sala de oración

prayer room.

last saturday we went and decorated a few rooms in the church in order to do an intense prayer day. so it went like this. we stole the idea from 24-7 prayer/international house of prayer, where people decorate rooms in order to stimulate prayer and provide an atmosphere that provokes prayer. lots of creative stuff. lots of stuff to help people enter in to the presence of God.

my world is full of need.
my country if full of need.
my city is full of need.
my street is full of need.
my life is full of need.

why not pray?

and so we did. the first room was to get things sorted between you and God. paper to write worries and things that might inhibit your ability to pray. a bin to toss them in. a clothesline to hang notes of thanks on with clothespins. the following room was dedicated to spain and extremadura. newspapers to browse through while praying. then scissors to cut out things and put them on the wall, all the while praying. to the left was more local. an interactive cd on extremadura, which loads of info on how to pray. next was the world. a huge map with little stickons to portray prayers. paragraphs written about countries in need. flags. later a room with a huge blank sheet where names of friends and family members can be scribbled down. acts of faith that God will touch and intervene in their lives. and at the end, a reflection room. where prayers, where thoughts, where praise, where anything can be written on the wall. visible thoughts and prayers. candles. red lights. cushions on the floor, you get the idea.

time well spent. eternity was affected. that day, many prayers drifted into the throne room, carrying with them a beautiful smell.

wedding

the other weekend some really good friends of mine, juli and maría, got married. happiness.


the mafia


az and abby


juli and maría

Interpreters

a prayer

You have spoken.
You have touched my heart and it pained me.
You extended your finger and it burned.
I felt dry and distant and never again do I want that experience.
You have me.

I give you my dreams.
I lay them down at your feet.
All I have is yours.
My reputation is yours.
My security is yours.
My vision is yours.
My heart is yours
I give you my hopes.
My expectations are in your hands.

I am your creation and you are my creator.
My life has been bought at a price.
I am no longer my own.
I live not for myself but for you, my God.
And I realize that all I can do is lay myself down at your feet.

ashes

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a sermon on eternity
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i judge all things only by the price they will gain in eternity. (Wesley)

just how awesome is our God?

he owns the cattle on a thousand hills. he knows the hair on my head. he thought of me and loved me before i was even conceived. he gave his son in my place. he chases me, he pursues me. he holds me in his hand and knows me intimately. who am i to doubt his providence?

barcelona

24-7 visión

Lo siguiente es lo que está escrito en la página web de 24-7 como su visión. Estoy de acuerdo.



Así que este tipo viene y dice: ¿Cuál es la visión? ¿Cuál es la gran idea? Abro mi boca y comienzan a salir estas palabras...


¿La visión? La visión es Jesús, obsesiva, peligrosa, innegablemente Jesús. La visión es un ejército de jóvenes. ¿Ves huesos? Yo veo un ejército. Libres del materialismo. Se ríen de las pequeñas celdas con jornada de 10 a 8.Pueden comer caviar el lunes y migas el martes, y ni darse cuenta. Se mueven como el viento, ciudadanos de otro mundo. No necesitan pasaporte. La gente apunta sus direcciones con lápiz y se preguntan por su extraña existencia. Son libres, pero se hacen esclavos en favor de los heridos, los sucios y los marginados. ¿Cuál es la visión? Santidad que daña los ojos, que hace reír a los niños y enfada a los adultos. Santidad que deja atrás la falta de integridad para alcanzar las estrellas. Desprecia lo bueno, apuesta por lo mejor. Peligrosamente pura. Trae a la luz cada motivación secreta, cada conversación privada. Ama a la gente, salvándolos de sus saltos suicidas y sus juegos satánicos.

Es un ejército que dará su vida por la causa. Un millón de veces al día deciden perder para algún día ganar el "Bien hecho, siervo fiel". Un ejército disciplinado. Héroes tan radicales el lunes por la mañana como el domingo por la noche. No necesitan la fama de un nombre. Miran a lo alto oyendo a las masas celestiales murmurar una y otra vez: ¡ADELANTE!

Cada soldado tomaría como suya la bala de su compañero. Jóvenes que disciplinan su cuerpo en sumisión. El tatuaje de sus cuerpos declara: "El vivir es Cristo, y el morir es ganancia".

El sacrificio enciende el fuego de la victoria en sus ojos. Vencedores. Mártires. ¿Quién los puede detener? ¿Vencerá el fracaso? Podrá el miedo aterrorizarlos, o la muerte matarlos? Y la generación ora como un moribundo, con lamentos más allá de las palabras. Con gritos de guerrero y lágrimas ardientes. Harán lo que haga falta. Rompiendo esquemas. Desafiando lo mediocre, rindiendo sus derechos. Riéndose de las etiquetas. La publicidad no podrá moldearlos, Hollywood no podrá sujetarlos. ¿Cuál es la visión? Por dentro peligrosamente atractivos. ¿Por fuera? Da igual. Se disfrazan para comunicar y celebrar, nunca para ocultar. Tomarán el lugar del condenado a muerte. Un trono a cambio de una silla eléctrica. Con sangre, sudor y lágrimas, noches en vela y días sin fruto, oran como si todo dependiera de Dios y viven como si todo depende de ellos. Su ADN es Cristo. Él espira, ellos inspiran. En su interior cantan. Han recibido una transfusión de Jesús. ¿No los oyes venir? Aquí llegan los asustados y los olvidados con fuego en sus ojos. Caminan rectos y los árboles aplauden, los rascacielos se arrodillan ante estos niños de otra dimensión. Sus oraciones invocan los antiguos sueños del Edén. Y esta visión se hará realidad. Se cumplirá. Llegará de forma sencilla. Vendrá pronto. ¿Cómo lo sabemos? Porque es el anhelo de la creación, el llanto del Espíritu, el sueño de Dios. Nuestro mañana, su hoy. Nuestra esperanza, su tercera dimensión. Nuestra débil oración invoca un potente y sonoro AMEN de millones de Ángeles, de los héroes de la fe. Del soñador original, el vencedor definitivo, Cristo mismo.

Ésta es la visión.

¿?

birth is meant to be born.
life is meant to be lived.
music is meant to be played.
air is meant to be breathed.
time is meant to be spent.
death is meant to be died.
while the past was.
the future will be.
and eternity is.

someone has said...

wherever you go, there you are.

porque mola

no idea if it´s real or not but... man.

kilometro 0

English video


Spanish video


Last Saturday, 10 of us from Extremadura got up at 4:30 am and left at 5 for Madrid. It's about 4 and a half hours away and so at 10 am we arrived. The purpose of the journey was to visit Kilometro Cero. It is an evangelistic center in the heart of Madrid, in perhaps the most famous plaza in the entire country. Everyday thousands upon thousands of people from all over the world pass through. The videos both show and tell you what it is about.

What we were going there for was a Saturday day school they put on every once in a while. For several hours in the morning, in a premises overlooking the plaza they give workshops on everything from how to talk to people about eternity and the law, to how to give your testimony, to how to preach a 5 to 7 minute message, all in the street, all aimed at people who don't know. And then after having spent several hours learning, you go out and do it.

Now watch the videos.

I must say it was incredible to be in the plaza, surrounded by thousands of people passing by, sharing the reality of Jesus in the open air. In the school that morning there 80 some people. The focus was how to share your testimony. Then we went out and did it. A mixture of nerves, adrenaline and the presence of God is how it is best described. I had to opportunity to be one of people who got up on the box and share my testimony. It was awesome and left me wanting to do it again. There is something freeing about letting it all go and not worrying about anything. Like I mentioned there were about 80 of us but as well there were lots of people who stopped and listened. At various points there were probably 130 people or so within hearing. Some stayed for a while, so moved on quickly, but the message was being shared! After a combination of music, testimonies and a short message, we prayed for people who wanted it, and gave them a copy of one of the gospels. At various points there were probably 20 people in conversations with people from our group!

There is a lot more I could say, but suffice it all to mention that it left me with a desire for more. Wanting to share more, wanting to let it all even more, wanting to be involved with something like that on a regular basis. They work with churches, they are seeing people saved and plugging into churches. While it's not always politically correct, God is there and they are seeing lots of fruit. It's another part of what God is doing here and it's awesome.

golf

i think one day i should own a VW. simply for the sake of owning a VW.

the neutral zone

a recent talk i heard on noah:

Hope in the Neutral Zone

for when you are floating. for when the old world is gone, and covered in a flood. for when you are shut in the boat, with no control over direction, no idea of where you are going, or when the water is going to disappear and you will be able to see the new world awaiting... for when you are just floating, waiting on God to speak again.

youth update

It has been a little while since I last sent out an update on what is happening here in the youth, so it's definitely time because God has been moving!

Six months ago God seemed to suddenly put things into motion. After spending a couple of years involved in the youth work across Extremadura and not seeing much happen, we had a youth event where God poured out his Spirit and gave many of the youth a taste of something that they had never had prior: an experience of a living, powerful, holy God.
In the following six months a number of things have been changing. We are seeing a growing interest for inter-church activities and relationships across the region are growing rapidly, realizing that when there is unity and a heart to see God move... it will happen.
God has brought about some radical changes in the youth leadership across the region. Many who were youth themselves just a couple of years ago now find themselves leading their youth groups and asking how, when and where is God going to move! And at the same time wanting to work together, to be disciples and grow, while not being worried about politics and numbers that so often accompany small churches.

Practically we have been holding an event once a month between four local churches in the area and usually get between 40 to 50 youth along. It has been named "Something more to give" (it sounds better in Spanish). We have times of worship, prayer and seeking God, and of course fellowship. We have a long way to go still but there is an increasing hunger for God and a desire to not settle. There is a lot of discipleship to be done and more and more of them are opening up and saying they want it!

In our church, Comunidad Cristiana de Esperanza (Christian Community of Hope if we were to translate it literally) there has been an increase in numbers which is really encouraging. As little as a year ago we would get anywhere from 2 to 10 youth along to a particular event or normal youth meeting. Currently we usually get at least 12 along each Saturday but sometimes up to 18 if everyone comes. And in those kids there have been some real changes and encounters with God. As well, with Diana and I, we have another girl called Brenda who is about 20 and has been a great help. So not only are we seeing the youth growing but we are seeing God raising up leaders from amongst them!

We just had a youth retreat two weekends ago where from our church we took 19 kids. Again God moved powerfully and many kids were really impacted. Including one from our group who gave his life to Jesus. They are growing a lot and are beginning to get connected into the bigger picture of what God is doing in Spain. They are meeting youth from across the nation and are realizing that there is a lot going on in the kingdom! They are excited and are asking the question, what does it mean to live a life completely given over to God. This question is crucial and so encouraging!

We have a fair bit planned for this year: evangelistic-focused encounters in a few of the villages throughout the region to spread what God is doing, trips to Madrid and other places to continue to connect with and establish relationships with the wider body and see what God is doing on a national level (which seems to be picking up a lot of momentum and I meet and talk with other youth from different places), and many smaller local events to be shared amongst the churches, all with the focus on bringing them together into tighter relationship, seeking God and sharing Jesus with others. All this while beginning to disciple and raise up more leaders as was mentioned earlier!

Please continue to pray for us.
Many of the kids come from VERY complicated backgrounds and nearly every single one in my group comes from a broken home. So baggage is there, but it makes it that much more incredible when God truly does deal with it. (Like he has done in our church leadership team! It leaves you unable to deny the power of God!!)
Also, many churches in the area are very short on resources, so continue to pray that God will provide. Few of the youth I am working with come from financially secure backgrounds and if we are to continue to train them, raise them up, open their worlds to the bigger picture it takes money! There are more and more resources, events, and training centres springing up across Spain and a network is being created. In order to take advantage of these God will have to provide.
That God will continue to give us a hunger and a desire to seek him. And that unity will continue to increase and God will give us similar vision across the region (which I believe he is already doing!)

I'm excited and believe that we continue to be on the tip of so much more! So thanks for all your prayers and support.

youth retreat fotos

afternoon futbol


con uno de mis chicos


2 guys im discipling if you will


group foto

how much?

many of us want just enough Jesus Christ to get to heaven, but not enough Jesus Christ to change the world we live in.

a sermon

a sermon on eternity, kinda...

eternity by buechner

Eternity is not endless time or the opposite of time. It is the essence of time.

If you spin a pinwheel fast enough then all its colors blend into a single color-white-which is the essence of all the colors of the spectrum combined.

If you spin time fast enough, then time-past, time-present, and time-to-come all blend into a single timelessness or eternity, which is the essence of all times combined.

As human beings we know time as a passing of unrepeatable events in the course of which everything passes away- including ourselves. As human beings we also know occasions when we stand outside the passing of events and glimpse their meaning. Sometimes an event occurs in our lives (a birth, a death, a marriage- some event of unusual beauty, pain, joy) through which we catch a glimpse of what our lives are all about and maybe even what life itself is all about, and this glimpse of what "it's all about" involves not just the present but the past and the future too.

Inhabitants of time that we are, we stand on such occasions with one foot in eternity. God, as Isaiah says (57:15), "inhabiteth eternity" but stands with one foot in time. The part of time where he stands most particularly is Christ, and thus in Christ we catch a glimpse of what eternity is all about, what God is all about, and what we ourselves are all about too.