At times the LORD completes his purposes amidst opposition, and at times I think He laughs as He completes them through those in opposition.
Divine Irony.
Esther. Ezra. Elders of Jerusalem.
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Eating
Paella is one of the most famous Spanish dishes. The mixture of rice, chicken, pork, and seafood is slow cooked and tough to beat. Our friend and language tutor, Karine, prepared it for us and my parents. We had a great time eating and talking about how we eat – manners, customs, and faux pas.
Running
While Dad was here we had some great weather for running in the valley. We also were able to participate in a 10k for Proyecto Hombre, a rehabilitation center in our valley where Jon volunteers. Dad took 2nd in his age group and came home with the spoils!
Movie Night
Last week we hosted an English Movie Night for our conversational English group. We had to go with a classic, so out came Princess Bride!
reread
Please don’t underestimate the transformative impact of rereading a good book.
#LessonLearned
What books have you, or do you, reread?
One LifeHack to change your whole life
Here it is:
- Stop looking for one LifeHack to change your whole life.
#LessonLearned
Never trust a Moroccan camel
As our week of meetings was winding down, a group from the team decided to take the ferry across the Straight to visit Morocco. It would be our first time in Africa. I will keep the story short, only including snippets from my journal, photos, and a video of Crystal and Tanzen falling off a camel, but believe me, there is much to be said.
Almost having the boat leave without you sounds romantic, but it is actually rather stressful.
Normally those who have freedoms don’t have to constantly remind people about them.
When bargaining, you aren’t even near a starting price until you are at half.
I like to call this little beauty the “Hearse-ulance”. If the medic doesn’t get you in time, it functions for the immediate funeral.
I never thought that I would have to hear, “Daddy, why did I fall off a camel?”
We survived Morocco. Barely.
https://vimeo.com/186266295
A little bit of Britain
Between Spain and Morocco there is a big rock. And that big rock has an interesting story!
While in southern Spain for our BMM meetings we took a day trip to Gibraltar. Here are some pictures of our time.
An important phone call
Eating the customary McDonalds Fries. They tasted the same.
Walking across the only airport runway/highway in the world
With Brexit, this will look differently!
BMM Team Spain
The border guard wanted to talk with Crystal about Field of Dreams when he saw she was from Iowa. He waved everyone else past so he could talk about the movie!
Field Meetings
We purchased our car on Friday night and decided to break it in by driving around Spain. Sunday we took off and drove 8.5 hours to the southern coast of Spain. We had never been to the southern coast of Spain, and were very impressed with its beauty!
Team Spain from BMM met this year down in Manilva for our yearly meetings. All the members were able to be part (even our field administrator and his wife), even though some had to leave early due to a death in the family. We were able to discuss this past year, future plans, individual blessings and struggles. It was very helpful.
It was great for us to be with our team and to enjoy time together! It was especially great for Tanzen who could play in the pool with her friends!
The last three weeks
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.
