Small Steps. Big Faith.

One day last week I was working "on location" on a mountain top. Yes...a literal mountain top. (Sometimes I just marvel at the opportunities I have and often wonder, "How in the world would I put what I do on a resumé?") At the end of May staff leaders from all over the world will come to Spain, actually to Montserrat (about 6 miles from my little pueblo), to an event hosted by Campus Crusade for Christ, Internationl. They are coming to discuss reaching the large cities around the globe with the gospel. "Global Cities Summit" (or something along those lines) is the title of the gathering. Their planning team, based in Orlando needed help with some preparation on the Spain side and somehow this job ended up on my desk. I've helped to facilitate letters of invitation and permission for visas for specific people coming from India and from Ghana. I don´t really mind. Events like these help keep alive my vision for reaching the world. They also help me...

Recently the Agape accountant in the National Office, Mari Carmen, called to ask me a favor. "Everyone in the office will be out of town next week at a conference except for me. Since your work is portable, is there any chance you could come to the office, work from here, answer the phone when it rings and keep me company?" After several weeks of being holed up in my home office consumed by tiny details for our conference the invitation was quite inviting. So, I caught the train early each morning to Barcelona and then caught it back in the evenings. It was actually a needed lift to my "people person" spirit to be in the midst of a flurry of activity. Family Life, Student Venture, Campus Ministry, Jesus film, International Ministry....it all runs through the National Office. Since I'd spent significant time in 2006 in the office I was generally familiar with the protocol, etc. It's a balancing act sometimes to focus on one's own work (in this case the...

Living in Spain gives ample opportunity to drink in the art culture that swirls around us, especially in Barcelona. There is actually a significant number of Agape staff in Spain that are gifted in and dedicated to the arts. Officially I am not one of these. Maybe it's a hobby, maybe it's just something I piddle with. Even though I'm working in the role of diretor for the updcoming Staff Family Conference in May, I've discovered (or re-discovered) that what I really like is being able to create! There are some elements of the creative arts that I really like working on and I especially like reviewing again and again with pride my finished product! I've been working on a number of audio/visual resources to spice up the main meetings. Photos, blogspots, videos, music clips; graphic design, powerpoints are all technological tools that I'm learning to handle, edit, etc. (I'll upload something here once the conference is over. Don't want to spoil t...

Just a few weeks left and it will be time for our national staff retreat...so my virtual conference team and I are busy working on details. Sometimes it is challenging to get work done when we're spread out all over the country. It can cause any good missionary to dread the cyberspace commute to work. But as is often the case, the "super Holy Spirit vision" can intervene and change the way we look at things, no matter what corner of the globe we're seated in. Today was no exception. One of staff women "skyped" ( Skype is a telephone/chat computer program that makes long-distance communication as easy as pie!) this morning to ask if I'd received in my mailbox the last important mail-out that was sent last week. We'd worked hard on this mail-out: the words were crafted just right, the grammar was reviewed and edited, special maps and directions of how to arrive were pasted together, special paper was used, the mail-out date was very specific..... ...

In 30 days we will experience a first-ever gathering for our Agape Spain family. We will travel from all over the country by car, by bus, by train and by plane to converge on a pueblo near Valencia. The purpose? a time of reorientation for and encouragement for staff a point of connection for our newer staff a place to come together a refuge of comfort a Tent of Meeting for the Lord to speak to his people The theme? Retratos or Portraits..... -a special photo wall will be dedicated to our family "portraits" -Verbal portraits will be painted of the failures and victories of our favorite Bible heroes -moments of reflection will be carved out to work on the inner "self-portraits" of our hearts -we hope to discover the Father heart of God as we worship Him together and humble ourselves before Him A bit of history.... Agape has been slowly, slowly arriving at a crossroads over the last 2 years. Could it be that this united gathering is the turning ...

Did Batman ever have seasons of adjustment in his career? Were there ever moments of confusion? Of course I wouldn't really compare myself to a superhero such as Batman....but my life is similar in that I face challenges every day and in small ways I can make choices to be a super hero or just another face in the crowd. I have been going through a season of re-adjustments. After 3 months of silence, I've jumped into my Bat mobile and am back on the information highway. During these 3 months, I've continued to connect with Spaniards, Christian and non-Christian, to eat together, to address important issues, to drink coffee together, to go on walks together. The day-in, day-out tasks of my work have not changed much. I pray for opportunities to talk to people about Jesus and I offer Him my hands and feet to minister to the people around me. At the same time, I've made a technical shift from being an American employee of Campus Crusade for Christ to being a Spanish ...