A New Year

Let’s recap.

In January, my football team lost the National Title Game, and I wrote about something sort of embarrassing but very important. February brought a post about prayer that seemed to make an impression. In March, my amazing husband preached his first sermon as part of our prefield kickoff and I blogged about how Chris and I are super Christians. In April, I introduced the world to our {yet unborn} daughter by name. In May, I opened up more about some healing I needed to do before becoming a mama, joined Pinterest {the most beautiful place on the Internet}, and visited not one, but two churches. One of those visits involved a missing ‘a’ that I recently found in our Christmas decoration. Posts in June centered on the imminent {more imminent than we knew!} arrival of Susanna, and one of my favorite post titles {ok, post} ever. In July, over 20 days after Susanna was born, I featured her arrival and then shared about how stinkin’ hard mamahood is. I barely posted at all in August; something about being consumed with being a new mama. As I read this post “from the mama ‘Hood” from September, I am really grateful for the full night’s sleep we now get most nights! At October’s Missions Fest Seattle, God showed Chris and I how He can use us in a young person’s life and in the lives of our neighbors. I also hosted my first giveaway and wrote about out third church visit. November, which seems like it was just yesterday, did not feature a post every day, but I came close. I also came face-to-face with my sin, some Mormon missionaries, the intense need for the Gospel in Spain, a blatant error, and the sweetest faces in the Universe. Finally, as we neared Susanna’s 6 month birthday, I updated everyone on the ministry in Spain and shared the items missionaries most want to find in your church’s missionary closet.

Where Can I Dwell? An Advent Poem

Where Can I Dwell?

Where can I dwell, LORD, how can I be near
The One who shed His blood for me
How can I access the gates that open
And release His love, a flood over me

I forget that I cannot be kept away
That the castle walls fell down
When the broken heart of Christ
Took on the Cross and thorny crown

Oh, that He endured what angels cannot even think
That God’s fullness dwelled in Him for peace
And he departed from His Kingdom
To dwell on earth with man, as least

His Majesty became mere man
His Temple flesh and bones
And when He conquered death and rose
He gave me treasures in place of stones

Heaven cannot contain Him
His love flows through my soul and swells
All creation cries – the rocks cry out His name
And inside my heart is where He dwells

The Missionary Closet

Does your church have a Missionary Closet? Some churches still have a closet full of items that missionaries can take to use after visiting. The closet always contains things like home school supplies, toiletries, hostess gifts, etc.

Here are some of the things our ideal “missionary closet” would contain (it’s not all what you’d think!).

  • The details of the specific ways our ministry has blessed you
  • A list of things we can pray for you and your family
  • The opportunity to share a cup of coffee with you
  • Gift cards to Target, Amazon and Barnes & Noble (we have a Nook)
  • Useful office supplies like printer paper, ink, envelopes, stamps, labels
  • The names of some people you think might be interested in meeting us and learning about our ministry in Spain
  • Birthday cards for each of us (Chris: August 20, Rose: May 8, Susanna: June 30)
  • Inclusion on your Christmas card list (we know it costs more to mail to Europe, but we LOVE snail mail!)
  • A charitable gift in our name (some of our favorite organizations include Angel Tree, World Concern, and Big Brothers Big Sisters of Puget Sound.
  • A social media “share” (of a blog post or our Facebook page)
  • A dog-eared copy of a book you recently read
  • A reply to our prayer letter
  • Links to recent sermons, blog posts or YouTube videos that made you think of us (and tell us why!)
  • Something from our missions wishlist
  • Candy
  • Gluten- and dairy-free baked goods (for Chris!)
  • Good, old-fashioned support
  • Reminders that you are praying for us
  • Magazines, booklets and videos of resources for youth ministry in a postmodern world, especially if it comes in Spanish (we don’t have a lot of resources on our field!)
  • A ticket to a local youth ministry conference when you know we’ll be on furlough
  • Babysitting

Milestones in Spain

Our coworkers in Spain have many opportunities on the horizon to share Christ’s love with their friends and neighbors.

In children’s ministry, they are pleased to report that Friday Bible Clubs have an increase in attendance and that some of the new students are from English camp. We are praising God for this because He is affirming the hard work done for English camp by our team.

A three-day Family Life Conference resulted in two confessions of faith and one of those is interested in Baptism. Our teammates diligently follow up with people with whom they share the Gospel and they are bearing fruit!

Hosting friends for a showing of the movie Amazing Grace during Movie Night produced great discussion and conversation.

Finally, this month our coworkers will be hosting several of their friends in their home for coffee and cookies and a video series showing Spanish Christians sharing their testimonies. After the video, a local believer will also share how Christ transformed his or her life. Pray for this Evangelistic Campaign. Perhaps God will draw new believers to Himself just before Christmas.

The work is by no means complete. When I read of all the ways our teammates are sharing Christ, I am excited and thankful. But I notice something significant missing: youth. It’s not that our coworkers have neglected the youth. Not at all. The movie Amazing Grace is about a young person who follows God and changes the world. But these are the opportunities God has directed for our teammates, and they are being obedient to His direction.

We (Chris and I and our teammates in Spain) believe God is directing us to Spain to fill the spot for youth and college outreach. While we are raising support to get to Spain, we are also engaged in youth ministry in the states. God is teaching us how to do what He wants us to do in Spain. But we aren’t the only ones doing it here. We’re part of a team at our church that does youth ministry – not to mention the local community full of youth ministry resources.

We desire to meet the need in Alcalá. We envision growing a thriving youth ministry there that will in turn enable Spanish Christians to reach youth all over the country, without missionary help. Will you consider impacting young people in Spain for Christ by joining our monthly support team?

Friday Favorite Things: Swallow’s Heart Jewelry

Source: Pinterest

I have a new thing for hot air balloons. I am pretty proud of my new little obsession, because I think it’s an up-and-coming trend but I got on the bandwagon quite early (unlike the whole owl thing, which I got on board with long after everyone and their mom had an Owl board on Pinterest). I am planning to make a mobile for Susanna with little floating hot air balloons made from paper printed with the same pattern as her crib bedding and quilt.

To inspire me, I recently bought these earrings from the most adorable Etsy shop in the world, Swallow’s Heart!

Maybe bicycles are the next trendy thing. With this adorable Paris-inspired necklace, you’d be way ahead of the trend!

Or maybe you’re a grandma wannabe and these old-fashioned flowers are more your style?

Swallow’s Heart sells vintage-inspired (and often one-of-a-kind!) jewelry at very reasonable prices. I purchased a number of pairs of earrings for Christmas gifts (and a pair of pink rose posts for me too!). The amazing designer, Meghan, also blogs about jewelry, crafting, entertaining and more. Right now, Meghan is doing a 12 days of Christmas promotion. 12 days of Christmas-inspired promos, giveaways, tips and tricks? Yes, please!

If you love whimsical, vintage and nature-inspired stuff, head on over to Swallow’s Heart and get some stuff for you and a loved one! Saturday and Sunday only, Meghan is offering my readers 10% off with the code SALTYLIFE.

(and, you might want to add me to your feed so you know when I’m doing a giveaway with the lovely Meghan sometime in the future).