Blessed

It has been almost a month since I've come to Spain yet it feels like a lot longer and I know the time is coming soon when I'm going to go back home. I know that my time here is very short and it is going to go very fast. We as students were encouraged to serve the people of sevilla, which i am finding very hard to do because it is hard to meet people here. That is one of my biggest frustrations and also not having a place to hang out at night unless you want to go to a bar.

However, as for serving people i had the pleasure of eating alone with my senora for one night and i was able to carry one a pretty good conversation with her about how children under the ages of 2 are dying in the southern part of brazil becuase they do not have enough food and she tells me this while we are eating, making me feel extremely guilty. But she went on to tell me how brothers fight over each other for a piece of bread because they are so hungry. It makes me feel like I need to be more involved in other things which are happening in this world.

Also today in church we watched a video about women being persucuted in north korea because they believed in Christ. It was horrible! I know I take my freedom to praise God for granted EVERY day! One of my goals was to come closer to him, and i believed the lie that satan told me that i would have more time because i would be in another country. Trust me that is the biggest lie...It's something I really need to work at and MAKE time!

But after all the things that i've gone though in the past couple days I've realized after hearing about the children dying because of hunger and women being beaten for their faith makes me think about how blessed i am...how I need to seize every opportunity that I can get, without overwhelming myself. I need to step up to the plate (so to speak) and realize how blessed I am, because God is with me even while I'm in Spain, I just need to start looking for ways to serve him.

Which will start tomorrow because I'm going out with a group of people from a local college here in sevilla and we're going to give coffee to homeless people on the streets. I'm really excited for God to show himself through this experience, but also to serve others in the process.

The adventure of Running

Today I had the pleasure of running today in SPAIN with my friends camille and kristen. Some people would defn not call it a pleasure, but the feeling after running is pleasurable to me. However, I defn need to get back into shape, so why not while i'm in a different country?

Guys in Spain are acostumed to telling spanish women that they are pretty and usually the women pass them and give them dirty looks, and then later feel great that the guy called them pretty. So we were running past this nasty bum whose bottle was defn not full (I think he was barracho/drunk) and he was like ni-bonita-ni-ni-princesa-ni-ni-ni. Let's just say we picked up our pace and did not feel quite so beautiful:)

After running we went walking in a park called Parque de los Principios. We went on a bridge and there was one guy and two girls, and the guy was like hellll----lllllo, (pause) helll-lllllo. We answered him in spanish with a hola and one of the girls was like "son espanoles" (the are spanish) LOL! I find it very entertaining when people can't tell if we are american or from spain. I think people here think that americans can't speak spanish...I hope to prove them wrong:)

Small World

Tonight we went out for pizza at sloppy joe's. I have never eaten there in the U.S., so it was interesting to eat there in Spain.
However, we had pizza so it was all around a good time. We were given pieces of paper as we walked in with different things on them. Mine and my partner's (Hillary) was bread and butter! P.S. We eat alot of bread in sevilla with every meal without butter.

This is my friend Camille.



Anyways after pizza I went with some friends (Camille, Kristen, and Nate) to walk around the city. It was pretty and good exercise! As we were walking some girl yelled in english at Kristen and it turns out she knew her becuase Kristen lived in south korea with her as she grew up and the girl hadn't seen her since 6th grade and recognized her from different photos (I think from facebook???). It was really crazy, and defn a small world.

Also as we were going home a guy on a motercylce stopped and asked us where a certain street was, which means that we sort-of look european, but as soon as we opened our mouth our american accent showed and he knew we did not know where the street was. Its a start at least:) Hopefully, in four months we will have more of a spanish accent (defn not even close to perfect, but close;) ) and know more about the streets.

I was going to put more pictures on, but it is not working...so just picture in your minds these great people that I took a walk around sevilla with. They are really great, aren't they?

Photos of Sevilla, Spain

Yesterday me and my roommate, Byrna, went around the city and took pictures of the many things to see.

Dos Cosas en Un Viaje (2 things in one trip)

I love to travel, however, the trip here was the longest trip of my life. WAY longer than 12 hour drives to MI, perphaps due to the 3 different plane rides, one being 8 hours, and arriving with a seven hour time difference. I was exhausted, however I kept thinking what about the people that have to travel further than spain from the U.S., those POOR POOR people:( I was very happy to reach the sevilla airport and see the name sevilla!

Anyways as for the city, it felt weird at 1st, because after always traveling to latin america, I felt like I should be in latin america with the crazy drivers. However, I am very happy to be in europe, although it doesn't feel like i'm actually here, if that makes any sense.

Last night we had a tour of the city with local spainards, and it felt awesome to speak spanish with natives. I absoulutely love the language every time i speak it. However, it is very hard to write this in english because I've been thinking and speaking spanish for the past 2 days! It is crazy I know, but i really like spanish....who knows how i'll feel in about 2 months or maybe 2 weeks, but for now I feel great.

As for the two things, it is like God answered my prayers when he sent me to sevilla, because i'm getting two things with one trip. The first thing is living in a city and the second is living in a city that speaks ONLY spanish. I LOVE IT!

Today I have to register for classes, so we will see how that goes!

Blessings

The time is nearly here and I'm going to fly off to Espana. I am VERY excited and I feel that this is the right thing for me to do. I'm actually really suprised that I'm not even a little nervous; however, this might totally change once I'm at the airport. I think the reason why I'm not nervous is because for the past two days people have been telling me stories about how God is working in their lives, and they just come up randomly. I defenitely see this as a sign from God or a tool he is using to keep me from being nervous. God is SO GREAT and AMAZING. I defn. feel blessed!

And as the countdown is coming to an end, I have experienced more blessings with good friends. Going out to eat, shoulders to cry on, making art, sitting in the hottub, AMAZING TALKS, reflecting, sledding, bruises, mexican night, MANY pictures, card games, movies, and amazing people are all blessings that I have experienced this past week. I truely treasure each person and admire God's handywork.

I have not always felt this blessed, and I know there are many hurting people around me, but I know God is working, and his plan and story for each one of us is greater than anyone else could EVER dream of. Actually, I even wrote a song called Blessed...which I haven't done since I was in high school (I don't know if they are any good..but of course I'm baised:)). Maybe God will bless me with ideas for more songs while i'm in spain.

I hope my story of going to Spain and seeing God working through my life allows whoever reads this to see God's work in their own life~

God's Blessings to All as we travel life's journey together or seperately~

New Beginnings

Bringing in the new year with close friends is one of the many blessings I have experienced in the past years. Even though I feel that the event of waiting for the new year is overrated, I enjoyed the time spent with friends of watching the famous event of the ball dropping which was missed this year with the clocks being off and the enjoyment of a delightful game of rook:)

I really had no intentions of writing something about the new year, until I finished a book by Karen Kingsbury called Sunrise. Throughout my college career I have been amazed and inspired by the series of books that she has written about the Baxter family. I feel like I know them as I have read about their struggles and temptations and how together as a family they have looked to God not only in their times of need, but also in their times of joy. I still can't believe how God used a fictional family to teach me lessons such as the power of prayer, the importance of family and friendships, never giving up hope, and especially how God's plan is SO much greater and better for me than I can even imagine. Perhaps the reason why I have been so emotionally touched is because the constant theme in every book is about God and His unfailing love, which I am always in need of a reminder. God's persistent love is found in every relationship, his faithfulness through each life problem, his encouragement that he brings with each supportive friend, and especially his plan for each person's life. As I reflect on the past year of my life I have seen incredible growth in many areas, but especially putting my FULL trust in God as he leads me to a new country without knowing anyone.

As I look to the new year I reflect on this quote "God's goodness is new every morning and his faithfulness continues through all generations". In this future year, I know God is going to challenge me, but also strengthen me to become a stronger and wiser person by his grace alone. And I can't wait to see what the future holds.