Batteries and Babies

Many things were certain from the beginning of this trip. 1) Eventually, it would be cold and there would be snow. 2) The Van is Old. 3) The Van will Break. 4) The Van will probably break down IN the snow.

All of our dreams and prophetic visions came true this week when on the drive from Croatia to Bosnia the weather changed from a pleasant 13 sunny degrees Celsius to -2 degrees blizzard. Nice. We found ourselves driving through a massive swirling snowstorm. It was lovely...well, what we could see at night anyway. Which wasn't much. It was ok though, because who needs to see when you know your surroundings? And we knew there was a mountain to our left and a cliff to our right. No problem. We arrived safe and sound in Sarajevo for our second time and last week of Transit.

The scenery in Sarajevo has changed from orange to white. The leaves are gone, and all of the children under 4 are wrapped from head to toe in those giant one-piece snowsuits. Like the kind in the movie A Christmas Story. The one with the kid and the BB gun...Anyway it kind of makes you want to run up and push one over and watch them roll around helpless..."I can't move my arms!" Except of course we would NEVER do that. We just push each other. :) And throw snowballs.

So the van almost made it...who are we kidding it hasn't "made it" until Kyle, Witte, Silja, and Mimosa drop it off in Belgium. BUT, the van was doing well considering its delicate 21 yr old condition... until today when the battery died. Luckily Witte, Yong Min and Erin were there to push while Kyle steered. With a little help from the local OM team and their jumper cables, Billy (the Van) was up and running in no time. Go Billy Go...at least for 8 more days please!

Relax, take a coffee, think...

The Balkans, what amazing place. The people is cool, the vew is cool, the food is cool, the weather is... well, kind of interesting, but the Van is complete, so is cool, and also the Coffee, because the people from The Balkans LOVE (and is not an exageration) to take coffe and hang out with friends. Lovely.

Long time ago we don't write in this blog, so will be a resumen about everything, and in a few days (we hope just a few) we will give more details.

After a few changes in our team, we was prepare for almost everything, except the main ministry in the Balkans: hang out and drink Coffee. Well, if we think in how is the people: friendly, the most of them don't have a job because there's no Jobs, they speak very good english (is almost a shame for most of us see and listen kids speaking in english) and like to hang out... so, is a perfect ministry for them. Interesting, but fun.

So, in the last month and days, we have drink more coffee than in ALL our life (a few of us don't like coffee), and we must say that this coffee, iS VERY special, and strong. But that is not the complicated part but to contact the people...

Situation 1: You go outside full of energy and courage, with the purpose of talking with 10 or 15 people, and see many of them become christian and cry and go to church... But after 10 minutes, everything is gone when you see how HARD is talk with people from the nothing. So, your day or night) is gone.

Situation 2: You go outside complicated and thinking that your are waisting your time because will be the same than yesterday and you will not meet anyone... But in the end you recieve a few lessons of "How to talk with yong people", and after 10 minutes, you are in a Coffee Shop with a bunch of youth having fun and talking about life.

In Bihac, Bosnia was difficult start, but after meet the people you just meet ALL the town. The Bosnians are like that :). Was the same in Sarajevo for our Open House,we didn't expect people, because we did the promotion just the day before. But, with just one friend who ask to another guy, who ask to another guy, who say to many people, in the end was FULL.

The other thing is the time. Half an hour in a western country is half an hour, in Latin countries can be two hours, in The Balkans can be ALL DAY. One of the activities in Montenegro was to move boxes with bibles, and supose to be just "Half an hour"... but was from 11.30 til 17.00... WOW. Also, one day we work with concrete, and we supposed to finish around 15.00. Well, just was until 18.00 :) The cool thing is our skill of improvisation is almost perfect now.

Well, a few Open Houses, worship services, give books, play with Roma Kids, paint walls, prayer walks, play music in Pubs, and the most important thing, COFFEE. Practically, this was our time in The Balkans... well, it's not finish yet, just one week more.

Cheers :)

Draw me a tree

How do you draw a tree? What kind of tree? Big, small, with leaves, without roots...? is funny all the questions that can appear with such a little sentence: Draw me a tree. But of course, is not that simple.

Now, we are in Bosnia, so we left the Schengen Area (succes :D). Is pretty cold, but Billy (our van) is holding very good (but we will accept your prayers)

The las week was interesting, and busy. We made an International Night, a presentation in the High School and art in Forte Roca (another OM office). The presentation in the school was VERY good. We presented our countries, our selves and our ministry in the van, and also we present the gospel by a testimony. After that, we open for question, and a few but very good and deep questions, so we could share deeper answers... was cool.

After many words, a few days of trainig and meetings and staff like that, we left Torre Pellice, and we arrive in Parma. We stayed there 3 days, and the main thing was encourage the church in mission. There were a lot of Latins (because the church was a Latinamerican Church) a we could see again they warm hospitality, and also they passion for God.

We hang out with them and we did an Open Air in the rain. Was people, and around 10 integrants of the church went with us, and they had very good conversations. In this things, we see we can not do this alone, and we need from the church. we are traveling also for show to the church different kind of evangelism, and also for giving them the opportunity of talk with people, with rain or with sun, windy, cold or dry, is doesn't matter when, just to do it.

Now in Bosnia we are planing to do a Open House, that means people can come, and we will play music,do sketch, arts, give coffe (they LOVE coffe), and talk with them, of course. Also an English cafe, hang out with them and pray. This country need a lot, because the people can't forget and forgive the war. Is pretty sad, and for that is very important pray and also have time with them.

PD: Our new record was in 2 days pass through 4 countries... Oh DEAR!

Pasta al Pesto or just tomato sauce?

Aaahhh, the beautiful Italy, with ALL the pasta you can imagine... but is very good :)

Anyway, we have been here around one week? Yeah, one week and God give us the opportunity to meet young people. First, we went to Como, and there was a lot of young people and all of them very kind to us. We got to know them a little and see how God worked in them, and how they work for God. It was really nice. (And we learned a little Hebrew... crazy, no?)

When we came back to Torre Pellice, where OM Italy is, one day we went to pray for the town and the people. We stopped in the park to pray, and we saw a group of teenagers. We decided to invite them to an International Night that we will have for youth, but we were kind of afraid and nervous because we don't speak Italian, and we weren't expecting to meet young people on our walk. But God had a plan, and they invited us to their school... and then the school invited us to come back on Monday and do a presentation about us and our countries for 60 students. WOW.

This is special because it NEVER happens, especially in a non-Christian school, with teenagers we meet for 5 or 10 minutes... and it was so easy. We have the opportunity to share about our travel, about OM and about the gospel. We think it is amazing how God can move when you are working for Him, and when you are praying :)

HOLA...

A looong time ago, in a country not so far away… called Spain, a beautiful team found themselves in the interesting city of Villanueva de la Vera. They were very excited to work with people, and do Open Air-Evangelism and Kids Clubs, and stuff like that… but the real truth they found was: Figs and Tomatoes.

There wasn’t an Open Air or a Kids Club… but it wasn’t bad, in fact, it was very fun. There was also something else like, a video that we made about the area, and an English Café. At the café we talked with many people (in English of course), and we made good relationships with them. In the beginning we didn’t know if we could share the gospel, but in the end (like, the night before we left), we did share about the bible and our faith with one guy we met at the English Café.

It was very WOW how the people were very interested in our travels, and not just people from the English Café, but also from the hostel we stayed in (yes, we stayed in a hostel, but just for one night ). Well, they are right, a normal person would not travel in a van with 7 people for 5 months, and that is helpful when talking with people, it starts conversation. Maybe we will not share the gospel with everyone, but we can say that we are Christians, and that we are helping churches in different countries because we believe that God wants this. That is very small, but it plants a seed, and God will work in that.

After Villanueva de la Vera, we were one week in Algeciras. We cleaned a church and a warehouse, and we helped with an English Café. In Algeciras we had the opportunity to perform Open-Airs, but the only problem with this was how we can present the gospel, because was MANY muslims from Morocco (around one hour from Algeciras until there) and was not easy. Making strategies, plans, etc, and asking what to say and what no. We did two Open Airs in the Plaza Alta, and there were a LOT of people that saw us and heard what we had to say. Quite a lot of them spoke with people from the church. There were very good conversations after the first Open Air, so for the second we decided to share something more evangelistic, something more direct… and the people received this very well, and it led to very good conversations.

This made us think that one of our purposes is share the love of God, inclusive in this places. Just was two days of Open Airs, but was something very important for the area (long time ago that nobody do Open Airs or something like that) and we could see in how the people react to this. Othe little seed, but we know that God is working in that area.

Now, in this exactly moment, we are in France passing the night. Tomorrow we go to Italy and (again) we don’t know exactly what we will do, but after all this things, we just trust in God. Anyway, from Algeciras to Italy are two days and a half, quite tired, but funny.

The Art of Kissing

So the fun thing about travelling is experiencing different cultures. This leads to all sorts of amazingly awkward yet memorable situations. One of the most memorable experiences for our team so far has been...well, kissing. In France it was three, in Portugal two, and when we stepped off the van last night we discovered Spain is not to be left behind in the kissing world...they also go for both cheeks.

In some cultures you greet with a handshake, in others a hug, but for most of our team this kiss and greet thing is a new experience. Lila was prepared the most...but even in Chile it's just one.

So we'll share a little of what we've learned from the past few weeks of kissing. It goes like this, be afraid, be very afraid. Fortunately it goes pretty quickly and most people realize you're a foreigner and don't know what you are doing. When unsure whether the other person is going for the kiss or not, and there is a 50% chance that they are, it's best not to panic. However, as Erin found out the other day, if they hug you first, best to consider that hug as kiss Numero Uno and go straight for the second. If you don't, it leads to awkward almost full-on kisses....sometimes with children...and nobody is quite ready for that. As Lila puts it, best to go straight for the kiss because if you hesitate....it gets complicated.

While some of our team found this painful....you never know if the other person will actually make contact with your face or just the air....some of us found it fun...and some of us just really enjoyed making the kissy noises regardless.

There is more things that we can say... but they are private... no joke.
Anyway, in this moment we are preparing our team for Algeciras, Spain. And after we go to Italy... will be an interesting travel, long, but fun and exiting.

was a very cool "Special Time"...

Portugal is gone... two very hards weeks, but full of the love of God. The communication is something interesting and complicated, and to understand it you need A LOT of patience... and we have it :)

Anyway, Portugal is awesome, and the people are amazing, we could see the love of God through them. They helped us in ministry, they showed us the city, they cooked MANY beautiful and amazing things for us... The people of Portugal are so friendly and full of the Spirit.

The two weeks we spent with them we presented ourselves to the church, we did sketches and we played music. We also did a Kid's Club, and it was so much fun. We helped with a Cafe Concert, were we played music (of course).

We went to a skate park, met a few skaters, and skated with them (well, just Kayla, because she is the skater on our team). The people there were soo open to us, we had a few conversations with non-believers, and we invited people to the Cafe Concert and other activities, like a Movie Night.

These events were for people from the neighborhood and church members, but we didn't expect many to come. When we gave out invitations, we did it in one day for only 30 minutes, so we weren't expecting a big turn-out. We hoped to see around 17 or 20 people, mostly church members... but that night we saw around 55, and more than half were non-christians!

We worked with two churchs: Baptist Evangelique Church and CCVA. Together the two churches hosted a free Acoustic Concert (which also had free soup, that was very good :) For this we distributed invitations, and at the concert we performed a sketch and live art. This was also very interesting, because two churchs of different denominations working together is not common in Portugal. Right now there are 10098877365252673765434218.78899 (a lot) of church denominations, and they usually don't mix.  So to see these two churches working together was very encouraging.

We left Portugal for Spain on the 6th, and it was amazingly normal. We have an idea of our ministry here: every evening is an English cafe, where we will help the locals with their English. We also will make a video, do practical work, and try to survive the HUGE insects that are here, etc... it will be interesting, but of course, awesome.

:)