Learning God's Language

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...

Recently, I have been feeling a spiritual battle on all fronts. I am exhausted on so many levels and I have been battling stress and feelings of depression. This morning, I decided to take a morning to just be with God, to refocus and to remind myself of His presence with me. As I was clicking through music I came upon one of my new favourite songs, "No hay lugar más alto" (There is no place higher). It was such a needed song today so I have included the link as well as a translation. A tus pies arde mi corazón                          - At your feet my heart burns a tus pies, entrego lo que soy                        At your feet I surrender who I am Es el lugar, de mi seguridad                          It is the place of my security Donde nadie me puede señalar         ...

I don't know if you watch House Hunters International at all, but I definitely did when I lived in Canada. I loved seeing people explore new areas and begin new lives in a different country. I looked forward to the house hunt and since last December I have been anxiously anticipating when my house hunt could commence. Well my house hunt began the last week of August and 3 weeks into this journey I am getting tired. I am a little lost as to what I should do. The area I would LOVE to be in only has houses above my price range right now, and all of the houses I have liked, I haven't had peace about. I want so badly to be where God wants me to be, yet I feel I am coming up short. However, there is always a silver lining, and for me I'd say its how my Spanish has progressed. Reading advertisements, making phone calls and seeing houses (most of the time on my own) in Spanish has helped me to learn lots of new house lingo as well as have more confidence in going out to do things ...

I had been told on various occasions by my coworkers, "You think life is busy now? Just wait until summer!" Naive little me thought nothing of it and instead I decide to fill my summer with lots of activities and people not knowing what lay ahead. On the other side of the summer, finally getting a break that is longer than 3 days I can say the they were right! Don't get me wrong this summer was incredible and I was very blessed to be involved in lots of amazing things as well as explore a lot more of Spain and understand the culture better. However, I have been slowly trying to recover and I think I will need about a week of nothing before I can fully function again. This summer had lots of ups and downs. There were times I was so frustrated with the language or the spiritual opposition I just wanted to pack my bags and return to Canada. BUT God blessed me majorly by giving little victories within those hard times to help me grow and remember why it is that I am here ...