i have been here in kansas city for a week now, and i haven't exactly had much for internet connection. nevertheless i wanted to make sure and continue posting here on blogger and let you all know that just because i am back in the states doesn't mean that i am not going to blog anymore. i have found a lot of pleasure in keeping this blog, and hopefully i will be able to continue posting something maybe once a week or so.
ihop has been refreshing. i have missed so much the communion of saints and the musical worship of our Lord. christians are made for community, the whole beginnings of the church was that very thing, a community of people who confessed Jesus Christ as Lord, who regularly met to commit their time to prayer, fellowship, teaching and learning, and of course eating (the Lord's supper or communion). needless to say this week is changing my heart, giving me hope, giving me reason and encouragement. God is faithful.
i litrally just red this quote a few minutes ago, but i love it already. it is from phantastes by george macdonald. he is the literary father and inspiration to fantasy authors like cs lewis and tolkien.
"shadow of me!" i said, "which art not me, but which representest thyself to me as me; here i may find a shadow of light which will devour thee, the shadow of darkness! here i may find a blessing which will fall on thee as a curse, and damn thee to the blackness from whence thou hast emerged unbidden."
im still learning. who isn't? but i believe in my God, and i know He is faithful.
He who calls you is faithful, He will surely do it. I Thessalonians
Monday, April 21, 2008
Sunday, April 13, 2008
vuelvo ahora
i´m coming back now.
actually i will be finishing packing my bags, hopefully getting a little sleep, and then i will be coming. i leave in about 12 hours, whoa! too soon. tonight i got to go to the church out in torrejon tonight to say good bye to my friends out there. i really love those guys, and i wish that i had spent more time with them while i was in madrid. the guy that spoke tonight is just an awesome man, and though i didn´t catch everything, i understood enough. he was speaking on abraham and when he was told to sacrifice isaac. the bit of gold i grabbed from the message was that the cost of following God is everything. it´s everything. abraham was told to take his son, his ONLY son, and sacrifice him. the speaker went on to say that when you understand the ways of God, the cost of everything, is nothing. with God to lose, is to gain. to give, is to receive. to serve, is to be served. profound, yet simple.
afterward i met with david and some friends to say goodbye. im not incredibly good at good byes, and my lack of ability to speak spanish very clearly doesn´t help; nonetheless, i have met some really incredible people here, and i am going to miss them all.
i really cant ask enough for your prayers. i am still learning, still hurting, still stumbling along, still searching. in just one moment i have realize how far i have yet to go. i am looking foward to this coming week at ihop. it´s exactly what i want to do right now. please pray for me! i am weak, poor, and lost.
when i get in tomorrow night i will have cell phone service, so feel free to call if you want. and please dont be offended if i dont answer or return you calls for a day or two as i recover from the jet lag.
...to hurt, is to heal. to be last, is to be first. to die, is to live...
actually i will be finishing packing my bags, hopefully getting a little sleep, and then i will be coming. i leave in about 12 hours, whoa! too soon. tonight i got to go to the church out in torrejon tonight to say good bye to my friends out there. i really love those guys, and i wish that i had spent more time with them while i was in madrid. the guy that spoke tonight is just an awesome man, and though i didn´t catch everything, i understood enough. he was speaking on abraham and when he was told to sacrifice isaac. the bit of gold i grabbed from the message was that the cost of following God is everything. it´s everything. abraham was told to take his son, his ONLY son, and sacrifice him. the speaker went on to say that when you understand the ways of God, the cost of everything, is nothing. with God to lose, is to gain. to give, is to receive. to serve, is to be served. profound, yet simple.
afterward i met with david and some friends to say goodbye. im not incredibly good at good byes, and my lack of ability to speak spanish very clearly doesn´t help; nonetheless, i have met some really incredible people here, and i am going to miss them all.
i really cant ask enough for your prayers. i am still learning, still hurting, still stumbling along, still searching. in just one moment i have realize how far i have yet to go. i am looking foward to this coming week at ihop. it´s exactly what i want to do right now. please pray for me! i am weak, poor, and lost.
when i get in tomorrow night i will have cell phone service, so feel free to call if you want. and please dont be offended if i dont answer or return you calls for a day or two as i recover from the jet lag.
...to hurt, is to heal. to be last, is to be first. to die, is to live...
Thursday, April 10, 2008
a picture or two
so i am not going to write much but i thought i would at least share a picture or two from granada and sevilla.
la alhambra at sunset with the sierra nevada mountains in the background, granada:
plaza españa, sevilla. possibly the most wonderful singular site i´ve ever been:
this is the toreo, manzanares (the one in blue) taking a victory lap after cutting two ears in the rain, sevilla. a corrida to remember:
la alhambra at sunset with the sierra nevada mountains in the background, granada:
plaza españa, sevilla. possibly the most wonderful singular site i´ve ever been:
this is the toreo, manzanares (the one in blue) taking a victory lap after cutting two ears in the rain, sevilla. a corrida to remember:
that´s actually all im going to do today. i don´t feel so well, please pray for me during this time of change, transistion, and testing.
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
rain rain go away!
it has been raining off and on since i got to sevilla. i didn´t even bring a jacket from madrid this trip because everyone knows that it doesn´t ever rain in the south of spain, except this week.
last night i went to a bullfight. it was such an obscure corrida. i think ernest hemingway wrote that without the sun, there is no bullfight. not that it is cancelled, but that the sun is such a key ingredient to a succesful bullfight. for me it wasn´t too bad. the tickets prices aren´t based soley upon their proximity to the ring, but depending on whether your seat is sombra (shade), sol (sun), or sol y sombra (sun and shade). a ticket in the exact same level in the sombra is two or three times as expensive as the seat in the sol. this season these two weeks in sevilla is probably the second most important season every year for bullfighting. so all the best fighters are there, and the bulls are suppose to be the most brave anf fit bulls they can find. but as i was saying, it was a pretty weird corrida. there was a horse that got toppled by a bull (the horse wasn´t hurt), there were two rainstorms that came through, one of the bulls got boo´d out of the ring because the people thought it was a coward and too weak, and the very last bull the toreo, amidst the second and much wetter rain storm took two ears (which is almost as good as you can do in sevilla). it was one for the books. by the end i was entirely soaked...entirely, but i wouldn´t have had it any other way.
later i went with this german lady, nina, from the hostal and two of her friends who were also staying in sevilla to the the place where the feria is. there were acres and acres of tents set up for different companies, familys, and clubs. some of the tents are public tents. so we went in to the psoe tent (psoe is the main right wing political party of spain). in the tent we found a huge crowd of people all dancing and clapping and singing along to the sevillana music. it was unlike anything you could imagine, or i could properly write about.
today the rain is at it´s worst. i went to the cathedral, bought an umbrella, and later i am going to meet with christopher and sarah (the germans i met in granada) to maybe go get some tapas and hopefully watch liverpool stick it to arsenal for the champions league match. that´s all for now. i dont know if i will get a chance to write much before i fly home, i think the next few days in madrid will be pretty busy, but we´ll see.
okay, people are waiting to use the computer. i should go. much love!
last night i went to a bullfight. it was such an obscure corrida. i think ernest hemingway wrote that without the sun, there is no bullfight. not that it is cancelled, but that the sun is such a key ingredient to a succesful bullfight. for me it wasn´t too bad. the tickets prices aren´t based soley upon their proximity to the ring, but depending on whether your seat is sombra (shade), sol (sun), or sol y sombra (sun and shade). a ticket in the exact same level in the sombra is two or three times as expensive as the seat in the sol. this season these two weeks in sevilla is probably the second most important season every year for bullfighting. so all the best fighters are there, and the bulls are suppose to be the most brave anf fit bulls they can find. but as i was saying, it was a pretty weird corrida. there was a horse that got toppled by a bull (the horse wasn´t hurt), there were two rainstorms that came through, one of the bulls got boo´d out of the ring because the people thought it was a coward and too weak, and the very last bull the toreo, amidst the second and much wetter rain storm took two ears (which is almost as good as you can do in sevilla). it was one for the books. by the end i was entirely soaked...entirely, but i wouldn´t have had it any other way.
later i went with this german lady, nina, from the hostal and two of her friends who were also staying in sevilla to the the place where the feria is. there were acres and acres of tents set up for different companies, familys, and clubs. some of the tents are public tents. so we went in to the psoe tent (psoe is the main right wing political party of spain). in the tent we found a huge crowd of people all dancing and clapping and singing along to the sevillana music. it was unlike anything you could imagine, or i could properly write about.
today the rain is at it´s worst. i went to the cathedral, bought an umbrella, and later i am going to meet with christopher and sarah (the germans i met in granada) to maybe go get some tapas and hopefully watch liverpool stick it to arsenal for the champions league match. that´s all for now. i dont know if i will get a chance to write much before i fly home, i think the next few days in madrid will be pretty busy, but we´ll see.
okay, people are waiting to use the computer. i should go. much love!
Sunday, April 6, 2008
freshy
I haven´t left a post in while, so i thought i would just give a quick update. i arrived to sevilla today. midnight tonight marks the beginning of la feria de abril (the april fair). it is a yearly festival held in sevilla a few weeks after semana santa. it´s known for all things spanish: fiestas, bullfights, flamenco, and im sure i´ll work in a siesta or two while im here to seal the deal. the last few days i spent in granada. it was a delight. there is an old fortress- castle- town- palace- garden- ish site there known as the alhambra. this building has some serious history, we´re talking twice as much as the country that most of us call home, and it is one complex. granada is a town with a number of influences: gypsy, moorish, jewish, christian, castillian, and tourists have all had their affects in shaping this age-old community. this paragraph is filled with too many lists: one on the feria de abril, one on the alhambra, another on the influences of granada. i appologize for: poor writing, repetitiveness, improper grammar, and being annoying.
okay.
i was really fourtunate to meet a few nice germans while i was there, christopher and sarah. last night we went out to eat some tapas and then played some cards in the hostal. they are coming to sevilla tomorrow, and i think we are going to try to meet up.
later that night i watched the last bit of the film apocalypto with this scottish bloke. that movie is intense, at least the part i saw was. at the end these three english girls came back from being out and we were all talking and the topic moved onto the subject of religion. i began writing some reflections today in my journal of that conversation, but something that gary (the scotsman) said had me thinking quite a lot last night while laying in bed. in reference to the world´s origins: "if a friend showed you a beautiful house up on a hill and you prosed, who built that there house? and your friend replied, oh that house has just always been there, you would think he was absolutely crazy. i laid in bed for a good hour thinking about this. i´ve heard the same argument in different words, but the way with the house i really like. hopefully i can write something deeper on this. this guy gary had a crazy life. he´s 46 years old, and has been involved with music all his life. he´s met any number of world renowned musicians but is totally relaxed and chill about life and what he does. nice guy that gary.
okay that´s all for now. just one more week and i´ll be back in the states!
okay.
i was really fourtunate to meet a few nice germans while i was there, christopher and sarah. last night we went out to eat some tapas and then played some cards in the hostal. they are coming to sevilla tomorrow, and i think we are going to try to meet up.
later that night i watched the last bit of the film apocalypto with this scottish bloke. that movie is intense, at least the part i saw was. at the end these three english girls came back from being out and we were all talking and the topic moved onto the subject of religion. i began writing some reflections today in my journal of that conversation, but something that gary (the scotsman) said had me thinking quite a lot last night while laying in bed. in reference to the world´s origins: "if a friend showed you a beautiful house up on a hill and you prosed, who built that there house? and your friend replied, oh that house has just always been there, you would think he was absolutely crazy. i laid in bed for a good hour thinking about this. i´ve heard the same argument in different words, but the way with the house i really like. hopefully i can write something deeper on this. this guy gary had a crazy life. he´s 46 years old, and has been involved with music all his life. he´s met any number of world renowned musicians but is totally relaxed and chill about life and what he does. nice guy that gary.
okay that´s all for now. just one more week and i´ll be back in the states!
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