A Glimpse at the Miraculous

All praise be to the God of creation.
He has blessed us beyond imagination with a glimpse of the miraculous.
He is at work inside of us knitting together every good thing.
He is at work around us spontaneously changing the beauty of the seasons.
He is at work beyond us constructing a place for us and he is at work before us mapping our seemingly impossible journey.
All praise be to the God of creation. Who simply creates.

So what is En Vivo?

You know I have been writing for nearly three weeks now and have not clearly explaned what we are doing and where we are doing it. I'm going to be as brief as possible and hopefully as clear as possible. CMF (Christian Missionary Fellowship) is a missions agency out of Indiana with church plant work going on all over the globe. A few years ago they decided to add a branch to their organization that reaches out to students at major universities as a part of their mission. It began in Mexico and now they have college ministries in Chili, Spain, Mexico City, Pueblo Mexico, and Bangkok. In the next year they are looking to open up ministries at Birmingham, England and Tuebingen, Germany. Their goal is simple....reach the leaders of tomorrow with the Gospel before they get out of the University. Pretty cool!!!

That is where we are...we are working with students all over Salamanca doing our best to sow seed in Spain and let God do with that small act of faith what he wants. During the school year they have free lunches for students on Tuesdays followed by a 10 minute devotion. On Thursday's they do a full on sermon for the students and then two times a year they go on retreats which would include much of the same spiritual and fun things as a retreat in the states. It has simply been a joy to work alongside Jessie and Sophie as they lead and train tomorrows leaders of Spain in the Faith.

Salvador Dali, Solomon, and a Time for Everything.

No artist in recent history has captured the essence of the meaninglessness of time better than Salvador Dali. In his famous painting of time we see clocks melting symbolizing how twisted and crazy time can be. This is the picture we used this week to avertise our Bible Study in Ecclesiastes 3. The question on top of the flyer asked the question: "Is there really a time for everything?" Let me say right off, thanks for praying for my skills in coffee. I guess those 3 months at Caribou Coffee didn't help me for last weeks motor oil in a caraffe, but this week the go go juice was much better.

This week we had 11 people in our group going over the amazing poem that Solomon gives us in chapter 3 of Ecclesiastes. The conversation could not have been better. We had skeptics questioning Solmon's wisdom and we had others lamenting the pain of a world filled with death, loss, and war. We had others give testimony as to how through Christ there is hope and still one other student not say a word during the entire study. I want to thank you for your prayers...God has certainly been faithful in nudging people to come and see what he has to offer.

After group we all went out for Tapas. This is a traditional Spanish dish and we met even more people at the Tapas Bar. It was Carlos' birthday and so as in our country we all celebrated. However, unlike in our country it is tradition for the one who is having the birthday to pay for everyone. So we felt honored that Carlos would invite us...and pay for us. Amazing!

Each week Jesse and Sophie (the leaders of En Vivo) have us over just to hang out and have a meal. Tonight we are going over there and tomorrow is our last day of Spanish class. We simply can't believe it has gone by this fast.

We love you all and hope you are doing well.
Peace.
Gregg

St. Teresa of Avila

We had quite a busy week with our first Bible Study on Wednesday but Saturday was empty on the calender so we decided to go with one of our classmates and his wife to Avila. The bus ride was about an hour and a half south from Salamanca and we knew we were near Avila when we saw the wall. The wall was constructed in the 12th century for protection but now its just a cool place full of tourists. St. Teresa the famous Nun of the Catholic faith, worked and lived inside the city walls during the 1500's. While Luther and Calvin were doing their thing in the Protestant Reformation, Theresa and St. John of the Cross were a big part of what is called the "counter reformation" here in Spain which brought some new life to the Catholics in Spain. Bird, Thomas and Linda (who have ended up being great friends from our class) and I toured all over the city visiting the first Gothic cathedral in Spain and the catacombs of Teresa's monastery. The catacombs are now a beautiful museum and was our favorite part. Most of the city was full of tourism and I felt a little like Christ and the money-changers at the Temple, but the catacombs had a somber more reverent feel to them.

The sculpture of Teresa is just outside the walls of the old city and this lady might be Teresa herself. It was a great day and full of learning and grieving. Learning about a great and godly woman and grieving about what mankind has done with her legend. Either they venerate her or the profit off of her.

This week we hit the books again for our study of Spanish. One more full week in the classroom and then its hello Spain. Hopefully we will have learned enough to not get ripped off. Our Bible study this week will be on Ecclesiastes 3. There is a time for everything under the sun. Please pray for our group. I've talked to a few more people this weekend who said that they would like to come. Please pray for the hearts of the unbelievers that they would melt before the Lord and that as we read his word, HE would reveal himself to them. May God bless you this week as you live your life for him wherever you are and thanks so much for your prayers as we live our life for him here.