Update! The end of our beginning.

No news is good news, right? Perhaps that can be my excuse for not updating the blog in over a year! Or I could just apologise… sorry!!

I’m writing this after a very special month for us, in which the church has officially been launched with much excitement and celebration. Although we had been ‘in action’ for some time, we wanted to publicly advertise and in a special way mark the official start of Iglesia Cristo Salvador (Christ the Saviour church), surrounded by friends and supporters. The build-up to our launch day last Sunday included our first baptisms (in the local river!), an open mic night, guest meetings in our new venue and a dinner & quiz night. Our new location, name, website and logo all added to the big launch! (Check out www.cristomadrid.es)

We are so chuffed to see the establishment of the church, having had the privilege of being here from the start. So much ground has been made, so many small steps taken: a small but growing element of Spanish-speakers whose hearts are invested in the church, progress by the English-speakers in moving from an awkward to a more comfortable use of Spanish in all our interactions, a genuine integration of all members in our different neighbourhoods whilst maintaining a united heart and mission... they're exciting days and we're grateful to God and proud of every member!

There are plenty of struggles along the way though, in all this. In fact we'd say that there's a real battle going on as we look to see people from Madrid reached and added to the church. For example, a key Spanish member is facing significant personal challenges in the course of wanting to passionately commit himself to the life of the church... we'd so value your prayers for him and his family.

As expected, our home life has become wonderfully but exhaustingly full-on with Daniel's arrival in our lives a year or so ago! He started walking at 10 months and has hardly paused for breath since. He now literally runs from one curiosity-inspired mess to another act of mischief, like bursting into Ellie & Joe's bedroom after lights-out, with a look of glee on his face, and excitedly slapping his big sister in the face!

As I write this he's desperately trying to post a USB cable into the video slot of our DVD/VHS player... He's probably the source of most of our hilarity these days, as well as most of our headaches! Some days we wish we could palm the kids off to grandparents and escape for a day to regain our sanity!

We've also been really happy to have a series of people visiting/staying with us this year, in some cases for the first time since we moved to Spain, such as with Sal's sister Eley, my sister Kirsten & her family, and our friends the Rogers from Plymouth. These visits were of course really special and memorable, and so was family recently coming over for Danny's 1st birthday and dedication.

 

Now into our 5th year here, on the whole we're very settled and fairly well-adapted, the kids seem to be thriving, work is ticking along fine... but it's not all a bed of roses, in case you're thinking of packing up and joining us! Deep friendships are still a work in progress, distance from family is strongly felt, and to be honest economic challenges are a reality. But, without meaning to start preaching, as God's kids we have such a dynamic hope that allows us to sing through any storm. In the face of a significant challenge that has recently arisen, I've been impacted by reading of how when referring to God's love, the Bible (Deut 10:15) uses a word that means that God 'ties himself' to his people. For better or worse He chooses to lock on to us, he is committed to us; his love is one that doesn't let go. Amazing!

We'd like to take this opportunity to wish you all an amazing Christmas! There's lots to celebrate! Have a wonderful one.

Also, as it's 'the end of our beginning' in Madrid, it may be a good time to stop this blog. It may have served its purpose. Let us know your thoughts! :)

Much love,

Al, Sally, Ellie, Joe & Danny xoxox

3 years in and 3rd one’s a charm!

Lots of mutual gazing of eyes filled with wonder, fights for epic cuddles on the sofa and a sudden surge in contact and video-calls from grandparents can all only mean one thing… the stork has found us in our Spanish hide-away and delivered a very cute little bundle!

As you may know, on Halloween morning little Daniel made his entrance into the world 10 days overdue, in a culturally-appropriate, laid-back fashion, and only after a lot of convincing that it really was time to emerge. He is in great health and feeding well (a Whitehead trait) and has received an enthusiastic welcome from our other 2 kids, neighbours and friends. I guess he’s a bit of a novelty at the school gate and also the first baby of the church plant! I (Al) have been on paternity leave and so with Sal we've been loving getting to know our little man and re-learning how to do nappies, night routines and public transport with a pram, to name a few things.

Sal, having trained in the UK as a midwife, got to see first-hand the entire process worked out differently in another country and has lived to tell several tales! But actually we’re both really grateful for the competent and thorough care received in our local hospital and are glad to have another link and experience in common with members of our community. Bizarrely, we have come across 3 other newborn baby Daniels in the last week. And also of note, we breathed a sigh of relief when an Ebola scare at our hospital turned out to be just a false alarm…

Hopefully you’ll excuse the fact that this blog post is limited to the one topic, as it’s a bit all-consuming for us at the moment. But on a related theme, it’s also exciting for us as a church to see that spiritual new births appear to be beginning to take place among us too! We have a new ‘brother’ in our church family who is enthusiastically part of us and another who recently had to return to his home city but who we've linked up with a church family there. New hope, new freedom, new relationships with God and his people… it’s what we’re here for and we are thankful for these small beginnings. Thank you too if you’re praying for the church here! It’s so appreciated – don’t stop! ;-)

Anyway, much love from us all and until our next post - assuming that Daniel continues to let us sleep enough to have functioning brains and that having 3 kids abroad doesn't lead to us losing our sanity,

Al, Sal, Ellie, Joe & Danny

Sally's Scribbles

I have decided to take up the gauntlet that Al has thrown down and write our latest blog entry, as apparently most of the news is mine!

It feels like we are entering a new season, as a family and as a church plant… a fruitful season in which we’re feeling expectant and excited at what is ahead.

Talking of expectant… I’m very happy to announce that I am expecting baby number 3! I’m 19 weeks and due towards the end of October. I’m very well and enjoying having an ever-expanding waistline (which I may not enjoy so much in the heat of August in Madrid!). We are obviously thrilled and very grateful to God and trusting him with all that is ahead.

Since starting to meet as a church plant in our new central venue (which is going really well) we have begun different interest groups that aim to love and serve the communities we live in. In our area we saw there was a strong desire among some of the mums at the school gate to practice their English in a relaxed and fun way. As a result, with 2 other members of our team (Geofree and Caroline), we have started to meet every couple of weeks in our flat to drink tea, bake cakes and chat in English with our Spanish friends, all things that come quite naturally to me! So far they are really enthusiastic about it. We hope it will be another way to build really good relationships, meet a need and form links between us as a team and the community. Currently there are also 2 other groups - Al is part of a language exchange evening that takes place in a bar, with a very similar aim. We are really enjoying this emphasis on serving the community in any small way we can, working as a team and making new friends.

Earlier this month I had the wonderful opportunity to have 4 days at our Iberian Peninsula conference in Portugal, while Alastair stayed in Madrid with the kids. What a heroe! I particularly enjoyed singing with the band from the Portuguese church, leading some of the Spanish songs in our trilingual worship sessions, something I never dreamed would ever be possible for me! I sensed and appreciated the growing closeness we have with other churches across the peninsula as well as the amazing love and support we get from UK churches. (Here is a link to Guy Miller's blog that gives a further taste of all this: http://guymillernews.blogspot.com.es/) We feel genuinely privileged to be part of all that God's doing here.

 

As a family we are feeling more and more part of the local community, despite still sticking out like absolute foreigners (blonde hair, pale skin, etc!) - some things we just can't change :-)  We're proud of our little girl who is about to finish her 3 years of infant school and is due to 'graduate' next month. (Can't believe it's been 3 years!)   Joe is due to go into his final year of infants in September. He is still a bundle of fun and our key to endearing people to us!  They are both very excited about number 3, and to them October seems a long way off...

 

In other news:
- We had our first experience of Easter in Madrid this year and saw firsthand the processions, virgins and drums.
- We have been swept up in football fever and enjoyed the celebrations of Real Madrid's 10th European Championship! '¡Hala Madrid!'
- We really enjoyed having my godmother Sally and her husband Roger to stay in March and to share a bit of our lives with them.
- We're looking forward to spending time in the UK in July and will hopefully catch up with many of you!

Main prayer point:

Some of you ask for specifics you can pray for. Apart from any of the above, our main desire is to see many Spanish-speakers and Madrileños amongst us as a community. We love the lovely ‘Santi’ who is now heart and soul with us, as well as some others who are looking in. Pray for them, for others and for us in this!

Hope my scribbles have been painless! We send lots of love and hope you're doing well and pressing on with your adventures. God bless and until next blog,

Sally, Al (editor-in-chief) and the scrummies xxx

Learning about Leaning

Firstly, a really happy new year to all our friends and family!

Something the Bible encourages you to do is:

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.” (Proverbs 3:5-6)


This last term and these last few weeks have been full of events that have brought home the truth of this, both personally as a family and collectively as a church plant. We move forward as best we can, using the brains God’s given us, and He nudges and re-directs us as we go! It’s a privilege and confidence that we have as God’s kids and, as we’re learning, it apparently plays a big part in church-planting:

On Sunday evening we had our first meeting together in a new venue, slap bang in the middle of Madrid in a spot that overlooks ‘Puerta del Sol’, the main central square! It’s an exciting development and something we haven’t seen coming but feel could be one of God’s key ‘nudges’. Having used our wisdom to strategise (though to be fair the wisdom resides pretty entirely in our leader Kev!) we’d been searching for a venue that would suit our growing needs in the north of the city, where most team members are based. We had our sights on a particular venue and after frustrating delays on the part of the owners we met as a church to pray outside it, to ask God for breakthrough. I felt God put in my heart that He had an ‘excellent change’ in store for us and an ‘immediate handover’ of the venue… but that same day, for some reason, we were turned down L Yet leaning on God’s wisdom and not our own is part of the adventure and incredibly, the same day Kevin received an email from another church leader in the city, saying that they were looking for a church that would join them in sharing their building in the centre! J We haven’t worked out the details and implications of it all yet, but we feel that God’s in this and we’re following his lead and looking forward to him using this in his plans to impact and draw people to himself amongst us. On Sunday at least 2 guests were with us as Kevin shared the gospel – if you pray, please pray with us for this, our goal and longing, that there may be joyful fiestas soon!!

As a family we are generally really well and enjoying our lives and work here. There have been some tough challenges though, particularly in the last few months. Many of you will know that sadly, Sally had a miscarriage in December, after a pregnancy that had been much longed for. We’ve been well loved and looked after though, and I’m especially amazed at Sal’s resilience. In this too, we are choosing not to lean on our own understanding, even though it hurts and we might not understand.

On the morning of the day of our appointment for our 12 week scan, when we were expecting to see our baby for the first time (unaware that the baby no longer had a heart beat), I was praying and reading the Bible. The passage I read was Ephesians 6 about standing firm on the day of evil and the particular verse that I felt God impress on my heart was verse 16: “Take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.”

Previously Sal and I had both felt God warn and prepare our hearts before the arrival of our son Joseph, who needed major surgery at birth, but who is now such a bundle of energy and a delight to our family. And this particular morning I wanted to ignore that verse and impression, dismissing the whole thing as paranoia after our previous experience… yet now again God’s faithfulness is evident to me in the midst of difficulties – the loving whispers of a God who doesn't leave us alone but lives in us by his Spirit; who doesn't surround us in bubble-wrap so we escape trials in this life but who walks through them with us. And we want to choose to trust him and his paths for us. Please pray for us in this too; for grace to keep leaning on him and to walk forward into the good things he's got for us.

Finally, a few highlights of things we are enjoying these days:

- We loved our Christmas here, probably because we are feeling so much more at home in terms of friendships and where we’re living. We enjoyed ‘doing Christmas’ in a more Spanish way (24th evening meal, presents from the 3 kings, ice-skating in the park with friends, parades & nativity scenes…) and it was a privilege to be invited into our neighbours’ home for their family New Year's Eve meal (and the eating of 12 grapes at midnight!). Really special times.

- We’re loving getting to know new team members (Tom you’re a legend!) including the latest family that has joined the team - Gethin & Geofree and their two kids (our Welsh-Venezuelan element!). They live in our neighbourhood, their kids go to our kids’ school, and we’re sharing host responsibilities for our home group. It’s great to be on the adventure with them but generally we’re just big fans of them – quality people!

- Sal’s enjoying the fact that in some topics her Spanish vocabulary is now better than Al’s. Al is not. L

- And we’re loving normal family stuff like Ellie learning to read and write, Joseph mastering a fake Brit-speaking-bad-Spanish accent to make us crack up, taking the kids to countless birthday parties or having their friends over, Spanish swear words slipping out of our kids’ mouths from time to time… many laughs and very blessed with our family!


Anyway, better stop there. Thanks for your interest and support. God bless you all, trust this finds you well and until our next post!

Al, Sal, Ellie & Joe x

In the know

Hello! Just a few snippets of news / photos / film clips of our current antics in Madrid.

The rain in Spain falls mainly on…us these days when we go out without our coats because it was roasting the day before. A temperamental autumn is here!

The long, sweaty Spanish summer, when kids whine all day in the heat, was revolutionised for us this year by the amazing provision of a pool. Ellie learnt to ‘swim’ and Joseph to sunbathe(!) and life was much more bearable for everyone.

In the video below the kids say that other summertime activities included going out on bikes, meeting up with friends and watching telly! (Forgive the head tilting) J

After a fantastic trip to England in August, catching up with some of our family, friends and the crew at Waterfront City Church, we’re back on the saddle, in the midst of the daily Spanish routines of school, work, family and friendships, and yet with an exciting mission permeating it all.

Outreach in parks and the university, questionnaires, an event looking at belief in God in an age of reason, small-scale social action projects such as an after school club, and our very first Alpha course are all elements we have started / are going to be starting this term… with the prayer that God would impact and transform people by the gospel and that we’d come across those who he is preparing and calling.

We’re so aware of how bizarre and freaky all this is to some people here, just as in the UK, but if only they were aware of the reality of Jesus in our lives and helped to experience it for themselves. Just this week Sally and I have been really strongly impacted by God’s perfect timing of unexpected provision and his obvious care for us, how he is so trustworthy and how he leads us through challenges for our good, and personally this week I’ve sobbed like a kid in gratitude… He is amazing and we want to share this kind of stuff with those we know here. PRAY FOR US in this!

In other news, Sal has seen the light and is following me into the world of English teaching! She has started one-to-one classes with parents from the kids’ school and next week will be doing an English-play class for a group of kids too. Steep learning curve for her but I think she’s enjoying the challenge!

We also just had our first weekend away as a church, 25+ of us in a hostel in the mountains outside Madrid, served brilliantly by Guy & Heather Miller and Andy ‘the Pie’. Great and growing sense of community and purpose!

We’ll leave you with the video link below that gives more of a taste of what we’re up to and is worth a watch:

https://vimeo.com/76123406

Much love and til next time,

Al, Sally, Ellie & Joe x

Up a Gear!

Happy Easter to our friends and family reading this!

It seems appropriate at this time to ‘resurrect’ our blog, 18 months into our adventure. Communication through Facebook, WhatsApp, phone calls and an unexpected trip back to the Isles at Christmas all made other thoughts of updates seem unnecessary, but apologies to those who haven’t been brought up to date! ‘Our bad.’

We’ve just celebrated Easter Sunday together as a team and it makes us stop and be grateful for just how far we’ve come:

We have a solid church-plant team! About 20 men, women and kids have gathered (from Britain, Madrid, Mexico, China and Africa!), have managed to get jobs, find homes, settle into schools, become part of communities and still stay standing after all the knocks that life and this adventure can bring! We’ve gone up a gear in our preparations and in beginning to more intentionally share our faith.

At our Easter Sunday celebration today

¡Hablamos español! Massive steps have been taken by all of us in grasping the lingo and personally speaking, I’m so chuffed and blessed by how Sally can now chatter away with Spaniards (yes Sal, not perfectly, but functionally!), by Ellie’s latest school report that tells us that she communicates almost fully in Spanish, and by Joseph’s considerable vocabulary for this early on which reportedly even stretches to swear words! That's my boy  :-)

Joe's first day at school in September

We don’t feel flat in our home! (See what I did there?) In December we moved to a great new flat which we feel really at home in; it’s right opposite the kids’ school, it’s in a block in which some of Ellie’s classmates also live, it has a tiny spare room for guests (both sets of grandparents have reasonably survived the experience), the wiring and plumbing actually work (mostly), it’s presentable enough to invite friends into and it even has a pool (albeit to share between 120 flats). Bring on the summer!

Much excitement about bunk beds in the new flat

We do 9 to 5! Actually, over here it’s more like 9 to 8 with a long lunch, but the point is that daily routine is a big part of being on a church-planting team. I’ve been working Saturday mornings this year too (everyone in the school has to do one year of Saturdays) and I’m generally feeling more confident in my work and getting used to teaching kids (in addition to adults), which has been new for me. With new classes regularly I’m meeting so many Spaniards who are teaching me about life here and some are also becoming friends.

We’ve started to serve and impact! Everyone here is desperate to practise their English and this is a way that we, as a team, can serve the Madrileños. As such we’ve started a monthly language exchange event, seeing 30 or so Spanish and English-speakers gather to practise their conversation in a relaxed format and we are building friendships off the back of it too. Besides this we have formed two ‘Impact groups’, an English and a Spanish-speaking one (which Sal and I lead), to which we have just begun to invite people who want to ‘look in’ and engage with the Christian faith. We believe these groups will be of significance as we move forward.

The guys helping us move out of our old flat

So, all in all, we feel positive about these last 18 months and thank God for his calling and his enabling, in the midst of our weakness! It’s been very hard at times and it’s been a lot of fun many times. We know this is where we are supposed to be and believe it’s worth the cost that we’re paying to be here. We really value your prayers as you partner with us in this adventure and look forward to staying in contact with many of you and hearing about your adventures too!

All our love,

Al, Sal, Ellie & Joe x

Adventures in the park too

Perspective is a wonderful thing

Well it’s definitely about time for an update! A lot of umming and arring has been going on at my desk and the EURO 2012 sure isn’t helping my concentration – Come on England! and ¡Vamos España! (we’re hoping for a Spain vs England final so that we can celebrate either victory!)

So as it’s proving too difficult to come up with a coherent structure of my thoughts, here are some flitting Whitehead family news snippets:

The Kids:

There is an event which is engrained into our memories involving a bus journey, a little boy who was learning to wear pants but couldn’t hold it, hysterical laughter/panic as poo ran down legs and unto bus floor amidst Spanish onlookers, frantic cleaning efforts with baby wipes, a quick exit and a roadside change …  but it may have been a contributing factor to Joe having decided to become potty trained! Phew! And a relief as September draws near when he starts school and begins a new episode in his Spanish adventure J

Ellie has been a little star in almost having completed her first year in school in an unknown language! It’s been a mostly happy experience and her school report says about her language levels that ‘she understands everything’ (‘entiende todo’) which we are grateful for and amazed at, but that ‘she says nothing’ (‘no dice nada’) which to be honest we aren’t surprised at as even in many English settings her character causes her to not say a word. From September she’ll be at school until 4pm each day and we pray she finds herself rabbiting away and further developing her friendships.

The kids have always loved each other but have grown even closer through being out here and they amuse themselves and us no end, such as in putting on ‘shows’ for each other (and for us parents) as evening entertainment.

The Lingo:

‘To ride a chicken’ (montar un pollo) could mean many things, I suppose. Although I came out here with a good knowledge of Spanish, I knew I had a long way to go to be fluent and have loved having free lessons every Friday afternoon - a little perk of working in a language academy. And so I’ve been learning Spanish vocab and idioms like the above (which means ‘to cause a scene’!) and slowly I feel my language is improving.

Sal’s language exchange partner has been a real blessing, deciding early on that she would put her English practice on hold to just focus on helping Sal improve her Spanish! They meet regularly to discuss every topic under the sun and whereas she has always been very straight-talking (a Spanish characteristic) and confirmed that Sal’s language has been pants, the other day she commented on how much Sal had improved – which we know must be true and not flattery! Sal still feels the frustration of not being able to flow in conversation, but she’s far from where she was 9 months ago J

Visits:

We hugely enjoyed having John and Carol Peel stay with us in March. They were excellent at encouraging us in the challenges and having a laugh with us about the funny things – they went home a little smellier than they arrived as our plumbing decided to disintegrate and flood our downstairs neighbour (he’s been so blessed by our coming to Spain!). The early promise of a warm spring also gave us some amusing memories, sitting having lunch on the terrace of ‘The Sun Shines For Everyone’ café, in the snow J

 

Sally’s parents were then with us in May and as well as enjoying some quality granny & gramps time they too got to partake in the joys of our lives here, sitting in the living room in the pitch dark (lighting candles) as our electrics cut out whilst I was at a team meeting and Sal didn’t know how to fix them! J

The Team:

Remembering that we’re here for a very specific purpose can be strange when day-to-day we’re focussing on the steps that will eventually lead to it. The working, language learning, family settling, social integration, cultural understanding and team meetings are not the end in themselves, and we often have to lift our eyes a bit and regain perspective on what God’s called us to and his promises to us. As a team we know we are in a year of prayer and progress before launching the church plant. We’re looking to him in prayer for the way forward. In many ways we have a blank page in terms of what we focus on, where we’re based, when we launch and how… What we do know and regularly encourage ourselves with is that it’s God’s idea and desire to impact people here, his light that we’re just called to reflect, not anything clever that we bring to the table. That’s our confidence and, as long as we see it, it’s exciting!

Even though it’s not a time for ‘activity’ it’s worked out that we have been able to host various team social evenings with guests coming, including a more structured evening in which some interested friends came along for a dvd presentation and I was able to speak to them for a few minutes about our Joseph’s early days and our story of God’s involvement and impact in our lives. I loved doing that here for the first time (in Spanish) and look forward to many more times ahead.

The team was also in Portugal at Easter time for only the second Iberian Peninsula ‘Juntos’ (‘Together’) conference. It was such a fun and encouraging time, being able to gather from small emerging churches across the peninsula, hosted by a church in Portugal that is now well established and growing, and to meet with God and look to the future together. We left with new friendships established, encouraging promises from God in our hearts and clearer views of outworking the task that we’re called to here in the peninsula. (Oh, and we had a refreshing week’s family holiday on the cheap, staying with a wonderful couple from the church in Portugal!)

Food & Football:

In preparing food for our team get-togethers and in meeting locals Sally has picked up some new recipes and seems to have developed a touch for Spanish cooking! Her empanadillas (pasty-like tuna or bacon parcels) and Spanish tortilla have kept us well fed and got some surprising compliments from locals J

You can’t really live in Madrid and not visit Santiago Bernabeu stadium, or at least that’s what I convinced myself, and so didn’t need to have my arm twisted too much to agree to go with the lads to watch Man Utd vs Real Madrid veterans, seeing the likes of Zidane, Figo, Lee Sharpe, Teddy Sheringham… my new home city won, and I felt it was not too shabby a first match to see here in Spain!

Those of you who pray

Pray for us that:

-         we’d make meaningful friendships. The couple mentioned in our last post, who we have become great friends with, is moving to Barcelona because of losing work here but gaining it there… stupid economic crisis! J

-         we’d find a new flat. Our current contract has come to an end and we’re hunting for somewhere less quirky to live! We’d love it to be near school and have room for guests to stay (if you want to stay, pray!).

-         the kids would flourish. In friendships, speaking Spanish, Joseph being less clingy to mum…

-         we’d learn to enjoy God every day. Perhaps our greatest need. Perspective is everything. We have times of seeing clearly that God’s holding us and other times when we lose sight of it amongst life’s challenges. Oh for good eyes!



And of course pray for the big picture, the reason we're here...



Summer Plans:

We’re heading to Ireland & the UK in August. Our time is limited but we hope to be able to catch up with you if you are free at these times.

Ireland: 9^th – 17^th

Plymouth: Sunday 19^th; there will be a social organised for after our time at Waterfront which you are welcome to come to

Westpoint: Looking forward to catching up with many whilst camping!

Lots of love to you all. Until next post,

Al, Sal, Ellie and Joe x