The Hills Roll On

There’s something surreal about having two worlds collide. It’s like having your work buddies over at your parents house on Christmas morning. It’s odd. Out of place. These two worlds don’t normally collide, let alone mix. We’ve been living in NW Spain for the last 7 months, supporting the missionaries here, learning about a whole new culture and language, learning to live without the familiarity we took for granted in North America. Like central heating, peanut butter, thrift stores and English. We’re not in Kansas anymore, that’s for sure! In fact, I’ve yet to be to Kansas, got as close as Nebraska, but that’s besides the point. You know what I mean. So here we are, in our “Spanish world”, one where we live in a fishing town called Noia, go to a Spanish evangelical church, only speak English with a handful of people, and most certainly NEVER see family. Then suddenly, only a few days ago, two worlds collided. I walked into our cold, but wonderful apartment and there is my older brother Alex, patching holes in the inner tubes of the bike he rode 200 km from A Coruña to get here. So surreal! Then only 2 days later, my younger sister Meggan arrives! So for the last 5 days it’s been a surreal daze of inside family jokes, breakfast with mi hermano y hermana, talking in English with FAMILY, hugs, kisses, sharing, reminiscing, showing them off, touring, and taking lots of pics! It’s not every day that two worlds collide! i just love that we get to share this time of our lives with such special people. Showing them our apartment, what we “really do” while we’re here, the amazing supervisors and family we get to minister alongside, taking walks through this funky little fishing town, stopping for a little cuppa at the café, just living life in Spain and sharing it with family. Alex is marvelous to talk with, always bringing a smile to our hearts. Meggan is my dear sister and best friend (next to Jesus and Gavin!) who I can confide in, laugh at inane things with. Seeing them both with their darling first neice fills my heart with so much joy, I can’t even explain it. Thank you to all of you who are praying for us during this time. It is sweet, special and full of divine moments. Just today we took advantage of the gorgeous weather (10ºC) and the loaned car from the Towners to take a day trip up to the “End of the Earth” (the NW-most point in all of Europe…where they used to think ships would sail right off the edge of the earth if they went out too far). We stopped at a gorgeous beach on the way home, had a yummy picnic (a little sand in your sandwich never hurt anybody!), and soon we’ll play some cards before the night is through. It’s times like this when I sigh happy sighs, savor the blessings in my life, and praise God for the day that He has made. And for the luggage allowance Meggan had to bring us a whole suitcase of presents! A gorgeous handmade-with-love Raggedy Ann doll from Eden’s great Gramma Sheila (Eden loves her new doll so much, she gives her kisses every day!).We also got Canadian candy (smarties, Reese peices, black licorice…oh yeah!), and all kinds of other treats! We are blessed, blessed, blessed….we may not have much every year when we file our taxes, but we are RICH with love. The love of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, fills and surrounds us in every way. Our love of one another is an every deeping well of grace. And the love of our family is a special gift from God; showing us more and more of the heart in unexpected and wonderful ways.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 28th, 2006 at 3:24 pm and is filed under Latest. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.