not much time to write, but spencer, a guy in our group, has posted some pictures on his blog of the group. mainly of him, but im in some. roadofjames.blogspot.com
i love trekking through spain. my body might not from time to time, but it makes my soul soooooo happy.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Thursday, May 22, 2008
welp, im just chilling in Leon, and i love it!! we got free time today to walk around the city, see the sites, do a little shopping, and use the internet!!
tomorrow we start out- every day walking from now till june 8th. INTENSE!!!! and i am NOT athletic ;) it will be interesting
so i officially love the european lifestyle. they are so economical! everyone walks everywhere, the lights are like automatic so they arent left on, and everyone is just so laid back and nice!
things i dont like: we eat lunch at like 3, and dinner at 9. then off to bed. so i sleep on a full stomach, because dinner is a 3 course meal, everytime, without fail. and all they eat is carbs. bread bread brea. dont get me wrong, i love bread. but seriously, its like everywhere. and spain shuts down from like 2 to 5 for siesta. all of the stores except restaurants and bars. and everyone goes and drinks. wine everywhere. everywhere.
the lord is rockin´my world though, that´s for sure. he blessed me with an amazing godly roommate here, susan. she has been soooo encouraging. i would go crazy without her!
spain is dangerous- not like in the physical sense but for faith. temptation is just everywhere. they have no censorship, so nudity and promiscuity is all over the place. and all the alcohol. it would be very difficult to live here- it just seems like a lost country to me. they desperately need the lord. desperately.
there is always tension in my group. always complaining. pray for susan and i just to be salt and light, just to radiate joy that can only come from the lord in every circumstance.
and i am really having to work on loving people. there are people here that i would have never spent time with outside of this program, but it has been beautiful. the lord has just given me so many opportunities to speak truth and to witness. it has been so beautiful. and i am getting along amazingly with people whose lifestyles do not agree with me. and i just love on them. its all i can do. and it seems like some of them, especially 2 boys george and matt who live lifestyles that are in no way biblical, just seem to leech on to susan and i. they just always want to come to our room and talk. they want to sit with us at dinner, they call us, and just enjoy our company. and i am learning to love their company soooo much! and they are so curious, especially matt. the lord is persuing him, and it´s so obvious. he asks me so many questions, especially about brian and i. and our relationship and the changes we have made in it and our intentions just really have been an amazing witnessing tool. thank you brian, for leading and for making me look more like jesus.
there is another boy though who is proving very difficult to love. all of the girls feel very uncomfortable around him, as he crosses many boundaries with his actions and his words. and it just makes all of us very uneasy. but the lord is burdening my heart for him, because the lord loves him, and so must i. it is proving challenging, how to handle the situation...
catholic churches are DARK. period. both physically, and also in the dark presence i sense. it is very disturbing, the scenes depicted in the cathedrals here. the virgen mary above jesus. the golden stautes of saints. very dark. full of idolatry. im not bashing catholiscm, but there is so much i dont understand about these medieval churches...and it makes me uneasy
have to go now. time is up.
love you all. les echo de menos!
adios!
tomorrow we start out- every day walking from now till june 8th. INTENSE!!!! and i am NOT athletic ;) it will be interesting
so i officially love the european lifestyle. they are so economical! everyone walks everywhere, the lights are like automatic so they arent left on, and everyone is just so laid back and nice!
things i dont like: we eat lunch at like 3, and dinner at 9. then off to bed. so i sleep on a full stomach, because dinner is a 3 course meal, everytime, without fail. and all they eat is carbs. bread bread brea. dont get me wrong, i love bread. but seriously, its like everywhere. and spain shuts down from like 2 to 5 for siesta. all of the stores except restaurants and bars. and everyone goes and drinks. wine everywhere. everywhere.
the lord is rockin´my world though, that´s for sure. he blessed me with an amazing godly roommate here, susan. she has been soooo encouraging. i would go crazy without her!
spain is dangerous- not like in the physical sense but for faith. temptation is just everywhere. they have no censorship, so nudity and promiscuity is all over the place. and all the alcohol. it would be very difficult to live here- it just seems like a lost country to me. they desperately need the lord. desperately.
there is always tension in my group. always complaining. pray for susan and i just to be salt and light, just to radiate joy that can only come from the lord in every circumstance.
and i am really having to work on loving people. there are people here that i would have never spent time with outside of this program, but it has been beautiful. the lord has just given me so many opportunities to speak truth and to witness. it has been so beautiful. and i am getting along amazingly with people whose lifestyles do not agree with me. and i just love on them. its all i can do. and it seems like some of them, especially 2 boys george and matt who live lifestyles that are in no way biblical, just seem to leech on to susan and i. they just always want to come to our room and talk. they want to sit with us at dinner, they call us, and just enjoy our company. and i am learning to love their company soooo much! and they are so curious, especially matt. the lord is persuing him, and it´s so obvious. he asks me so many questions, especially about brian and i. and our relationship and the changes we have made in it and our intentions just really have been an amazing witnessing tool. thank you brian, for leading and for making me look more like jesus.
there is another boy though who is proving very difficult to love. all of the girls feel very uncomfortable around him, as he crosses many boundaries with his actions and his words. and it just makes all of us very uneasy. but the lord is burdening my heart for him, because the lord loves him, and so must i. it is proving challenging, how to handle the situation...
catholic churches are DARK. period. both physically, and also in the dark presence i sense. it is very disturbing, the scenes depicted in the cathedrals here. the virgen mary above jesus. the golden stautes of saints. very dark. full of idolatry. im not bashing catholiscm, but there is so much i dont understand about these medieval churches...and it makes me uneasy
have to go now. time is up.
love you all. les echo de menos!
adios!
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
ok...sorry its been so long...internet is very scarce here, and expensive
we have spent the past few days traveling by bus, looking at historical sights. BUT before that, we had to days of walking. the first day was a ten hour walk through the foothills of the peresnees mountains. GORGEOUS!! butttt i hurt my ankle pretty bad and have had to have it wrapped almost every night since. it was soooo swollen, you have no idea.
the second day of walking was hard with my ankle. the first hour of walking is always in silence, which i have dedicated entirely to prayer. and it has been AWESOME!! after that hour, i was like lord, every time my ankle hurts, im going to pray. and it was like as soon as i promised that the pain became constant! i just laughed. like really lord, you want me to pray CONTINUOUSLY!?! oooo it was an experience.
i have to go to ¨class now¨but i just wanted to post and say that my posts for the first half of the summer will be few and far between. but mid june should get better.
being praying for everything going on here, because there is ALOT! most of the people on my trip do not know the lord
pray for my ankle :)
love you all
we have spent the past few days traveling by bus, looking at historical sights. BUT before that, we had to days of walking. the first day was a ten hour walk through the foothills of the peresnees mountains. GORGEOUS!! butttt i hurt my ankle pretty bad and have had to have it wrapped almost every night since. it was soooo swollen, you have no idea.
the second day of walking was hard with my ankle. the first hour of walking is always in silence, which i have dedicated entirely to prayer. and it has been AWESOME!! after that hour, i was like lord, every time my ankle hurts, im going to pray. and it was like as soon as i promised that the pain became constant! i just laughed. like really lord, you want me to pray CONTINUOUSLY!?! oooo it was an experience.
i have to go to ¨class now¨but i just wanted to post and say that my posts for the first half of the summer will be few and far between. but mid june should get better.
being praying for everything going on here, because there is ALOT! most of the people on my trip do not know the lord
pray for my ankle :)
love you all
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Bienvenidos a Espana!
what an adventure it has been already... we arrived into barcelona and it was gorgeous!! BCN is right on the mediterranean, and it was a perfectly clear sunny morning when we arrived, and the water was a GORGEOUS, calm teal blue color. so much beauty i could hardly take it in.
we had to like RUN to catch our connecting flight to pamplona... customs was so easy..they stamped our passport before we even got our bags, and then after we got our bags we just walked through the gates. there wasnt even anyone there to check through our bags. but then we got all screwed up and could NOT find where to re check our bags and by the end of it all we were jogging through the streets outside the airport to get to our terminal. but we made it on time!!
so in the pamplona airport, i had to go to the bathroom right when we landed. i walked in , and there was a class of like 10 spanish kids camille´s age running around the bathroom, trying to reach the faucets. it was the CUTEST thing i have ever seen. cuz then they try to talk to you and its spanish jibberish kid talk and i could not understand and just smiled and picked up one of the little boys and helped him wash his hands...PRECIOUS
we got to our hotel and senora dyer was gone and so we dropped off our bags, walked around a bit, and then paid 20 FREAKIN DOLLARS for lunch. they wouldnt let us split a meal, and it was a 3 course meal!! and we already had our drinks (water, of course) and couldnt leave. so i was out 20 bucks, and not even really that hungry. THEN grace was mixing oil and vinegar on what she thought was a plate for bread dipping sauce, 5 minutes into eating our bread and dipping it in this plate, i had the realization that we were dipping our break from an ashtray! just not used to seeing ashtrays in a restaurant...we laughed so hard! what a memory! then we asked for a to go box, and the waitress thought we were crazy. unheard of hear. we got a plastic cup with plastic wrap for a lid.then we just could not figure out about a tip. SO I ASKED. in retrospect, how embarrassing. i looked at this woman and told her that we were americans and didnt know if it was customary to tip. and she looked at me like i was crazy and was like SURE you tip! if you want....stupid me
its just all so crazy already! culture shock..
running out of time on the comp. will write more later. excuse the typos their keyboards are different
we had to like RUN to catch our connecting flight to pamplona... customs was so easy..they stamped our passport before we even got our bags, and then after we got our bags we just walked through the gates. there wasnt even anyone there to check through our bags. but then we got all screwed up and could NOT find where to re check our bags and by the end of it all we were jogging through the streets outside the airport to get to our terminal. but we made it on time!!
so in the pamplona airport, i had to go to the bathroom right when we landed. i walked in , and there was a class of like 10 spanish kids camille´s age running around the bathroom, trying to reach the faucets. it was the CUTEST thing i have ever seen. cuz then they try to talk to you and its spanish jibberish kid talk and i could not understand and just smiled and picked up one of the little boys and helped him wash his hands...PRECIOUS
we got to our hotel and senora dyer was gone and so we dropped off our bags, walked around a bit, and then paid 20 FREAKIN DOLLARS for lunch. they wouldnt let us split a meal, and it was a 3 course meal!! and we already had our drinks (water, of course) and couldnt leave. so i was out 20 bucks, and not even really that hungry. THEN grace was mixing oil and vinegar on what she thought was a plate for bread dipping sauce, 5 minutes into eating our bread and dipping it in this plate, i had the realization that we were dipping our break from an ashtray! just not used to seeing ashtrays in a restaurant...we laughed so hard! what a memory! then we asked for a to go box, and the waitress thought we were crazy. unheard of hear. we got a plastic cup with plastic wrap for a lid.then we just could not figure out about a tip. SO I ASKED. in retrospect, how embarrassing. i looked at this woman and told her that we were americans and didnt know if it was customary to tip. and she looked at me like i was crazy and was like SURE you tip! if you want....stupid me
its just all so crazy already! culture shock..
running out of time on the comp. will write more later. excuse the typos their keyboards are different
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Viva Espana!!!
So it's Sunday night (well, really monday morning) and in 5 hours I am waking up to embark on a HUGE adventure! I leave tomorrow morning at 9:30 a.m. and will return at the verrrrrrrrry end of july. and it's still so surreal. I don't even feel like I'm leaving yet.
Our God is SOOOOO good. Emily and I were talking about it the other day...
sidenote: I really think the only reason I felt led to join ASC last year was to meet that girl, to be friends with her. She is most dear to me, and she has shared so much of herself with me. I don't know what my life would look like without her presence in it. Emily, if you're reading this, I love you :)
ok back to our convo- the Lord is so good! If I was taking the exact same trip LAST summer, I would be an emotional wreck. Seriously. I would already have been mourning on the couch for a week now. no eating, no sleeping, just crying.
but, it's not last summer, it's this summer. And i am eating. and sleeping. and the tears haven't escalated to a flood yet. I just feel so at peace- yes, I have fears. yes, I have worries. but even though I can feel those things just below the surface, they really aren't affecting me. I am just REJOICING that God only gives me as much sadness as I can handle. It's so beautiful. Yes I am sad, but I know that His plans for my summer are GOOD. (we will see if I can say the same after I'm on the other side :) ) and I can't wait to see where He leads me.
I need to hit the pillow....
more to come from the Road of Santiago!
Our God is SOOOOO good. Emily and I were talking about it the other day...
sidenote: I really think the only reason I felt led to join ASC last year was to meet that girl, to be friends with her. She is most dear to me, and she has shared so much of herself with me. I don't know what my life would look like without her presence in it. Emily, if you're reading this, I love you :)
ok back to our convo- the Lord is so good! If I was taking the exact same trip LAST summer, I would be an emotional wreck. Seriously. I would already have been mourning on the couch for a week now. no eating, no sleeping, just crying.
but, it's not last summer, it's this summer. And i am eating. and sleeping. and the tears haven't escalated to a flood yet. I just feel so at peace- yes, I have fears. yes, I have worries. but even though I can feel those things just below the surface, they really aren't affecting me. I am just REJOICING that God only gives me as much sadness as I can handle. It's so beautiful. Yes I am sad, but I know that His plans for my summer are GOOD. (we will see if I can say the same after I'm on the other side :) ) and I can't wait to see where He leads me.
I need to hit the pillow....
more to come from the Road of Santiago!
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