Feliz Navidad!

Merry Christmas!

This Christmas has been good but different:
A) It's warm and sunny!
B) I am away from home.
C) Germans celebrate it on Christmas Eve so today feels weird not doing something special.

In reflecting on our Christmas, last night I realized that I don't really remember most of my Christmas gifts but nights like last night I will probably never forget. For the past two days we have been using our spare time to bake cookies. We bagged them and attached little Christmas messages to them and then handed out the cookies to people last night. It was really special. One man mentioned that he had wrote on facebook how he wished he could have some Christmas cake and then we came along as an answer to his prayer. We found a group of homeless guys who I think really appreciated their cookies, and the list goes on of cool conversations that we had with people because of a small gift used to represent God's amazing gift to us. Tonight we are going to go to a different area and see where God leads us and who we ended up talking to.

Here are a few pictures from some of our activities over the past week:

Chris and I with a Bulgarian man we have been getting to know, celebtrating his birthday.

Spending a Sunday afternoon at the beach with some people from Argentina that we met.

Our Christmas feast!

Participating in a Christmas service by the beach.

Enjoying our Christmas morning prayer walk.

Have a blessed Christmas!

Week One

Greetings from the island of Tenerife! Early Wednesday morning our team arrived safe and sound on one of the main Canary Islands called Tenerife. Just after we arrived a crazy storm hit the islands. It was said to be the worst storm they have had here in 50 years. The government asked people to stay inside so our first part of the journey was spent indoors in prayer and worship. It was a good start but it was exciting when the sun came out.

 This week we did a number of prayer walks to observe the culture and way of life. We also went to one of the main tourist areas to do street evangelism. I am not very good at talking with random strangers and so it was a stretching experience. Most of the tourists here are from Europe and are older and are physically challenged. Every forth tourist is either in an electric wheelchair or uses a cane or some sort of brace or crutch. A good thing is that a lot of them speak English. They seem very closed to the Gospel.

Finding ways to connect with the locals here will be another challenge--one that even the church here has been finding difficult. I am excited for what will happen as I am believing that God will do some awesome stuff here but it is going to take a lot of prayer and a move of the Holy Spirit.

On the personal side, I am grateful that I have been able to find gluten free food here in the main supermarket. Please continue to pray for healing for me as I am still fighting an ear infection. Our team has been incredibly blessed with a really nice apartment for the girls. The church that we will be helping out is really nice and feels like home. They are open to a move of the Holy Spirit which is totally awesome.

Blessings!

Canary Islands here we come!

Hello everyone,

I am excited to announce that tomorrow my team will be leaving for the Canary Islands for our outreach. Here is a picture of my team.

This time is bitter sweet as, while it is exciting thinking about the outreach, it is also a sad time as it means saying goodbye to some awesome people whom I will see again only briefly in February for our debriefing. Please remember us in prayer, especially me as I have been fighting an ear infection in both ears that does not want to go away.

I am not sure how often I will be able to post anything here while we are gone. We have a team blog but it will be in German (there is a section called English blog...so if someone has a chance to translate it there may be something there). Photos from our trip will also be posted there if you are looking for photos under fotogalarie.  The link is: http://islandmissionaries.webnode.com/

Thanks for your prayers.
Beca