In these last couple months, we have heard the question over and over again. In the last few weeks, we have received the answer after much prayer.
What are you going to do?
It's not about what we are going to do. It's about what God is doing.
God pulled us from our work in Spain. God orchestrated a great move within 10 days. God provides for our physical, spiritual and emotional needs. God planned these days long before our births. God shines a lamp upon our path for our feet to find their way. God reveals in His way and in His time. God prepares us daily for His plans. God increases our longing for His Will to be done, not our own. God calls for us to be about His Work. God deepens our passion for meaningful, purposeful relationships full of His Love. God burdens our hearts for the lost. God stirs our hearts for our fellow laborers in the field. God grows a vision for a new ministry. God opens doors of opportunity. God gives direction and instruction.
GOD DESIRES FOR OUR FOCUS TO BE ON HIM, OUR WORK TO BE OF HIM,
AND OUR HEARTS TO BE WITH HIM...
Matthew 6:33
But first seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.
that is what we are doing.
We are resting in the Lord, waiting on Him, letting Him lead. We are excited to see where He takes us next!
Need More...
If you have specific questions, concerns or comments concerning anything that you have read in this blog series or about our time here in the States, please contact us via email at staytonservingspain@gmail.com
We would love to hear from you, talk to you, and share more with you!
We'd accomplished half of our "to-do" list as a family.
We had at least an immediate partial answer to that nagging question.
What are you going to do?
For now---- complete the rest of the to do list!
Travel is always exciting.
Whether a vacation, a business trip, or an unexpected pause in plans, traveling is an exciting adventure. Making international travel plans for a family of four within a mandatory 15 day window, well, that is exciting ---- in a stressful, expensive, chaotic adventure. Seeing how the Lord orchestrates and provides for those same plans, that is exciting---- in an awestruck, thankful and fun adventure. (Are you sensing the roller coaster ride yet?) I spent a literal whole day researching on many different travel sites, one stop comparison sites, and airline sites digging through the various day and flight combinations to find the best deal. We enlisted the help of a few travel agents (one in the States and, through a couple of friends, two in Spain). We looked to book flights in advance of that 15 day expiration because to depart after this date could result in a re-entry denial for up to three years. We found round trip tickets to be several thousand dollars cheaper than one-way flights. We found my diligent search gave us the best pricing- 4 round trip tickets leaving Spain on 25th of September and returning to Spain on the 11th of June for 3 adults and 1 child totaling $5000 (3500 Euros). Now that the stress of finding flights was over, the stress and concern about how to pay for these flights began.
The Lord is the GREAT Provider! We have seen Him move and provide over and over the last sixteen months in Spain. Let me share how He fails us not...
With a drop in our monthly support after our arrival in Spain, our emergency money fund that was set aside became quickly depleted. With an average monthly income the equivalent of $400, our ability to save back a new emergency fund was difficult. With the mind set to use the next 10 months to save for a potential trip back to the states with my teaching income, we felt at ease for future travel plans. Definitely, NOT immediate travel plans! Each day (and at times, each hour) that passed, the flight prices continued to fluctuate higher, ever increasing, ever creeping upward. EXCEPT the flights we had selected!! We prayed and shared our situation in Spain. God answered, of course. The Parque Victoria church elders and the community center board donated an equal amount to help offset the cost of our travel. The Parque Victoria church members collected a generous love offering to help us pay for the flights. Several people from the US who knew of our predicament deposited financial gifts into our account. Even on the last day in Spain, our friends from ICE Victoria (the Calvary Chapel in Rincon del la Victoria) contributed an offering from their congregation.
While we were being overwhelmingly blessed by these God inspired acts of giving, Greg and Katina continued administering God's provision by placing the cost of the flights on their card. The purchase allowed us to avoid an eventual price increase. (Immediately after the transaction, the cost of the flights increased 100 Euros each person!) The purchased allowed us to get all the gifts in euros transferred from our bank account in Spain into dollars in our bank account in the States. The purchase allowed us to get out of Spain in the designated time. The purchase allowed us to get settled back into the States. The purchase allowed us to get figured out how to pay for the tickets (a little over half the balance still remains after the transfer) once the ground stopped shifting.
We have been astounded at the Lord's provision for our family throughout this entire experience---- the last 16 months in Spain and the quick departure to the States. He is our Provider.
SURPRISE!
The Lord's faithful provision and good towards us should never surprise us--- BUT IT DOES!
How sweet are HIS ways to us. He provided a way for us to pull off some of the best surprises in which we have ever taken part.
With a quick exit and an unplanned trip, the seed was planted in our hearts and minds to make the most out of the situation, to make it as exciting as possible to see our friends and family for the first time in 16 months, and to make this travel a real adventure.
With our friends in Spain put on a gag order, no one posting online concerning our return to the States for 2-3 weeks. With our friends in the States who knew about our return asked to keep silent, they were integral conspirators and prayer warriors. We put in motion a week long stealth operation---- SURPRISE!!
Getting picked up at the airport by two unsuspecting little girls
Knocking on my parent's door the night we landed & Giving my daddy a 60th Birthday Surprise
Jumping out of trunks to the soundtrack of best friends'screams and shouts of joy
Walking into a Wednesday night church gathering to the reception of hugs and love
Dropping in for a late night visit to Jared's parent's house
Watching the blank, confused and then smiling faces of unsuspecting siblings brought under false pretenses to conspiring parent's homes
Kissing the tear streamed faces and entering into the warm embraces of our Grandmas
Surprise Homecoming Video Link (I've included the actual link...just in case. I couldn't get the video to play by clicking "play" button.)
WE LOVE SURPRISES!!
Thank you, Lord, for making it possible. Thank you, co-conspirators, for helping us pull of our mission. The Lord used you in such a fun way.
However, we were the ones surprised. The Lord has had so many more surprises for us over the last 40 days of being back in the US.
We have been surprisingly blessed by the invitations of lunch, dinner, and coffee at the treat of our friends and family. (While it doesn't sound like much, these invitations are a huge help financially.) We have had amazing times thanking our friends for how God has used them to encourage, love and support us during our time in Spain. We have had sweet times of reconnecting with beloved friends. We have been blessed with a place to stay. We have been surprised (twice) with a car to use. We have been surprise guests at and participants in one of two weddings of life long friends. We have been surprised by schooling and school supply needs for the girls being covered. We have been surprised with a 10 day get away to the lake to relax, readjust, and refresh. We have been surprised with a jar of change. We have enjoyed resting in fellowship and restoring relationships.
The Lord continues to surprise us daily with a gesture, a gift card, a note, an offer, an invitation, a meeting, a development, a situation, a Word that exhibits HIS love, HIS care and HIS heart toward us.
If you recall from our last post, two envelopes had stopped all the hustle and bustle of life. We were left dazed and confused but leaning on the Lord and His understanding, not our own.
We were faced (for the first and definitely not for the last time) with a very good question.
What are you going to do?
The Day After
By Friday afternoon, after many phone conversations had been reported back to us, it became clear that we were to leave Spain. Now, we had to tell Jara and Laila. After picking Laila up from school and sitting down after lunch, we shared all that had transpired the night before and over the course of that morning. At first, the girls were as dumbstruck as we had been. Then the initial impact wears off, we all began a kaliadescope of emotions- sadness and excitement and anxiety and uncertainty and joy and peace and on and on. But, we all knew God had a plan. (We'd seen it before. Afterall, we are the same family that had quit our normal jobs, sold about everything we owned and moved across the world to a country where we didn't speak the language!) So, we prayed together. We began discussing, implementing, and executing the "to-do's":
Goodbyes
Packing
Travel
and Surprises
See You Soon!
The goodbyes (or "hasta pronto"s) began immediately on Friday and continued until our last day with friends visiting us at our apartment or, after hearing about our departure from others, approaching us as we were in the community center or in town. We began making continual rounds through the fitness center sharing with our fellow fitness buffs, clients, and friends.
Upon visiting our favorite hangouts in town, we told our friends who own, work and hangout in these establishments.
The girls shared with their friends at church and school and we met with the school administration at both schools to explain the situation and make future arrangements for the girls' education in Spain.
We called our friends on the "need to know" list that don't have the same daily circle as we do like Martin&Maria and Birger&Mabel (our dear friends living in Norway) and Ivan&Eunice (the pastor of the Calvary Chapel Church in neighboring town of Rincon de la Victoria). At Parque Victoria Church on Sunday, the elders brought us before the church to inform them about our current predicament and petitioning them for prayer.
All of these encounters sharing our situation were met with the same disbelief, confusion, and sadness from our friends and dear ones that we first experienced. Each time we shared the story those feelings opened up yet again. We had many sweet goodbyes. We shed many tears of love and joy. We shared much prayer with our brothers and sisters in Christ. We shared much love with our dear friends in the gym and in our beloved little town, La Cala del Moral. "Goodbye" is never easy, and "See you soon" never feels soon enough.
Packing is never easy.
Nope, never as easy at it seems. I am an organized, driven, get-it-done woman. In my opinion, the act of packing must be done methodically, orderly and efficiently. However, in reality, packing is disorganized chaos methodically enveloping your total surroundings! Not a great environment when the air is already heavy with disorganization, chaos and confusion. And, it's never fun to watch your girls hearts breaking as their kitties get packed to find new homes (for the second time).
Once we had help figuring out where to store our things and boxes in which to store them (Thank you, Mike, Lope and Christian), we were able to start the tedious process of sorting, cleaning, packing, storing. With each of us packing light (or as light as one can when facing an Indiana winter), we brought only our winter wardrobes leaving behind everything else. We even decided to purge items into storage boxes or to the trash and recycle bins that weren't necessities and weighed us down like toiletries, old or almost outgrown clothing, and the extras like books, games, toys. We used the opportunity to weed through the items we were looking to put into storage. Would we still need or want each item in 9 to 12 months? Finding a balance in the trash or treasure. Keeping in mind, that upon our return to Spain, we will be setting up in a new living space and starting over. We had not purchased many things and the items that we has acquired either given to us or salvaged on scavenger hunts would be costly to replace.
In 10 days, we had packed up everything that was physically in our Spanish life, placed it all in storage to await our return, and left a clean apartment empty of our time there. We had packed 4 suitcases and 4 carry-on's to accompany us in our flight to the USA.
(Para nos amigos y nos familia de Espan~a, podais utilizar translate.google.es para leer esta notica. Gracias!)
For good reason, we've been hearing the same question a lot lately.
What are you going to do?
We are ------ on second thought, let's revisit that question later.
Hustle & Bustle
Thursday, September 14th, was a normal day filled with the hustle and bustle of daily family and work activity -- surrounded by weeks of hustle and bustle.
We'd been busy in the weeks before celebrating and planning birthdays. (Jara's on the 1st and Laila's on the 16th. Both in September.)
Laila was in her first week of school which started a new daily routine we had implemented several weeks prior. Jara was preparing to start her first year at the local public high school on the following Monday. The new school year brought with it the activities of purchasing school books, gathering up school supplies, and preparing schedules.
I had begun preparations for an opportunity to teach English as a second language at the English academy located within Parque Victoria Community Center and already had interest from several private tutoring clients. Jared and I had been working on the new work and fitness class schedules for the Fitness Center along with other ideas for improving the gym and center.
Thursday was one of those days where everything was jam packed. I was teaching my weekly fitness classes. Jared was working in the gym at the opening and the mid-day shift. Jared and I were busy in the time outside of the gym putting the final touches on those new schedules and ideas to present at a church elder and center board meeting that evening. Laila was being walked to and from school. Meals prepared. Errands run. Hustling and bustling normal daily family activity. As we walked towards our 7:00 pm Church and Center Board meeting, we were just beginning the flurry of evening events that would keep us hustling until 11:00 pm -- things to do, places to be, and people to see.
Two Envelopes
Making our way through the center to the meeting, we were handed two envelopes that had been picked up and signed for us that morning at the post office. We were excited to see the postage address of the sender. These were the letters we were waiting on- our one year missionary visa renewals. [Here' the logistics... Visas are issued for one year at a time for the first two years. Renewing the same type of visa under the same guidelines can be done in country, a process that we had started in June.]
Upon reading the letters we each received, our excitement dissipated. Still rusty at times on our translations (especially with wordy legal documents), we asked our bi-lingual friend to read the letters. After his read of them and his discussion with one of the elders, our excitement gave way to confusion, frustration and anxiety. What we had translated for ourselves was exactly what our friends confirmed and what our fears began to feed. The Spanish government was giving us 15 days to leave the country!
As we sat shell-shocked and silent (truthfully, I was silently praying and trying to keep myself from falling apart doing), the Church and Center board meeting we were about to enter continued but with a change of agenda. The church elders and center board members began rapid and animated discussions on if any of the requirements put forth within the letter could be fulfilled by the church and if we felt that those requirements would fulfill our calling to Spain, their church, and the center. Phone calls were delegated to each member of the collective boards to contact attorneys and various government and religious organizations within Spain to find any alternatives to our 15 day departure edict. We were instructed to cease all activity within the community center per stipulations set forth in the letters we'd received and to start making an exit plan. Who knew two thin ordinary white letter envelopes could be so extraordinarily BIG!
A Call To Prayer
We returned to our apartment cancelling all of our scheduled activities, took some really deep breathes, and prayed. Then we made some emergency Skype calls to Diana (our mission coordinator), Bill (our home and sending church pastor), and Greg and Katina (our re-entry point family). We put everyone on standby, let them know of the situation, and asked for prayers. We put out a general but urgent prayer request online. We continued our prayers that we would have some final direction and answers the following day. We were certain that the Lord was in the midst of these events. We felt His peace that surpasses all understanding. We would wait upon Him. We slept restfully that night anticipating what the next day would bring.
While January and February were packed full of events and happenings, March always seems a little less chaotic and a bit of a slower pace. Well, marching along is easier that running along the path of life!
We were able to enjoy some time with friends at a barbeque planning meeting, at the beach for café and relaxation, at a birthday celebration with yummy treats, at a home with their mini farm, and at the seasonal opening of a Chiringuito (a small bar on the beach) with a paella lunch.
March 19th was El Dia de Padre (Father’s Day) in Spain. We were able to surprise Jared with Father’s Day….don’t get THAT chance very often. We prepared one of his favorite meals- fried potatoes, sauerkraut, and sausages- and the girls surprised him with a small gift- a candy bar and a hammock. He also was able to enjoy the afternoon with our friend, Martin, while they celebrated Father’s Day outside eating tubs of ice cream (and sharing some bites with their kids).
Jared was back to working 40 hours a week monitoring the gym The fitness center is really busy now with everyone coming in to get beach ready for this summer. Our friend, Ivan (aka Grande), gives Jared a thumbs up on a break between sets!
Spring in the Gym!
With Jared monitoring in the gym and Lora’s fitness classes and walking club on top of the management responsibilities, bible study prep and teaching, Spanish class, and communication with and preparations for the groups that we have visiting us at the end of April and the month of May, we are blessed and know it’s important to make time to spend as a couple and as a family. We make sure a few days a week we get outside with the girls to enjoy the weather, the scenery and each other. Jared and Lora take every Friday morning alone to walk or run along the beach, have some quiet prayer time in some favorite seaside spots, and have a relaxing morning in town having a café at the same bar, getting fresh fruits and veggies from the market, and making any other needed stops at the shops in town before picking up the girls from school and Jared heading to work at 2pm.
Jared was able to take an afternoon to go rock climbing with his friends, Matt and Martin. He really enjoyed it. The location is within walking distance of our apartment. Since Jared and Lora both enjoy climbing and Laila is showing more and more of an interest, we are hopeful to purchase (or have donated) some climbing gear for our family to have and use as another family time activity. This particular rock face is a90 feet tall.
Laila was invited to a weekend of camping with her best friend and her family. She had a great time and LOST HER FIRST TOOTH!! We have been actively working on getting this tooth to come out for at least a month. Her two permanent front teeth are already coming in behind her front baby teeth. It’s a little sad that she doesn’t have that usual goofy smile with a gapping hole that kids get when they loose their teeth but we are VERY happy it is finally out. Now….to get the other loose ones to come out!
Jara has her own ministry opportunity here working in the food pantry every Monday afternoon from 4:45-6:45pm. The pantry reopened in March after being closed for the last two months because the government has not shipped any food to replenish the stock that feeds over 200 people each month! As you can see, the team she works with has lots of fun together.
Jara and Jared ended the last day of March attending a joint youth group event between our church youth group and another community church where our group traveled to enjoy a time of worship, teaching and a meal together.
We are enjoying watching the March weather bring the blooms of spring and watching God bring the buds of fruit in our ministry work. We are excited that as time marches on that more and more buds are visible and the fruit is beginning to grow and flourish.
God continues to encourage and guide us in this field He has given us to labor in, to pray for, and to harvest from in His Name and for His Glory.
