Learning God's Language

This past weekend I had the amazing opportunity to attend a Christian Police Retreat here in Spain. Now I know what you're thinking... wait, Kaitlyn, you're not a police officer... and you're right. It was the same though I had when my friend Nayra invited me. But through some convincing and hearing that other friends would be going as well, I finally decided to sign up. And I'm glad I did! As I was driving to the event I was super nervous and at the same time grateful that there were other people going who weren't police, military or ambulance workers either. My friend Paula, who is a psychologist, and I talked a lot about how awkward we felt going to this event, and what we were going to say when someone asked us what we did, and then when they found out we weren't service workers what we would say. However, I never once felt inferior or unwanted at this event. Which completely blew me away. I can say truthfully, that I have NEVER been in a conference like

The past couple of weeks I have been reflecting a lot on what 2 years in Spain has meant for me. So this post is more me processing than anything else, but if you're interested in knowing what's in my brain, read on. Before coming to Spain the longest I had ever lived outside of Canada for was 6 months. I had no idea what 2 years would look like and now looking forward I see that in order to complete my term I have less time left than I have now been here for. The week before I moved to Spain, I remember lying in my bed at night talking to God. Telling him how I had absolutely no idea what to expect. How I couldn't even imagine what life would be like and how the idea of speaking Spanish was such a crazy idea to me. I remember wondering about how I would drive, or where I would live. What grocery shopping would be like or how I would make friends. God didn't answer any of those things for me during that time, but he did promise that he would be with me. Now 2 year

As we sat there praying and worshiping God I felt such peace. THIS is the reason I am here. This is what brings me joy. Being able to draw close to God with others and help them to do the same. The last week has been such a blessing to me. My friend N invited me to a youth camp retreat (in Spain this does not mean under 18 it can mean up to 40!) and I went in not knowing what this time would look like at all. I have been to a couple of different youth events since moving here but there are always new adventures and every single one is a bit different for me. She had a whole bunch of people coming from the Canary Islands and so I figured if nothing else I could get to know a few more Spaniards and practice my Spanish some more. What I didn't expect was they way they accepted me as an honorary Canarian and how blessed I would be by them. These people who took the time to invite me into their group and were patient with my Spanish, are a blessing I won't soon forget. What was su

As a missionary I feel that we need to be extremely flexible while we undergo constant change. If it's not changing countries, it's changing language. If not language, it's houses, or ministry, or church, or etc... I am once again in a season of change and although it brings with it lots of excitement, it also brings questions and a little bit of trepidation. Currently, I am looking into some different ministry opportunities as well as looking into changing churches. Changing churches is going to be quite difficult for me as I finally feel like I am making progress with my church and can actually speak to those that I work with in our various ministries. Most of them don't know yet that I am looking at moving churches and I know that this is going to be a very hard change for all of us. Especially since we have lost a lot of the congregation in the last 2 years as well as this past summer we have lost two families to home service and a single lady who was doing an int

There are moments that happen here in Spain in which I know I need to stop and thank God for. This past week I had a couple of those moments. To begin with, I have been so blessed by God that in the two months (Jan and Feb) of 2018 I have made two new Spanish friends. This has been such a blessing to me and I am so thankful to God for these relationships as they are helping me to grow not only in language but also culture and as a person. On top of that, they are both Christians so needless to say, it is filling a HUGE whole in my heart to share that part of myself with other Spaniards. Last week, I was in Croatia for our Europe Women's Conference. It happens once every three years and all of the women who work in Europe try to gather together for 5 days to reconnect, recharge and spur each other on. The day before the event, one of my new friends invited me over for lunch after church. However, when I arrived at church I found out that there was a new group of men who had arri

Have you ever been so blown away by God that it literally stops you in your tracks? You don't know whether to laugh or cry. You don't know whether to dance for joy or fall to your feet and worship? Well that is how I am feeling. Why you ask? Well let me tell you... As many of you know, I have been looking for a house to live in for almost 6 months now. It has been such a hard journey of language learning, patience, frustrations with papers that I don't have and wonderings of what God had in store for me. On January 4, I once again got in my car to go see yet another house hoping that maybe this would be the one... just maybe. At this point I had lost count of how many houses I had seen, how many phone calls I had made and how many emails I had sent. As I was going to check out the house, to be completely honest with you, I wasn't very optimistic, but little by little God changed that. As my friend and I entered the apartment, we both were surprisingly shocked by how