Home safe!

Yes and amen indeed! 

Those of us who flew back to Philly today made it home safe and sound, if a little travel-weary and bedraggled. Happily, none of our luggage was lost in transit, and our friend Tim picked us up at the airport in the New Life bus just as we emerged from the terminal. 

We want to extend our heartfelt thanks to our prayer warriors out there...your intercession is much appreciated and most effective! We were free for major illness or injury (though we did have traveler's health insurance, just in case). Nobody on our team was pickpocketed, got lost, or otherwise harassed, which is a huge relief to report! A few of us had our carry-on luggage searched and bodies patted down in Paris (Rebecca and Drew must have looked extra suspicious), but we should also be thankful for courteous and intentional security measures. 

All that remains is some welcome rest in our own homes and what will hopefully be a quiet transition back into "normal" life!

Rebecca, over and out :)

4.30am

It is 4.30 am this Sunday morning and we are preparing to leave the Convent to be bussed to the Malaga airport. The Ritters are staying behind to visit some friends nearby, so they will be returning home later this week. They will also be getting more sleep--I for one got a solid 2 hours of shut eye in before getting up to finish packing and tidying our room. Here are the main concerns:

1. Will the nuns make us café con leche this morning?

2. Will the neighbors wake up to the impending phalanx of rolling suitcases on cobblestone streets?

3. Will our flights get us safely home to friends and families?

Please pray for us throughout the day; we should arrive back to Glenside around 7.00pm eastern time. 

See you all soon!

Rebecca

Camp Over

From last night: We finished the last day of English Camp today. It is amazing how the kids can steal your heart. They really are no different than American kids, they just don't speak English. Tonight we were with the kids again along with their parents at the closing ceremonies. It was a joy to talk with them in broken Spanish (broken is much too strong of a term in this case) and broken English. I think I learned more Spanish tonight than I have the whole trip!  I would love to stay here longer, get to know the people better and become better at Spanish, but alas, it is not to be at this time. 

Last night we all went to different camper's families' houses for dinner. What a privilege to be hosted by a Spanish family and see what their home is like! Anna (a worker on the full time team here) and I were invited by one of the families to their home. The son in this family was in my class and has dreams of becoming a bullfighter like his cousin. He put on a show for us with his twin sister who played the bull. (She also was at the camp.) We had a very traditional Spanish meal - Spanish tortillas, which is like quiche with potatoes, eggs, and onions, tomato/tuna sandwiches and a traditional Spanish drink made of vegetables - Elias tells me it's basically cold tomato soup. (gespacho?)Their house was very nice, kind of an upper middle class Spanish row home. 

In the morning, Aaron, the pastor of Reconciliatioń, reminded us that the fruit that comes from our time here might not be picked for many years, but that The Lord makes it grow even while we are sleeping, and we don't even know how he does it. Ours is to sow the seeds, His is to make the seeds grow. It is sad to see the week come to an end because the fellowship that we enjoy with the other team members and even the kids is so sweet. This time in some ways is an inkling of heaven, where we will enjoy perfect fellowship, not only with brothers and sisters from every tribe and nation, but with The Lord Himself, and that forever. It has reminded me, how so many of the things that I value, are not that valuable, and freed me in some senses (again) from having to pursue them. I can so easily get myself wrapped up in the pursuit of petty things. Lord have mercy! And He does. Tomorrow, some of us will do a little shopping, while others of us have various day trips/hikes planned. Later, we'll all meet with whole team at the church for kind of a closing time. It will be hard to leave. Sunday morning, one of the workers on the permanent team, will drive us Ritters to Motril to catch the ferry to Al H, while the rest of the team travels home. What a great time it has been here in Granada. Thank you so much for your prayers. The Lord answered many of them graciously and abundantly and we have in so many ways been the recipients of those answered prayers. Please continue to pray for the work here.

 Steve

Semilla de mostaza - Mustard Seed

Post by Drew Kyle -Teen Camp Sports leader

Today was the FINAL day of camp and to sum up the week with one word, it was FUN! 

We started the day by going to the school where the ESL camp is held. The trip to the school usually takes 30 minutes but today it was rather smoother and only took 15 or so. Arron (One of the staff at reconciliation) gave us a message on planting seeds in these campers. As you all know this has nothing to do with shovels and dirt but it has to do with love. Arron said, " You may see no immediate effect (or affect ((I was never a great speller))) but in the future your love for these children/teens will grow and spread to others. From there on the day was usual with a very interesting skit from Howie and some others about Sports. 

Personally from there on I (Drew Kyle) had left the group to start my quest/job to blow up 1'500 water balloons on a over sized faucet (Excuse my grammar again). This took a little over an hour to do with some help from Evan Ritter and others. By the time all the balloons were filled we had about 6 trash cans full of water balloons. 

Now I want you to imagine yourself being a 15 year old From Spain attending a camp that has no air conditioning even though it is about 100 degrees. Once you see a single water balloon your immediate reaction would be 'I'm going to snatch a balloon and charge at my friend with it'. No doubt that is what all these kids were thinking when they saw these 6 beautiful buckets of water balloons. My job was to prevent them from getting to the balloons because we were going to play balloon toss and other smaller games. I successfully did this without injuring any child. By the way, stop imagining yourself as a child, rather imagine yourself as a 17 year old American boy trying to teach kids how to play balloon games to a ton of Spanish speaking children/teens. It was difficult but ended up going quite nicely. 

I will skip a couple of things that we did to say that by the end of this Marc Kyle and Ralph Darby were soaked in water and so were many other counselors. 

As I sit down by Rebecca we both give eachother a high five as we have just finished our camp week! It's amazing to think that we actually did this camp for a full 5 days! It felt like 2 days! 

All these wet counselors and staff members went to eat lunch where we discussed our days and enjoyed Hamburgers (So Spanish right ;)). 

I don't know what everyone else did after this bit we returned to the convent where I took a long 3 hour nap and later was woken up by my father who was saying "You have 5 minutes to be ready". I thought it was like the next day when I woke up so I was kinda surprised but instead I find out we are going to the school to celebrate the "graduation" or "Congradulating" (lol) them for there English learning. We took a ton of photos and we're able to say our goodbyes to the campers.

Personally I found it very difficult to say goodbye to many of the students because I don't know if I will ever see them again. Also I would love to watch the seed that we planted in them grow. 

The whole New Life Glenside Team loved these children very much. And our hope and praise would be that these kids would return home to love others and to maybe someday find true love from Christ. 

Right now I sit on my bed listening to music and writing this post with a stomach full of ice cream and nice foods. 

The team asks for prayer on safe travels back home as we leave in about 1 day and also to love eachother as we have had a lack of sleep. Health is great. 

Thank You very much for your support/prayer for us as we plant seeds in Spain!

-Drew Kyle (Best water balloon blower upper ever) 

God Bless

P.S here's a picture of Elias Ritter at dinner 

Day Four of Camp

All day, we have been talking about how quickly the week has gone by. We only have one more day of camp, which feels pretty surreal. Yesterday, the Teen camp went to a local water park for the entire day...we left the English camp location around 10.00am and didn't return to the convent until 7.30pm. The water park is on top of a small mountain, and one must hike up said mountain to reach the park (see panoramic view from the top).

Needless to say, it was exhausting. The sun was out all day, but our main gathering location at the park was largely shaded...and the water slides were amazing! It felt so great to be in the freezing water with the hot weather we've had this week, and barriers between leaders and campers definitely break down when you see one another scampering around in swim suits. By the time we got home, we were pretty eager to have long cold showers!

Today was English Camp as usual, which was fun because our classes/families were more closely bonded...but the heat really took its toll on us (think in the 110'F range). Our classrooms are on the fourth floor of an un-conditioned school building, so the kids were rather wilted by the end. But they kept it moving and participated in our skit about the first thanksgiving at the end of the day!

Tomorrow is American Sports Day, organized by Drew & Evan, and involving several thousand water balloons. It's also camp photo day. I am pleased the photo will be taken *prior* to the water sports. 

Pray for our spirits. We are tired...good sleep continues to evade us, and we want to finish strong and love these kids well. Pray also as we start to set our sights homeward and all that that entails. 

Rebecca

From Rick

What has my time in Granada been like so far? It has not been without difficulties. However the blessings have far outweighed the problems. 

I have been able to have brief conversations with an elderly Argentine woman and two elderly Spanish men. 

I have also taught English to precious children. It's a great joy to look in their faces and get to know them. 

I have already been changed forever for the better! 

Rick

The Alhambra: Panoramic View

Here are two photos of the Alhambra, originally built in 889 as a small fortress and then converted into a palace in 1333. Needless to say, the area is saturated with history!

The first is a view from the palace itself during our time there on Saturday;

The second photo is the view from an overlook during our walk to dinner at Francisco's on Saturday evening. 

Rebecca