Spain

As I was looking out my airplane window onto the Spanish countryside, my heart grew excited. Now as I travel there is an excitement about each place, but this was different. It was a joy in landing at a place where I had planned to live. Malaga was beautiful and I had finally made it, even if it was for only two weeks there was still a deep gratefulness for the opportunity to be in this city.

            Spanish culture is known for its bull fighting, flamenco, sangria, siestas and Catholicism. As with most clichés they are not always typical of the average individual. This I knew coming in, but I had a lot more to learn about what daily life is like within Spanish culture.

            During my two weeks in Malaga I stayed with Deric and Amber who are apart of CRM. They have been in Spain for about three months and are in the midst of language learning. I had a wonderful time getting to know and join in ministry with them! They have a calling to reach the college age through building a community and life coaching. Another part of their team is Randy and Doralicia who are the team leaders. These two couples make up the “ethne”(CRM’s term for international) team in Spain, along with the “ethne” team there is the Staff Development and Care Team. Alex and Amy are the SDCT leaders and Lily has joined them in Malaga. Their function within CRM is to provide care for all of the CRM and other organizations missionaries around the world. This includes training for crisis prevention, life stage development and counseling. These two teams join together to form the CRM community in Malaga, Spain.

            I spent a part of my time with each individual learning further about how God is specifically using them. It was a wonderful time to learn from an experienced and wise group of individuals. I spent the majority of the rest of my time with Deric as we explored different avenues of how to reach the younger generation. That involved spending time with young Spaniards, a Campus Crusade team, and talking with other missionaries. It was pretty amazing how in two weeks, because of the relationships that Deric had built prior, the amount that I was able to be involved in ministry wise. God opened a number of doors for us to share with individuals about Jesus and the opportunity to care for and encourage other missionaries who have been in Spain longer. The Holy Spirit continues to be a very active part in each location that I visit and I am thrilled to step into each situation with a desire to see what He wants to do.

 

I truly believe that God wants to bring about a lot of change in Spain and it was great to be able to experience a small piece of that!

The Middle East

Over the past two weeks I have stepped into two very historic cultures, Turkey and Lebanon. It’s a region of the world that is in the news often for all of the wrong reasons. With conflict surrounding both countries in Libya, Egypt, and most impactful Syria, I am sure you have read something in the past day or two talking about the conflict. For me this was a huge learning trip in a variety of different ways, but I think one of the biggest ways was that my view of the Middle East moved from a headline to people’s faces and relationships. Reality set in quickly as the journey got started.

            In Istanbul, Sam was speaking at a conference of global Church planters on the value of training and developing servant leadership. The opportunity to sit in a lecture type setting and learn from his wisdom and insight was a tremendous opportunity. Often Sam and I have one on one conversations, but to get to hear him teach other “high ranking” leaders from different organizations was pretty unique. Also during this time my respect and appreciation for how CRM uniquely attracts and develops leaders, continues to grow. After three intense full days of serving and teaching the other conference attendees we jumped on a flight to Beirut.

            Here we stopped in to spend time with Nadim, the director in Lebanon. This is a very talented busy man who God is using in a variety of ways. Within Lebanon there is the development of leaders in Beirut and ministry within a Bedouin tribe on the outskirts of town. On top of that there is training and equipping of Jordanians, Iraqis and Iranians in starting a Church Planting Movement. One of the many amazing stories attached to this training is that twelve men from a dominant Middle Eastern country were equipped and trained then sent back home. Upon getting home they have now started around 250 new groups who are studying the Bible together. Despite the strong Muslim influence, God is still doing amazing things. Through Nadim’s care and leadership abilities the diversity of ministry to so many different groups is pretty amazing. So please keep Nadim and his team in your prayers and also be praying for the Church in the Middle East.

 Also joining us was Jerry Little, an entrepreneur who has an amazing gift for starting businesses to help fund local missions. He has started a restaurant and hotel in Romania, which now in-turn gives back around $250 – 300,000 to ministry in Romania each year. He joined us here since he is looking to create a new business in Beirut to help fund local ministry there. 

Overall the Middle East held so much more then I can really begin to dive into over a blog. Just to give you further perspective on the reality of the situation in Beirut, as we drive from the airport the road is lined by Hezbollah and Sunni neighborhoods. Two rivals in the Muslim world that as an American you are just not able to even enter. In many parts of those neighborhoods the police do not even go. During our time there a Christian church was bombed, foreigners were kidnapped and held for ransom, and two drive by shootings occurred during protests. This happened over a period of three days and it appears to be the norm. With soldiers all over the city you sense the tension, but amidst all of this life goes on. People go to the movies, eat out at restaurants, have shopping trips, life continues in the midst of the conflict. Amidst all of that tension I have further learned that God wants us to run to where the pain is because He wants to bring healing!

 Thank you for your prayers and support!