Small Steps. Big Faith.

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...

is becoming                   Have you heard yet? That´s right! In the U.S., Campus Crusade for Christ is becoming Cru . Although I am technically on staff with Agape ( Campus Crusade for Christ in Europe), I am still closely connected with Campus Crusade for Christ in the U.S. I know you care about this ministry. I wanted to make sure you knew about the change. The new name will be adopted early in 2012. The change is being made in order to be more effective in sharing the gospel and to see even more people come to faith in Christ. It´s been a two-year process, but ultimately this decision has been reached through much prayer and with a deep sense of dependence on God. Words Matter  Although our name for the last 60 years is well-respected in Christian ministry and missions, the word "Crusade" now carries serious negative associations. Also, the word "Campus" actually hinders people who are not students from e...

The behind-the-scenes work for ministry can sometimes seem unglamorous and uneventful, but I know that helping international staff to come to Spain is an important way to help open doors for the gospel in this country. Due to the trend of increased immigration to Spain, the visa application system in Spain is heavily overloaded and the process seems to be taking longer and longer each year. About 4 years ago, I stepped up to help Agape Spain better facilitate the visa application process for its international staff. Up to now, the process has usually taken about 3-4 months per family; and my experience has been mostly working with Americans who come to labor with university students or athletes. In this most recent case, for Jamal and Mariah (names changed for security reasons), their journey began  10 months ago when Allen, from a partner ministry, emailed me to say that this family, who represent 3 different Middle Eastern countries between them, wanted to come labor with ...

From December 28th to January 5th, we sent a GAiN Spain team of two to Haiti to observe and serve at our long-term project at the Ça-Ira Children´s Home in Leogane, Haiti. There were several objectives for the trip: -to work directly with teh children in order to be able to update the information for our sponsorship program through which many of these children are supported by individual Spanish sponsors. -to continue advancing the construction work on the buildings at the children´s home that were destroyed in the 2010 earthquake. The activities with the children were truly a special time, filled with unforgettable moments. At the same time, the construction work also continues to move forward according to schedule. So far, we have finished each phase on time. We were also albe to bring specific aid (blankets and shoes) to the children which was previously collected during the Christmas holidays. This August a new GAiN team will head to Haiti from Spain with the...

After almost a year of planning, the event had finally arrived. Although I was named as the Conference Coordinator, in fact there was a key group of staff who worked to created this special environment where more than 150 staff and volunteers were able to focus on the Lord and hear from Him under one roof. The conference theme, "Llamados 2011" ("Called 2011")  was born from the desire to call others to join with us to help reach the nations with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Held from October 28-Nov 1, 2011 in Platja d´Aro, Girona, the conference was a unique coming together of staff, young families, retired couples, university and high school students to worship and pray, play and celebrate, learn and yield to what God has in store for us as his "called ones." Among the conferees were 10 visitors from various non-Spanish-speaking countries (including Estonia, Lithuania, Holland, England and the USA.) We were able to provide t...

This year my mom flew over to Spain to help Aaron and me make the long trip home. (Ruben came two weeks later when his summer vacation time started.) We came to get to know the grandparents better, to visit our favorite Target store, to make a quick stop at our greatly missed doughnut shop and, of course, to update our faithful ministry supporters. While we were not able to see many individual supporters on this visit, we were able to visit  Saint Mark´s Church ,  New Covenant Fellowship Church ,  Church of the Holy Cross  and  Brookwood Church , the church families that support this ministry, many of whom have been with me since I started working with Campus Crusade for Christ in 1992. How refreshing it was to be at home again, seeing familiar faces, sharing ups and downs, testifying to God´s goodness in Spain. One of the exciting new projects that I shared about this summer in is the national start up of Global Aid Network  (GAiN) in Sp...

June has been a busy month so far. In our free time, we´ve been surviving the summer heat in Spain, searching for a playschool for the fall, visiting with acquaintances from the park....but mostly I´ve been focused on gathering resources and preparing teams and materials for our National Staff Conference which will be held Oct 28-Nov 1, 2011 in Girona, Spain. Last fall our national director asked me if I would consider coordinating this event. I had coordinated the National Staff Conference in 2008 in Valencia and was honored to be asked. One of the special tools we will be using during the conference is a personal "home-made" video created by several staff throughout Spain about how God called them to full-time ministry. I´ve been challenging and coaching Spanish staff and volunteers to present their special stories as a testimony to God´s faithfulness and  as inspiration to others. I´ve included some of my favorites here below. Although they are in Spanish, I think y...