Learning God's Language

On March 14 I wrote my final exam for last semester and I am so happy to say that I passed all my finals! Two days later I went on an amazing trip with two of my friends from school V and T. We went to Mallorca (Ma-yor-ca), for those that don't know, it is a Spanish Island located east of Spain in the Balearic Sea. We travelled most of the country in the 5 days we had (although we were called crazy for taking a bus 1 1/2 hrs each way!). It was a great trip and I enjoyed getting to know a new part of Spain and practice the Spanish that we had been working so hard on. I've learned it is one thing to be able to pass an exam, but it is a completely different story to be able to use proper language in daily life. After the trip we returned to Madrid and I have been enjoying a different pace to life. I was supposed to start language study with a tutor last week but due to a few circumstances, it has been postponed to next week. However, my biggest focus at this particular moment is...

I have been attending a church in the city of San Fernando since I have arrived in Spain and it has been going through lots of challenges and changes. San Fernando is a daughter church that was planted 30 years ago. When I arrived this church was planning on reproducing and planting another church, however, since the summer it has been experiencing some problems. The pastor and his family had to leave the church due to some conflict and our church has dwindled to just 20-30 people instead of the 70 we had. This has been a hard time for the church and we as missionaries are trying to help without taking over so that the nationals will take ownership of their church and more responsibility.  Now a 30 year old church may seem "old" to some people, but to Spaniards this is just a teenager church who is going to through the typical struggles a teenager goes through. Youth is from 13-30+ in Spain and it is interesting how this is even reflected in the church.  Please pray for ...