Arista en Marzo

"Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering; for He who promised, is faithful..." Hebrews 10:23

Spring has come to Úbeda! Our city has been transformed in the last few weeks. The weather has brought families outside and the parks are full of people. Even when I walk past cafés, the owners inside will call out a greeting.

Como se dice, "dependence"? One of my favorite sermon quotes is, "You must do what you cannot do, with what you do not have." It's humbling to remember that I can't create results, but I can cultivate faithfulness. Before we begin our discipleship group with the girls on Friday nights, you can always find Crystal and I in the same spot. Sitting on our couch praying, and asking the Lord to bless our time with this group of girls. Every single time the door clicks shut after they leave our house on Friday nights, I'm smiling ear to ear. So excited about the Gospel being more evident in their lives.
Two weeks ago I shared a passage (Galatians 4-5), that the Lord had been teaching me about, with the youth. Right up until I walked out the door to head to the church, I was still a little nervous about my verb conjugations, prepositions, and my examples making sense. My inadequacy and my limitations are a humbling reminder of my dependence on the One who is completely sufficient and the perfect communicator. I love encouraging stories and decided to continue reading Hebrews, which I had started that morning. I opened my bible and realized 11 was the next chapter, the hall of fame of faith! How perfect!

Here, there, everywhere...the next four weeks will take me to several different places. We will be going to a nationwide youth conference the week before Easter. We plan on visiting the youth of other churches and building relationships with other youth groups in the area. Crystal and I are going to visit a seminary. We would like to encourage missionaries in our area, and spend time with our landlords and neighbors.

Please offer praises and petitions for...

• Please praise the Lord for progress with language thus far!
• Please praise and pray, for the Lord's provision in people's lives who continue to make it possible to serve here.
• Please pray for my ministry partner (and roommate!) as she returns to the states in less than a month (April 22nd). Please be praying for our last month of ministry together. I'm sad to see her go, but encouraged to see what's in store for her future!
• Please pray for a minor problem with my residency card to be solved.
• Please pray for an opportunity to share the Gospel with new friends.
  

I would love to hear how you are, how your Spring Break is/was, and how I can specifically be praying for you! It's encouraging to hear from you!

con cariño,
Arista

Wouldn't you like to know...

Wouldn’t you like to know…this is a list of interesting tid-bits from living in Spanish culture. The list may include, but is not limited to: food, people, expressions, daily living, language blunders, etc.

• ...Men yell at the TV screen here too. The sport is just different. Instead of basketball or football, it’s bullfighting.
• …Our hot water heater & our stove are both gas. We buy tanks of butane about once every other month and switch them out when they’re empty.
• …Recently I heard on the news that the highest population of smokers in Spain is girls between the ages of 15-20.
• …I was eating lunch at the house of a friend last Sunday and his father asked me where I was from. Upon learning that I’m from Texas, he said that he loves cowboy hats and has always wanted one. He jokingly said that he would give me his hat size, just in case I wanted to get one for him.He then showed me his collection of hats and explained how it is lacking a good cowboy hat.
  
• …I met the mayor of our city.
• …I recently asked a girl if she would like a cookie, she responded by saying, “Estoy guardando la linea”, which translates literally as, “I’m guarding/keeping the line.” I didn’t understand and it was explained to me that this is another way for girls to say, “I’m watching my figure.”
• …I’m discovering that every city in Spain has their own little something that it’s famous for. For example, in my area it’s olive oil, in Sevilla it’s flamenco, in Valencia it’s paella, in Madrid it’s monuments, in Granada it’s the Alhambra.
• …One Saturday night not to long ago, I was headed home at 2:00AM and it seemed as though everyone in the city was still awake. Café’s were open and bustling, kids were still up, elderly couples were walking around arm in arm, and the younger people were getting ready to go to the discotecas (clubs). This wasn’t even a holiday or anything, just a normal Saturday night.
• …I love that when people invite you over to their home, which is often, they bring you the best of what they’ve got. They’re proud to show their hospitality and make you feel at home.
• … In high school I learned that the word for husband is esposo and the word for wife is esposa. In Spain, the word for husband is the same, but the word they use for wife is mujer. Spaniards know the word esposa, but they use the word mujer, which means “woman”.
• I saw this in the grocery store the other day and had to take a picture.This is a first for me to see a bottle of beer and a chicken taped together.
  

Just in case you were curious...

This is my team, my leaders, and my family!
I have learned so much from each of these people. They have become like family to me in my time here! These people have encouraged me, prayed for me, and taught me a lot about serving in a cross-cultural context (which is another way of saying they model humility daily).

From L to R: Crystal (ministry partner & roommate), Loida (wife of our pastor & my language encourager), Jan (John's wife & my 2nd mother), John (CAM team leader), & Lázaro (pastor & shepherd of our church).

Five years ago today...

Estación de Atocha, Madrid

Five years ago today, the capital city of Madrid was attacked by terrorists. 11-M is another way of saying 9/11. There are two main train stations in Madrid. The larger, Estación de Atocha, was bombed on this day in 2004. 191 people were killed and 1,858 were injured at the height of rush hour.

This is the train station that I come into when I visit the city. This is a first for me to be in a city/place that has been the site of a terrorist attack. It makes me think of a statement I heard not to long ago, "The world that is, is not the world that was." All the more reason to be reminded of my purpose in my time here.

For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving an example for you to follow in His steps--who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth--and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously; and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness...
1 Peter 2:21-24a

Somos pequeñas llamas...

A month from today, the four day youth conference, Misión Posible begins. This is a conference held every two years to bring all of the youth in Spain together, to worship, be encouraged, and be challenged to live more like Christ.

We will be travelling up north to Huesca during Semana Santa, or Holy Week (the week of Easter) for the conference, April 9th-12th. Over the past several weeks, we have been raising money to pay for our travel and the registration fee. Between bake sales of Spanish pastries and American cookies and brownies, making ourselves available for manual labor, and cleaning the church, we hope for all fourteen of us to be able to go.

The song below, is a song we sang at one of our weekly youth meetings a few Saturdays ago. It's called, "One Same Vision". To me, it is the theme of the Spanish youth praying for their country. If you know Spanish, I hope you enjoy it. If not, be encouraged, I'm working on translating it.

Una Misma Visión by Marcos Vidal

Somos pequeñas llamas
prendidas porque un dia
fueron traidas a tu luz eterna
que nos dio vida

Por unos pocos que
no amaron sus vidas Mas que a ti
Hoy estamos aquí
Y nuestra antorcha brilla
Hoy estamos aquí

Una misma vision para un nuevo ciclo
Una generación que levanta a Cristo
Y se une en oración clamando por España
Nuestras posesiones nuestros corazones
Pertenecen al Señor de Señores
No importa el precio salva nuestra España

Las barcas y las redes listas hoy estan.

Paella by Guada

Meet Guada! This is our friend from church that teaches us how to cook authentic Spanish dishes! We usually spend a Wednesday afternoon with her learning to cook something delicious! Our first class was learning how to cook Paella!



Paella by Guada

Ingredients:

• ½ lb. of mussels (1 ½ cups cooking water reserved)
• ½ lb. of shrimp
• ¼ lb. of squid, cut into ¼ in. rings
• 1 lb. of chicken (Bone-in, roughly chopped into pieces)
• 1 cup of white rice (Arroz Brillante)
• ½ cup of tomato sauce
• 1 green bell pepper, chopped
• ¼ cup chopped red bell pepper
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 tsp garlic
• 1 ½ tsp of Paella seasoning
• Olive oil to sauté chicken
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Clean the mussels under running water with a knife. Scraping the outsides. Boil in water until open. Remove the mussels from cooking liquid and set aside.
In a saucepan, sauté the chicken in olive oil. Add the peppers, onion, garlic, and tomato sauce to the saucepan. Add the squid and shrimp. Cook until mixed well and add Paella seasoning. Let simmer for a few minutes.
Add the reserved cooking water and rice to the saucepan. Bring to a boil. Place the shrimp on top of the ingredients in the saucepan. Let cook for 20-25 minutes until meat is tender.
When meats are tender, add red pepper, lower heat, and simmer until all liquid is absorbed.
Garnish with mussels. Serve warm! ¡Disfruta!