Lavender Fields

During July, the lavender fields of Provence are in full bloom. You can find lavender everywhere....lavender soap, lavender sachets, lavender oil, lavender honey, lavender cookies...etc. It is beautiful and a wonderful smell! I have bought some lavendar oil and sachets that are stored in my suitcase and everytime I open it, it smells so wonderful! In case you are wondering, the 2 front people in the picture are Paula and Rebekah, 2 of the summer staff here.

Marseilles

The beautiful 'Vieux Port' of Marseilles. It is my favorite area with many cafes all along the water. The best thing is to sip a cafe and eat a crepe with nutella and banana topping!! Enjoy the taste and view before heading to the 'smellier' parts of the city :-)

Quirky Things

One of the hardest adjustments of living in Spain is some of the quirky things. I am hesitant to say they are annoyances, because some are just oddities. I have salt crystals growing under my bed. They grow in the humidity and come up through the grout in the ceramic tiled floors. The salt in the foundation (from 'dirty' sand) also makes the paint peel in certain places. The humidity also causes black mold to grow so using bleach is a MUST! I also have these little 'armadillo' bugs (that's what they look like to me) that roll up in a ball when you kick them out the back door. Speaking of bugs, there are the little flies that like the shade, so they come into the house and just fly around in circles in the middle of the living room. And at night, the bugs like to swarm around your ear so that you cannot sleep. One thing I am thankful for....this coming summer I will not be staying in the same apartment with all of the cicadas (they swarm southern France in the summer) just outside my window! Hopefully I will get more sleep :-)

Elisabet

This is Gracia and her daughter Elisabet. I rent from them and they live above me. I also help out with their ministry, the 'Lighthouse', one day per week.

Elisabet has been in the hospital for a month now. She has been released at times but has had to go back because of different seizures. They have now started her on some medication which should help but they are still monitoring her. Please pray that she would be completely healed and would be able to come home soon.

Prayer Vigil

On Sunday night at 9PM, there were many area churches that came together for a time of prayer and silence in front of the City Hall in Algeciras. The prayer was on behalf of the country, the churches, and the families of the 3 men martyred in Turkey in April. It was great to see the areas churches coming together not only in Algeciras but all across regions in Spain for our brothers and sisters in Turkey.

Some information on this can be found at CompassDirect.org http://www.compassdirect.org/en/display.php?page=news&lang=en&length=short&idelement=4836&backpage=summaries
Pray for the believers there. Pray as well for leaders in all these lands so that the Word of God can go forth unhindered.

Los Pastores

Los Pastores is a neighborhood in Algeciras that my 'home church' goes to visit every week. We have been trying to build relationships with the people there in hopes of planting a new church. During Semana Santa when the kids had off from school, we went to play a game of 'Rondus' (like baseball). Since I am not very sporty...I ended up playing with the smaller kids. We had great fun trying to play kickball and drawing with chalk on the sidewalk. Two of the girls giggled and giggled everytime I would speak....for my Spanish is funny to their ears! Even though my Rosetta Stone Spanish CD teaches me verbs like 'catch' and 'throw'...I had not used them until that day!

The people in Los Pastores don't have alot of hope. It is known as one of the worst neighborhoods in Algeciras because of the drugs, alcohol and fightings that go on there. As we talk to people, they share their hurts and problems. I feel helpless at times when I hear their emotional needs but I know a God who is far greater and who says that we can cast all of our cares on Him! Please join with me in praying that the people in Los Pastores will find hope in Jesus Christ!

Barbary Apes of Gibraltar

My blog would not be complete without mentioning the Barbary Apes of Gibraltar. The apes are a tail-less breed of monkey whose natural habitat is in the mountains of Morocco and Algeria. They were most probably first brought here by the British in the early eighteenth century. They live at the top of the 'Rock'. If you ever visit Gibraltar, watch out because they do like Oreo cookies!!!

Staff Retreat

The day after Easter, we boarded a plane for Basil, Switzerland. We landed in Switzerland and crossed into France (while still in the airport) to pick up a rental car. We found out we were in the wrong country to pick up the rental car! So we had to walk back into Switzerland. We then drove back over the border into France on our way to the staff retreat with the Life Agape office in Paris. For me this was a really fun retreat to get to meet the other 40+ staff in the Paris office that work for the NAMESTAN region (North Africa, Middle East and 'Stan' countries) that our Algeciras team is a part of.

During the week in the afternoons, we had some break time and we toured some local towns. There were painted Easter eggs hanging from windows and bunnies all around. It made me wonder where did this tradition originate? So I did some research....I couldn't find exactly where the idea originated but I did find out why:

A strong wave of piety ran through chicken farms from the 4th century onwards, leading to the custom of giving eggs on the first Sunday after the full moon following the spring equinox - a rather less spiritual way to celebrate Christ's resurrection throughout Christendom. Why? you may ask. Simply because the church forbade the consumption of eggs during the forty days of fasting that preceded Easter - but since chickens don't observe Lent, they continued to lay! Thus by Easter morning, people found themselves with a large quantity of eggs. It was necessary to share the surplus by giving them away. A basket full of fresh eggs is a nice gift - but when colored and painted with figures and designs, they became true presents: beautifully arrayed and designed to give pleasure.

How did I get off track talking about Easter Eggs? This post was supposed to be about the staff retreat. Ok...back to the retreat. Bailey Marks, retired International Director for CCC, spoke. Al used to tell me the story of when Bill Bright said to Bailey, 'How long does it take you to hear from God?' It was nice to hear the story from it's true source and to see this man's dedication to serve the Lord over so many years.

Little Monster

When I was at Missions Training Institute in January, we spent a morning listing out things we would leave behind when going overseas. One thing that I had to leave behind is my cat, Little Monster. Before I returned to Spain in February I got to see her and hold her. Of course, she didn't really want me to hold her! I am so thankful that she is happy and well taken care of. Thank you JoLynda!

'I'll Put You in Prison!'

This is Elia. He is my favorite Tunisian kid! He speaks 3 languages (Arabic, French and English), but I couldn't get him to teach me French. I worked with him and his parents last summer in Marseilles and I look forward to working with them again this summer! His favorite saying last summer....'I'll put you in prison!' so we decided to put him in prison.

Semana Santa

I posted a 'borrowed' picture of Semana Santa in Cordoba, Spain. This is very much what the processions in Algeciras look like too. It is like a funeral march. The costumes look very much like the KKK (a little scary to us Americans). But I understand they are worn to hide the faces of the 'sinners'. There are processions daily with floats. Men carry the floats on their shoulders. They have heavy statues that depict different scenes from the last week of Jesus' life. There are also statues of Mary apparently depicting different stages of her grief.

I watched one procession this year. I really don't enjoy them. I really didn't notice any of the Spaniards moved by them. I did notice some Moroccan men standing next to me watching and wondered what they thought as they watched, since they generally think the statues are idols that Christians worship. The next night, we (me, Al and Lynne) went to Plaza Alta (the center of town) hoping we could talk with other Moroccans hanging around. We had some small conversations, some who had received the New Testament before but none really wanting to talk more.

Carnaval

'Carnival encompasses the 3 days before Ash Wednesday, but in practice it is a flexible period, always ending, at least traditionally, on Shrove Tuesday.' That is what my cook book says! Here in Algeciras....they celebrated Carnival the weekend after Shrove Tuesday. But of course, Algeciras is not your typical town.

I like the Carnival celebration in Algeciras. It is very family friendly. The kids dress in costumes, there are parades, and 'Las Chirigotas' singing their satirical songs. This year I watched the parade from Allen and Deedee's apartment (they are members of my team here). We had a good bird's eye view of the parade and all of the kids in costumes. We enjoyed pointing out the different costumes to one another. If you're wondering who the picture is above on the right, it is Josiah...Allen and Deedee's oldest.

Costa del Sol

Rachel (a fellow co-worker who lives in Marseilles) came to visit the first weekend in March. I was so excited to have her come visit!! Rachel and I worked together last summer in Marseilles. We picked up a rental car at the Malaga airport...an automatic of course. It was my first time driving in Spain! (not counting the time I practiced driving the Stahls' standard car at 6AM when there was no traffic). Without Rachel's expert navigation skills, I might still be driving around the traffic circles! We drove to Nerja and stayed overnight. Nerja is a quaint Spanish tourist town that caters to the British. The weather was beautiful that weekend and in the 70's. It was so good to have some time to relax on the beach and to walk around the beautiful beaches! We also visited the nearby caves which are among the largest in Europe where the stalagmites are huge!