Last night was spent on our front porch watching fireworks with our roommates. After midnight struck all of the neighbors went around and gave each other hugs and blessings for the year to come. It beautiful and today I am filled with gratitude to have been given the opportunity to experience it.

The day before we moved to Granada, our missions pastor at Brookhills sat down with us to see how we were doing. At the end of this very positive conversation, he dropped a load of negativity on us. He told us that we would probably end up really disliking the people we were called to share the gospel with and that our fellow ministry partners would disappoint us time and time again. That we would, at times question God’s calling on our lives. But to hold on, because those times would pass, and God’s calling would be clear and relationships stronger through each struggle.

I thank God at least once a week for this wisdom.  Tonight, the disappointment with our ministry partners showed it’s ugly head. Through a series of miscommunications, a difficult conversation was had, without any real resolution other than an agreement to disagree.

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Our first week and a half has been filled with so much that I hardly know where to begin.  I (Frank) should start carrying around a little video camera and just film everything for you – but for now I’ll do my best to fill you in.

Let’s start with language:
I know more Spanish now than I ever have in my life. At first life here was a big game of charades but over the past couple of days things have really started to come together. One thing has been made very clear to me – language will be our biggest obstacle while we are here in Granada. To combat (or combatir) this we are currently taking 2 hours of language training per day. This coupled with immersion in the culture has been very effective so far.

Now on to ministry:
God did not waste any time – I have started a small group that meets weekly with 3 recovering addicts. In addition to a weekly meeting, I meet with each one individually during the week so we can go a bit deeper with our struggles and prayers. All three of the men speak very good English making it possible to talk without the need for a translator. The small group is a direct answer to prayer and I was amazed at how quickly it formed.

Finally, general life in Granada:
We are at the end of the hottest month so needless to say…it’s hot. But we have fans, a wonderful breeze in the shade and much cooler evenings. We are looking forward to November through January because we hear they are cooler with less humidity. Our roommates are wonderful – seriously, we could not have a better living situation. They are both very kind and have offered us all the help we have needed with no complaints (at least not any that we understood). We eat lunch together 5 days a week and the food is amazing. The city is beautiful and we are very excited to see what God has in store for the next year.

Prayer requests:
Please pray for the men that are in recovery here and also pray for their families. There are lots of AIM teams flying in and out over the next several months so please pray for them as they prepare to come and go. Pray for the city – there are a lot of needs here and God is showing them to us one by one.

We’ve arrived! The first week is down and has been full of setting up our little room, learning the culture, and stumbling our way through conversation after conversation. God has already been answering prayers and building relationships. Frank starts a small group tomorrow morning at 7:30am, and I start meeting with a girl on Friday. Life is very good right now, and God is clearly showing us our path here in Granada! We’ll post more when we have a stable internet connection.

If you’re interested in seeing the details of our every day life, including pictures, you can find those over on my website at http://www.theburders.com/rebekah.