Miscellaneous Update

At long last, it is gardening weather here in La Granja. Today we spent the whole day outside, mowing grass, weeding flower beds, making all green and growing things look as glorious as God created them to be. All five of us were out there, working together and it almost felt like we were back in Canada. It was one of those moments, like washing dishes or sweeping the floor, when home does not feel an ocean away and life is life, wherever you are.

Have I ever mentioned how much I love gardening? Most know that we live on a five-acre property in the country and yard work is not a toil for us. There is no more perfect day (except a beach day) for me than sunny, warm, digging in the dirt, watching things grow and being up close and personal to the amazing wonders of God's Creation. Bethel is a little treasure inside a village, with beautiful green spaces and places to sit and enjoy them.

With several retreats under our belts, we have become quite adept at sweeping, mopping, making beds, cleaning bathrooms, setting tables and doing dishes. We have even learned to make a few Spanish dishes like lentejas, tortilla patata, guizo and arroz de cubana.

One interesting thing we have learned during our time here is how to serve God with our hands. Without enough language to speak to the heart or share deeply, one can still minister to the hearts of people through our actions and attitudes. We were encouraged by one of the retreaters during Holy Week who shared that she had been blessed and challenged by simply watching us work.

During the Holy Week Retreat, we even had an all-Manitoban kitchen staff as we were joined by Megan, who stopped in for a week on her way home from Capernwray Bible School in Alicante (on the south coast of Spain). She was easy to pick out of the crowd at the train station, even though we had never met her, as she was blonde, tanned and wearing shorts:) We were hoping she brought the sun and warm weather with her, but it has taken until now for that weather to arrive here in the interior of Spain.

We're also pretty proud of ourselves, adapting to a few differences and being inventive. For example, syrup (for pancakes, French toast, etc.) doesn't really exist here. Neither does Ranch dressing. And the brown sugar is very coarse and does not melt the same in cookies and other baking. So we have made our own syrup! Do you know how easy that is? Just 1 part water to 2 parts sugar, boil and then add vanilla or butter or whatever you want to flavour it with. We even found some maple flavouring in the cupboard that is obviously from Canada! The rest of my family has not been able to substitute oil and vinegar on their salads as well as i have, and we managed to survive on Caesar dressing which is the only creamy dressing available here. But thanks to a care package brought by my parents we are making our own Ranch dressing from the powder envelopes. And did you know you can make your own brown sugar? Since the white sugar is nice and fine here, we add molasses to it (and I forget if there is something else) and beat it well and voila! brown sugar. Thank you, Google, for knowing everything about everything.

Yes, Google is one of our best friends to help us adapt to living abroad, but our Best Friend has also been teaching us a lot. Apparently God didn't think we had learned to hand over all of our planning to Him enough in Fall when we waited on Him to make it possible for us to come to Spain. So, not only did we arrive in Spain later than we thought, we are also leaving sooner than we planned. It has been made very clear to us that He has another adventure and work for us to do for Him in Ireland! At the end of May, we will head over to another country to help a church show their community what it means to live your life for God ~ putting your life into His hands, obeying what He asks you to do, and trusting Him with all the details.

Speaking of details, on my To-Do list this week is to wade through the thousands of pictures taken on our unforgettable trip last week, by cruise ship, to France and Italy. So stay tuned for that :)