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