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The '08 Summer Mission Adventure

6 of us traveled to Madrid, Spain May 5-13 to work alongside Kelly Wills and Oasis Madrid.  Below are some of our thoughts:.   

We were in Spain for a week.  I was very glad to see my old friend, Kelly Wills, again, and to be able to see finally the neighborhood that she has been telling me about for the past four years.  I was also interested in meeting the church planting team that she has been working with to get Oasis Madrid up and running.  I was surprised when I got to meet not only the staff of the church, including the team leader/pastor and an intern, but also several church members who participated regularly in community service projects and small groups.  Then Kelly told me that it was church members, not staff members, who started many of the projects and groups, including the prayer small group we attended on Monday night and the sandwich route we participated in on Wednesday and Friday afternoons.

I am very excited that there are Christians in Madrid that not only care about the community there, but also that there are Christians who recognize that they are the church.  My favorite comment from Kelly was when she told us how the sandwich route started.  She said that there were two college-age girls in the church who were upset that there were so many homeless people in Madrid and that Oasis was not doing anything to help them.  Then they realized that they are Oasis and that if they did something to help, Oasis would be doing something.  That realization struck me and will stay with me as I learn more and more that the church is not a building but a people.

Of the time that we spent in Spain, I believe that the times we spent in worship and prayer were the most productive.  Several of the days, we had time scheduled to sing and pray to God together, as a group, before or after we had been out in the city.  It was during these times that I was able to refocus on God and to seek his perspective of the city.  I reflected on his love for the people of the city, the prostitutes, the homeless, the tourists, the businessmen, and I saw the grace that he has for all of us.

Trivia Riddle

   “The rain in Spain falls mainly in the plain”.  Apparently this isn’t the case during the summer.  God had other plans.  It rained 3 of the days we were in Madrid.  It was at times a miserable, cold rain, but nonetheless a blessing in reminding me that our God can’t be contained by mere odds… instead HE breaks them in tremendous ways!  There are A LOT of pigeons in Madrid and according to Kelly’s scientific data most people get “presents” from them 3-4 times in their lives, Kelly gets “presents” 3 or 4 times a year.  Sarah and I got “presents” within our first hours of being in Madrid.  Yep, God was definitely breaking the odds yet again!  During our second day in Madrid, God decided to break some more odds.  We went out with Kelly to take sandwiches to the homeless, something Oasis Madrid does every week.  The purpose of this route is about so much more than just feeding a hungry belly.  They only take about 24 lunches, so they can really build a relationship with people along the way.  When we went out on Wednesday we realized that God was there!  We prayed before we left that HE would be in control of the day.  We met a man from Bulgaria, who is known to the Oasis group and who told Kelly that he is getting baptized soon through the church he attends!  We met a transient family who asked if Kelly was a Christian, said that they also were Christians, and asked if she had a personal relationship with God!  Kelly directed them to a couple nearby churches.  God was there and opening our eyes to this city.

 By far, though, the most AMAZING experience in Madrid was the late night walk.  We had finished dinner Thursday and had no other plans for the night.  It was late and even though we could’ve just gone to sleep, I was in a mood get out and walk around.  While discussing what to do I commented, “Well we could go pray.”  Onward we went as the nightlife in Madrid was just beginning to gear up.  We headed down to Gran Via, the major street in Madrid and found ourselves across from Plaza de España.  Someone asked, “Do we want to go there and pray?”  The group resounded with a “Yes”.  We walked into the plaza, found a couple of empty benches and started with five minutes of silent prayer.  Then we joined hands and prayed aloud for the city.  I knew God was there because HE told that HE would be in our midst when two or three of us gathered together in HIS name.  But I never imagined what would happen when I opened my mouth to pray.  Many of us go into these missions experiences with a basic prayer we always use.  Sometimes we adjust it when we know specifics to pray for, but for the most part it’s a pretty set prayer…   Well not this night!  I began to pray and as the words flowed out of my mouth, I thought to myself, “What?  What are these words I’m praying??  This isn’t at all what I intended to pray… I didn’t even know to pray for that or like that.”  It was amazing.  The Holy Spirit was there in such a tremendous way and flowed through us to lead us in praying God’s heart over that city.  It was beautiful!

  I can barely form words for how amazing this trip was and how much I can already see God working in my life because of it!  HE has opened my eyes to so much that I would never have even seen or imagined if not for this trip to Madrid. 

Jessica Criswell

 First of all, a big thank you to everyone that supported this mission trip with their finances and prayers.  I wish I could tell you of all the things that were changed as a result of our being there, but as you know with almost any mission that the results and fruits are rarely seen by the workers.  This does not take away from the fact that God did make use of us while we were there. What I can tell you is how God used these works to change me.

This mission trip was particularly foreign to me, not only because of the locale but also the nature of our mission. There were no mud huts to build or work projects to be done.  We were praying, and encouraging, and getting involved with an international church plant; all things that scare me a lot more than manual labor.  I was amazed at how easily these things became once we were there - how easy it was to pray for perfect strangers for hours on end, and to let go of my preconceptions of what the church should look like.  Suddenly, the poor did not seem so distant and our call to build relationships with them built up with conviction within me.  I was amazed at how easy it became to picture myself living in a foreign country dependent on God's providence rather than my own means.

I hope that you feel that we have been good stewards with your investments in the Kingdom.  I certainly feel like the community of believers in Spain were blessed by our being there and they certainly had an impact on us.  Thank you again for the opportunity to be used by God to serve this mission and to bring back new insights of the Church and our individual missions back to the US.”                                                                                                                  

Marc Montgomery

Praying is difficult.  Praying in a foreign place for general things exceeds that.  Distractions arise from everywhere.  The pain of praying with precision becomes a major frustration.  Perhaps most daunting is the sheer enormity of the task, combining that with human perception of ‘realistic expectations’ and asking God anyway.  Before long we find ourselves charging, “God do this.  God do that.”  Then we question, “Is this something HE doesn’t already know.”  Help us, LORD, to believe that for which we have asked.  Lead us to a stronger conversation with YOU that will uphold such requests. 

All day Friday, we swept through certain parts of Madrid, praying for them, asking God to work more powerfully in redeeming those living there.  While we believe prayer to be powerful, our constancy in prayer will mean even more.  Knowing the Christians living and working in Madrid is exceptionally helpful to us.  We are convinced that God will work through Amy, Shani, Troy, Heather, Kelly, April, Paul, and Kelly.  We are confident of their love for Jesus and their passion to labor urban Spain. 

Mike Luzadder

Being in Madrid was a culture shock for me - a little farm guy from Tennessee.  City life here in the U.S. is not for me, but I fell in love with Madrid - big city that it is.  There were a lot people walking and taking metros.  A major difference between there and here is that we drive long ways to get somewhere while they all live nearby and hop on metro or walk.  The people we ran into, the people who live on the streets looked at us and asked if we were Christians because we handed food out.  One asked Kelly, “Do you know Jesus?”

When I went on the prayer walk, got kind of lost, and was trying not to show it, I just stopped at a café, rested, and prayed to God to show me where we were in the city.  HE showed me a building that was on my map.  That’s kind of a scary thing to get lost in a city you don’t know well.  That can be hard, but when we were looking at people who are lost from Jesus, like all the prostitutes, pimps and drug lords we saw in Madrid – that saddened me.  But the saddest thing was the kids who were running towards Mike, Marc, and me while we were walking on our prayer route.  Kids are my passion.  I grow sadder to think that they might not have heard of Jesus.

So this trip all together changed me more then I can describe.  It’s not the city or the missionaries who told us stories.  It’s what I saw missing in the city and what I saw in people’s eyes while we were in the Plaza de Espana praying at 1:00 am.  We saw people looking at us, wondering what we were doing or why we were doing it.   They had no idea why we came and prayed for them.  We had an impact on those who there to spread the Gospel.  We gave them hope. God is still there with them in the city of Madrid in Spain.  

  JT Patrick

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