Letters to Family and Friends: Last notes on Spain, 2012 Resolutions/Goals, Mission and Values

Dear Family and Friends,

I am back in Waco. But I haven't shared much of where I have been this past semester.

Just to update you on a couple cool ways God worked in my life in Spain, I’ll share with you a couple things. Immediately God answered prayers for community. Not just any community either…I wound up going to a Young Life bible study/fellowship/dinner every Thursday while in Spain. 10-15 people each time singing, reading, discussing, sharing, and digging into God’s word and The Gospel in Life by Tim Keller. I also was bless to find an awesome English-speaking church in which I got plugged into weekly. This group came to my Salsa performance (yes I took a class and we had a performance) and that blew me away. 10 people that I didn’t know 3 months before were all there just to see me, to support.

And the most impactful experience I had was making a profound friendship with a English-speaking Nigerian 30 or so year young man who, when I met him, was homeless. I simply ate lunch with him and prayed for him 2 or 3 times a week. During my almost 4 months there, I got to be a part of God’s biggest story. Some of that included simply learning a ton about his disheartening story and the ins and outs of homelessness, going to a job interview with him, God’s providing for an apartment, and getting him plugged into my English-speaking church. I would love to tell you more about anything if you would just ask. The whole semester was stretching, faith-building in different ways, and overall pretty exciting.

If I had to put a name to the biggest stories of Spain, the following would be the headlines.

-Biggest Spain stories-

NYC hurricane (LA boy is followed by hurricanes)
(Got kicked in the butt by a) Hooker
YL and church and salsa performance
Muhammed/Arriance/Kenneth/ Addurance/Stephen
Matt Lozada (Divine Appointment at a Coldplay concert)
The best weekend of the whole trip-- Germany weekend with Becca's dad.

Love you all mucho,

Andrew

P.S.-take a look at the resolutions I have set out on. Prayers would be greatly appreciated!

Team "I Think Therefore I Slam" is off to a 1-0 record. The unstoppable team comprised of (top left-right) Giles Dearman, Matt Larsen, Jared Brimberry, (sitting L-R) Andrew Smith, Kenneth ??, Garrett Crabtree, and (posing) Jon Coss.