The Haps!

Castle wall in Plasencia

The bell ringer in the plaza mayor of Plasencia

Me having fun on a castle in Lisbon, Portugal

I have been in Spain for about 3 and half months and things are going well! I'm in Spain on a student visa so the whole time I am here I will be a full time student. Right now I am taking 15 hours of Spanish at the University of Extremadura. The class is rather intense, we go Monday- Thursday from 9:00am-11:30. We also have two night classes a week from 5:00-7:30. Needless to say I'm getting quite a bit of Spanish. It has been encouraging because I'm starting to understand quite a bit when people speak but when it comes to talking... WOW, it's tough! A huge prayer request of course is for language and that I would continue to learn and get better. Having the student status here in Spain is great for being able to meet people and get involved. Daniel and I are working on getting an english club started at the university and we have our first meeting coming up this Tuesday. We hope to be able to meet as group and develop relationships with the students through language exchanges and just hanging out giving them a chance to practice their english with native speakers. I see great opportunities for the gospel that could come through this club. Also finding people to practice my Spanish with would be amazing as well. Currently we have a bible study that meets every Monday evening here. It's been great to be able to meet with fellow believers here and talk about the Word. Another area of ministry that has been really exciting for me is basketball!! I'm getting to play 3 times a week at the university with Spaniards! It has been awesome to see how relationships have developed through this. When we first started playing I was like woah no one speaks any english, kinda overwhelming. But over the last month or so the players have really accepted us and even struggle through english to try and speak to us. I even got asked to play on a team in a public league here!!! I had my first practice with them tonight and it was great! I'm praying God will use me how He pleases on this team! It's exciting to get to do one of the things I most love as a form of ministry... a definite answer to prayer! I really appreciate all of your prayers and support.

Picnics!

So at our church here in Cáceres, we LOVE picnics. Whenever there is a birthday or something to celebrate we picnic in the park. Here our some photos of recent picnic we had for David a spaniard that is part of the church here.

Baptisms and spanish tests!

Daniel and I studying hard in class!!

The first month of our spanish class came to an end today. I'm happy to report that I passed the final test with an A. Now does that mean I'm almost speaking fluently?? NOPE! I still have a ton of work ahead of me as far as language goes but I'm excited about making progress. We begin a new class on monday that still meets everyday, so there is no language break here. Life in the small town of Caceres has begun to get rather busy as students are returning for school. The actual school year begins Monday for university students. I have been able to play basketball once or twice a week at the university and it has been a blast. I'm starting to pick up some spanish basketball lingo... and the guys that play are getting familiar with us! It seems like it will be a great way to make relationships! We are hoping to begin an english club in the next couple weeks where we will meet with people to practice english as well as Spanish. I'm excited about the possibilities that will come from it. Spaniards are on the lower end in Europe when it comes to language learning. Many of the young people here have a desire to know english.... What better way to learn than talk with us Americans! Right?!?

Last Sunday part of our team in Truijllo, a city about 45 minutes from me, had the opportunity to baptize two new believers! It was a great time of celebration and fun as we had the baptism at a near by picnic spot with a beautiful little lake. The Extremadura region of Spain is the most spiritually lost. Less than .02% believers has made the work slow and frustrating at times. So this baptism celebration was a great time to praise God for what He IS doing in Extremadura. The past 2 months I have been here have flow by and I'm excited to see what is to come as the school year begins! Thanks for the prayers and support! Here are a few pictures from the baptism.

First day of school!!

It has been almost six years since I have had a first day at a new school. I must say, though, this is a little different being in a different country and all. I am taking Spanish at the University of Extremadura here in Spain, and for the next three weeks, there will just be three of us in the class. I just started an intensive course, and it will go until the end of this month. After this month I will move into a dorm type setting and begin more Spanish classes until the end of the year. We have a really cool teacher named Marina who also speaks English and will be our guide for the next three weeks. As we begin to be on campus and around the university students, I would ask that you all pray that God would give us ideas and ways to do ministry in this university setting. There is pretty much zero Christianity on the campus here, and knowing how to approach a work starting from scratch can be tough. Meeting people and developing relationships will be a high priority in the work here at the university, so also pray for divine appointments with people in the university. Thanks for all the support!! Talk to you again soon!

It's almost that time!

Cool water fountain

An outing with Spanish friends

A park by our Church

It's Saturday and I just back from a very short but somewhat hard run through a park right by our apartment. August is the hottest and slowest month of the year in Cáceres, Spain and very little goes on. Stores close for weeks at a time, half the city leaves to go on vacations and the people that are here usually stay in doors because of the heat. So needless to say it's been somewhat difficult figuring out what to do. I have been doing some city exploring and working on a few orientation assignments as well as informal language learning. However once September hits this will all change! The first week of September my team will be in the canary islands for a team retreat. Once we get back school will start up and I will be in language class full time getting my spanish on. With language comes relationships, my biggest prayer is that language will come quick to me and I will be aggressive in using what I learn for the purpose of making friends and contacts. I will most likely move into a dorm setting with Daniel in October for 3 or 4 months. This will most likely me a difficult experience as far as living goes but great for language learning and meeting university students. My prayer would be for divine appointments in the coming months and boldness in meeting and sharing with new people as the school year gets ready to begin.

A tour of Caceres!!

A week in Germany

Walking the town of Sonthofen

Our hotel for the week

Amazing views

More amazing views

My Extremadura team!!

So I just returned from a week in Germany. It was a great week of teaching, preaching and worship! We had Mac Brunson and David Platt as speakers for the week. I was kind of bummed that this meeting was taking place so soon after I arrived on the field here but it ended up being just what I needed. Through the course of the week God started doing a work on my heart for the people of Caceres, Spain. Through all the preaching and teaching my mind kept going back to Spain and how the people of Spain need to know the truth about the love of Christ. I'm going to be working with university students in one of the most unreached parts of Spain. The only way anything is going to happen here is through the work of the Holy Spirit and us as missionaries looking for where the Spirit is moving. My prayer is that God would lead me to the people He is all ready doing a work in and that He would use me in whatever way he wants to reach the people of Caceres! I begin language the beginning of September and am praying for understanding and comprehension of this Spanish language. We have a couple weeks left of orientation stuff and getting all the logistical stuff taken care of and will then dive hardcore into full time language study! Talk to you guys later... Enjoy the pictures of Germany!