Our mission trip to Spain (STM09 - Part 4)...

These are some of the projects we were able to finish at the bible institute in Toral, Spain:

The blue room... before...

...during...


...after.... scraping, re-plastering, painting, and varnishing.


In the library... before...


...during...


...after... cataloging each book, building bookshelves, creating an online database from scratch, and plugging in all the books.

Our short term mission trip to Spain (STM09 - Part 3)...

And then it was back to work again on Monday... sanding and varnishing the window frames...

... plastering the walls of a room where there was humidity damage...

... painting the camp stairways...

... and catologuing the books for the library...

all before lunch in the cafeteria and siesta time :)


One of the evenings we all went to a Bodega (a wine cellar converted into a restaurant) for dinner as a thank you to the staff at the camp who prepared our meals. A couple of guys on or team used this as an opportunity to invite a couple of ladies that they had met on Sunday at church.


The food was amazing! This is one of the many ham (prosciutto) and cheese varieties that we got to taste while in Spain.


I was so glad to experience it all with my hubby! :)

The the new church in Leon (STM09 - Part 2)...

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

Our Short Term Mission to Spain... (STM09 - Part 1)

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....

Update: what's been going on for the last 4-5 months...

I just realized the other day that I haven't really sat down to post on my blog in a while, so I thought I would update you all...

In march we took a road trip up to WA with some close friends of ours so that we could make it to my husband's old roommate's wedding.


My husband was one of the groomsmen :)


In April my husbands parents and sister and nephew came to town for our family Easter gathering where all the relatives in the area get together and do an Easter egg hunt and BBQ.

One of the days they were here we got to go to the beach.

In May we moved out of our first apartment together and into my husband's grandma's place so that we could save up for our up and coming move to Nebraska.


In June my husband and I went to the Resolved conference...


but for me I had and impromptu visit to Canada to be with my grandpa who had a heart attack the day the conference started. He's doing better now and is able to get up and around on his own again, but is unfortunately not saved. Please pray for his salvation.

God's timing and provision was perfect! On the trip everything worked out... from affordable airfare, to a place to stay (my sister's), and time available.


The day after I got back from Calgary, my husband and I were off with the rest of our team to Spain on our missions trip. I'll post more about this in my next post, but it was an amazing trip!

the fall/winter wedding dress project...

Ok, so it's been a while since I last posted about the progress on the wedding dress... but I thought I would update you all with some of the picts I was able to capture over the project duration.

 

Layer 1: Lining

 

Layer 2: Bustier

 

Layer 3: Crinolyn

 

Layer 4: Bridal Satin

Layer 5: Lace

 

Layer 7: Tulle & Ribbon

Last step: Bustling

 ______________________________________________________

THE FINISHED DRESS

 

Skirt alterations...

I've been working on a lot of alterations recently... mainly taking in and/or hemming skirts and dresses...

This is one of my recent projects... it's my husband's co-worker's skirt. It had to be taken in around the waist for a better fit. To do this I had to take it a little from each panel at the waistline. This project required the client to come over so I could fit the skirt, as well as a fitting after the skirt alteration was completed, to ensure fit.

My other skirt alteration was from a friend of mine. With her skirt the invisible zipper had broken, so I had to replace a new one for the broken one. This project required no fittings, just a simple fix.