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Hello again from Salamanca!
Now that Sophie and
I have managed to catch our breath after our first month
of being parents of two, we thought we’d let you know
how things are going here in Salamanca.
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Life with Liam |
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Liam playing with Sophie
Sophie in the park with Liam
Juliette: the big sister
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First of all, Liam is doing great and growing
fast. He gained two pounds between his two
week and 1 month check-up and has started to
flash his first few smiles. It’s amazing how
much reward it is to get something back from
all the work you put into these little things:
just one smile makes it worthwhile. January
was a blur for both Sophie and I as we quickly
remembered what life was like to have a
newborn in the home. Nights of little sleep
and a busy, busy 2 year old during the day
left us a little drained, but we are beginning
to manage much better. Thankfully, Sophie’s
mom made a visit for a week to help us manage
and help make the first few weeks a little
easier. Sophie is doing really well and plans
on returning to work at En Vivo at least one
day a week starting March 1st.
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Our New Exchange students |
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A big part of the success of finals coffee was
due to our newest set of exchange students.
At the beginning of January, 7 new college
students from the states arrived to study
Spanish and work with En Vivo for the
semester. Along with the 4 girls who came back
from last semester, we have a total of 11
exchange students this spring. “A crowd draws
a crowd” is one of our models of ministry, so
we are thankful to have such a good group for
this semester. One of the ways our exchange
students meet Spaniards is through language
partners, or “intercambios” as they are called
here. During finals coffee they met and got
phone numbers for 43 students who were
interested in meeting as language partners.
This is the biggest value of having these
students. We could never meet and have
contact with as many students without their
help. This is one of my favorite parts of the
Globalscope model of ministry.
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Spring Exchange students during a group
worship time
Exchange student girls hanging out with
Spaniards at En Vivo
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Prayer Requests |
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Praise God
for our new team-mates! Adam and Michelle Suter
are on their way to Spain and will be arriving
tomorrow.
We are excited to have them join our team
here in Salamanca. Please pray for their
language learning and adjustment to Spanish
life.
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Please keep
our second ministry retreat in your prayers. It
is coming up April 1-2. Please
pray that God would lead the students into a
greater understanding of His love for them.
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Jesse is
co-leading a new Bible Study for beginners… and
introduction to the Bible.
Please pray that this study goes well.
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On March 11 we are hosting an open house at En
Vivo, where we will be inviting the local
churches of Salamanca to come visit and see what
our ministry is all about.
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Spring Semester |
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Students hanging out after En Vivo
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As for the En Vivo
ministry, the semester is off and running!
We just finished our 3rd En Vivo
bible study of the semester this past Thursday night
and had a great crowd.
It has been great to see how many students were
eager to have En Vivo back after they finished with
exams.
Here in Spain, students have 3 full weeks of
exams in January, so it’s almost impossible to have
any activity with attendance during this time.
So, during exam time we decided to hold off on
the normal En Vivo bible studies and return to an idea
that worked really well for us last year: Finals
Coffee
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Finals Coffee
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For
four days during the exam weeks, we set-up a table
just outside one of the most popular libraries on
campus where students go to study.
From the table we served hot coffee and muffins
and met a ton of students.
Getting anything for free in Spain is a strange
thing, so we got a lot of strange and confused looks.
But as students started to stop by and grab a
coffee, a crowd of students would form as they were
eager to know who we were and why we were doing this.
It was a great way to advertise En Vivo and to
meet new students.
Students handing out coffee at the library during
exams.
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