Biking with son Peter

A few kilometers in El Pardo

Peter and I enjoyed four bike outings over the Christmas holidays. We didn't really ride that many kilometers, but we had great discussions about mindfulness and meditation. He vowed to continue biking once he returns to San Francisco.

Christmas 2016

Every blog needs a few Christmas photos, right? This year, the special gift item was Sara Jane's hand blown glass which she made in her class at Centre College. We missed having Marc and John.

December Parties

Everyone knows December is party month, and this past weekend we had a double header. Saturday night we hosted Daniel Castro's birthday party. His wife, Elvira, invited 25 folks to our home. So much fun eating, singing and dancing. This is how you build community!



Then Sunday night we had another gathering, this time for 20 Christmas carolers. Carol really was in her element, demonstrating her choral director's skills before some very capable people (most sing every week in a local choir). We performed at two homes for the elderly in our neighborhood, and then for the residents of our apartment building.

Birthday parties and choral events help us expand our network of people. We are praying that God will call many to Himself, and that they will become a part of the core group of Vida Nueva church. Good things are happening!

Lara says yes to Jesus!

Something very exciting happened this afternoon. Our new Spanish friend, Lara, became a Christ-follower! We met her at a coffee shop at 6:30PM today, talked for about two hours, and as we were finishing she made a clear profession of faith. This doesn't happen very often in Spain!

Lara is a 40 yr old professional woman whom Christ has been drawing to Himself for several years. For example, she told us of an experience she had of God speaking to her when she was little girl--something she had never forgotten. In recent years she attended an evangelical church for a couple of years, but she never became a Christ-follower. In fact, that whole experience ended on a sour note. Nevertheless, God continued to pursue her, and today she finally trusted Jesus as her Lord and Savior.

Carol and I do so much seed-sowing here, with few apparent results. We are so encouraged and thankful to see Lara begin to walk with Jesus!

Telegraph Hill

Despite a cloudy day, José Mari and I had a very enjoyable outing on the mountain bikes this morning. We climbed "El Telégrafo" which is a little demanding but not too hard. I was glad to realize that I still have some conditioning from last summer. I think we did about 21 km.




Later, Ed & Tere, and Adela and Carol joined us for a delicious meal at the Restaurante "El Lutin" in Cerceda. Ministry flows through relationships.

Room to grow!

Today we cleaned windows and scrubbed floors at the locale we have rented for our new church plant. It's great to see a vision become a reality. Most of the credit goes to our co-workers Pete and Sharon McMillan for their perseverance and hard work to find this place and negotiate the rent. We have about 280 square meters, which we'll use for worship, Bible study, social events, offices, English classes, music lessons...anything that helps the new church become a reality.

Chinatown

Based on these photos, you might think I'm in China. But actually, I only drove 18 miles, to the south side of Madrid. "Chinatown" is 15 square blocks of warehouses and congestion where you can find all things Chinese. Chinese immigrants have managed not only to survive, but actually thrive, despite Spain's struggling economy. There are now over 200,000 Chinese in Spain. Missionary friends of ours came here to reach Spaniards, but instead God has given them a ministry amongst the Chinese. And there is a Chinese church not far from where we live. My point? When God calls you to the nations, you never know how it might play out!

Cycling at El Pardo

Yesterday was a national holiday ("Constitution Day"). I took advantage of the nice winter weather to go cycling for 4 hours. The pic is in "El Pardo," where I stopped to enjoy the beautiful fall colors along the banks of the Manzanares River, near the home of former Spanish dictator Francisco Franco.