To Burgos!

Hola familia y amigos! Que tal? I hope everyone is doing swell, I am doing great. The guys and I just got back from an overnight trip to Burgos with our program. Burgos is a city just outside the Basque Region. We saw the cathedral there, which was very impressive and we went on a hike this morning along the Camino de Santiago, which is a thousand year old trail that runs from near the French border all the way to Galicia, which is right near Portugal. Supposedly James is buried there in Galicia where the pilgrimage ends. The entire trip takes about a month do complete, when walking about 25 kilometers a day. We only did a small portion of it, about 12 kilometers. But it was a really nice day, we got some sun for a change. It was somewhere around 80 degrees, which is the hottest temperature we've experienced on the trip so far. There have been a few things on my mind lately so it was a nice chance to just be outside and walk, think, pray and just be quiet. God has definitely been faithful to answer my prayers when I have been patient and truly had faith that He was hearing me and that he would bless me with the desires of my heart. The Lord has taken me on a ride these past few months and I'm just trying to go wherever He leads me. I have found something very comforting in the fact that I really have no clue what lies ahead for me and I have pretty much zero plans. While it does freak me out at times, I always am reminded that as long as I am seeking after the Lord and truly desiring to be where he wants me to be, I can not make a wrong move. I don't need to know where my next step is taking me, and honestly, I have found it much more comforting not to know. The less control I feel means more control in the hands of God, and less of a chance for me to screw it up. I'm just trying to be open to opportunities that come across my path and be willing to go anywhere and everywhere that God calls me.

Here is a passage that I want to share with you guys that I read today from Exodus. I hope it encourages those of you who maybe question your capabilities when it comes to speaking about the Lord. I have struggled with this and recently I have come to realize that God can and will use anyone and everyone to do the work that He has laid out before His people. None of us are too young or too insignificant. A lack of knowledge or a lack of a high level of speech do not hold us back. Exodus 4:10-12 (after God tells Moses to leads the Israelites out of Egypt):

"Moses said to the Lord, 'O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither 

in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of 

speech and tongue.'

The Lord said to him, 'Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.'"

I strongly believe that the devil feeds us these lies of our perceived 

incapability in order to keep us from doing God's work and spreading 

the gospel. Be careful not to fall into this trap, because I know it is a dangerous one. And take great comfort in knowing that God is so 

much bigger than any of our shortcomings.

That's all I've got for now, I'm home in a little less than 3 weeks, and I will get to see a lot of you, which I am pumped about. Keep on

keeping on my friends.

4 weeks left

4 weeks from today I will be on a plane back to the States. It's crazy. It seems like just yesterday I was standing outside of my new apartment, locked out with all my bags and no way in. It was an uncomfortable start to this trip, but now I can easily call this place home. I love the pace at which life here moves and the community that I feel here. I had a coffee today and read by the main plaza in my town and there were tons of people out: parents with their kids running around, kicking soccer balls and riding little bikes. Old ladies sitting around having a cup of coffee. Old men walking their dogs around. There is so much life here and everyone always seems to be out and about, experiencing what this place has to offer.

My time here has been different than I expected, but so much more fulfilling. I envisioned myself traveling all over Europe with a couple of my best friends and always looking forward to the next thing. But what has really been amazing to see is how much I love just spending time in Getxo, in downtown Bilbao, with the friends that I have made here and have gotten really close to. If you had told me at the beginning that I would make the kind of friends that I have made and would be legitimately sad to have to say goodbye to them, I probably would have said you were nuts. But after only 3 months being here, and maybe only a couple months of knowing some of these people, I am amazed at how close we have become. I have made friends from Spain, Germany, England, Sweden, France, just off the top of my head. It has been such a blessing to feel so at home and do a part of the action in a place that I have only been for 3 months.

So, not to dwell on the fact that my time here is nearing an end, because it really bums me out, lets talk about my recent literary endeavors. First off, read your Bible! I have found myself recently working through Genesis, which I have been approaching more as a piece of literature rather than trying to obtain a spiritual lesson. When read like you would read a novel, it is awesome. We often forget how incredible these historical events are, and how much of a gift it is that they are recorded for us and that we can read about them today, however many thousands or millions of years later.

Other than that, I just finished "The Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad. I would recommend it to anyone who is looking for some excellent writing and a little bit of a challenge. If your going to read it, be prepared to really focus on what you're reading, and then be prepared to be blown away by his writing. You will probably miss a lot, like I did, but it is still very worth it. Its not very long, but its chock-full of awesome lines and it takes a while to read. An amazing side note about the author, Joseph Conrad: He was born in Russia, joined the armed forces in France, smuggled guns into Spain, and didn't speak a word of English until he was 21 years old. He wrote one of the most influential American novels ever written, with an incredible command of the language, and he didn't speak a word of it until about how old I am now. It would be like me going and learning Italian next year and then writing a masterpiece in Italian a decade later. Pretty crazy.

Today I just started "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" by Ken Kesey. I have never seen the movie, and I'm glad because then I can read this with a clean slate in my mind and no preconceived notions about what I'm about to read. So far its awesome, the main character McMurphy seems hilarious and I like the writing style. It seems a little less demanding than Heart of Darkness, which will be a much welcomed change of pace.

So not that you guys really care about what I'm reading, but I thought maybe someone was looking for a book to read and I could be of expert advice, as I often am. Nothing else too exciting to report, other than the Lakers being the #1 seed, which you probably already know about. Until next time, don't do drugs and make sure you keep your fingernails trimmed. I love you all who are reading this, except for the random people that stumble across the blog. In your case, I don't love you like I love my friends and family, but I love you in the sense that I am called to love everyone. So I guess I do love all of you who are reading this. Tata for now. Thanks for reading. Sorry I'm random. 

Where do I begin...

Any suggestions? Okay lets start with Italy. I apologize in advance for not being able to include anywhere close to everything, not even a fraction, because so much happened and it has been a whirlwind last couple of weeks. Fabrice, Evan and I flew to Rome to start off spring break, or semana santa (holy week). Tyler flew out from Boston to meet up with us and epicness ensued. In Rome we saw the Colosseum, the Forum, the Pantheon, the Vatican Museum (including the Sistine Chapel), St. Peter's Basilica, and, oh yeah, the pope. We randomly decided to go to St. Peter's on Palm Sunday and were wondering why it was so dang crowded. Then we here music and then a speech and realize its the pope speaking in 5 different languages. It was pretty incredible. Not that I'm a huge pope fan or anything, but it was cool to see probably the most important living figure in the world.

Then we hopped on a train to Florence, which is an awesome city. The highlight of the entire trip for me as far as what I saw was the David in Academia. You've all seen pictures of it, but they don't even come close to doing it justice. It is absolutely huge and is really perfect. I stood and looked at it for about an hour. Its easily the best piece of art I've seen, although the Sistine Chapel was pretty impressive.

After Florence we hopped on another train to Venice. It was a little more touristy I think because its just smaller and more crowded. The best part of Venice was the charcoal sketch that we bought. We saw this guy, Marco, doing a charcoal sketch off the top of his head of a image of Venice: building-lined river, bridges, gondola, the whole nine yards. We watched him for about a half hour and then decided that for 20 euros we had to buy it. We'll all be living together next year, so we'll fire it up on the wall in our place.

And, by the way, this entire time we pretty much ate nothing but pizza and gelato. I'm talking each one maybe 3 times a day, with some pasta mixed in once in a while for a change of pace.

Now I'll get to the good stuff. When we returned from Italy (after an overnight train, waking up to the French Riviera, passing through Nice, Monte Carlo...not too bad) we were just in awe of how much God had blessed us and how grateful we were for our experience, and that we could share it with our best friends. Beautiful weather followed us everywhere we went, we met some really cool people, we got lucky with some awesome hostels, and all of the obstacles or kinks that could have inhibited our travels just got worked out. Back in Bilbao it was terrible weather, just pouring rain, but we went for a stroll anyway, and found ourselves under a covering downtown beneath the library. Our separate conversations all led to topics about God, where we're at spiritually, what we want for the future. The three of us ended up chatting together for a couple hours or so. Just passionate, truth-seeking conversation. We were all wowed by the fact that from this day forward, we have the privilege to be life-long seekers of Jesus and His one and only truth. We all expressed how much we want to become the men God wants us to be and seek Him above all else. Then Easter morning we had some time to sit and pray and just be in God's presence more than anything. By the time Tyler left, we were all really bummed to see him go, but were so excited for the place that God has brought us all and our newfound eagerness for letting Him shape us and mold our lives.

After the farewell we went to Madrid and Sevilla, two amazing cities. We had a lot of time to talk, relax and reflect, because Italy pretty much wiped us out. We saw the painting Guernika, in Madrid, the massive cathedral in Sevilla, and had a really great time. We were beat when we finally got back to Bilbao, but so thankful for an incredible two weeks.

In the end, nothing that I saw, no one I met, no city or incredible food came even close to matching the experience I had with those guys following the Lord and hearing His call. The fact alone that I'm able to study abroad is blessing enough. And God has been so faithful to me and has really showed me a lot about the joy of spending time in His Word, spending time in prayer and just being still and knowing that He is God. If I tried to convey to you everything that God has been stirring inside me I'd be here all day, so I won't say much more. But to anyone reading this that wants to chat with me about this stuff, I would love to. Just leave me a comment on this post and we'll get in touch and talk away.

I want to finish with a verse I read today from Phillipians 3:7-11. I would love to be able to speak this from my own lips and have it be 100% true. It's something that I'm striving for and I hope that all of you read this and are encouraged to do the same: 

"But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ--the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow to attain to the resurrection from the dead."