Transition to SPAIN- the final month of the Race… What?!
For the first part of Spain, we spent 10 days in a …. villa! It was crazy awesome! This villa was (no joke), 300 years old! The interior decorating matched it– especially the light fixtures and the large fire place, and pictures!! To my amazement there were even large torch-like lights that hung on two of the walls as you entered the Villa! It was like being in a very large museum- except for we stayed there and it seemed as if you could have played a hide-and-go seek game, and you probably would be on the lookout for ages as there was many places that someone could hide- it was intense! The first night I arrived there it was almost spooky like. I was in the first group to arrive (there were only 10 of us out of the 34), and we had to be the pioneers of the group to figure this place out. We found out how the oven worked, who slept where, and what all the many doors to rooms were. Since there were very few of us, every time that a noise was made all of us had turned around in a cautious way to see what the cause of the noise was… we were very paranoid to say the least… Hahaha.
As the other group had arrived later that evening/ in the wee early morning hours we all had discussed what ministry would look like for the time we were there. One of my squadmates had rented a car for the full 10 days and was nice enough to transport groups of people in and out of Barcelona for the time we were there. Others decided to do prayer walks, or intercession (prayer) for the squad, and others decided that cooking for the large group of us is what gave them the most fulfillment.
As there were many options to choose from, or to choose my own, I decided to help serve the squad by cleaning in the kitchen/ bathrooms, and to help cook and be a listening ear. Most of the time we had to do daily grocery runs, so I was a part of that group helping shop for groceries and carrying them home. I also decided to do some blackberry picking. That was fun (very tedious and in the end somewhat harmful, but fun nonetheless). It was only harmful because ALL of the mosquitoes decided to hang out by the blackberry bushes, so whenever I would try to pick a blackberry I typically got bitten by the bugs.. That was annoying, but it was nothing in comparison to the first bite of the cobbler that people would take and thoroughly enjoy the deliciousness of the dessert. While in the villa we had to survive off of $2/ person for food every day (considering Barcelona/ Spain is so expensive). This task is something that I thought was IMPOSSIBLE to do, however, God showed me that he would provide. As a whole squad we were able to spend $68/ day on food for three meals. I kid you not, people were able to get super creative everyday and come up with food to feed the masses. It may not have been a huge buffet or even an American-sized portion of food, but it did get the job done. Nobody starved, and we actually bonded more because of the “lack” of resources and we all wanted to be resourceful and do the dang thing- by golly we did! We were super proud of ourselves for it too!
So when cobbler was made- because the mix came out of personal budget typically, the squad was super appreciative, so it was nice to do something unexpected. I cannot take credit for the whole works of the cobbler as I had only picked the berries, but it was bomb if I do say so myself! 🙂
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A totally separate topic than “ministry” for the Villa… Tom Davis..
Who is this person you may ask. Well, he is one of the four founders of the World Race, he is also a motivational speaker now for fortune 500 companies (such as chick-fil-a), and he is a holy spirit driven man.
He spoke truth and life into all 34 of us, and the things he said are things we will never be able to forget.
He allowed us to dream. To start thinking about our dream inventory and really allowing ourselves to think outside of the box. He also helped us craft a vision statement- just for the near future- 12 months. He had us be specific (not like a SMART goal), but to really ask ourselves why we wanted to do something. He also had us nail down our top five values in life. Guys-those things were not easy! He gave us a list of 60 words and wanted us to pick five.. count them.. FIVE!
My top five (with no surprise)
1. Communication
2. Diversity
3. Love (not romantic, but that Love conquers all)
4. Spirituality
5. Passion
**Feel free to ask me what each of these words means to me (also-if you want some of the notes from the talks he came and gave, let me know and I will shoot you an email- its profound!)!!!
He challenged us to look at our vision statement every morning and night and to ask our selves what we did to make that vision turn into more of a reality for that day. It has been quiet the challenge, but one that I hold onto very dearly, it’s been awesome! He has radically transformed my life with the statistics, and information that he has provided, but also the encouragement he gave to be a world changer and to go after our dreams! 🙂
