REPORT on Mission in Albacete, Spain

I was not the most motivated Spanish student (but compared to the other students, I was very motivated), so I never particularly wanted to go to Spain when there were enough other countries where I spoke the language enough to visit. But, CEM was going there on a trip, so I was happy to be forced to come along.

Just any old BEAUTIFUL traffic circle.

The Mission Trip to Spain was a collaborative project between the churches in Geneva, Switzerland, Lille and Marseilles, France. We were working with the very small Church of Christ in Albacete, Spain. They had organized a conference and wanted us to spread the word, to “go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in.”* The Marseille church chorus (composed of CEMistes and the Young family) sung in public parks, schools and nursing homes. While we were singing in the parks, the Geneva church would hand out flyers to our audience. While the choir was singing at a school, the Geneva team would go through the streets to hand out the flyers.

The choir headed out for our next singing engagement.

Our mission trip to Spain, in terms of spreading the gospel, was not visibly successful. We handed out over 2000 flyers to individuals and apartment mailboxes, inviting everyone to a Conference entitled “The Work of His Hands.” Each night, there were 3-5 faces that we didn’t recognize already who came. The conferences were held in the hotel where we were staying at, which was an excellent idea. It is possible that some people don’t feel comfortable coming into churches, and besides that, the church itself was very small.

The Church in Albacete needs your prayers: it is very small (third or fourth time I said that) and recently lost some members to become even smaller. The conference had the potential to infuse them with new contacts. The attendee yield was low but unfortunately not nonexistent, so there is potential for growth through the conference. And though not many people came to the conference (they found at about it at short notice; maybe they already had plans) they still have flyers in their mailboxes with the church’s information on the back. And even if they throw away the flyer immediately, they will still see the words “Existe Dios?”** for a split second and be forced to momentarily consider this life changing question.

For me, the trip to Spain was excellent. I was able to spend 20 hours in a car with Katie Young, one of the full-time missionaries at the church in Marseilles, and 2 other CEMistes (I dubbed us the ‘MERICAN MOBILE because I had the guilty pleasure of being a linguistic slacker and speaking English with them). On the car ride to Albacete, we shared stories of times when God’s spirit clearly led us to do something great or when we trusted in God’s power and He did it. My eyes were open to the beauty of a life spent following the will of God. God's plan for us are way cooler than our own. On Saturday, during our free day, I was able to take a walk with some CEMistes and we discussed the goals and methods of the conference and the difficulties of evangelism in Europe.

I am very thankful that I am doing CEM and I think that the friends I make here will be the future spiritual saints. My friends from Columbia will be great in the World: they will lead countries, corporations and businesses and make great contributions to the environment and their respective fields of technology. My friends in CEM will be the founders of churches, the builders of orphanages, the neighbor who takes care of everyone and shares her faith through gentleness and compassion: they will be great in God’s Kingdom. I think the two sets of school friends complement each other nicely.

Besides all that deep stuff, I really like Spain! Albacete is a really pretty town. It was bright and colorful; a relief after the dullness of Marseille (no offense). The country side, which we drove through, is different from that of any country I’ve visited; it inspires me to imagine knights, i.e. Don Quixote, setting out across the wilderness in search of adventure.

The impressive landscape to which I am referring!


*Luke 15:23
**Does God Exist? Would be the translation. And btw, if you have never researched this question, you should think about it, talk to someone about it (I recommend a Christian) or, if you don’t feel like talking to anyone, check out this website: www.doesgodexist.org