Tuesday, July 13, 2010

España es el campeón!!


I figured with the results of the World Cup, now would be a good time to blog about my month in Spain...


After North Africa, I had about five days to recover then fly out to Madrid, Spain to spend a month living with Az and Abby Hobbs. During those five days, I was violently ill, so it wasn't much of a recovering time.




Abby, Me, Holly, Brenda

I made it to Badajoz, Spain (Same place Christian

Bedore is now) on May 25th. The month was spent being part of the Hobbs' family, serving any way I could, having lunch and amazing Spanish coffee with people, practicing Spanish, and getting into the World Cup!
Me and Bethany

This month was what KBC called our "Track Placements". There were some people from the college who went to France, some stayed in North Africa for another 5 weeks, and the others were spread out through the UK. I was the only one to go to Spain. The four to five weeks in different churches was a chance to learn different ways of doing church and to put into practice all that we had learned from the previous two terms.

Living with a family was so refreshing for me. It was wonderful to have two kids running around all the time. I miss that. I miss loud, obnoxious noises.

Daniel wanted to take a "cuddle picture" :D

It was great to see Christian! We had a great couple days together catching up and walking around the city. I left two days after she arrived, but it was wonderful to see someone from home. It's always a bittersweet feeling actually.

After coming back from Spain, we had a presentations night where we heard from everybody else and what they did for the last month. I was beginning to feel like maybe some how I had missed out on something because I didn't come back with story after story of things that I did, but then I realized that I had spent the last month building lasting relationships with people, and that is something I brought back with me and will last alot longer than a story. I did think that while I was in Spain, God would speak to me clearly about whether I would end up in Spain or not after I get my nursing degree, but He didn't give me any direction on that. And I'm okay with that. I know what I'm doing for the next four years (my nursing degree) and He'll direct me where He wants me to go in His time. I'll wait.

Az and Abby were inspiring people and I learned so much about church and being a leader whilst (one of my favorite words :P) livin
g with them. I'm not sure if I'll ever move to Badajoz to live, but I know for sure I'll be back to visit.

I was sad to leave Badajoz, but I was glad to be back home, Oxford home. Being alone, away from my KBC community, was harder than I thought it was going to be.

Here are a few pictures from my time in Spain:

Brenda and Daphne


Badajoz Castle: