Fridays tend to be a day of to-dos (work, language, errands) with a little bit of fun of an evening to spend time together as a family. Friday before last, while the girls attended camp, Jared and I were able to get in a few errands and explore our town a little more. We were able to go to the school to pick up the girls schoolbook vouchers to take to the local paper/book store in July to obtain their schoolbooks. [A process seemingly similar to getting your books with your university course list and going to the college bookstore to get the necessary items.] We were then able to explore and run errands at the outdoor market here in La Cala. This market is small in comparison to others in Rincon or Malaga but what we saw serves our weekly purposes. It was full of venders selling goods of clothing, shoes, jewelry, handbags, wallets, belts, household goods (table linens, draperies, etc), and, most obviously, fresh fruits, vegetables and nuts.
Once the girls arrived home from camp, we ate lunch then returned the short walk back into La Cala. We had to get our entire family passport size photos taken at a photo shop. Where we met the owner, whose wife would like to get together with me to practice her English and to help me with my Spanish. These photos are a requirement for our residency card application process which we had made plans to got o obtain on Monday (the 4th). We must obtain these residency cards to activate our year long visas. After getting the photos taken and waiting for them to be printed, we took the girls to one of our families favorite spots in La Cala, the Helado Café. Not only do they serve great ice cream, but the staff there is always helpful and patient in our language learning. It’s always a good place for us to practice our restaurant vocabulary, and it’s a place we can always get the girls to talk since great rewards comes from them doing so!
This last Friday after camp and a few afternoon errands, our family attended an evening dance production at the community center put on by the dance academy that offers classes here. It was a wonderful performance of ballet and traditional flamenco dancing with dancers from the ages of 4 to early 20s. It was very enjoyable to watch not only the dancers, costumes, and stage sets but also the crowd as well.
Saturdays are full of family fun, service and fellowship. First on the agenda, I was asked to take on the task of decorating the stage for our Sunday services. This stage is a true theater stage, very large, much larger than I am use to decorating, but I am always up for some stretching of the talents. After doing some digging around in the decorating closet, Jared was able to help me create the stage décor for the next 6 weeks.
While digging through the decorations and fabrics, we were also looking for ideas to decorate a stage for an outreach for an orphanage in India that was occurring later that day in Rincon. Jared and I were able to find plenty of fabric options to have taken over to the stage sight. When we arrived, there had been an attempt made at decorating but we had been asked to redo it. The final results didn’t turn out badly considering we were using straight pins, safety pins, and paperclips to hold the fabric into place on plastic tent poles resting in the stage legs!
In getting to the outreach event, we decided to walk since the beach path is less than a mile form our place and the outreach event was being held on the beach in the next town over. We were assured that the walk wasn’t long, but in the hot sun at 2:30 in the afternoon, the hour walk was taxing on Laila especially. It was a beautiful and scenic walk which we are excited to do again…with the girls riding their bikes. (We didn’t take the bikes that evening, not knowing how late we would be there, and leaving the option open for us to get a ride back either with someone from church or on the city bus.)
The outreach was a success. It was fun to fellowship with our new friends from the church. It was great to be able to assist our friend, Euginio, by using our talents to serve for Christ. As already mentioned, we were able to decorate the stage for the event. Jared helped cook and we both helped serve food. Jara was able to help with collecting the money for the food and drinks sold. And Laila, well, she had her own special place at the event! (See pictures below.) We left the event around 12:30am getting a ride home from Pablo.
This last Saturday, there was a going away party for a friend in our courtyard. Jared was able to help a little with clean up and preparations before the party. Then, we had a few hours of family time at the beach before returning home to rest and finish preparations for the party. We had lots of people from church and many came inside the apartment to see how our painting was coming along. The food and the fellowship were amazing! The party lasted until a little after midnight and then we began clean up with several pitching in to make the task go more quickly so we were able to go to bed around 1:30am.
Sundays are a time of amazing worship at church and the messages are grounded in the Word. We are able to read the words for worship which helps and most songs are familiar so entering into the Lord’s throne room is unobstructed by any language barriers. It is fun and encouraging to see how each week we are able to interpret a little more of the teaching than we were able to the week before. It is also a time of fellowship with others from church. Every Sunday after church, people stand around and talk and socialize for an hour or more. We have been trying to help out putting chairs away and transforming the sanctuary back into a gym. (We are slowly learning where the items need to be returned.) After service and fellowship, many go eat together. We have enjoyed the company of some of the youth at the mall food court for a meal. Just this last Sunday, the church had its monthly koinonia meal. We ate lots of paella and had a great time hanging out with the church body. Jared is looking forward to playing drums in the praise team this upcoming Sunday.
Our time of fellowship has even extended beyond church planned events and gatherings. On Monday the 4th, after a failed attempt at obtaining our residency cards,we went to have coffee and a local café and Euginio made plans for us to have a 4th of July cookout on the beach with some of the Spanish families from the church. We made the rounds while in Rincon gathering items from the fish market, butchers shop, and grocery store. We made plans to meet back up a the beach for an 8pm cookout. (I think we finally ate at 9:45pm after the first people besides us to show up arrived at 9pm!) It was a great meal of hamburger, hot dogs, pinchitos, and sardines! (A mice mixture of both cultures! You can see our reaction to the Spanish side of the meal in the photos below.) We were even treated to our new friends attempting to sing the Star Spangled Banner accompanied by instrumental found on the internet by phone.
We are busy taking our Spanish lessons to increase our communication abilities which is extremely necessary in carrying out the plans God has for us here in Spain. We are also purposefully setting up café meetings with people who speak very little English for us to practice our Spanish and for them to fulfill their desire to learn more English. The girls are busy with camp and starting to make plans with other young people who are bi-lingual to help them in their language skills as well.
We aren’t letting the lack of words though hinder our involvement or socialization. Our weeks are full of fellowshipping with patrons at the community and fitness center as we participate in the classes and utilize the facilities here. Jared is busy training a couple of people in the gym already. I am getting together with women from our church to meet and “talk” or at least go for walks.
“Not in words or tongues, but in deed and truth.” (a quote from the book, Intercessor) A new friend of mine is going through a tough time right now. She speaks no English. So, we either stumble through conversation with charades and gestures and words that I do know or need a translator. At one of the events listed, she was off to the side in tears. I approached her as she was talking to a friend who could translate. I walked up and held her in a hug. I had the person translate for me. “I may not be able to speak Spanish, but I can speak the language of a hug.” Her response blessed me, “I may not be able to understand what you say, but I can understand and feel this.” Right now, this is the manner in which we must operate…not a bad place to be. "Be still and know that I am God." (Psalm 46:10)
