. Are you a follower of Christ, or do you use the term Christian only as label to identify not what you are, but what you are not?

On Pepper Patrol!!

2011-06-08T03:42:00.000-07:00

I'm sitting here in my living room on this beautiful morning in Madrid watching a poodle named Pepper destroy a chewy bone:) No, we don't have a new addition to the family, but we are puppy sitting for fellow M's who are traveling for the next week and a half. It's actually been really fun having her here. The cat however is not very amused. Krisanne, my little Italian fascist who weighs no less than 20 lbs mind you, has been sitting on chairs so that she can have the high ground. She lurks like a suspicious overlord who has slowly realized that her domain has been compromised by the enemy:) A surprising and unexpected blessing has come out of watching Pepper. Whenever I take her out for a walk, people come up to me and talk to me. I mean..this NEVER happens. Apparently if you have a baby or a puppy you are golden in this city. I have had more conversations with my neighbors, one lady in particular who has a 13 year old maltese dog named Sausage, and have met new people in the park. Needless to say this dog is getting so many walks that she may be pretty spoiled by the time Nolan and Shiela come back.

Spain is a very open and friendly society, however it's very very hard to break into social circles and develop real and intimate relationships. We have a few friends here and I am thankful to God for them. Some we have met through language school and intercambios and some we have met through our local church. Slowly we are building relationships and we praise God for the process. Now though, when I walk along the street with Pepper up to the plaza, suddenly people are waving at me. People speak to me first! How cool is that?!?!

So now Pepper has abandoned her chewy bone and has started playing with the cat's pink ball. No good can come of this as Krisanne is well aware of the situation. I suppose I'll just take little miss Pepper for a walk and see who I can talk to. Until next time friends!!!! Adios!!!
Amy

Hello Pepper!!!!!

¿Qué Crisis?

2011-04-12T15:27:00.000-07:00

No matter where you go in Spain you are sure to hear someone say the following, "La crisis," and after living here for a few months I began to ask the above, "¿Qué Crisis?". Madrid is a city that never sleeps. Bars and restaurants don't open for the evening meals until 8:00 or 8:30pm, and the people start showing up between 9:00 and 10:00pm. When we first arrived we would find ourselves out until 1:00 or 2:00am during any given weekend, and perhaps we will revisit this former way of life now that the temperature has finally started to warm up and nights are getting longer.

It was due to these late nights that I began to ask the question, "What crisis?" This question came about because every bar and restaurant in Madrid would be standing room only. At times it would be difficult to even maneuver in a bar, never mind trying get a table so you could sit down to eat. Then three months ago our favorite pizza joint shut down. It was a day or mourning for Amy and I. To this day we still mourn the closing of Zeus Pizza. We miss our friend Julian who owned the joint.

Last month I was walking home after meeting with an intercambios. [An intercambios is a language exchange between two people]. It is about a 25-30 minute walk between my apartment and the cafe where I meet this particular intercambio. I could take public transportation, but when the weather is nice I prefer to walk since public transportation takes approximately 20 minutes. So I figure for a few extra minutes of my time I can get in some exercise too. While walking home on this particular afternoon I started to look around and notice the many "For Rent" signs in the store fronts. It appears that many businesses in Madrid seemed to have closed their doors at the end of the January rebajas (rebates). There are two big sales in Spain. One is in January and the other is in July.

Now after more than one year of living in Madrid I have begun to see the effects of the La Crisis. One day at the beginning of class I asked my professor, "¿Qué crisis?" She told me that before when people would go out with their friends they would drink two glasses of wine. Now they can only afford to drink one glass of wine. I realize to an American this might seem a bit odd, but in order to try and put this into a cultural perspective I give you the following explanation. If you were to order a coke at a restaurant in Spain you would pay between $2.25 - $4.50 for that coke. Bare in mind that there on no free refills so if you are having a two coke kinda night (It's a comfort drink kinda thing) then you are looking at spending five to ten dollars on drinks alone. With that in mind I should now inform you that under normal circumstances a glass of wine is cheaper than a glass of coke.

Some people will think that my powers of observation are lacking and perhaps this is true, but one thing that has never gone unnoticed by me is the pain I see in the faces of the people. Most of us have had moments in our lives when we had to rob Peter to pay Paul, and I am sure you can remember the stress you felt during those times. We have also read and heard from friends and family about the state of the economy in the U.S. So I know that a high percentage of you who read this can empathize with this pain. One of our many prayers for the Spanish people is that through this hardship they will turn to God and seek his face.

Hear my voice when I call, Lord; be merciful to me and answer me. My heart says of you, “Seek his face!” Your face, LORD, I will seek. Psalm 27:7-8

Oye, oh Jehová, mi voz con que a ti clamo; Ten misericordia de mí, y respóndeme. Mi corazón ha dicho de ti: Buscad mi rostro. Tu rostro buscaré, oh Jehová; Salmos 27:7-8

HAPPY NEW YEAR ESPANA!!

2011-01-02T13:43:00.000-08:00

New Year's Eve in Madrid was a blast!! We had a big pasta dinner over at our house with about 12 friends. It was awesome and everybody had a good time. Around 10:30 p.m. we decided to brave downtown Madrid. Plaza Del Sol is the place to be on New Years. We took a bus downtown and first went to a Jazz Club, but it didn't open until 12:30 a.m. which gave us plenty of time to make it to the square to celebrate the countdown with every other Spaniard and drunken German tourist in Madrid:) Some of our group stayed behind and found a quieter place to ring in the New Year while David, Brook, Daryl and I ventured forth into the mass of crazy that was Plaza Del Sol. What I found fascinating was all of the crazy hats and wigs that everybody was wearing. They were so tacky and gaudy that they were awesome. I just kept taking pictures of them. I also felt under dressed and will definitely get me a crazy wig for next year. We counted down the New Year in the square and then headed back to the Jazz club to meet everybody and we stayed until around 3 a.m. This city never sleeps and it was awesome. It was a fantastic end to a wonderful year. I hope where ever you are in the world that you had a wonderful New Year's Eve and that this coming year you can see God moving in your life in amazing and miraculous ways.

Here are some pics of the crazy wigs from New Year's Eve:

I have no idea who these guys are...they saw me taking pictures and wanted to pose:) love it!!

Those of us who braved Plaza Del Sol

The Jazz Club...wanna go back!!

Happy Constitution Day!!

2010-12-06T15:50:00.000-08:00

Okay, so not many people outside of Spain knows what Constitution Day is. It is the day in 1978 when Spain declared itself a democracy after over 40 years of rule under the dictatorship of General Franco. It was a time of new hope and optimism. The first few breathes of freedom were being taken in. It must have been an amazing time that was, in all honesty, not too long ago in history. Since Constitution Day falls in the middle of the Advent season one can't help but draw parallels to what freedom in Christ means and feels like. This last Sunday, the second Sunday leading to Christmas, was the Candle of the Way. It points us to Christ as being the only way. He is the way, the truth and the life, no one can come to the Father except through Him. And when we find our way in Christ...oh the freedom...oh the sweet breath of relief, love and salvation. I so want that for the Spaniards. They truly are a beautiful people. They passionately savored the taste of freedom that an earthly and temporal democracy brought only 32 years ago. How truly overcome would they be with a true taste of eternal freedom through Christ. I so wish they all knew the way. I pray that we will be used to help shine that light, the light that the candle represents, here in Madrid.

This Christmas season we are discovering the city and all of its traditions. Plaza Del Sol is all lit up and Plaza Mayor has become a huge Christmas market. On Wednesday there is another holiday, the Immaculate Conception, and we will be out of school again, just like today. Spain not only celebrates Christmas but the season also extends into January for Three Kings Day "Dia de los Reyes Magos". It will be exciting to experience. Kids here get presents from both Santa and the Three Kings. For Dia de los Reyes Magos there is a huge parade in the middle of town. I can't wait. I love it all!! I love Christmas. I can't help it...I'm a Mitchell by birth so it's in my blood. It's kind of like my DNA around Christmas turns into a big "what if Clark Griswald met Martha Steward?" scenario:) We went around town the other night when they turned on the lights downtown. My camera ran out of battery before we could take pics of the Christmas market, but i'll post below out pics of Plaza Del Sol for you to see so you can experience a little bit of our city.

I do want to say thank you so much for all of your prayers and comments regarding my last post. I can't tell you how many people have been praying for us and shared with us their own stories. God is so wonderful to provide for us what we need. We are still in the middle of the journey and are in the middle of making more appointments. We pray that IVF is not our only option, but that may very well be the case. Nothing is for sure right now except that God loves us. That makes me smile real big:)

Well, see you soon friends. We love you. We covet your prayers for building a family, for language learning, for making friends here and finding areas where we can work in the future after language school. We also thank all of you guys who support us through the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. Your prayers and givings are so necessary in our ministry and in the work and ministry of over 5000 others all over the world. Bless you friends for all your support.


Plaza Del Sol, The Christmas Tree and the Bear Statue


The famous Tio Pepe sign in Plaza Del Sol

Looking up at the tree in Sol

Me and David near Plaza Del Sol

Our first Christmas tree in our apartment in Madrid, Spain

Out of The Valley and Out in The Open

2010-11-17T10:50:00.000-08:00

Hello dear friends! I haven't been on this thing in a while and so much has happened since the summer, i.e. mission meeting, vacation in the Basque Country in northern Spain, knee surgery in early September, starting language school again in the middle of September, a week long meeting in Germany the first week of November and now Thanksgiving is right around the corner. It seems like when one thing starts another thing begins and sometimes things just pile on top of each other.

I must confess to you all that in August and September I had a very spiritual down time. I was spent mentally and physically. I became numb. I was frustrated with the language. I was frustrated with myself. I was absolutely angry at God because my mother found out she had stage 2 skin cancer (PTL it had not spread and she is doing great!). There was a time when all I could do was pray, but I couldn't pick up my Bible because I didn't want to hear God speak. It was as if I were sitting next to Him and I told him to just hold my hand, but don't say a word to me until you fix all of this. I am so glad God is bigger than the likes of this little red head. What plucked me out of my time of numbness was something I saw on Facebook. I know, I know....Facebook. Isn't that a robber of time? Yeah, sometimes, but other times you get to see what your friends are thinking, and sometimes your friends can, unknowingly, move you and challenge you with a quick status update and a click of a button. One day I was checking Facebook and two friends of mine, who knew nothing of each other, both quoted out of Psalm 91. Something hit me, something hard hit me and actually created an emotion in me. As I said before, I was numb, but suddenly I felt..something. It starts "The one who lives under the protection of the Most High dwells in the shadow of the Almighty." It was if I actually heard God say, "Okay Amy, it's time to come back to me now. You can't live under my protection if you don't dwell in my shadow."

I am truly amazed how God loves us even when we are angry, and we all get angry. Spiritual valleys happen all the time to all of us. No matter what your profession, pastor, missionary, social worker, physical therapist, teacher, whatever...we all experience spiritual valleys. King David did and he was a man after God's own heart. God's bigger than that, He's bigger than us, He's just that amazing and then some!

Now if I may, I'd like to share one more thing that is a huge prayer request for both David and myself. Being that I am, for the most part, a fairly private person this whole blogging experience for me tonight is taking it's toll. However, it's time for us to share with you another spiritual journey that David and I have been traveling for several years now. A lot of times we are asked when are we going to have children. It's a common question, and since we married a little later in life it's understandable for people to want to know why we are waiting. Actually, David and I have been trying to have a child for about 3 1/2 years now. Close family and friends know this, but we have never come out in the open and said it. In fact, for me I never really considered the fact that we were dealing with infertility until a little over a year ago. Infertility is such a heavy word isn't it?

About eight months ago I took my first round of fertility drugs. We tried them for six months all together. For the past month or so David and I have been talking about being more open about it. That has been a harder thing for me than for him. Our joke is that even though his life is an open book, mine is not:) But the reality is that we are in need of your prayers and I have to push back my pride and denial and humbly ask for your supplications to God on our behalf. We took a huge step this week and visited a Reproductive Endochronologist here in Madrid. She is American and has her own fertility practice here. We were so comforted when we met her and pleased to find out that she is a believer herself and very supportive of our work here. This week and maybe next week there will be some testing done and I ask that you lift us up as we may find out some answers as to why this is happening.

This is something that I admit, after several years of trying, that my faith is tried. Sometimes I am positive and other times I don't want to expect anything for fear of the hurt each month when I realize that it's not working. I find myself saying "Lord I believe, help me in my unbelief." I am reminded of when Jesus heals people, not just because of their faith, but sometimes he heals them because of the faith of others. So I call on you my friends, my family, my prayer warriors, with tears in my eyes and a lump in my throat, to go down this road with us and to have faith for us when my faith fails me at times.

Probably one of the most interesting things about this journey is meeting other people who are either going through the same thing or have gone through it before. For the longest time I felt very alone in all of this. If you know somebody who is going through this then I'd like to recommend a website to you that was given to me by a friend who has traveled this road before. She's with our company but also works with this ministry. It's called Hannah's Prayer Ministries www.hannah.org and it is a Christian support website for fertility challenges. The other interesting thing, the one thing that I can hold on to and really praise God for, is that when my spanish friends ask me why we don't have children it's becoming more natural for me to talk about how we are trying but waiting on God, how we are trying to find peace in every circumstance that God gives us and how God is love and our only true provider. It is a real testimony to how our faith is an active and vital part of our lives. My joy in this is that God is being made known in our lives to our friends and those around us. Thank you friends for being there for us. Thank you for standing with us and being a part of our lives. Most importantly, thank you for your prayers, your friendship and your love. We will keep you posted and until next time I hope you all have a wonderful wonderful Thanksgiving!!
Besitos Amigos!!!
Amy

Summer Time in Spain

2010-08-09T04:59:00.000-07:00

"Summe time" sings the immortal Will Smith. That's where we are right now, smack dab in the middle of summer in Madrid. I'm sitting here in the cool of my air conditioning that works only from 11 am to 11 pm. It is a blessing for sure because air conditioning in a typical spanish apartment is almost unheard of. I'm also sitting here because somehow my invite to lunch yesterday with the King and Queen and Michelle Obama got lost in the mail so I couldn't make it to Mallorca in time. That is unfortunate since I heard gaspatcho was on the menu and I do love me a good bowl of cold tomato soup:)

In Spain, August is the month to holiday, or vacation if you will, and so our town is empty. The "Salida Grande"(great exit) has happened and we are left here along with the tourists who thought coming to Madrid in August would be a good idea:) Shops that we normally frequent are closed all month long. Other stores have shortened August hours. You have to adjust a little bit if you are staying in the city in August because things are not as they should be. I mean, there's parking available for pete's sake! A sign of the apocalypse you may think...no, it's just August.

So with the World Cup victory hangover waning, enjoying summer break from language school and witnessing a mass exodus of Madrileños out of the city, I find myself with a little more time. I've been reading Ezekiel this last month. Wow...that book is a trip, especially at first. Trippy as it is, it is really a great book. It's not one that I would typically read for a quiet time, but I was feeling like I needed to get to know my Old Testament a little better and get re-aquainted with it's teachings. With all of the things that God had Ezekiel do, I'm amazed at his composure and dedication. Would I be able to do the things he did in order to share God's word? Would I be able to not shed a tear if my spouse died? Would I mentally be able to handle the weight and responsibility of an entire nation's salvation by either choosing to tell the message or not? Am I physically and mentally up to snuff in comparison to our friend Ezekiel? Apparently not. It has been a heavy journey in scripture to say the least.

But one thing that I keep going back to is a verse in Chapter 18. "Repent and turn from all your transgressions," it says. "Throw off all the transgressions you have committed, and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit," it says. "For I take no pleasure in anyone's death," this is the declaration of the Lord God. "So repent and live!"

I keep going back to the "repent and live!" part. You see all throughout scripture that repentence and life go hand in hand. I feel bad for the word "repent". It get's a bad rap. For too long it has been used out of wrong understanding. I give you the inquisitions. We have heard it on street corners and behind the pulpit with people yelling "Repent!" but they say it out of judgement as if judgment were ours and not out of love and concern. It's been used too much in contexts such as these that we have totally forgotten what the word actually means. When did we forget the heart of the message? When did we forget the "Live!" part? I think Ezekiel must have had an unfathomable love of God and also an unfathomable love of his people, Israel. How could he deliver such messages if he didn't? Do I have that much love in my heart for God? Do I have that much love for the people of Spain? I want to be an Ezekiel. Don't get me wrong, I don't want all of the dung eating, lack of spouse morning, laying on your side for long periods of time and other really really crazy stuff that he went through. Just being honest here friends, and Lord willing, dung eating was taken out of His repertoire when the veil was torn in two. But I do want his heart for God and his heart for the people. I want to be able to use the word "repent" as it was meant to be used, out of love for my friends.

Those are just some of my thoughts this summer. It's a journey really. No thought is ever finished in my mind. I thank those of you who take time to read about our travels and our journey, whether spiritual or physical. You are all a part of who we are and what we do. I can't tell you thank you enough for all of your prayers and support. I will add some pics to show you some of our scenes from summer. We are also going on vacation next week. We are taking a cue from our Spanish friends and vacating the city, at least for a week, and going to the beach. There is a couple who are in the states right now who live up north and they are graciously letting us use their apartment while they are gone. What a blessing! We'll talk to you soon friends and thanks again for taking some of your time today to be with us, even if it is in blog form.

Adios Chicos!!!!

Waiting for Spain's World Cup Team hero's welcome as they return from South Africa. Yes..a bus is suppose to drive through this. I think my mom could handle that:)

Here come the Champions!!!!!! It was an awesome sight!

Yes...we were this close!! That is Fernando Torres holding up the World Cup.

Yes, we were there!!!!

One Saturday we took a hike about an hour north of Madrid in a National Park. This is where we picniced.

We went with the Cliftons who are here working with Latin Americans. Here's Dave and Gary playing king of the mountain:)

I looked around and said, "where's Dave?" Oh...he's climbed up another big rock again:)

Welcome to the family Ava Adair Mitchell!!!! Congratulations to Steven and Laura! You guys are going to be great parents. Her tia loves her:)

Upward 2010!!

2010-06-22T03:20:00.000-07:00

Hi Everybody!!! Just wanted to update you all quickly on what's been going on with us and share a little about our Upward Camps. David and I just finished our first trimester of Spanish classes last week. It's been an upward journey to say the least. Ha!!! Upward....I made a funny:) Anyway, since our language classes have started and ended several things took place. We finally got connected to the internet and then it kept going away:( We think we finally have it resolved after 3 months and are going with a new company.

The cat finally got here thanks to the help of David's wonderful parents and my super trooper brother Steven and his wife Laura. So the Italian Fascist kitty cat is now sleeping comfortably at the foot of my bed and all is right with the world.

Then I (Amy) had to fly back to the states for 2 weeks because my visa wasn't ready yet and I needed to be out of the country after our initial 90 days. It was good to go home and visit all of my family and see my sweet baby niece Reese for the first time. Can I just say my brothers have cute kids? :) All went well with the Visa process and thank you all so much for your prayers.

David and I just celebrated our 6 year wedding anniversary on June 4. We took a weekend off and went up to Segovia which is only about an hour away. It was beautiful. That is by far one of my favorite cities ever. It was also good to get away, to refresh. It seemed like so much had happened that we really hadn't had a moment to pause and rest. It is so important given the type of work that we do. The enemy can surround you everyday with so much busy stuff and work that sometimes you forget to refresh yourself, to maintain your balance. So it was good to get a way for a moment.

And a huge shout out to my brother Steven and his wife Laura!! They welcomed Ava Adair Mitchell into the family earlier this month:) Mom, Dad and Baby are all doing wonderful and fine. Keep them in your prayers as they grow together as a family. I love and miss them all so much. Family moments like this are probably the hardest to miss.

During language school David and I both have had the opportunity to testify to God's goodness and the reality that HE is in our lives through words and deeds to our classmates. We have been blessed to meet so many wonderful people through language school. They are from all over the world and each person is a huge blessing in our lives. Our prayer is that they will see God as reality, that they will see their need for Him. We pray that they "taste and see that the Lord is good!" We love them all and feel honored to have them as friends.

Now we have started our Upward Camp. We have several volunteer teams here, one from Concord, Relevant and Miami. Next week we have more volunteer groups coming. We have basketball, ESL, cheerleading and Life Coaching Consulting for the adults at the camp. Each day the kids and adults are having fun and are being exposed to the Word and the joy of being a follower of Christ. If you could have seen the kids last night dancing to praise songs you would know just what I am talking about. Following Christ is my greatest joy! Keep this camp in your prayers. We have two weeks of camp and will get to touch the lives of over 100 kids and their parents for Christ.

I'll be posting prayer requests on Facebook and Twitter daily through out the Upward Camp. You can follow my twitter @AmyNSpain or look for me on Facebook at Amy Mitchell Sparks. Be blessed friends and I pray you all have a wonderful week.

David and I in Segovia for our 6th Wedding Anniversary

Upward Camp 2010 in Alcobendas (just north of Madrid)

J-men Esther and Jeannete at Upward Registration

We had 100 kids show up on Day 1 (June 21)

"Star Time" where the kids hear a message everyday from the Truth of Scripture

David and Jan. Jan is on our team and will do Life Coaching Consultations with parents who have signed up.

One of the ESL groups playing "Over, Under, Through" Who knew leaning prepositions could be so twisty!

Dribbling Drills on Day 1

Connected....Finally:)

2010-04-06T02:33:00.000-07:00

Hello Everybody,

I hope you are all enjoying a beautiful spring day. Madrid is beautiful today. I've got coffee going, the sun is shining and I get to enjoy a little moment of quiet before my day begins. Today is a huge day for me. It is my first day of full time language study. Oh the first day of school...what will I wear?? :) I have to say that I'm apprehensive about it. I haven't studied a language in about 7 years so it can be a little bit intimidating. However, the apprehension that I feel is nothing compared to the frustration of not being able to speak beyond a two year old level. So I'm getting my game face on and preparing for the challenge. David's first day will be on Thursday.

Speaking of David, he's in the states right now on a trip to get his residency visa. He left here Saturday morning and will get back on Thursday morning, just in time to go to his first day of class. Jet lag?? What jet lag?? Please pray for him as the consulate was having issues with their new computer system and they physically couldn't issue his visa when he went there yesterday. He is going to go back tomorrow morning in hopes that they have it ready for him so he can fly back here.

We have had an eventful first two months in our new home. We FINALLY got internet in our apartment last week so we are fully functional now. We were able to help out with an English Camp held by another partnering group and through that David got to share the Gospel and we were both able to talk to people about the reality of Christ in our lives. It was a bright spot during our first few weeks here as the communication barrier has been a lot harder than we had anticipated. We were happy to be able to share the love of Christ for us and for others for the first time in weeks.

Easter in Madrid is a very awesome and heartbreaking week. All week long there were processionals through town as groups of men carried large statues of Mary throughout town while women dressed all in black and men in pointy hoods (dating back to the inquisition) followed along. It was eye opening to say the least. It was beautifully sad. As I watched the men carry these huge statues of Mary I realized that these people were really torn between the burden and weight of tradition and the apathy of non-belief. It was a show and they played their parts, but where was passion and victory of Christ's death and ressurection? Please pray for these beautiful people who don't know the real meaning of Christ's salvation and who really don't care. Pray for us as this is a hard place to minister.

I'm going to post some pics of the processionals for you to see. Please keep us in your prayers as the enemy attacks us in our weakness and being far from home, not being able to speak a language is definitely a weakness. Pray for us as we begin full time language studies this week. And pray for David as he is still trying to get his visa and fly back here on Wednesday. Thanks so much for keeping up with us. We are so grateful for your love and support. Blessings friends and I hope you had a wonderful Easter weekend!!

Good Friday Processional

These hooded figures are dressed in costume that dates back to the Spanish Inqisition

The Easter Processional on Saturday before Easter

Normally they carry the large statue of Mary by hand across town, but it was raining so she only got to come out for a little bit out of fear of rain damage to the statue.

Maria in mourning the day after Christ's death.

Ladies dressed in black follow along in the processional. They remind me of mourners in a funeral procession.

Easter morning there is a drum processional called the Tamborrada. The crowd was huge and the drummers were amazing.

It is a huge honor be be asked to be part of any of the processionals or the Tamborrada.

They really were phenomenal and played for about 45 minutes.

The end of the Tamborrada. It was fascinating.

So ends the yearly Easter Processionals in Madrid.

Finally time for a little update

2010-03-12T09:21:00.000-08:00

Hi Everybody!!

Greetings from Madrid everybody!! So we made it and have been here for about 5 weeks now. It's been quite a journey from Vancouver to here and we are so thankful to finally be in our new home. It took us about 3 weeks to find an apartment and we have been in our new "piso" for almost two weeks. It's been a challenge communicating as we still don't have internet in our home yet. Say a prayer for us as we try later to get internet. Being patient with a new and slower pace of life has been an adjustment. Sometimes it's totally divine and sometimes it's a bit frustrating. So please forgive us for being a little tardy with updating our blog. I'm going to add a couple of pictures below so you can see a few of the things that we have been able to see since we have been here. We are thankful for a safe trip and are thankful for the few times we have had a chance to communicate with our family back home. We were able to see our new beautiful niece, Reese Elizabeth Mitchell, the other night for the first time on skype which was such a blessing. She is the cutest little thing and we miss them and are praying for her and her mommy and daddy:) We hope to have internet soon in our home so at that time we will be able to update our blog more often. Thanks for your prayers everybody!! Adios from Madrid!!

David and Amy

The famous Tio Pepe sign in Plaza Sol

A national obsession with ham is an understatement!!

Near Sol after a brief rainshower...I miss thunder:)

Amy and Sancho waiting on David Quixote to go chase some windmills:)

The bear eating from the strawberry tree is the symbol of Madrid

Dave seeing Madrid through the eyes of a tourist.

Grand Via

I never know who to rout for...the Matador or the Bull!!

Welcome sweet Reese...only you could pull that bow off with such flair:) Aunt Amy and Uncle David love you!!!

For sure was fun Vancouver!! Madrid...here we come!!

2010-01-29T11:34:00.000-08:00

Hi Everybody!

I know...it's been too long. A friend of ours asked me the other day if we were going to be the couple that starts a blog and never updates it:) Well, I'm trying to remedy that this morning. Right now I'm sitting on the Ikea couch in our little apartment looking at all the stuff that needs to be packed and wondering if I have the strength to do it or just go take a nap. I've had a little bug the past few days and it's taken the wind out of my sails, but I'm on the mend and trying to rest and maybe clean a little. David is out today packing backpacks for the More Than Gold Ministry that will serve during the Olympics. I suppose tomorrow and Sunday will be crunch time on the packing and cleaning. We are scheduled to leave for Madrid on Monday at 8:45 p.m. (10:45 pm central)!!!!

This last month has been crazy and good as we wrapped up our assignments here at ULI and prepared to depart for our next places of service. We started January thinking we were going to be staying in Vancouver for a while after our training was complete to wait on our visas. We found out a few weeks ago that we are going to go on and travel to Madrid as originally scheduled on February 1st!!! To say the least it put a lot of things we were doing into over drive. Also, we have gotten a few sights in as well. We had a trip to the Vancouver Aquarium and went to Lynn Bridge. I'll post some pics so you can see the pretty jelly fish and suspension bridge. They are awesome places and two definite "musts" if you ever come to Vancouver. Our final celebration was Tuesday in a church in downtown Vancouver. It was a good time and a sad time as we said good-bye to friends that have become so dear to us.

We had a good Bible study at our friend Tudo's house earlier this month. The other two meetings had to be canceled because of illness. Fortunately we have been trying to develop some sort of network to try to keep the study going and possibly a house church form after we have gone through a Russian pastor here in town and some of the ULI instructors. Please keep this group in your prayers and pray for those who are going to follow through with them. We are going to try to say our final good-byes with Tudo on Sunday. This makes me so sad, but at the same time she is such a strong believer and I have faith that she will continue to seek a way to worship God and share His love and salvation where ever she goes in this world.

I'm happy to report to you that through our group's short 4 months here in Vancouver about 3 small groups have been formed and 3 new people have come into the Kingdom!!! PTL!!! We had a debriefing time the other day and the things that we really came away with from this experience was:

1...Accountability. Who are we accountable to? Do we have accountability partners that we meet with weekly that really, actually, keep us accountable on how we are doing in our walk with God? Is anybody asking us on a regular basis if we have tried to bridge the gaps of our conversations to a spiritual nature to bring people closer to God? You may think, "how intrusive!" But seriously....accountability matters and it works. When Jesus sent the 70 out on their mission they came back and reported. They weren't offended. They rejoiced! So if I can encourage you to do anything this new year, it is to seek accountability in your life and be open to it.

2....Engaging people. We were challenged at first to attempt to start 8 spiritual conversations per week then our challenge was to progressively increase that number. It was a challenge, trust me. But when you set your mind to it, in everyday life and have a level of accountability built into your life it is so rewarding.

3...Gathering a group. We got our hands dirty and all tried to start some sort of small group. Even if we didn't achieve the goal, we were all active in testing the spiritual waters to see if the people we were working with were open to starting a small group, which is the first step. It was awesome to be a part of our Bible study/cell group at Tudo's apartment. We are diligently praying for it to be the start of a church that has the DNA of reproduction so that Vancouver can be reached for Christ.

And with that, those are my final thoughts on our time here in Vancouver. We have made wonderful wonderful friends here. We have enjoyed our time and are now anxiously awaiting Monday to get here so we can go to our new home, Madrid, Spain!!!! Thank all of you so much for your prayers and faithfulness to keep up with us. We'll get back on once we get into Madrid and update you on how our travels went. Say a prayer for a safe trip. To all my Oklahoma family and friends I hope you stay warm and cozy this weekend with the ice storm. Say a prayer for my brother Mike who is an OG&E lineman as he is probably working right now out in it to get people's power back on. Thanks so much. God bless and we will talk to you all very very soon!!!

Amy

David at the Steam Clock in Gastown (Downtown Vancouver)

Love the reflection of the old circa 1900 skyscraper in the windows of the modern skyscraper in downtown Vancouver

The Space Needle and Steam Clock, Downtown Vancouver

Vancouver Aquarium

I fell in love with the Belugas here. Aren't they sweet!!!

The Jelly Fish...Pretty, but pack a punch:)

This one just looks like it would sting don't it:)

Dave at Lynn Bridge

Me at Lynn Bridge

The Suspension Bridge

Looking down from the bridge...soo pretty!

Baden Powell Trail...these trees are BIG!

Me in a tree...peek-a-boo!!!!

Our apartment building on a rare sunny day:)

From our apartment you can see Grouse Mt. where the Today Show will be broadcasting during the Olympics. As you can see, there's a bit of a no snow problem at the moment!

Another view from the front of our apartment. What a beautiful picture to say good-bye with.......Good-bye Vancouver!!!!!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, Eh!

2009-12-30T10:44:00.000-08:00

Hi Everybody!!

This one will be brief today, but I wanted to let everybody know that we were missing them and thinking of them this Christmas. David and I had our first Christmas just the two of us. I have to say that we both missed our families so very much and are just glad that they were all safe in the winter storm that Oklahoma experienced. David and I decided that since we were near the mountains and snow that we would go skiing for Christmas. We had a wonderful time at Whistler/Blackcomb which is where the Alpine Olympic Events are going to be held in February. Absolutely GORGEOUS!!! It really gave me a wonderful and sweet look at God's redemption for His creation. I was just stunned by what He can make and how true it is that even the rocks will cry out His majesty.

We have some friends in town for New Years so we are planning on going out with them and hopefully watching a little OU football on New Year's Eve:) We pray that all of you are blessed with a growing relationship with our glorious maker this coming year. See you all in 2010!!!!

Driving out of Vancouver where even the buildings are proud and ready for the Olympics!

The view from the top of Whistler...Stunning!!

Nobody told me if you dress like Santa on Christmas Day you got to ski for free!!

The Peak To Peak gondola that takes you from the top of Whistler to the top of Blackcomb

A closer look at the Peak To Peak. An 11 minute ride and it carried 16 people easy when we rode on it.

David's ready to tackle Blackcomb!

Confidence is the feeling you have before you fully understand your situation:)

Actually, David picked up this skiing thing real quickly and loves it now!!

Man VS. Mountain!

This is my "please take the pic, the snow is blinding me!" smile:)

We survived and on our way back home to Vancouver.

A Crazy Awesome Week!!!

2009-12-20T12:43:00.000-08:00

Happy Sunday Everybody! Here we are again, sitting on the Ikea couch waiting on the coffee to brew. It actually is a very very dreary day here in Vancouver. I look out my window and it just looks foggy and rainy. It's one of those days where I'm glad I have things to do that will make me get out of the house because I would be tempted to sit here and cuddle in my blanket and watch episodes of The Office online:) We were actually blessed with snow last weekend. We woke up to a winter wonderland, but then it rained and it all went away.

We have had a really busy busy week. It all really started last Saturday when I got to teach some of our fellow participants and instructors some cupcake decorating techniques. It was our Christmas Cupcake Clinic! I'll put some pics in to show you some of my student's masterpieces:) It was fun and the start of a crazy awesome week!

As most of you know we have been waiting to get an apostille on our marriage license for the past 4 months. Well, we finally got it at the beginning of the month so we were able to set a date to fly down to Houston to make our application at the Spanish Consulate there. We left here at 5:30 a.m. on Wednesday morning and flew to Houston where we arrived around 5:00 p.m. We had just enough time to get our rental car and drive through the Houston traffic to get to our hotel before we met up for dinner with a friend of mine, Lynn, who I lived and worked with when I was in Italy. It was so good to see her, get to meet each others husbands and have some wonderful Tex-mex! Then they were very gracious and took us to Walmart so we could get some things to bring back with us. After a wonderful night with good friends we got to sleep in a huge king size bed, which after a couple of months on a full size bed was absolutely dreamy, pardon the pun:) On Thursday we got up bright and early, dressed up all snazzy said a prayer and went to the consulate. Everything went smoothly!!!! They took our paperwork, nothing was wrong with it, big prayer answered!! So we looked at the lady behind the glass and asked her how long it would take for the visas to be approved. She looked at us, shrugged her shoulders and said, "eh, four months?" Okay, so smoothly doesn't always mean quickly, but the process has started finally at the consulate so that is a wonderful answer to a lot of prayers.

Something else really neat happened there. While we were waiting, a gentleman in line ahead of us was talking to the lady to re-new his passport. He was from Spain living in Duncan, OK!! In fact, he owns a furniture store very close to where David's office was when he was the Enterprise manager in Duncan. How small a world is that? You just never know who you are going to run into in this small world of ours. So after that we checked out of our hotel, made one more shopping stop and then headed to Chick-fil-a for lunch. YUM!!! Then it was off to the airport to catch our plane back to Vancouver at 2:58 p.m. We arrived back in The Couv about 9:30 ish and were back in our apartment and into our bed because we had a training session Friday morning and our Bible study/Cell group Friday night.

If there is one thing that our training has taught me here, it is to try to always be aware of those around me and intentional in conversation. I'm not always good at it, but I'm getting better. It really is a habit that you have to grow into. A couple of weeks ago David and I bought some ski poles off of Craigs List. We were going to save money on rentals and just get some used poles and let that be that. Well, when we got to the ladies house that was selling the poles we just started talking to her. We'll call her "T". We could tell she obviously wasn't from Canada with her accent. She was from Romania and traveled to Canada years ago hidden in a cargo container with her little boys trying to escape to a better life. We ended up sitting with her for two hours listening to her story and testimony of how God has blessed her through all of her trials. She is a believer and asked if we were Baptist because she is Baptist. She was so excited to meet us. She said she was just praying the day before for God to send her some friends and here we were, knocking on her door. We invited her to our Bible study that we share with the Pagan family. She actually canceled that Thursday because her son was sick, but she came last Thursday night and brought a friend, "A". We had a very lively discussion that night and we ended up having coffee and cake afterwards and a fun time of getting to know each other. In the middle of everything T asked us if we minded having this meeting at her house. Of Course! Then she said she could invite some of her friends if that was okay. Absolutely!!

So Friday night, the 18th, we had our first meeting at T's house. We ended up having us, the Pagans, two friends of ours, T and her two teenage boys, her friend A from last week's meeting, a guy from Sudan, T's brother and his wife from Gabon, her friend from Gabon and a gentleman from Afghanistan. It was a beautiful mix of believers and non-believers hearing the Gospel told through the story of Christ's birth and the prophecy's that told of His coming. And we are going to meet again on Wednesday night before Christmas!! We definately saw the beginning of a wonderful cell group. Will we see the birth of a new house church? We are prayerful and ask that you are the same. I look back on it and think, what if we hadn't taken the time just to ask her where she was from. How often do we just do our business and walk on without really seeing the person we are doing business with?

So yeah, that's been our crazy awesome week. I hope everybody has an amazing Christmas week. I have a new favorite Christmas passage that I'd like to share with you and then say good-bye until after the holiday. It comes from Luke 2:78-79, "Because of our God's merciful compassion, the Dawn from on high will visit us to shine on those who live in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace." I pray that all of you have a Merry Christmas and that God will continue to guide you into the way of peace.

Blessings Friends!
Amy

Ken, Tamara and Chandler at the Christmas Cupcake Clinic

Courtney and Kim hard at work!

Kim's finished cupcakes. Don't they look YUMMY!!

Our snow last week from our balcony. It's fun to wake up to a winter wonderland!

Me and Lynn in Houston on Wednesday. Love ya Lynn!!

At our first Bible study with our new Romanian Friends, "A", "T", Myrna Pagan and me

IT"S COLD HERE!!!

2009-12-09T10:18:00.000-08:00

So yesterday as I got up and walked to the bus stop to go to my yoga class it was a chilly -3c here in Vancouver. It eventually warmed up to a whopping 0c as our high of the day. It's days like yesterday that really make me miss my nice toasty car with its nice toasty heater. David said that if I just think about a warm fire place that would help. He said it was all in my head, a mental thing. I think the cold has gotten to his head! Later last night as we were sitting in the apartment (with the heater on) David said he was getting a little warm. So I told him to think of a nice igloo and that might help:)

This morning I'm at home putting the final touches on our newsletter and working on this blog while David is at the gym with the guys. Can you see our cute little Ikea couch in the picture of our apartment living room? Well, that's where I'm parked wrapped up in my Ikea throw blanket and drinking coffee out of my Ikea coffee mug. The coffee, however, is some off-European brand that I put in an old Illy canister to make it look a little more posh:) This afternoon we are heading out with one of our mentors to do some engagement activities. Our goal is to see how we can naturally turn a conversation into something spiritual. It sounds daunting, but sometimes the simplest way of turning a conversation towards our Father is just to sit back, listen and ask the person if you can pray for them.

I think probably our biggest nemesis here is the weather and sunlight. The sun comes up late here and goes down early and it is so cold that not a lot of people are out. So we try to find places to go that are indoors to meet people. Like I said, David is at the gym now and he's met people there. I have had a chance to meet people in my yoga class. We meet people in the bus all the time as they are more crowded now that the weather is icky. I was horribly scared just to talk to somebody on a bus when I got here, but now it's a little easier. Our time here has stretched both David and I tremendously and challenged us on our intentionality in all situations.

Last week we got to work at a place called "Night Shift" that feeds and clothes the homeless of Vancouver. There is a problem with homelessness in Vancouver. They talk about it all the time here, especially with the Olympics coming up. "What do we do about the homeless?" and other things that are either positive or negative are written about them in the newspapers daily. With the whole world about to come to this city, there seems to be a whole lot of talk and complaining and not enough serving, assisting and ministering. It was so wonderful to get out and serve them, meet them, get to talk to them. Many had mental illnesses, some were just down on their luck and had recently come into their situation, some had drug or alcohol issues. Several of us in our training program went and volunteered in the feeding line along with other believers. We ended the evening with a circle of prayer with all the volunteers and the homeless people whom we served that night. It was so humbling to hear the prayers of people who have nothing as they prayed for each other, for their families that they are missing, for a sick volunteer who couldn't make it that night to serve in the line. I don't think I heard anyone pray for themselves once that night. I had to go back and re-assess my prayer life. Humbling indeed.

With that thought I'll say good-bye for now. We have a busy day ahead of us as we go out and work with our mentor this afternoon. Thank you all so much with being flexible with our blog situation and address change. We'll talk to you soon and have a blessed day today!!

Amy