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!