Friday, April 24, 2009

As we are getting ready to wrap up the semester, please be in prayer for our hearts and the hearts of all of the students here. We are trying to make the most of every opportunity. Here are some specific dates that you can be praying for:


April 28- Tertulia. Kelly and Krin will be giving the talk. 

(There are also Tertulia events on May 5 &12)


April 29, May 6 &13- Cafe Ingles


April 30 & May 14- En Vivo Bible Study.


May 7- Hang out night


May 9th- End of the Year Banquet


May 11th/12th- Cassie, Rebecca, Meredith and Krin head back to the states. 


May 25th??- Kelly back to states


First week of June- Jared back to states


Please really be covering in prayer the last week of ministry here. With most of the exchange student team leaving that week it will really be left up to those here to finish strong. 

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Portugal


The rest of the fundraising for Portugal was amazing. God showed up in ways we never could have expected (as He usually does). Going into the night of the benefit concert/auction we had just under half of our goal of 1125 Euros, but between taking donations at the door and the auction, we made over and above- 1203 Euros! The big item was a day with Krin, which sold for 160 euros. 


The actual trip was also a huge success. There were 15 people who went from En Vivo, including several students. They had an amazing time working on the house which is to be completed by another team at the end of this month and given to the family. This project will be a huge blessing to this family and also to all of the teams who helped to make it possible. Thank you for your prayers for the preparations and the trip itself. You are just as much a part of this as all of us are. 


For the second half of Semana Santa, we were all on different vacations across Spain. Koral, Kelly and Meredith went to San Sebastian on the Northern Coast. Cassie and Rebecca (along with 2 EV team members) to Valencia on the east coast. Krin drove with some Spanish students to explore Andalucia and Jared went to Seville with some friends. We all really enjoyed the break for a few days and everyone made it safely back to Salamanca. Everyone came back ready to hit the ground running and make the most of our last month here. Please be with us in prayer that we are given as many opportunities as possible to share with the students and that God will open doors for us to spread His light in Salamanca.

Saturday, March 21, 2009

We went to Pinos Reales, a camp outside of Madrid, last weekend for campamento. There were almost 40 people total including us and the team. We had a blast all weekend together. The chicas were almost victorious in the 4th annual Flamenco Futbal game, we all played some crazy games and made hilarious sketches. Hernan gave the talks all weekend on the subject of Faith, Hope and Love. (1 Corinth 13:13 "And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.") The worship was amazing and our time there is going to keep bringing up difficult questions from the students. Please continue to pray for those who were on the campamento- that they will not be afraid to ask those questions or to seek after the answers. Please also pray for us that we can continue to speak into their lives during the rest of our time here and that lives will be changed from what we have done. 

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Campamento

Next weekend (the 13th through 15th) we leave for Campamento! For this retreat, we will be heading to Pinos Reales, a camp near Madrid, to spend the weekend with the students. There will be games, talks, skits and of course annual Flamenco Futbal tournament. This is where the boys have to play soccer while hopping one on foot, but the girls get to play normal. We already have about 20 students signed up to go with us! 


Please pray for us as we are preparing for and promoting this retreat. We want to bring as many students as possible so that we may bring them into a closer encounter with God. Please also pray for Hernan as he is preparing to speak for the weekend. And of course for the students, that they will want to come and bring open hearts and minds. 


Cold Comedor

We are about to leave for our second cold outreach at the cafeterias. We are going to try and meet some new students to bring into the ministry. Please pray for the students we will be meeting today and that they will be interested in forming relationships with us!

Friday, February 20, 2009

You bring me hope

We have now been in Salamanca for just over a month and a half! It is amazing how the time has flown by. We are all growing together and in our relationships with students here. We are trying to really challenge ourselves to meet new people, and also to take people through the full cycle of En Vivo. Ideally, the first event that a new student will come to is Cafe Ingles. This event is the most new student friendly and has the most opportunity for us to be able to spend time with them. The next step is lunch at Tertulia or the non-bible study hang out night. Tertulia is a little more focused, we are usually talking to the people that we sit with instead of roaming from student to student. Hang out nights are fun for us, because we get a chance to be out of the house and meet with Spaniards in a different environment. (Last thursday we had 11 or 12 people show up to hang out with us!) Once we feel that they are ready, we encourage them to come to a bible study thursday. As we are doing life with them in this way, we are sharing pieces of ourselves and the hope that we have found in God. 

On Dia de San Valentin, we had an event called cene and cine or dinner and a movie! It was a huge success! We were not sure how many people would come out with us because Valentine's Day here is not as big of a deal as it is in the states. We all met in the plaza and tried to go to dinner at Telepizza, but there were too many people for us all to fit. So we walked a few blocks to Pizza Hut and we still couldn't fit! So, we decided to get pizza to go and walk back to En Vivo to eat. We must have looked funny walking around Salamanca, dressed up and carrying like 10 pizzas. We watched Hitch at the house (in Spanish of course) and had a great time together. 

This week we did a little bit of outreach at the comedors (like cafeterias) with Ansley and Whitney. We split into groups of 3 and went to 3 different places for lunch. After we got our food, we found strangers, sat with them and started a conversation. Hopefully this will lead to some new faces around En Vivo and new friends for us!

En Vivo has a new website! David unveiled it to us this morning and it is amazing. Please be aware that it is going to be a work in progress for a while, so there may be a few glitches still. Check it out when you have time! http://www.globalscopespain.org/

Please continue to pray with us for the students of Salamanca: for those that we are already building relationships with, and those who we are just meeting or have not met yet! Also prayers for our financial situations, so that we can continue our work here without worries of money. And finally please pray for our relationships with each other and the team. Even through our differences, we need to continue to function together as a whole. Together we are greater than the sum of our parts. 

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Meet the Students!

Cassie- 23 years old. Mesa, AZ                                     Mesa Community College: Music Education

Cassie has been to Salamanca once before on a short-term trip with her church. She has been in college for a while because she couldn’t make up her mind on a major. Cassie has finally decided to try and make a life out of her passion for music and to see where God is going to take her. If you like this newsletter- Cassie wrote it. If you don’t like it- Krin wrote it.

Favorite thing about Spain: Being in the Plaza Mayor when they turn the lights on for the night. And empanadas. It’s a tie.

Random Fact: Has gone through more cars in 6 years than some people go through hairstyles. People just like to run into her.

Jared- 24 years old. Savannah, GA                        Georgia Southern University: Communication Arts

Jared is an aspiring rock star. He has an associate’s degree from Johnson Bible College and is trying to be a professional college student. Jared is going to be our band roadie and lend a hand when the team needs help with the announcement videos.

Favorite thing about Spain:  The 3 euro meal at Burger King.

Random Fact: Jared likes to travel. Ask him about it sometime.

Kelly- 21 years old.  Lawrenceville, GA                        Clemson University: English and Spanish

Kelly was an exchange student at En Vivo last semester and decided to stay on for the rest of the year. She is fun loving, slightly scatterbrained, and has daily problems with her keys. She loves Spain and all her friends here and is refusing to accept the fact that there is a day she will not be here. Kelly is our go-to girl for all Café Ingles events.

Favorite thing about Spain: The fact that she can eat whatever she wants guilt-free since she can’t understand the caloric value here.

Random Fact: When we she was younger the Ninja Turtles were her imaginary friends.

Koral- 19 years old. Gilbert, AZ                                    Chandler-Gilbert Community College: Undecided

Koral is a big ball of energy. She always likes to make sure people are having fun and that they feel welcome. She loves to take pictures and make videos for her friends. Koral is our career girl- she works at Bella Salon in Gilbert and will be the Head Bridal Consultant when she returns. Koral is going to be helping out with announcement videos at En Vivo this semester.

Favorite thing about Spain:  The small town feel of Salamanca- being able to see people you know walking down the street.

Random Fact: When Koral was younger, she wanted to be a supreme court judge.

Krin- 21 years old. Columbus, IN                                    Purdue University: Business Management

Krin has been to Salamanca once before as an exchange student, but not through Globalscope. Krin doesn’t know yet where his life is going to take him, but Jesus and another language will be a part of it. He also has a deep love for all things involving Brooke Fraser. Krin is going to be planning all of the non-bible study Thursdays for us.

Favorite thing about Spain: 2-hour siesta every day!

Random Fact: Had Mickey Mouse bedding until he was 14.

Meredith- 19 years old. Fayetteville, GA                        Georgia College and State University: Spanish

Meredith is very outgoing and gets excited about almost everything. She has a passion for missions but does not yet know where God is going to take her. She really loves getting mail so all letters are greatly appreciated. Meredith is in charge of taking pictures for us to use in announcement videos and to put up on the walls at En Vivo.

Favorite thing about Spain: Getting to drink huge cups of chocolate- it’s like drinking brownie batter.

Random Fact: When Meredith was in high school her dream job was to be the ice cream man.

Rebecca- 20 years old. Snellville, GA                        Georgia Institute of Technology: Biology

Rebecca is an analytical thinker who brings to the team her experience with CCF at Georgia Tech. She recently worked at Prince William Forest Park and might like to pursue a career in park management later in life. Rebecca will be making all of our delicious cookies to hand out to first timers.

Favorite thing about Spain: Everything is within walking distance.

Random Fact: Once accidentally grew a colony of fruit flies in her apartment.

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Tertulia-Every Tuesday- Free Lunch! What college student doesn’t love that? We offer free food to university students and just spend time talking and hanging out. We give delicious free cookies to our first timers, show awesome announcement videos and drink coffee afterwards. There is also a 10-minute talk from the bible during lunch. This is a great opportunity to open the door for us to share our experiences with the students.

Cafe Ingles-Every Wednesday night we pump Spanish students full of coffee and give them a chance to practice their English skills through conversations, silly games and sometimes TV shows or movie clips. This is a chance for us to build relationships with them and begin to get them comfortable with us and with En Vivo.

Bible Study-Every other Thursday night we offer a worship night and bible study. There is usually some eating, fun secular music, fun worship music, a skit and a talk based on biblical teaching. We will sometimes have some kind of activity afterwards. The Thursdays we do not have bible study, there is a leadership group that meets with the team or the non-leadership students get to hang out with the awesome exchange students!