Su amor es para siempre

On Sunday, we met the Chi Alpha team from American University then went through an orientation where we learned what exactly we would be doing and why.

I'm sure what I have said about this missions trip has been really vague, and that is because I didn't even know exactly what I was doing!

It was interesting though to see how even though every little detail wasn't planned out, it doesn't mean that there wasn't a plan and vision for the trip. I learned that not having every moment planned can actually be best, because it allows you to be open for what God may do during the trip and you can take advantage of it. We had come prepared to possibly do several things, such as skits, cultural interviews, interactive artwork, and recording interviews, and while we may not have even used some of what we prepared, we were able to take full advantage of others.

I learned that you shouldn't put God in a box, because He is so much bigger and has such bigger purposes than anything we can prepare or plan for. I know this is all ironically very vauge, but hopefully as I blog about this entire week, that thought will make more sense.

What exactly we did:

During the day we would do cultural interviews then host cultural events - intercambios - at night.

For the cultural interviews, we interviewed random people on their thoughts on typical Spanish culture, family, and what they thought of their government, social problems, and religion. All of this was to help Shawn get a better understanding of the people he was ministering to so he could reach out to them better.

We hosted cultural events instead of straightforward evangelism, because Shawn felt that would turn people away, and I really agreed with that. The whole point was to get out, talk to people, and form relationships with them where they would eventually be comfortable hearing about God. I personally believe this makes sense - how many people do you know got saved from a street evangelist? Most became Christians because their friend welcomed them into a church, and this is most logical, because the ultimate call from God is realtionship: with Him and with others.

Why we did it this way:

Also during orientation, we learned about the history and current state of Spain, which helped us understand why we approached our missions trip in this way.

Essentially, there was a dictator named Franco between 1930-1975 that was supported by the Catholic church, and he forced people to go to church. There are people still alive in Spain that remember being yanked out of their beds Sunday morning and dragged to mass.

Obviously this makes the people hate the Catholic church, and therefore, religion in general. Our generation is extremely ambivalent to religion. Most grew up Catholic, but are only culturally catholic and do not practice it. In fact, several call themselves both Catholics and atheists! That is how much Catholicism is only a culture. They also believe that evangelicals are a cult, so basically you can see how the odds were really stacked against us, but as the week progressed, God proved nothing was impossible for Him to overcome.

It is completely eye-opening to me and such a foreign thought (punny) that a well off society such as Spain would be so lost and intolerant to religion. It really makes you appreciate living in America - we don't face the persecution that Christians in Spain do.

We ate lunch with a family who afterward gave their testimonies. They are a well to do, traditional Spanish family, and they all became Christians as adults. They talked about how important status and image is in Spain, and that when they became Christians, they lost several friends and even some of their family members turned from them.

It made me feel guilty how much they have suffered for their faith and how little I have - but also, it made me realize how truly blessed I am.

After that, we went to the Sunday night church service which, ok, I'm not gonna lie: it was reeeeaaalllyyyy loooooong. I don't know how they pay attention for that long! But it was also really cool to sing worship songs in spansish, especially the popular ones back home, such as "su amor es para siempre," or as we sing it, "Your love endures forever."