Fun Christmas

After a nice dinner tonight with Paul and Ellie Madsen, we were putting the kids to bed and our doorbell rang. There were two middle school-aged boys singing Christmas carols. Their first song was in Spanish, then they sang, "We Wish You A Merry Christmas," in English. Rachel loved it. This is the second time. A different group came by the other night at 11:15 at night. Thankfully, we had the insider knowledge that kids go caroling for money around here, so we gave them each a Euro, not knowing how much money they expect, but oh well. What a fun idea! We never got carolled to in the States! :)

Christmas break

Our last day of school was Friday. This is a picture taken at the staff breakfast on Wednesday.

The Sunday morning fellowship we have been attending had a simple service of music and carols this morning and during Noche de Paz (Silent Night) they had all the children come forward and sing. They sang the first verse by themeslves in English, then the rest of the congregation joined in in Spanish for the rest.

Rachel has been going to the elementary Sunday School class and they put together this little piece for this morning's worship service. The blond on the end is Steffen, a British boy whose parents work for European Christian Mission and he and his older sisters attend ECA. The two Koreans, Cecilia and Martin, are regular attendees to our church and attend ECA as well, then on the end is Andrew Humes, a fifth grader whose family is very involved in our school.

Christmas Tour of Homes

Click HERE to see the dorm at Christmastime.

Today's Spanish Sermon

It has been recommended to us that we write down everything in the Spanish sermon on Sundays that we understand.  This is supposed to help us listen to the Spanish better and hopefully understand more.  Here is the first five minutes of the sermon, as understood by David:

"The same topic chapter 3 also remember class 40 years the word the word of God time man word of God John chapter 3 at night if responded Jesus new can not said a time Jesus responded the Spirit God is necessary what is necessary we are going a conservative group five this man very little Jesus Jesus reign social position prestige of the night afternoon near Jesus Jesus question he said without doubt Jesus responded Jesus Jesus God in front of tradition and Jesus then you can not see the kingdom of God is it necessary new Jesus reaction calm Jesus"

By the end of the sermon, I had kind of understood the point, but my Spanish classes will need to continue...

Boys/Girls Dorm Christmas Party

Last week, we hosted the boys dorm in ours for a combined Christmas party. We grilled burgers and chorizo, made snowflakes, played games and from the sound of it, a good time was had by all.

Here they are decorating cookies. They were a little reluctant about the idea at first because of, you know, the un-coolness of it, until they realized they could eat them. If you've been following this blog for a while, though, you may remember how creative I know they can be. I also made them each make a snowflake before they could go.

Here are a couple of our girls.

Here is Mr. Musser working on homemade ice cream. Rachel is supervising.


We also cut out snowflakes. Here is Mrs. Musser helping Rachel with hers.

"Ta-Da!"


The guys all taking turns hand-churning the ice cream maker.

And at the end of the night, an unexpected highlight was finding a slug on our front steps, which the guys picked up and pretended to be throwing on the girls, resulting in screams and laughter. Oh, to be young again... :)

Goodbyes

While we started out with 3 high schoolers this fall, we are now down to one, but have also had the privilege of hosting a student teacher for the last 8 weeks. Ashley is a senior at Nyack College in New York and has been here student teaching in the 4th/5th grade class at ECA. She has been such a joy to have around our home and I have been reflecting a lot back on my college years and the struggles/freedoms that come with that time of life. We have had some very good talks and I am going to miss her so much, even though I've only known her for a short time.

This past weekend we hosted in our home a young lady, Jill, who was here to recruit juniors/seniors for her college. She was only here a few days, but on Sunday when we were getting ready to take her to the airport, Rachel broke down crying. I asked her what was wrong and she said she didn't know. Later, she told me that she was just so sad that Jill had to leave and wouldn't be able to play with her anymore. I told her it was ok to be sad and that I know it's hard to say goodbye to those we love. Last week she had to say goodbye to Grandma, this week it's Jill and next week our dear Ashley will be going home to her family. Then I asked Rachel if she knew who was always with her and who she would never have to say goodbye to. She said, "God. You never have to take him to the airport."

Mailing Address

For Julie and others who have asked:

David Young & Family
c/o Evangelical Christian Academy
Calle La Manda 47
28816
Camarma de Esteruelas
(Madrid) SPAIN