Small Steps. Big Faith.

These smiling faces represent the best and the brightest of our new generation of staff. For the last 2 years they have been practicing the ins and outs of field ministry...but at the same time, carving out time for study and reflection and discussion with a staff mentor to ensure a solid foundation for the long haul. We believe that the condition of the hearts of our staff is priority number one and from a healthy heart that depends on the Lord a healthy, fruitful ministry will flow. Servant Leadership, Restoring God's Justice in a Broken World and Coaching were 3 of the New Staff Training topics that we covered during our time together. Together with New Staff Training director, Donna Cannella, we planned and prayed for months that the Lord would use this time to bring blessing and effective closure to this inicial season of staff life for these precious new staff. Their feedback about the weekend was encouraging. When asked, "What will you take away from this w...

15 women from Morocco. They all showed up this week. They are eager to learn. A few can write. Most cannot. They are so grateful for the smallest efforts. In the one hour a week I have with them on Friday mornings I want to give them all that I have. I want to give them a step up in the midst of this world economic crisis. All but one are married. All those who are married have at least 2 often 4-6 children that they are rearing. As we seek to bless these ladies, we will also be influencing scores of children. Fatima, Fatima, Yamna, Jamila, Fatima, Fatima, Latifa,  Samira, Rahma, Halima, Fatima, Hasna, Louiza, Hanán, Turiya Would you pray for them? Please pray that God would point out those who are open to hear more about Him. Please pray that He would reveal those that we can help in other areas in addition to language acquisition. What? You don´t see anyone in the classroom pictured above? The students are very shy. They have a strong aversion to cameras, especially...

We gathered today at the GAiN ( Global Aid Network ) headquarters  to prepare for this Fall´s new wave of Spanish students, who are almost exclusively Moroccan immigrant women living in Terrassa, Spain. This is the 5th consecutive year that we´ve been able to offer these classes to more than 100 women whose social needs are enormous. Our teaching team for the 2012-2013 year is made up of 8 women: 3 full-time staff and 5 volunteers, one of whom is an alumni of these Spanish classes. We are very excited because this project continues to grow in number and we believe that it is also improving in quality and excellence. This year we will be using specific student manuals for each of the five lanugage levels. Although it might seem like a small detail, it reflects a huge step forward compared to the previous years. As you may already know, GAiN is working to improve the quality of life for its students and to encourage social participation from those who don´t have the same econom...

22 students started. 10 continued faithfully to the end. They come with head coverings, long skirts, hard life stories and big smiles. Each Wednesday I have looked forward to my Spanish class, a solid group of 8-10 women who have attended faithfully each week, pictured here: (left to right) Karthoum, Saliha, Guita, me, Rachma and Malika. The learning curve is high. Many are not literate in their own native languages. So, learning to hold a pencil and/or re-learning to read from left to right (instead of right to left) are some of the language challenges that they must overcome as they gather the building blocks for adequate communication in this new world they live in. The learning process is slow. Many have lived here for years and are just starting to learn the language. Others have attended classes for multiple years but require much repetition of basic topics until they are recorded in long-term memory. The year-long course ended this week.  We celebrated with trad...

I was encircled by them, squishy colored squirrels-teething rings actually. And then there were the pacifiers, the rattles,  baby bottles...A generous donor had unloaded a truckful of materials at our GAiN office just the week before. Some of the materials were destined for the join GAiN project at the  Ça-Ira Children´s Home in Haiti, while other materials would be used at GAiN´s new recovery house, el Llar Manel Pujades in Barcelona. Just two weeks after the stillborn delivery of our daughter , it seemed a bit ironic to be surrounded by baby toys; but the task at hand was urgent: take inventory of all the materials, prepare lists and labels to relocate the boxes in a new storage area, also donated by another volunteer. It was quiet, individual work, spread out over several days, perfect for me as I dealt with the first weeks of loss. (It reminded me of Brother Lawrence and his book, The Practice of the Presence of God . ) As I emptied the boxes and counted the...

After months of searching, praying and negotiating, the Lord has opened the door for "Obra Social Agape" to move in to a new locale at Avinguda Jaume (James Avenue), number 1. Just before Christmas Eve our team gathered on the 2nd floor to give thanks and praise to God and celebrate this big step. As 2011 is just getting started please pray... Please pray for the upcoming semester.... *Spanish classes for Moroccan women *after-school tutoring for at-risk kids *international projects and the launching of GAiN (Global Aid Network) Spain *other possible new works? Pray that the Lord would use us as His hands and feet. Pray that He would open a door for our message, the gospel message of Christ, of hope and reconciliation found in Jesus. Pray that many would be drawn to Him. Pray for our team....that we would grow closer together this spring as we work together.

Over the last 3 years, slowly and what seems to be coincidentally, staff members, one after the other, have been moving to the Barcelona area, specifically to the city of Terrassa, including Ruben and me. In all there are four married couples (and 7 children!) who make up this team. We have all come to this city for different reasons, but each one has been led by the Lord in some way or another. We all definitely have a desire to share the gospel, but the exact purpose of this loosely connected team was a bit fuzzy at the beginning. Mariangeles Bootello has been involved with evangelism and discipleship in the Campus ministry since 2002. She moved here from Sevilla three years ago, just before marrying a young man from Barcelona. She works with Existe Más Mundo (More World Exists), a social work outreach of the Campus Ministry in Spain that serves the hungry and the homeless. She´s also been working with troubled teens, many of whom are children of Moroccan immigrants. Two of th...

Ladies draped in winter coats, burqas  (the loose outer clothing that Muslim women wear)  and hijabs  (the head covering),  entered the classroom with plates and plates of their best Moroccan sweets and thermoses filled with Arabic mint tea.  To celebrate the end of the first semester of Spanish classes for the Moroccan women, we held a little "fiesta" in our make-shift classroom at the Montroig Civic Center in Terrassa.  They all are sweet and eager to learn.  It was an interesting mix of women: some can communicate better than others in Spanish; a few older women, many young women with multiple children; one or two that studied at the university and a good number illiterate, even in their own language, and almost all lacking employment. While there are a few, more outgoing women, most seem quiet and shy when they are together in the classroom environment. Isa Fernandez, (pictured on the right) is the wife of Spain´s National Direct...

It took two full mornings to complete the class registration. It wasn't easy. All of these women are unemployed and most of their spouses are unemployed as well. Most speak only a minimal amount of Spanish. Many don't read or write in their own language. They have names that are difficult for us to pronounce, let alone spell. They came with their mothers-in-law. They came with their cousins. They came with their babies. They are "covered" women. They are Muslim women from Morocco. They came with the desire to learn Spanish. Our classes, offering 4 different language levels, are being held once a week at the Civic Center in Terrassa. One of the Civic Center employees told us that we had become famous. This project, which started last year, has spread by word-of-mouth and the classes filled up immediately, even having to turn away women. I've been praying for a new focus, a renewed opportunity of involvement. Our recent move to Terrassa has jump-started my mini...