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
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 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
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 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 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
- 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!
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| And of course pray for the big picture, the reason we're here... |
Summer Plans:
We’re heading to Ireland UK
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
