Worldly Holiness

Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds", originally uploaded by papalars.

Just thought I'd post a fun picture I caught down at Plaça Cataluña day before yesterday for a change of pace. This would go to the lighter side of my blog. Let me tell you the story of how I caught this picture. I was headed down to have my laptop checked out for something. I popped my head out of the metro stop to the low, dull roar of chanting, something that often happens in the Plaça. It is a place of perpetual happenings. Anyway, as is prone to happen because we are new people to the area, we still don´t have the culture´s rhythms down yet. We don´t know what is happening much of the time. Since the local news on the TV is in Catalan (we do watch the news in Castellan, but those stations are from Madrid, that other country), we miss local stuff. The ¨low, dull roar¨ was actually the voices of a chorus of untrained young men from Liverpool taunting the locals before the big, I mean big, soccer match to be held that evening with Barcelona. I migrated over to the noise and got some pictures. I´ve got one on my flickr showing a group of these fans mixing it up with the local police assigned to crowd control. Check it out. A lot of bravado and testosterone being thrown around.

I´m digressing. Sorry. After keeping post in front of the action, waiting to see if anything significant would happen, I decided to make my way to the computer store. Another digress. I was told there were 4,000 fans from Liverpool who flew down from England for the soccer match. They were all clad in the red Liverpool jerseys and t-shirts while the people from Barcelona had coats and scarves on. You can always tell when a northerner is in town. This is big stuff in Europe, actually in most of the world. Cross region soccer rivalries are big theater. You can just feel something in the air when there is a big soccer match. Well, on my way to the computer story I had to cross the main Plaça (the ¨ç¨ is pronounced like our ¨z¨) where they have all the birds. And here is where I saw this panic going on with the birds above! What fun. I took some other pictures that came out nice so jump over to my flickr file.

Tonight I have to take goodies to my Arabic class for not doing my homework last week. Relationships are starting with classmates and my teacher who you prayed for last week. Keep it up. My language acquisition is not going well just yet, but I´m not giving up and God is beginning to build some trust and friendships.

I still owe you another post about our trip last week. I´ll get to it, don´t worry. Thanks for your prayers. God is very faithful and provides some fun serendipities sometimes for my fotos! Comments are welcome and invited.

Carol was laughing hard as she watched me edge up to the fence to get several pictures of the Nuevo Ronda Bridge. I really do have acrophobia and after about 10 minutes of trying to get the perfect shot I was dizzy and a little sick to my stomach. A very strange sensation overtakes me if I linger too long at the edge of a precipice like this! I get a weird feeling in the pit of my stomach like the wind is going to pick me up and throw me over the edge. Let me explain a little bit about this place and then why we were there.

Ronda is a city in the Spanish province of Andalucía, of southern Spain. It is located about 100 km from the city of Málaga but takes about 2 hours by car because of the winding, somewhat dangerous road from the coast to the town. Its population is 35,512. Ronda is situated in a very mountainous area about 750 m above mean sea level. The Rio Guadalevín runs through the city, dividing it in two and carving out the steep El Tajo canyon upon which the city is perched. Ronda was first settled by the early Celts, but it’s Roman and then Moorish rulers are reflected most prominently in its architecture. Did you realize the Moors who were Muslim, made their footprints in this part of Spain. That is significant for our work with Mosaics [more later]. Finally after many centuries of Moorish presence in this region, the forces of Catholic Spain took control of the town in 1485. Wikipedia tells us that three bridges, Puente Romano ("Roman Bridge", also known as the Puente San Miguel), Puente Viejo ("Old Bridge", also known as the Puente Arabe or "Arab Bridge") and Puente Nuevo ("New Bridge"), span the canyon.

The term "nuevo" or “new” is a bit of a misnomer, since this bridge was completed in 1793. The Puente Nuevo is the tallest of the bridges, towering 120 meters above the canyon floor, and all three serve as some of the city's most impressive features. Another important site in Ronda is the Plaza de Toros, the oldest bullfighting ring in Spain that is still used, albeit infrequently. It was built in 1784 in the neoclassical style by the architect José Martin de Aldehuela, who also designed Puente Nuevo. This is where modern day bullfighting originated with the innovation of the matador standing in the ring on his own feet to face the bull instead of on a horse. That all started in this place. Both Ernest Hemingway and Orson Welles resided in Ronda for many years, and both wrote about its beauty, contributing to its popularity. Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls describes the murder of loyalists early in the Spanish Civil War by being thrown from the cliffs of El Tajo by Franco's forces. Wow. I'm glad I read about this after our trip.

Tomorrow, I will tell you more about why we were in this place. By the way, I haven't gotten any comments for awhile on my blog. I know you are visiting my blog because I watch the numbers each day, so why don't you leave a comment. Would love to start a discussion about anything mentioned in these pages. Simply click the footer below where it says "comments" and you can add your thoughts whether they are profound or simply a greeting.

Ciao,  

Memories from home, originally uploaded by papalars.

"You drench its furrows and level its ridges; you soften it with showers and bless its crops. You crown the year with your bounty, and your carts overflow with abundance. The grasslands of the desert overflow; the hills are clothed with gladness." Psalm 65:10-12 (New International Version) 

• Pray for a trip to Malaga this next week to connect with the North African Partnership “member care” team. We are investigating ways to serve, especially for Carol, in the care and support of missionaries working among North Africans. This was an important connection made in Malta that will probably yield some significant ministry. There are over 250 Latino missionaries working among our focus people who need member care.

• Continue to pray for my Pakistani immigrant friends, A—— & O——-. They live here in Barcelona without their families. It is sometimes lonely and difficult for them. Continue to pray for efforts to minister to their needs and reach their community.

• Pray for my Arabic class, the other students and my teacher M———-, from Syria. Pray for his current trip to Washington DC to see his brother recovering from heart by-pass surgery. Pray for smooth transitions through immigration and for God’s grace to be revealed in his life. Pray for my witness to him. I told him I was praying for his trip.

• Pray for our language learning and the friendships we develop with classmates. Carol is studying Catalan, I am working on Arabic. These are wonderful means to connect with the immigrants of our community and to build relationships with our focus people.

• Continue to pray for M———— from Morocco. He has a busy schedule with work and school. Pray that we may find time for a discipleship relationship.

• Thanks for prayer for the conference in Malta. It was a rich time full of learning and important networking. The trip to Malaga next week is a direct fruit of that time. Other connections were made and with colleague, Ken, we were able to obtain a bird’s eye view of what God is doing across the North African region.

• Continue to pray about our visas. Word last month is that they were coming along but we have heard nothing since then.

• News about our children is encouraging. Continue to pray for Nicki’s health and studies. She is improving but still under much stress from balancing the demands. Kjel is making plans for post North Park and has several positive options in view. Pray for God’s guidance. Erick’s trip to Oman was great and has provided more friends at his current school and from other countries. Pray for his participation on the Barcelona baseball team as practices have begun and relationships are forming.

Bless you all for praying!

Train is off, originally uploaded by papalars.

I just came home from my Arabic classes tonight and this picture above is the way I feel in my language learning!! The train is picking up speed and I feel like I’m sitting on the bench trying to see the objects swishing by my face and make the sounds with my mouth…and throat. While I was away in Malta last week, I missed two class sessions, the equivalent of four hours of class time. I missed a substantial section of the alphabet and since it is all brand new to me, I feel way behind. Last Saturday, the day before the Super Bowl [which by the way nobody knows about here in Barcelona…it didn’t even appear on the sport’s page in the daily paper!!] we started to read Arabic and I was totally lost. Will my old brain wrap around these new sounds and symbols?

All is not loss because my teacher is emphasizing that we help each other out. I already have two people who have scheduled sessions with me to fill in my gaps! Wow. One of them is the class assistant, a focus person from some Middle Eastern country. My class consists of six students and it is starting to feel like a small group. So while the language learning is painful for me at this point, it is also getting fun and I’m starting to feel like there is some potential in relationships. Could you pray for several things? One, that I am able to stick to the discipline and bend my mind to this new language. Two, that I am able to build some good relationships. Three, pray for my teacher, M———!

M——— is leaving tomorrow to visit a brother in Washington DC who had heart by-pass surgery last week and needs yet another procedure. My teacher wants to be with him at this time and is unsure about the potential outcomes of the next procedure. Last time my teacher went to the US he was harassed by immigration because he is from a Middle Eastern country. We had a long discussion about this in class on Saturday and I could see the angst and frustration in his story and expressions. My heart is growing warm toward my teacher. I so desire that I can speak about the things of Christ with him down the road. Tonight I told him I would pray for his trip and for his brother’s health. He knows I’m a Christian [I like the term, “follower of Christ],” so this is where the rubber meets the road in my witness. Anyway, I will keep you posted on the developments with each thing you are praying for.

Bendiciones a todos!

Comments are welcome, encouraged, AND invited! I also have some new pictures in my flickr badge from Malta, the Barcelona metro and a sinful indulgence that I took part in last night with some friends…curious? Check it out! It is the most recent photo in the photostream.

Alone by the Sea, originally uploaded by papalars.

My last post was about a week ago, right after my trip to Malta, which seems like a distant memory. I feel reflective tonight, like I need to “collect my bearings!” My kids laugh when I say that. They think it sounds silly, almost like I am a kid on the playground who has lost his marbles. Well, that is the way I feel sometimes, even though the saying refers more to orientation, reading a map and knowing where you are. Anyway, it is time to take stock of our time here in Spain/Europe, reflecting on what God has led us into and the things that are yet ahead. This week we are entering our 6th month of living here in Barcelona. Wow, can it be? As I look back at what we have done in that period, it seems longer, or that we have experienced and seen more than one can fit into that time span. Does that ever happen to you? When you are in the midst of something time seems to move slow, but when you look back you can hardly believe all that has happened? Perhaps that is human nature, at least my nature. I can be impatient in the midst of something, wanting it to move faster.

My prayer tonight–"Well, here I am God, ready for bed, but not really. We need to talk. Please, let me know you are present. Well, wait a minute! I know you are. In fact, when I read our support statement today and saw who contributed to us in 2006, I got warm in my heart and tears came to my eyes. Though sometimes this transition has been hard, I realize you are there with me, with us! You have brought people into our lives to encourage and to join in the journey. Thanks for that. It really helps. Help me in turn to be faithful, first to you Lord, and then to those who trust us with this ministry. Help me to continue to pursue those things you have put on our hearts, and the activities we take up. Help me to measure time well, neither rushing too far ahead in planning for tomorrow, nor lagging behind waiting for something better to come along. Help me to cherish the moments with family and friends, knowing they are gifts of companionship from you, even if they don't always bend to my agenda. Guide me to that still place where I can rest in your presence even if I can't see you. Then help me to be that place of rest for others. Thanks for the joy of knowing you!"

“At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless;
Neither from nor towards;
at the still point, there the dance is."
    T. S. Eliot

“And He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created by Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.”     Colossians 1:15-17
                   

More to come…