Small Steps. Big Faith.

It was July 2020 and we had just finished up our end of the year lunch with fellow Ágape staff in Barcelona. Ágape's national director, Nacho Marques, was visiting from Valencia to help us say good-bye to a fellow staff couple that was leaving staff to serve God in the secular world. With their departure, there was a big hole left in the leadership of Family Life, Agape Spain's ministry to married couples and families which we call De Familia a Familia or Dfaf . "Jill, could I talk with you for a minute?" Nacho asked. "Because of your love for building teams and your passion for developing leaders, I thought you would be the best person to rally a handful of couples  and build a team to reach married couples and families in Spain." I was surprised but motivated by the challenge and so, I said, "yes" to the opportunity. 18 months later, God has raised up one of those couples as a "key couple" to spearhead initiatives that will not only rea...

After being exposed to the principles of effective teamwork (seen above) taken from Pat Macmillan's book,  The Performance Factor   at our School of Servant Leadership, Benji Galvez, the local director Ágape+  (pronounced Áh ga pay mahs) in Barcelona, invited me to facilitate a team building workshop for his team of 8 staff.  From the beginning, it became clear that the Ágape+   team is a family. They like being together and they share a common passion to to minister to people at-risk of social exclusion such as homeless men and women, refugees and people in exile. Their particular challenge is that, as the minsitry has grown, they have added more and more services for their users, but have not had the time to develop the internal processes necessary for the interdependent work of a highly effective team. The objective of the workshop was to learn the 6 principles of highly effective teams and identify one or two practical steps that they could begin to ta...

In January 2020, when we still were unaware of the deadly pandemic that was about to hit, Garrick Roegner and I began to create the structure and curriculum for our experimental "Escuela de Lidreazgo Siervo/E.L.S."  or School of Servant Leadership : a space for 14 current and emerging leaders to come together to read and discuss important aspects of leadership: leading oneself, leading a team and leading a movement.  Because the leaders were spread out across the country, the format would be online, which worked out great even in the midst of the COVID lockdown. We held our first gathering online in September 2020.  After preparing our readings and reflections each month, we met online  to listen to an guest expert on a given topic and then we broke into small groups to share our thoughts, doubts, questions and plans on how we want to apply the information. This Nov 2-4, after more than a year, we gathered together in the same space at Mon Sant Benet  (which I ...

Seven young couples joined us on October 2 and 3 to "suit-up" for the journey of a lifetime: marriage at our  Seminario de Orientación al Matrimonio / S.O.M.  (Marriage Orientation Seminar.)  We repeated the online experience just like we did in March edition of the S.O.M.  Dani Sanmartin and his wife Raquel Pérez (pictured below) shared their testimony of having participated in the S.O.M. 15 years ago.  In addition, Dan and Raquel recruited two young couples to join us in hosting the S.O.M. and coached them in preparation for the event.  Javi and Barbara (pictured below) served as emcees on Day 1 of the S.O.M. Javi's twin sister, Soraya, and her husband, Sergio, (pictured below) gave a talk on the first years of marriage and the adjustments that each spouse will need to make, reminding them that we each see the world through our own "lenses" and the importance of considering the point of view of the other. We also were blessed by the participation of the F...

Donna Cannella and I work tirelessly to ensure that each new staff person who joins Ágape is cared for especially during his or her first two years. We do this through our 2-year  New Staff Training program which provides time and space weekly to study key spiritual principles, practice contemprary methods of ministry and receive feedback from a trainer.  In late September, Donna and I drove down to Valencia together to host the latest  New Staff Training   Orientation. María Casanova  (second from the right) was an unlikely candidate who came to know God during an international academic exchange in high school. She graduated from university and worked as a lawyer. Years later, she sensed a call to serve God and investigated several options, including becoming a nun, but  had not yet discovered the specific path that the Lord had for her. She changed careers and became an English teacher. Recently, God brought her into contact with Ágape through Alejandro,...

Please forgive the pause in communication recently! Last week, I started feeling bad and Aaron joined me the next day. He was home from Wednesday through Friday! We started with all the typical home remedies: chicken soup, Tylenol, extra liquids and extra rest. However, on Thursday morning Aaron woke me up saying that he could not breathe. So, I  put Aaron in the bathtub with hot water running, hoping the steam might open up his airways while I made an appointment at the local primary care center. We waited an hour past our appointment time, but finally the doctor was able to see Aaron. After listening to his lungs, she said that, indeed, he was suffering from a strong case of bronchitis. Right there in the office, she gave him some medicine to breathe in through this plastic mask. Later that afternoon, we bought the prescribed medicines to nurse him back to health. I am so grateful to live in a country where we have almost immediate access to doctor care and medicine. A...

Sometimes it's hard to live the life of an ex-pat. I don't have my family and old friends with a long history here. I sometimes still miss cultural cues that would help me to know how to respond in certain situations. Being from another country does have its benefits though. A good portion of my staff career, the formative years, were spent in the U.S. and some significant relationships were formed during that time. Those connections can be useful at times when there is a need to resource one of our Spanish staff. Mariló Fuentes is an incredible staff woman who has begun to serve as the Director of the Campus Ministry in Málaga, in addition to serving at our national office in the areas of MPD, Donations and Reimbursements. Recently she has begun to experience a restlessness in life, sensing that God may be calling her to make a change, to look for more training, to pursue even greater growth. I had the privilege to chat with Mariló in February about her situation. A...