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| Christmas day at our Church |
I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and enjoyed the time you spent with your friends and family. We celebrated Christmas Eve with our friends Hank and Nadine and their children. I wish I could post pictures of them for you but for security reasons I can’t. Please know that we are basking in your prayers and soaking up the blessings from them. Earlier last week we found out the Nadine has TMJ which explains all of her symptoms. The doctor advised her to see a dentist for a mouth guard to allow her jaw to rest during the night while she sleeps. Anita made an appointment with her dentist, Adela, who knows Anita is a Christian but does not believe herself. She x-rayed Nadine’s mouth, found wisdom teeth that need to be removed and two severe cavities. Praise God she did not charge her for any of these services! We are praying for wisdom about what Nadine should do next. I went with them to watch the kids in the reception area and Anita was there to make sure Nadine understood all that was going on. Needless to say, there were three very happy women who walked out of that office that day. The Lord is so kind to take care of us. She needs to have teeth removed and cavities filled before she can have her mouth guard made. Pray for her to have wisdom about what to do. There is a clinic that might take her wisdom teeth out for free (Spain has socialized healthcare). However, she does not have money to pay the dentist for cavity removal or for the mouth guard which costs 190 Euros. We are praying for a miracle and waiting for God to act mightily. Hank and Nadine are also in the process of trying to renew their residency papers. The lawyer who helps at the Mission told them that they will need to prove that they have money to stay in the country….which they cannot do. So here I am, Lord…with my hands full of impossible things. Haven’t I come to the right place?
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| I finally made it to the beach on Christmas day! |
Fast forward to Christmas…It was precious! I loved watching them all open their gifts- especially the 2 year old! I put tooth brushes in their stockings and she loved her pink tooth brush! She opened it right away and started brushing her teeth. Children are such a gift from the Lord. They remind us of the simplicity of life. Now, I understand what the Lord meant when he said we have to have faith like a child to enter the kingdom of heaven.
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| Lydia invited us for Christmas dinner on Sunday |
Tonight I met with Rafael and Alfredo from the language exchange. Alfredo is a Christian so it is nice to hear his perspective on Christianity in Spain. Rafael believes in God and Jesus but doubts the validity of the scriptures and the “infantile” stories of the Bible. You may remember that I have mentioned him in previous posts. He teaches economics at the University here and is a very kind man. He was raised in the Catholic Church and is a very good man. Tonight we talked about the “inconsistencies” of the Bible. He seems to be disappointed in or let down by God. He could hardly believe that God would choose to make woman from a rib. He seemed to think that the stories of the Old Testament were primitive and irrelevant. How could carnivores and herbivores have lived on the ark peacefully for such a long time? Or, how could millions of species of animals live on the ark together? We also talked about Jesus’ humanity and deity, the Hypostatic Union. Rafael could not understand how Jesus could be God and yet pray to, speak to, and petition God at the same time. Are any of you starting to feel sorry for me, yet? I suppose my college education is paying off.
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| Charo invited us to Lunch on Monday with her friend Tere |
When we talked about the creation of Eve, he said it seemed as if God was making something that he had forgotten. On the contrary, God had purposely waited to make woman. Unlike the mates in the animal kingdom, Adam and Eve were different. Man was the pinnacle of his creation and unlike anything else he had made because man was made in his image. Man was to serve as mirror for all of creation to look into and behold the Creator. He began his relationship with man through the creation of the woman. He brought every animal to Adam to name and see. But when Adam finished naming the animals he saw “none was like him.” God allowed man to feel or sense that he had a need. Only when Adam realized there was no one like him did God provide a helper suitable, woman. When Adam awoke, he beheld a beautiful gift from the Lord, reflecting yet another side of God that Adam would learn to discover. In this moment, I believe that God displayed his masculine features. Adam’s response praised God’s choice for him, “she is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh.” He realized she was meant for him and he for her. Together they would display the beauty we are meant to experience with God. Sadly, Rafael said that this was a forced interpretation. I couldn’t believe that he could reduce something so breathtakingly beautiful to a “forced interpretation.” It broke my heart. The Bible is the most intricately designed method of God’s communication of his great love for us and Rafael reduces it to childish stories of tribal imagination. I think I need to get some C.S. Lewis into this man’s hands…I am certainly no apologist, nor do I desire to be but I think he needs some answers. If any of you have any suggestions, please feel free to share.
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| Anita, Tere, Charo, & Chris |
Please pray for Rafael…I fear that his inquiring mind will never find relief if faith doesn’t intervene. He needs a personal and unforgettable encounter with the Most High God.
Also, pray for my family as they prepare to visit. They leave the States on Friday and arrive here in Valencia on Saturday afternoon. I am SO excited to see them. I can hardly believe I will only be here two and a half more weeks…Unfortunately; I still do not have any direction from the Lord about where to go from here. Although I think about it, somehow I have peace about this hour of waiting. It’s nice not being on the throne in your own life. It’s seems like such an appropriate and settled feeling. Thank you, Lord for having quieted my once restless soul. You words are better to me than life and your kindness is much more than I could have ever deserved.
