jamie's wanderings

This is me with a a bunch from our church youth group. In November we headed hiking, and had a group of about 20. Starting from the left, Lydia is from Maine, Karen hugging me is from Spain, Jennifer and Helen (?) are from the US, Noemi is the pastors daughter from Spain, and Chad is from Texas. That day we had 4 Brazillians, several Mexicans, about 8 Spaniards, and several Americans. Because of this trip, the 4 Brazillian guys started attending regularly, and now come every week. They came to church for the first time last month, and now bring more of their friends to the Saturday night meeting.

I still get the shivers when I sing with our church band. For about two years now, every wednesday night I head down to our little church. Usually its me, the pastor's wife, Esther, and about half a dozen other musicians or aspiring musicians. We practice for about an hour and half, and have a great time. One reason I get the shivers is that we always have numerous nationalities represented. Last night was like any other night in that we had one American (me), a Mexican, a Brazillian, a Madrileno (pastor's wife) a Panamanian, a Andulucian, and a Basque. I list the Spaniards from their region, as Spaniards are incredibly faithful to their region, rather their country. The Basque girl Miriam plays the flute, and she always bristles when you refer to her as a Spaniard. She's incredibly nationalistic, and it cracks me up. I think its amazing that we hail from all over the world, from different denominations, from different point of view on worship, and we somehow all come toge...

Jonathan, me, Daniela, and Andrew out for a night on the town in Granada this Christmas. J is my cousin...and has become a good friend as well~!

Today Andrew and I wandered around Bradfield, England. This weekend we have popped up to England thanks to the incredibly cheap flights offered by ryaniar ( www.ryanair.com ) We have old friends here in Bradfield, Western England, and we've come up to visit them three times now in the last two years. It is always a wonderul, quiet, relaxing break, even if just for a few days. This time we came for a wedding, a friend of Andrew's, named Andrew Koons. He married a little English girl named Clare, who he met while in Papau New Guinea serving with Wycliffe. She is a schoolteacher, and he is a great big motorcycle mechanic. It was a sweet wedding, a quiet reception, and a beautiful, sunshiney, rare, English winter day. Enhorabuena Andrew y Clare! Tomorrow evening we trek back to Spain, adopt my cousin Sam for 2 weeks, have more guests wander through our house, and try desperately to finish the Uganda project and hopefully prepare for another media project. Rest for Andrew and I has ...