The last three weeks

Posted on October 12, 2016 by Seth Grotzke

The last three weeks have been a mixture of excitement, dread, encouragement, fear, cultural adaptation, frustration, adventure, and growth.

Today and the next few days I will be posting pictures and thoughts on the main events.

Three weeks ago relatives arrived from England. We had spent time with them in their home near the Thames back in 2010, and now they got to visit us! It was a lot of fun to show them around, have Martin participate in Conversational English (our accents are a little different), and enjoy their company.

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Hope

Posted on September 29, 2016 by Seth Grotzke

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Electrocution

Posted on September 23, 2016 by Seth Grotzke

I was helping our landlord take out the fan above the kitchen stove. He was struggling with disconnecting the electricity from the fan, teaching me many new “Spanish” words in the process, when he finally got to a point where he grabbed a wire cutters and said, “I can fix this…”.
I stuttered “Do you think I should shut off the…” and then there was a crack, a brilliant flash of light, and 220 volts of electricity flowing through the air.

I am not exactly sure what happened next but I was a step back and he was off the ladder muttering, “no big deal. Nothing happened.”
When I flipped the breaker back on I swore to remember an important lesson, always let someone else deal with the electricity in your home…and know the number for emergency services.

Hike

Posted on September 20, 2016 by Seth Grotzke

We took a day hike from Ponferrada with friends to a reservoir above the city. It was probably about 9 miles round trip.

Our group

In the picture below you can see hill that contains an ancient sacrificial altar – supposedly human sacrifices (on the left) and a monastery (across the reservoir on the right).

Someone needed a rest

Hiking back to Ponferrada

Overlooking our city

I woke up and realized I was in Scotland

Posted on September 13, 2016 by Seth Grotzke

At least, that is what I thought as I watched a parade for our Festival Days of Ponferrada. It turns out our corner of Spain has some strong connections with Celtic culture. Watch the short video to see.

El Bierzo from SCQuest on Vimeo.

Walking the Camino

Posted on September 6, 2016 by Seth Grotzke

This past weekend a group of us walked the Camino Santiago from Thursday – Saturday. We did a total of about 50 miles. It was an excellent trip! Here were some of our objectives:

Give our Conversational English group time to practice english
Build relationships with our friends here in the valley
Read through the Pilgrim’s Progress and discuss it
Spent time with other friends from BMM here in Spain
See the country side
Walk ourselves into the ground
Survive a couple nights in the albergues

We accomplished all of them! And I will post a few pictures below to prove it. If you want to see the full size photos and full album, click here.

Computer backgrounds and screen savers

Posted on September 2, 2016 by Seth Grotzke

I compiled 50 pictures from the past 6 months here in Spain for use as computer backgrounds or screen savers.

You can see all our photostream including the ones that didn’t make the cut here. Feel free to download the folder and use the photos where you want. It would be great if they reminded you to pray for us!

Download here: Spain Backgrounds

Peñalba de Santiago

Posted on July 26, 2016 by Seth Grotzke

We have been trying to visit the different pueblos around the El Bierzo region (for others, see Molina Seca, San Esteban de Valdueza, and Toral De Merayo.

We were recently able to visit Peñalba de Santiago, named as one of the most beautiful pueblos in Spain. It lived up to its designation!

Serving in Spain

Posted on June 27, 2016 by Seth Grotzke

Last week we were able to take a quick trip around Spain to see other missionaries. After we returned home we realized in five days we were able to see all the missionaries currently in Spain with BMM (minus one couple who is on furlough, plus a couple who serves in Zambia – bonus points). It was an encouraging trip for multiple reasons, but here are a few specifics:

Laughter is contagious – in any language.
Sometimes we have no idea why God chooses to move missionaries, but we can trust he knows best.
Success in ministry is faithfulness, not numbers.
The gospel is the power of God in all cultures.
Talking with someone who has passed through what we are currently struggling through can be a breath of fresh air.
Cherries are best eaten frozen.

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Our first visitors

Posted on June 13, 2016 by Seth Grotzke

This past week we were able to host a couple new friends. We didn’t know them until they arrived, but they proved to be an encouragement.

A group came to work with our coworkers, the Templetons, and not everyone could fit in their home. So we were able to help out. This was an added incentive to make more purchases for our guest room, and get things more “visitor friendly” around the residence.

Here are some of the ways Jeremy and Svatia encouraged us over the week:

Taking an interest in Tanzen
Listening to us as we shared our joys and challenges
Appreciating our city
Pointing out things about Ponferrada that we had grown accustomed to
Laughing with us
Sharing how Christ is working on them
Helping around the house
Being grateful
Taking their down time to walk the city with us and take family pictures

They did much more with the team that came to visit, but these are just a few of the ways they personally encouraged us while staying in our home. It was a joy to have them with us, and we thank God for how they encouraged us.