Small Steps. Big Faith.

Penny Saunders is a long-term staff woman from Canada who joined Agape Spain during the pandemic, first part-time and later full-time as assistant to our national director in our national office in Valencia. Although Penny has been on staff many years, we decided to go use the New Staff Training material to help her improve her language skills. She and I have been meeting every week to practice speaking on a different topic, using and developing her Spanish vocabulary.  It has taken a while for Penny to feel comfortable in our ministry here in Spain....but over time we have seen her open up and also develop her capacity as a leader.  While she has served faithfully in this role, the large part of her ministry experience has been working as a teacher in Christian schools in Russia, Moldova and Madrid, Spain. Her dream is now to start a new Christian school in Valencia. It is in this context that teachers can teach students a Christian worldview as well as present the gospel wit...

Patry Mendez (pictured here on the right) is one of the amazing staff that work with and serve here in Spain. Patry directed the 5th annual English Camp for young people in Granada, Spain which was held July 15-21, 2013. It is a partnership between the high school and university ministries of Agape in Granada and a believers who come from the United States to teach English and to share their faith in Christ. The following are Patry´s reflections from this year´s camp: This year, I held the role of general direction for this project. After months of intense preparation, and in the midst of a difficult pregnancy, the 5th edition of our ENGLISH CAMP was held here in El Zaidín (on the outskirts of Granada) with the help of 70 campers!  We are so grateful to God because we had wonderful opportunities and experiences with these kids. We were able to strengthen some already-existing relationships and also form new ones, quite significant relationships that are providing beautiful op...

It's been 14 months since we've seen each other....but Sara (name changed), a fellow professor of English, and I have stayed in touch. Sara is Spanish but speaks amazing English. She wasn't my official mentor while I taught at the English academy from 2008-2009, but she and I taught the same age group (10-year-olds) on Mondays and Wednesdays. She was so gracious and patient with me, answering all my questions, sharing her materials and encouraging me along the way.When the school year ended (June 2009) several of the professors got together for an end-of-the-year dinner. They surprised me by showering me with baby gifts, no doubt a result of her initiative. After exchanging several emails in the last year, we finally got together today for coffee at Plaza Vella (Old Square) pictured left. It was so fun to see her. Of course, I had Aaron with me, which might be distracting for some....but she was so gracious and kind, holding him, walking him around the table as we got t...