Guadix and Granada

Guadix is a town just outside of Granada. The Saxe Family is living there and have been there for just about 4 months. It was great to hear their perspective as a family, just arriving on the field, learning about the culture, and learning Spanish as well.

The town is a town with many cave homes. You will see the picture of houses coming out of the caves.





Since we were there during Easter week, there were lots of processionals occurring on the streets at night.

Seville and Paradas

Our time in Seville was great! Samuel and Luis decided to stay in Ubeda a bit longer to continue doing their artwork, so the rest of us headed over to Seville. We met with Chris Matthews and his team at a seminary near Seville. It's amazing to see Spanish-speakers from all over coming to get trained to minister throughout the world.

Chris gave us a tour of San Isidoro Monastery where the first Spanish translation of the Bible (the Reina-Valera) was done. It was neat to get all the historical details from him, as he guided us through the monastery. His wife joined us for lunch and shared about their journey as missionaries and about their time in Spain.





We visited with the Burgueno family, who Brad lived with for a time when we were studying in Seville in college. It was great to reconnect with them and hear about how our church family in Spain is doing. This is a family, who is dedicated to the Lord and is constantly share Christ's love with those around them. Isaias is in a Christian band called Margot that has some great music.



The team also stopped by our friend David's house to share some dinner with him and his aunts and uncle. As we met with them we learned a lot about Spain's history, how life has changed in Spain, and also got a chance to talk about the processions of Easter and what that means. Everyone had a blast getting to know them and spending time with them in their town of Paradas.

Ubeda

Ubeda is south of Madrid and is situation in the Jaen region. This region has groves of olive trees that extend as far as the eye can see. It's beautiful and you can smell the aroma of olives as you drive through the roads.



When we arrived in Ubeda, we were ready to begin our project. Samuel and Luis are extremely gifted in drawing and art. Previous to the trip, they had been planning an abstract artistic representation of the gospel that they were going to work on in the streets of Ubeda. They also did some caricatures of kids to connect with them. Below are some pictures of their art, as well as some of the people they were able to talk with.









The Ubeda church has two elders who are both named Paco. So here are the guys with the "dos Pacos." These are two godly men who are serving their church well as they seek to reach out to their community and bring more people to faith in the Lord.

Toledo

The Jaworski family welcomed us to Toledo by giving us a tour of their city and teaching us about the religious influences. Toledo is a very old town with beautiful buildings, narrow cobblestone roads, and much history to learn about.

Rob serves as the Spain Field Director, and he and Karen have been in Spain for over 15 years.

Snapshots from Madrid

During our time in Madrid, we had some awesome opportunities to learn about what ministries are going on in Madrid. It was awesome to connect with many different people and allow the team to hear from missionaries.

Below is a picture of us in a neighborhood called Lavapies (which means "washing feet"). The neighborhood has over 80 nationalities represented and is very diverse. They are working on developing a community center for people here, as they seek to plant house churches in the area.

Miguel Castillo, a CAM missionary, took us to a big mosque in Madrid to see the influence it has in Madrid.







In Madrid...


The Rodemanns had our team over for dinner, along with some other CAM missionaries who are currently serving in Madrid. We enjoyed getting their perspective about serving, as they have been in Spain for several years, raised their children in Spain, and have been very influencial in the Christian community.


One of the churches we went to on Sunday had a huge lunch after the service. What a blessing to have a congregation that is close and enjoys fellowship and sharing a meal with others!