Days 44 & 45.. not quite the end of the Summer! Couple of hours to go! #45daysofsummer

Well I'm not quite finished as there is still one more evening left of the summer! And I've not yet posted about yesterday either! So here goes..
Yesterday will be summed up in more photos than words (but a picture paints a thousand words though, right?!) and today's events as well as an overall (short!) summary of my entire summer follows at the bottom..

Laura gave me a brief but detailed tour of Bilbao in around 2 hours! I decided that if I would live anywhere in Spain (although of course I haven't been to every place in Spain) I would live in Bilbao. I loved it there! The atmosphere, the buildings, the river. Everything. We started our tour at what I think is the Old Square.

And walked round to the New Square (which didn't look that new to be fair, but was wonderful and was lined with cafés and bars and later on there was live music here!)

The library was rather modest and hidden, I felt. But had a grand door that was worth a snap.

A tiny little stage for the City Orchestra.

Live music in the street! This was on one of the main streets in the city, and had lots of shops and gorgeous little pastelerías (cake shops).

We reached the Guggenheim Museum! Selfie necessary.

A giant puppy made from flowers. Why not?

The Spider in the distance... Can you see the bride and groom in the distance having their wedding photos with said spider? Weird.

And the exterior of the museum was enough to look at without having to go in! 

The spider...! Crazy. Weird. Bride and groom finished and moved on to some other unusual spot for the rest of their shoot.

View down the river.

Arty bridge.

We went for a quick bite to eat in a gorgeous little Tapas bar in the New Square.

 

There was sooo much to choose from!

 Really, so much!! But the kind Spanish waiters helped us decide what to have and poured my mosto (grape juice) for me in a wine glass with ice, an orange slice and an olive on a stick. Wonderful.

Basketball World Cup fever - this year it is held in Bilbao!

There were loads of people milling around and taking part in all the activities in the streets.

We got free balloons :) yay!

And then, after a spot of lunch, and really all to quickly, I caught the bus to the airport.. Where my case was 26kg instead of 23kg and I had to get rid of some stuff and move some things around in a fluster as the queue for the Vueling desk was huge and out the door of the airport! After misunderstandings about hand luggage and being sad that my last proper Spanish conversation was a total muddle, all was well in the end and I reminded myself of my competent and lengthy conversation with Juanma the previous day, and my entire time with Laura which was almost totally in Spanish!! I landed back in London last night where mom and dad met me to take me home! Phew! (We did get lost in the countryside looking for a pub to eat dinner in, but alas gave up and ended up having pizza in Oxford services.) Home and bed. Yes.

Today, on my last official day of my Summer, I had a well-needed lie in, before heading to church at Zion. It didn't occur to me at the time, but thinking about it now, it was very nice to be sat in an English service, to be able to understand everything without my brain working on over time to try and translate. And how good to worship, and let God revive and refresh me. And don't get me wrong, I'm still tired and I'll be hitting the ground running as I start back at work tomorrow but I am so excited about what He is doing in my life at the moment and how clearly I can hear Him speaking to me, challenging me, encouraging and inspiring me. I hope and pray that in the busyness of this new season, I will still be able to hear Him and make time do so. 

This afternoon, we celebrated with some close family friends of ours. Two birthdays and three wedding anniversaries in these past couple of weeks! How exciting to be able to celebrate 55, 52 and 25 years of marriage with those couples, in a world when so often marriages have broken down. What a blessing to share with them in their celebrations today :)

And finally tonight, a brief but detailed and very exciting meeting about the future plans at church and about where God is leading us as a community in terms of our building plans!! 

Sadly no time for Grey's Anatomy tonight (soon I hope!) because the last 1.5 hours of this summer, I intend to be sleeping in order to be up for an early start tomorrow!

But what an incredible Summer it has been. Of adventure and challenge. Of learning and growing. Of new places, new people and new opportunities.

And what an incredible God I serve, who takes away, but who also gives in abundance. Who mends and restores what is broken and lost (and is continuing to do so). Who I don't always understand but who I am learning to trust more and more. Who makes my paths straight. Who sings over me and whispers words of love and truth to me at the times when I most need to hear them. Who is faithful to His promises. Who has said 'yes' to much more than He has said 'no'. Who has given me so much more than a great Summer. He has given me hope. He has given me Jesus. He is all I need.

#45daysofsummer #blessed

Now, what's next?!

Day 38 & 39 - Baptisms, Rock jumping, and catching wildlife. #45daysofsummer

Last week was my intended week of rest, but it has actually turned out that this week is looking more like that. There is a lot of room in the schedule for time to rest (descansar). I'm really enjoying it so far! I've had time to read (I'm reading A Thousand Splendid Suns at the moment and it's heart wrenching but really good and so I love that there are a spare few minutes every so often, which means I can have a quick lie and down and read of another chapter or two!!)

On Sunday, a few of us made the journey back to León for baptisms at the church there. 8 people were baptised, including Bianca and Robert (the daughter and son of the family I stayed with). It was quite formal and there were definite differences between baptism services that I have previously been too (for example, they all had to dress in white, and they can't take communion until after they are baptised so that was their first time taking it) but there were also lots of similarities (the baptism tank was under the stage, they all shared their testimony of how God has been at work in their life and why they are getting baptised, they also say the same phrase only in Spanish, 'on confession of your faith, I baptise you in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit'). Interesting service (although also very long - just over two hours) but a good experience!

Bianca sharing her testimony

About to be dunked.

Robert giving his testimony.

Afterwards, we hung out with a larger group of the young people from the church as a kind of after party with nibbles, before taking a stroll to the park. Thankfully I had my mini suncream bottle with me so didn't burn because it was so hot. Before getting the bus back to Toral, we swung by McDonald's for a McFlurry (they are pretty much exactly the same as in England only the staff are kindly willing to give you extra sauce so I had Oreo with Caramel sauce (McFlurry de Oreo con salsa de caramelo) mmmm...

That evening, we tried to watch 'In Time' but it was getting really late and some of us were feeling pretty tired so we called it a night.
On previous nithts, we have played games together and I was quite excited to be able to co-lead one of the games (thankful for my experience helping in Resound with the young people at Zion which has meant that I have a bank of ideas for games stored in my head!) I was all ready to explain it to everyone, nervous, but felt I had the words to explain the rules and the aim of the game, but the girl leading the session got a bit carried away and explained it all before I got the chance too.. But the intention was there! And I got to explain parts of it to different groups.

Explaining to members of each group what their task was!

A different game that night - groups had to act out a famous story for people to guess what it was. I think this was my favourite ever rendition of Little Red Riding Hood. Very impressive!

Actually, something else that I've noticed and really enjoyed about the atmosphere here, (and I don't know if it's just because they are away at camp but..) the adults are well up for getting involved with games, activities and action songs! 

Yesterday, we made a one and half hour drive to a 'local' lake (Lago de Sanabria), and in the sweltering heat, feeling rather travel sick, I sure was hoping that it would be worth it.

It was.

The water was FREEZING though. They say 'helada' to describe reeally cold, which is like saying it's as cold as ice cream! We had packed lunches and basically just sat around, chatting, eating (we had yellow watermelon again today - had to take a picture!!), swimming a bit, the kids were catching fish and frogs and snakes (!!) And we swam out to those rocks on the photo. People were jumping from them and I really tried but I just couldn't do it. It's one thing that I hope I will be able to do one day in my life, but sadly today wasn't the day. I'm not frightened to be up at any height really, but the prospect of jumping from that height is just too much and my legs won't move. Even though my head reeeeally wants me to and I can think of how excited I would be after doing it, and how I'd probably really enjoy it, and how it's not really that far down to jump anyway.. it doesn't matter. I can't jump.
Perhaps one day. I hope one day. It is so frustrating but something I haven't managed to conquer yet.

Sandía amarilla. Mmm :)

Joel with the frog he caught. He also caught four fish in a bottle and brought them back to camp, I think with the intention of keeping them as pets. But this morning, I was told that they died over night. Sad times..

Joel's brother, Josué, with the snake!!!

With Betsy, little Elsa and Maria. Look ridiculous in my hat but it's been a necessary burden in my time here, to protect my head as my hair does a very bad job of that!

The journey back (less car sickness this time) had us singing Musicals and Disney songs - the girls singing the Spanish versions and me singing the English versions, and Maria's dad in the front starting off songs by the Beatles and other old school famous tunes!

Today I have heard rumours that we may be going to some kind of water park but it is a little over cast and I'm wondering whether that will still be the plan as sometimes, weather like this is suggestive of a heavy summer storm that hits out of the blue! We shall see..

Day 32: Nothing is Wasted. #45daysofsummer

Today, a group of young people from the church here in León went for a walk around a local mountain park. It's not fair to say we went on a mountain walk, because although I think the place was called a mountain, it wasn't that mountain-like and the walk to park was longer than the actual walk itself. Anyway, regardless of where exactly we walked, walk we did and it was very (very!) hot today. We stopped a few times. First for a devotional time, which Betsy led and we spent some time praying for some situations that the youth have going on and for situations around the world.

We also stopped for food. And later just to rest in some shade (I napped on a bench. Well needed). And later again, on the way home, to dip our feet in the river. It was so cool and refreshing!

During the summer months, you're not allowed to have BBQs in the parks because they have so little rain here that fires can start and spread really easily. On the way there and back, we passed a field that was a perfect example of this.
It was all charred and burned, remnants of what once filled the field lay scattered around and the faint scent of fire filled the air as we passed.
But in amongst the ashes, new life was growing - plants finding nourishment in harsh conditions. Dry and perhaps weary, but alive and persevering.

I was reminded of a song that I needed to remember again today. It filled my head and the words sank deeply into my heart and reminded me that in the hands of my redeemer, nothing is wasted. 

From the ruins

From the ashes

Beauty will rise

From the wreckage

From the darkness

Glory will shine.

I sure hope so. I'm choosing to trust Him.

Feel like I've hit a bit of a wall the past couple of days, but I think that's only because I had three full on weeks and have finally got some time to slow down (although it's not feeling that slow yet and that also probably has something to do with it!) I am still learning, but people can tell I'm tired and I feel less willing to try and speak unless I really need to! Ah it's such a challenge learning a new language like this. Aboslute kudos to people who have moved to different countries and learnt the language whilst living there / set up their life / made new friends etc.. It ain't easy!

But I am encouraged that Nothing is Wasted. My God is creative, and has a plan. He is using me here and is using this experience to shape me somehow! Like the plants in the field, though I am weary, I'm persevering. 

And I just heard that we're having a girls day out at the beach tomorrow. That's more like it. Vamos a la playa!

Make me brave

My three years at uni were a turbulent and testing time for me. I had some incredible experiences, built quality friendships and got a great education but I also found myself wading through some rough waters and facing unexpected challenges, personally and spiritually. I praise God that He held on to me through that time and saw me through, bringing me home to calmer waters and familiar territory.

Rend Collective's Lighthouse reminds me of this time. You will carry me safe to shore... God did carry me safely back to shore, back home for a season of rest and waiting.

Over the past 12 months, I have loved almost every minute of being home. I settled quickly back in to church life at Zion, serving in areas I love, getting plugged back in. By the end of last Summer, I found myself starting what can only be described as an incredible job as a Teaching Assistant at the High School I used to attend. Nearly every day I catch myself thinking 'gosh I love my job so much!' And I am so grateful for that! For the rest it's allowed me to have, as well as the enthusiasm and energy it has stirred up in me, for the opportunities to make a difference in the lives of so many young people, whilst also looking out for and after myself and my needs as I found my feet again after university.

There have been other significant things that have happened during the last year, some great and some not so great.. Some mountaintop experiences and some valleys to walk through. But all have played a part in bringing me to where I am now. I have learnt so much this year and I have grown in ways I wouldn't have imagined.

But now a different song comes to mind. One which has been an anthem playing in the background of the past four months:

You make me brave... You call me out beyond the shore in to the waves.
You make me brave... Nothing can hinder now the love that made a way.
You make me brave... No fear can hinder now the promises you make.

Things have changed and are changing. I am not waiting anymore. God is calling me out from the gentle tide into the waves of His promises, His adventure, the next stage of the plans He has for me. And I am responding, despite the fear, knowing that His love has already made a way for me and will continue to do so and that the One who calls me is totally faithful.
Where I will end up, quite literally, only God knows. But it is time to be brave. It is time to be made brave and to step out in to what He has for me. With His words, a whisper in my ears, see I am doing a new thing...