Dear Friends,

Culture shock is something that all new missionaries experience.  It settles in after the initial excitement of being in a new and exciting place when one begins to deal with the nuances of actually living in a country where everything is different.  We've passed the worst of it, though one always learns new things about a different culture.  We learned some interesting things this week.

We learned that our good friends Marcus and Sofia are not married in spite of the fact that they have a beautiful 2 year old daughter and another on the way.  It's she who does not want to marry.  She believes that a wedding in the church is a farce, that it doesn't mean anything.  She cited the experience of a friend who happened to visit while Kay was there, whose husband had been unfaithful a number of times until she finally left him.  Kay had the opportunity to share our perspective of a union and a commitment before a personal God.

Lesson number two:  we were playing cards with Marcus and Sofia, they taught us a new game using a deck of Spanish cards, very different from the 52 card deck we know.  It was a fun game with a very interesting twist: making signals to your partner is quite acceptable.  One winks if they have a certain card, looks up if they have another, twitches the lips if they have a third, etc.  Marcus, being a German, shuns this practice, but Sofia was able to "enculturate" Kay.  Of course, Kay loves to talk out loud while she plays anyway!

Yesterday I played tennis with Luis and he invited me over for a Coke afterwards.  He loves to read, so I brought him a booklet called "Ultimate Questions".  I said that it deals with lots of interesting questions, like "what happens after you die?"  Luis asked what I thought happens which launched us into a discussion of good and evil, heaven and hell and salvation only through Jesus Christ.  Luis found it difficult to believe that there are actually bad people.  Hitler, he believes, was mentally ill.  Didn't have a response for Jeffrey Dalmer though, who was judged sane even though he killed and ate a number of teenage boys.  Of course Luis even questions the existence of God, so the discussion was interesting!  And we continue to be amazed by how far the average Spaniard is from the Kingdom of God.

We had a sort of watershed meeting Sunday evening with different missionaries from ECA, the school the boys attend.  These are teachers and administrators, they are busy and it is sometimes difficult to get them involved in activities related to the establishment of a church.  But many came in the middle of a four day weekend indicating interest in being involved with us.  This is both encouraging and challenging, as we consider how to incorporate this many people (about 20 attended) and how to encourage them to reach out to their neighbors.

The Lord has provided a car and a house (in Waukesha) for our home assignment this summer.  He has provided a great scholarship offer for Greg to attend the university he desires.  He continues to provide all we need.  God is good!

Thanks for praying,

Mark