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Personal News, Autumn 06 In Porto Petro, Mallorca Dear Friends,Greetings from Mallorca! As another year comes to a close, we can again say it has been a moving time. Switzerland is now well behind us. as we promised last year and we are well settled in our new rented accommodation. We have rented for 3 years, since purchase prices are ridiculous here and renting is much more reasonable. And at Christmas we found a great place. It's close to Chris's parents (5km), but a bit far from Palma, where the churches are (50km). We've settled in one of the two larger churches and it seems we'll stay. Oh! And it's just 5 minutes' drive from the beach! So what do you think we're doing here? Well, the beach was plagued by jelly fish half the summer, so we decided we ought to do a bit of work, after all. But yes, we have been and earlier on got a good amount of exercise, swimming between one bay and the next. Now it's back to country walks. In between walks, eating and sleeping, Chris is most of the time face to face with the computer. The Pray4Spain and OACI websites keep him away from mischief, but he's also been very involved in building a new site for the church in Palma. It has been different to just posting the text, but instead involved training the web team to do it themselves. So each area of ministry has its own web-author and the pastor is also posting material busily. It should go live early December, if the final technical hurdles can be overcome. The Evangelists' Conference site, meanwhile, is quieter since they sacked the person responsible for writing prayer letters. This is a great shame as it leaves me searching all the harder for news from the Spanish churches for the English language pages (P4S). On the international scene, Chris continues to chair the OACI European zone and it is always encouraging to hear of reports of ministry happening around the globe, especially in this most needy continent. Among other things, he was recently able to add three new 'buttons' to the international website to mark countries where we are working with resident staff. He didn't join any international outreaches this year, although it was a summer of great opportunities, with teams 'Reaching the City' in Bristol, then Cologne and Berlin for the World Cup, Vienna and Romania. Sunday evenings over the summer months were out on the Palma 'Sea Park', just below the Cathedral, where we joined the church in evangelism. In addition to sketchboard, a wide variety of methods were used, such as a brass band, praise team, dancers (of various types, including local and Latin American folk dance), a special with a musician who plays anything, vent doll, etc.. Most of the church turn out for the events, so you always have a good crowd. Although the entire programme was done without translation, Hilde and I were able to speak in English and German to a wide range of nationalities, including Saudis. In Santanyí, our village, there is no church, but the Anglican chaplaincy holds monthly services nearby and through this we got involved in a weekly Bible study which started in Lent and now meets at our flat. The group is a fascinating cross section of the senior English-speaking population and we hear all kinds of interesting ideas at these studies. Far from the predictability of a regular evangelical meeting! Hilde, meanwhile, is also busy on a Catalan language course, three nights a week. The course is really for local people who were not allowed to learn their own language at school, so are catching up with the grammar now. She could do more conversation practice, but that should come with time. Looking to the future, the church-based web project ends about the end of the year, although it will surely require on-going support. So our 9 month commitment to this church is also up for review at that time. We've visited a couple of other churches and intend to visit more of them over the coming weeks, but although there are plenty of reasons for nit-picking about the teaching or worship style, the abundance of good relationships we have developed in the church mean we tend to think we'll stay put. It looks like it could be a good base for regional ministry. Chris remains involved with the Evangelists' Conference committee and will meet early November in Madrid. But at the time of writing there are no dates for activity on the peninsula, Easter or summer activities. Chris will be working on this in the coming weeks. Don't hesitate to keep in touch with us. We'd love to hear from you. And if you want to catch up on our news in-between written letters, or if you want to know about those summer outreaches, be sure to check out our web sites: Love from us both, Chris & Hilde |