Our Final Post

Jim Elliot once wrote, "Missionaries are very human folks, just doing what they are asked. Simply a bunch of nobodies trying to exalt Somebody."

For any of you who don't know, we are David and Keri Young, a couple of nobodies who just returned from a two-year term in Spain, just outside of Madrid, working as dorm parents and teaching at a school for missionary kids.

It was not easy for us to sell our things, leave our families, friends and home. Nor was it easy once we got there as we struggled with the language barrier, culture and the government paperwork. However, looking back, we have been blessed beyond what we could have asked or imagined.

We started looking for opportunities about 3 ½ years ago when we heard a quote in Sunday school that said, "Concerning missions, there are 3 basic types. The senders. The goers. And the Disobedient."

First, to all of you who sent us directly or indirectly, thank you. Thank you for your financial support, for your prayers, for the cards, packages and for warmly welcoming us back home. It means more to us than we can say.

Secondly, we want to encourage any of you who may be feeling restless in your jobs or feeling like there is more to life than whatever it is you find yourself doing - go! Go for a short term trip. Go for a year or two as we did. Or go open-ended. There are countless opportunities available for all types of service. The Lord blesses the obedient.

One of the things we gained from our experience was a greater awareness of what the Lord is doing through missionaries around the world. We had the privilege of seeing first hand the work of church planters and evangelists who have a tremendous passion to see God's kingdom made known to the nations. It was astounding to us that the teenagers themselves, many of whose parents are missionaries, willingly spend their Friday evenings and weekends evangelizing and helping their parents in their ministries!

We also wanted to touch specifically on the need for staff and faculty at MK schools around the world. At ECA, we had a number of retired couples who came for six months or longer. Some were retired teachers. Some were retired professionals who were able to serve in various capacities. One man was a retired engineer who came and taught a year of calculus and physics. There are needs in administration, maintenance, library, among others. We strongly encourage you to consider serving the Lord and would love to talk to you more about it if you are interested. Or you can visit http://www.acsi.org/ to find out about positions and locations both domestic and abroad.

Thank you for any part you may have played in enabling us to serve these amazing families.

Peanut Butter and Brown Sugar

So this afternoon I was in the mood for peanut butter cookies. Whle you can find creamy peanut butter here, it is in a teeny tiny jar and costs about $5.00. So we make our own by putting roasted peanuts (which are cheap) into our food processor, adding a little oil and grinding it into peanut butter. We love it for sandwiches, but it does not make a good cookie. For that, I needed the creamy kind with all the partially-hydrogenated shortening added. Someone brought a jar from the States at some point and as I saw it sitting on the shelf today, I decided to use it for the cookies. David and Rachel are away at elementary camp this week so I enlisted Mathis's help, which he was more than happy to provide, and we made cookies. As I skimmed the list of ingredients needed, I came to brown sugar. You cannot buy brown sugar here. It is not difficult to make your own, but it does take time and effort to mix the white sugar with molasses. I usually make a few cups at a time and keep it in the cupboard, but today we were out. So I made one cup of brown sugar, added it in and proceeded to make delicious peanut butter cookies. Mathis enjoyed using a fork to make the criss crosses.

All that to say that today I was thinking about how I make peanut butter and make brown sugar and make salsa and all kinds of other things from scratch here out of necessity and I got excited about the prospect of going to the grocery store in Chattanooga and just buying a bag of brown sugar and a jar of natural peanut butter. I'm looking forward to it.

Trusting

As most of you probably know by now, we made the final decision last week to return back to the U.S. this summer instead of staying in Spain for a third year. The seeming bottom line is that we just did not have the financial support to stay another year. I say "seeming," because although that is the circumstance that propelled us to make the move, the true bottom line is that we and many of you had been praying that God would make it clear to us what we should do and it was pretty clear once we started really looking at our options. The Lord is leading us home. That is the true bottom line.

We are sad to leave here. I keep thinking back to the weeks and months in 2008 before we left to come here, how 2 years seemed like such a long time to leave everyone and everything. And yet, now on the other side of those 2 years, I cannot believe how fast it has gone by. My kids were 2 and 4 and now they are 4 and 6. It really seems like just yesterday.

We have loved our work here. It has not always been an easy job or an easy life, as anyone who has moved their family overseas can attest, but the Lord continues to amaze me with the blessings I could never have expected or imagined. He has stripped and refined all of us and has proven time and time again that He can be trusted. I really have nothing to fear.

We are returning home with no job, no house, no idea really what the next year(s) will look like for us, but I know it will all work out. Because He can be trusted.

A Mighty Fortress

This is a castle we went to a couple Saturdays ago. It is about an hour from our house. While living in Spain, we have been privileged to see a number of castles, cathedrals and very very old buildings, some of which date back to the time of Christ. This particular castle was built in the 1500s and is still very much intact. We did not go inside this one, but walked around the outside and let the kids explore the towers and lookouts.

Over the last few weeks we have been teaching Rachel and Mathis the words to the hymn A Mighty Fortress is our God. A few nights ago Rachel came into our room after bedtime and said that she was afraid. I went to comfort her and we talked for a while about the castle we had visited and the meaning of the word "fortress." It was so great to be able to share the experience of a real castle used to protect and defend the king and his soldiers. We reviewed the words to the hymn and I reminded her that we have a wall of protection around us that we can't see, but that is certainly there and assured her that the enemy cannot penetrate it.

A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing;
Our helper He, amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing:
For still our ancient foe doth seek to work us woe;
His craft and power are great, and, armed with cruel hate,
On earth is not his equal.

Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing;
Were not the right Man on our side, the Man of God’s own choosing:
Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is He;
Lord Sabaoth, His Name, from age to age the same,
And He must win the battle.

One more of the many blessings I never expected but am so thankful for.

Spirit Week / Track and Field Day

Last week was Spirit Week at ECA. Each day the students dressed up in a different theme. (click on the pictures to enlarge)For “Movie Day” the First Grade class dressed as 101 Dalmatians. Aren’t they cute?

Thursday was “Nerd Day.” Above is Miss Applegarth and Rachel dressed as nerds.

Then Friday was the all-school track and field day at a local sports complex.

Rachel doing the standing long jump.

Ready to run the 50 meter.

Jump rope endurance.

Rachel won 3rd in the Jump Rope endurance.

And the First grade class with their ribbons.

This morning in a conversation with one of the moms from ECA, she was asking me to pray for her elementary aged son who has suddenly begun having severe anxiety and she didn't know what was causing it. As we talked, she was also telling me about some recent things that had been happening in their ministry. They are a family whose primarily ministry is teaching English to Spaniards, hosting English camps and leading Bible studies with seekers and new believers. She told me of one couple in particular where the wife was a believer but her husband was not and he had been having an affair on her. They had shown the movie Fireproof several weeks ago and 2 weeks after seeing it, the husband repented and returned to his wife and has now accepted Jesus. In his own words, "If I had not seen the movie, I would not have had any hope for reconciliation."

That is just one example among several where the power of the Holy Spirit is working through the missionaries in our community. It is so exciting to be a part of His work here. At the same time, though, this dear friend has been seeing what we believe to be attacks on her children by the enemy, who is furious at the ground he is losing. I told her about other situations I know of where those in ministry have experienced spiritual warfare, specifically in the lives of their children, and how effective the enemy can be when he gets to our children because he knows that is where a mother's heart is.

Please join us in praying for the children in our school, children of missionaries who have seen and are experiencing spiritual warfare. There is a very evident battle, but we rest assured that the Lord has the last move.

Re: Facing a big decision

From the book Shadow of the Almighty by E. Elliott

“I pray for you, that all your misgivings will be melted to thanksgivings.  Remember that the shadow a thing casts often far exceeds the size of the thing itself (especially if the light be low on the horizon) and though some future fear may strut brave darkness as you approach, the thing itself will be but a speck when seen from beyond.  On that He would restore us often with that aspect from beyond, to see a thing as He sees it, to remember that He dealeth with us as with sons.  Amy Carmichael’s words come to me:

He hath never failed thee yet.

Never will his love forget.

O fret not thyself nor let

Thy heart be troubled.

Neither let it be afraid.

A long overdue post.

How are we doing? In short, we’re doing ok. Suddenly I (Keri) have found myself in a dichotomy of not knowing what next year will hold while at the same time completely resting in the belief that God will provide for us in His time and in His way. Last night as I was praying, I was thankful that I am not anxious – RARE for me! We are hoping to be able to stay here another year but our finances and support aren’t looking great at this point, but we’ll see. We are going home in June and hope to have a decision by then. I told David last night how it’s hard to know sometimes which direction God is working from – like are we not exercising enough faith that He will provide the support we need for another year when we both so strongly felt that we should stay or is it a God-thing that we happened to look at our finances the other night, which is leading us to explore other possibilities job-wise for next year that may not be available had we waited until the end of summer? Either way – we agree that the Lord has always provided for us and says in his Word that he will graciously give us all things, so we have no reason to expect otherwise even though we can’t see into the future. Of course, David feels the weight of it more than I do because he feels a responsibility to provide for his family. He came home the other day notably weighted down by it all and I tried to encourage him, and he said, “You worry about hotels burning down and planes crashing and I worry about not being able to provide for my family.” I reminded him that the things I worry about never happen anyway so his probably wouldn’t happen either. :)

Anyway. So pray for us in all of that, if you think about it.

Valdemossa/Mallorca

The next day we drove up to a couple little towns, Valdemossa and Soller. Valdemossa was by far my favorite. There is something about these little Spanish towns which have been there for hundreds of years and still look the same. We met the group for cafe con leches, then split up and met back again to travel on to Soller.

This is a view of Valdemossa as we approached.

The little cafe where we had our coffee.

Another quaint corner shop.

Rachel with a native-dressed Spanish doll.


There were orange and lemon trees everywhere. This was someone's backyard. Love it!

Valdemossa is also famous for being the place where Chopin spent a winter and composed some of his music. Here is his statue.

I never get tired of seeing these doorways with plants and flowers on the walls.

Mathis with a Spanish shield.

From there, we drove along a very winding narrow highway along the coast up to Soller.

Colorful police vehicles.


The great cathedral.

Mallorca Part 1

This past four-day weekend we had the opportunity to join some coworkers for a weekend trip to the Spanish island of Mallorca. I (Keri) was a bit apprehensive about going and almost backed out at the last minute, but once we got there I was so thankful we went. I didn't know how badly I had needed it until we got there. It was like any stress I had just melted away. We had good times of fellowship with our coworkers as well as some very quality "just us" family time, which is very rare for us with the revolving front door of our home - always someone coming and going. :) It was some much needed refreshment and we are so thankful for the Lord's provision for us to go. Here are a few pics.

The view from our room overlooking the Mediterranean.

The next day we went exploring around the town. There was a very old stairway that went from the beach to the top of the mountain, 500+ steps. Here we are stopping for a rest.

The view from the top. Such a beautiful day!

Mathis and his treasures.

Later we went into downtown Palma.

Rachel, Mathis with Silas.

"RCE business meeting" at Dunkin' Donuts.

The Plaza Mayor.

Rachel and Mathis chasing the pigeons.

This was a super-old enormous olive tree.

Valentine's Day

I've (Keri) always been a proponent of celebrating Valentine's Day as a family and this year was no exception. We planned a special lunch for after church including steak, twice baked potatoes, grilled asparagus and chocolate covered strawberries for dessert.




Valentine's place settings.

Lots of candles and hearts.

Everyone was given a Bible verse to read aloud about God's faithfulness and unending love towards us.

Fun times!

I'm homesick. Can I be honest? I'm (Keri) tired of living in transition. I've (we) have been living in transition since spring of 2007, when we first decided to move to Spain. For most of 2007 and 2008 we were mentally transitioning out of Chattanooga, and physically packing and moving from one house to another to another to another and finally landing here. I remember thinking how glad I was to be settled when we finally got here. And on the one hand, I am settled and our lives do have a pretty stable routine and I try to make the best of it. But on the other hand, I have subconsciously continued to live in a temporary mindset - knowing that we weren't going to stay here forever so why bother putting down any sort of roots? That is probably not a good thing. Looking at staying for a third year makes me a little weary emotionally. I'm not sure I can pinpoint what it is that would make me feel settled. I still long for freedom and familiarity. I long to stock up my pantry and craft closet and start projects without thinking I am going to have to pack it all up or leave it in another year. I long for date nights with David and for worship in English. I expect that these feelings will come and go. I suppose it is the case for everyone who has had to leave their home. We are hoping to come home again this summer, and as much as I am looking forward to that - I am also dreading it a bit because I know it will also be temporary. Transition is really hard...

We haven't been blogging much on here lately, but Keri has been blogging on her blog, www.my12stones.blogspot.com if you want to keep up with us.

A third year

Excerpt from our last newsletter:

When we were first interviewed by ECA for this position, they asked us for a two year minimum commitment, which we agreed to. As we approach the end of our second year, we have been wrestling with the decision of whether to go back to the U.S. after this school year or whether to stay and continue serving here. It has been a difficult decision, but as we prayed and waited and prayed and waited some more, we came to an agreement that we should leave the door open and commit at least through the next school year (2010-2011), and continue until the Lord shows us differently. One of the trademark characteristics of third-culture kids is a life full of constant change and transition and part of our ministry, we believe, is to provide a sense of stability and security for them. Staying here for an additional year will help them that much more. Because we are entirely supported financially through the sacrificial giving of friends, family and churches, we would ask that you please prayerfully consider giving us one time financial gift or making a monthly commitment to enable us in our work here.

And speaking of next year, ECA is in desperate need of teachers for next year, particularly middle and high school in almost all subjects. If you know anyone who might be interested in serving here for part of a year or more, please let us know or consult the website for more details. www.ecaspain.com We would add that we have been amazed at the diversity of qualified staff God has brought to ECA. There are several retired couples who have come for 6 months or a year (because they have retirement income they don’t have to raise financial support) and have worked as teachers, janitors, librarian, in the office, counselors, teachers aides, etc. You don’t have to be a certified teacher to help (although those are needed as well!) and it would be a great opportunity to serve the missionary community in and around Spain.

Merry Christmas from Spain

Christmas decorations

As is our tradition, we pulled out the Christmas decorations the Sunday after Thanksgiving. This year the kids were so excited to get to help. I (Keri) admit it is a bit hard for me to let them help, but I did my best to let the control-freak in me not get in the way. They had a blast!

This is our Jesse Tree. It is made of green felt and is about 6 feet tall. Last year, this was our only tree. Each ornament correlates to an Old Testament story that points toward the coming of Christ. We have a book that goes with it and read one story every night at the dinner table.

I am also a big fan of St. Nicholas Day. We celebrated St. Nicholas day this past Sunday (Dec 6) by having the kids put their shoes outside their bedroom doors when they went to bed and they awoke to candy and treats inside. More pictures to come on that. But anyway - here is our St. Nicholas with the gold pinecones and leaves Grandma made while she was here.

Here is the table inside our front door. The little penguins sing a song and wag their jingle-bell tails at the push of a button. Mathis loves to make them sing and has been heard singing to himself "Rockin' around the Christmas tree at the penguin party hop..." It's so funny.

And this year we were given an artificial tree. I wasn't going to put it up because we didn't have any of our personal ornaments here and I didn't really want a meaningless tree. However, while my mom was here visiting last week, she insisted that I could have the kids make ornaments and still make it meaningful. And she was so right! She worked with them all week to make jar-lid ornaments with the nativity characters, she taught Rachel to sew and made stuffed felt stars, balls and miniature christmas trees. I made some homemade cinnamon shape ornaments and a paper chain. And I really do love it. (I'm not sure why it looks crooked in the picture.)

So thanks, mom!

You just never know...

For several months now we have been battling a problem with one of the walls in our bedroom/closet. We think the shower is leaking and because our walls are concrete, the water is wicking up into the concrete and because our closet stays dark, there has been mold and mildew growing. We were finally able to contact the landlord about it today, through a friend whose Spanish is much better than ours, and said they would be sending out a repairman soon.

So in the discussion with the landlord, he said to our friend how he doesn't get over to his parents' (who live behind us) house very often but that they are always commenting on how nice it is that we leave our curtains open all day and live an open life and that they have noted that our home seems full of life and love. He said it in a very complimentary way. Apparently, most Spaniards, if they know someone is close enough to see in their home would keep things closed and maintain a high level of privacy. It hadn't occurred to us to keep our shades drawn for that reason.

It just struck me as such a nice yet strange compliment and is a good reminder that we never really know who is watching us or what kind of witness our day-to-day activities and the way we run our home is to those around us. It was a nice thing for him to say.

Elementary Thanksgiving Feast

I can't believe my last post was Nov 3! This month has absolutely flown by! I'll try to update with some news in a few days, but for now - some pictures of Rachel's class and their Thanksgiving feast at school today. The 1st - 3rd grades joined together to cook and prepare their feast, consisting of corn, roasted apples, mashed potatoes and chicken nuggets.

Rachel in her hand-made pilgrim outfit.

Here, Katja is stirring the corn while Yeji smiles at the camera.

Mariela and Laura are dicing the apples...

while Elyse and Aina dice potatoes...

Then while the food was cooking, they worked on thanksgiving crafts.

Here they are enjoying their hard work.
Interestingly, nearly half these kids are not Americans, but because we are an American school, of course we celebrate the settling of our great nation and give thanks to the Lord for our many blessings, no matter where we are from.

Some cute pilgrims. :)