So last night was la noche de fesitival de San Juan. Which is apparently a BIG deal to Spanish people here. It’s a festival celebrating the birth of John the Baptist, but it has a lot of pagan traditions and pretty much just seems like an excuse for the Spanish to party. Everyone goes to the beach all day and once its dark hundreds of bond fires appear all over the beach, seriously hundreds. Some of the traditions are jumping over the fire 3 times for good luck and taking a dip in the sea at exactly midnight. Some even burn dolls, very similar to voodoo or witchcraft. It kind of funny to think that this night is celebrating John the Baptist, yet it is celebrated with some many pagan traditions. We decided to go and check out all the madness and it was really cool. It was neat to see such real Spanish culture and tradition up so close. The beach was filled with people drinking, eating and dancing around their fires. We even ran into some of our African friends who invited to hangout with them and eat some delicious African food. It was interesting to see our African friends really becoming apart of Spain, by taking apart in a such a large Spanish gathering.
Before we went to the beach to check out the big festival we went with Joel to the Roquetas evangelical leader prayer meeting. There is a meeting held once a month where all of the evangelical Christian leaders of the area meet to plan events together and to just pray. It was so cool because all of the leaders were from all over the world. There were some from Nigeria, Egypt, Argentina, Italy, Romania, America and Spain. There was a bit of translation going back and forth but everyone seemed to be able to pretty much understand Spanish and English, which I found so cool. The praying style was quite interesting as well. One would suggest a topic that should be prayed over then all at once these people would all pray aloud in their native tongue. It was so overwhelming yet so beautiful to hear all of these people praying to God in so many different languages. It made God just feel so real, you could really feel his presence filling the room. To have so many people from all over the world to come together and pray for the Lords work, despite language barriers, was just so empowering and beautiful. You could really feel the Lord at work. If you had ever doubted God, this meeting would have extinguished all doubts. To see so many different people, cultures and languages come together for prayer to God, its impossible to deny his being. It was such a unique and awing experience that I will never forget.
I also just booked a ticket for the Canary Islands! I will be going to the Canary Islands with Janessa, the daughter of the Mennonite missionaries that are friends of the Whitleys. We will be staying there for about 6 days. Amanda won’t be able to go due to travel complications and the arrival of mission group from the states that will be living in our little house for 6 days (16 people and only 2 bathrooms, eek!) Anyways, Janessa and I will be going there to work with some IMB missionaries at an English camp they are putting on for the local Spanish children. The Whitleys sought out this opportunity for me because they were worried about me struggling with the African children here due to the my poor Spanish (ok, its not that bad but it isn’t great!) Because this will be an English camp they think I may be able to connect with the children more and not be so focused on the language and just trying to communicate. I am so grateful and excited for this opportunity! The camp is every day from 9-1 and the missionaries said we could have the rest of the day at the beach, I am so excited, this place is gorgeous! Oh, and did I mention that these IMB missionaries are paying for all of our travel and stay costs?! It is amazing to see all that God is doing in my life this summer.
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