Color photo found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/46355638@N00/2142122437
So come to find out they actually live about 3 blocks from our house, so we exchanged info to get together for dinner after the holidays. It's crazy that while living in California, we hadn't actually gotten to know the O'Neals, even though we had the same circles of friends... so when we went over to their place for dinner it was strange to see pictures of people we knew from Grace hanging on their walls.
We have since gotten together again for crafting/sewing days, and it's really refreshing to have a friend and fellow believer close by again... something I really miss having at my fingertips, like I did while at Grace.It's so amazing how God puts together certain groups of people together when HE wants them to be put together... perfectly orchestrating everything in HIS good timing, so that we find new friendships when we least expect them, and need them most. PRAISE GOD!
Our good friend and pastor Gus, his wife and two children are planning on moving to Toral, Spain next year to aid David and his team there at the bible institute. It was really neat seeing the city that they will live in, and the church that they will be a part of. It was really strange to think about how this will be the place that Cael (Gus and Melissa's son) will call home, and will soon forget what it was like to live in the States. He will grow up playing with David's two girls and the kids at the church in Leon... probably at the new church location.
What new church you might ask? Well, (continued from the last post)... David took us to the site where they are planning on building the new church. This new location would allow them to grow as a body, have fellowship groups and have a place to do local outreach.
This is the church building they have had for over 100 years...
As you can see, it's very small and has very little room for church growth or fellowship groups. This is the main room and there is a small room upstairs for the nursery. And this is the new location... wide open and full of possibilities.
There are a lot of new apartment buildings in the area, which in one aspect is amazing because they could be making money on the land, but instead gave it to a church (that was not catholic; the main religion in Spain), and in another aspect it is an awesome opportunity to have local outreach.
The current church has a baptism, but they only use it about twice a year whereas at the new church lot there is a river that they could do baptisms in on a more regular basis.
Manuel was able to finally get the deed to the land after relentlessly attending city meetings to inquire as to when they would be given land to build on rather then to the catholic church... the city finally gave in and gave the church the land free of charge with the stipulation that they had to have something started by 2011. God has been so gracious to this humble church all these years, and is now providing a means for the church to grow.
There are a number of ways that you can help the Gus and his family and the church in Leon:
1. Pray for the church; financially, for building permits, for volunteers/missionaries to start the building project, for local outreach and an impact on the community...
2. Pray for Gus, Melissa, Cael and baby on the way; financially, learning the language and adjustment to the culture...
3. Organize a short term missions trip together from people within your church group to aid in the construction of this church. This church has very little resources and needs anyone who can come and help (especially people who have had experience with construction or operating machinery)...
4. Commit to giving financially to the Pidal family so that they can move out to Spain and make an impact on the ministry there...
5. Commit to giving financially to see the building of this church through...
Thank you, we really appreciate your support!
If you would like to get involved you can contact Gus directly by emailing him at thepidalsinspain@gmail.com
This past July my husband and I had the pleasure to join a short term mission trip that went to Spain for 10 days. On this trip we were planning to go to Toral, Spain and assist the missionaries at the institute and youth camp, as they needed help with painting, cataloging their theological library and setting up an online database for the library.This was the first time that my husband had traveled oversees, and this was my first mission trip ever. We were both very excited to go, but at the same time it was a very humbling time, because we had double the money to raise for airfare and construction/library supplies, in addition to the money we were also saving for our up and coming move to Nebraska.We trusted that the Lord would provide the funds if he wanted us to go, and we began sending out support letters, fundraising and saving for the trip. We had a couple yard sales, which we sold a lot of our furniture and stuff that we couldn't move with us (to NE) and had a bake sale. The rest of the money was raised from the support letters, and boy did God ever provide! My husband and I raised all of our money plus some.
We got to the LAX on the day of the trip and only had one minor set back... someone had forgot their passport... but it all worked itself out and we were soon on our way to Spain. I slept on the plane almost the whole way there so the long flights didn't phase me. We got to the institute late at night and went straight to bed.
The first day one of the missionaries showed us around Toral, a small town of about 500 people, that has some really old buildings dating back to the 1500's. This is little house was right behind a wall on the same street.
This is another really old building whose original builders used various dirt and rocks to create the walls. The brick may have come later, or it may have been the brick that they had at the time. You would see a lot of patch work buildings in the area, because where ever a wall fell down they would just re-build it with whatever building material they had at the time... rocks and mud, brick and cement.
That evening right after siesta time we got to start work on cataloging the library, and painting. This was what used to be called the conference room, but was soon going to become the library.
They had a very different schedule there because the sun comes up later in the day... breakfast was at 9am, lunch at 2pm, siesta time 2pm-3pm, and dinner 9pm. I have to say, it was really nice taking an hour nap mid day. There were a lot of meals that the ladies of the camp made with only a few of the same ingredients... this was one of our many meals with ham, and fried rice with leftover ham pieces from breakfast.
On Sunday we were able to go to the church in Leon, Spain.
Our team leader was preached in Spanish, and since my husband and I speak very little Spanish, some of our other team members so graciously translated for us... the entire trip! :)
After church they had a pot luck lunch, but they needed to set up the room with the tables, so we all went down the street to this one little cafe that sells these soft potato chips and small glasses of either orange juice or grape juice. They eat a lot of "patatas" in Spain in a number of different forms... we had tortas a lot (which is a potato egg cake sort of thing). After the pot luck we walked around Leon a lot!!! We saw the cathedral...
a wall that was built by the Romans...
some beautiful buildings and street corners...
and took a pit stop at one of our favorite places... the ice cream and cafe parlor 
to be continued....
The other day I was able to go to my husband's office and watch him finish up his work before we went off to our Pidal's to watch Lost. My husband does all the printing, folding, hole punching, laminating, shrink wrapping, and cutting that Grace Church, Grace School, and Masters Seminary needs. During the School year and various conferences Grace Church hosts, the work load can get pretty intense.
Here is a behind the scenes look at Grace Community Church during an average work week...
Here is my husband at his computer where various departments on the church campus will send him jobs that need to be printed in color or black and white. He sends them to the copier and then if they need to be folded, cut, hole punched or shrink wrapped he takes them to the finishing room next door. 
This is inside the finishing room. Today he was preparing to fold the Sunday bulletins for the various fellowship groups that meet around the campus, but the blue machine behind him is used for shrink wrapping CD's or books that he prints and are then sold to Grace Books International. 
Here he is folding one of the fellowship group's Sunday bulletins on the folding machines which are capable of folding bi-folds and tri-folds. Yes, folding machines! ... You didn't think he folded them all by hand did you? In actually it would take hours trying to fold by hand all the thousands of bulletins that are printed each week, so using the folding machine really speeds up the process.
After the bulletins have all been folded he will 3 hole punch any of the bulletins that need three hole punching using a drill specially designed for hole punching, and then he delivers the bulletins to all the various fellowship group departments.
It might be a somewhat of a daunting task to do all these big print jobs each week, but my husband does a wonderful job. It's faithful servants like my husband who make our church run as smoothly as it does each week. I am so thankful for my husband's heart and his willingness to serve so faithfully. I am so proud to call him my husband and to be able to grow under his leadership as we serve the Lord together.
-J
Color photo found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/46355638@N00/2142122437
