the nearness: MacArthur in Spain, day 1

We had the privilege of hosting John and Patricia MacArthur (Plus some other guys, whom you'll see later) here in Spain. They had never been to Spain and it was such a joy to have them! The purpose of their visit was so that John could preach at a conference Berea hosted. Berea is a ministry started by David, the other GCC missionary and pastor at our church, to introduce men to expository preaching, among other things. There are several Berean conferences throughout the year and this time John came to speak at the October session! We're still processing the conference and how great it was! And of course we took a TON of pics! So in order to avoid a gynormous blog post, I'm going to break the days down, one at a time. Here is the first day...

This is San Marcos, the hotel John, Patricia, and a few of the other people stayed at. It's right across the street from our house and probably the coolest hotel ever! It was a refuge for pilgrims on the Way of Saint James and a seat of the Order of the Knights of Santiago, as well as a monastery. Aka, it's really old and really cool!

Their first stop upon landing was dinner at David and Loida Robles' house. I've mentioned them so many times on this blog and finally here is a picture of them and their beautiful children! We are so thankful for this family!!!

The next morning, the group set off for some exciting places! First stop was our church, to see the building and its office.

Then they went to our new church's facilities. Something that we are VERY excited about is that we are building a new church! I'm not entirely sure of all the details, but we were given a piece of land by the city and are now in the process of raising the money to build the building. We took everyone there to see the new site. It's on a very strategic part of the city, right in the middle of the downtown area. In this picture below, John is praying for the new land and building.

Here is David showing John the plans for the building

And here are two important people: on the left, the guy with the brown coat, is our architect, who has developed the plans for the new building. He is not a Christian but comes to our church and is such a sweet guy; he is also our landloard-we rent our apartment from him. The other gentlemen, on the right in the blue coat is Manuel, a pastor at our church.

Here is the architect, David, John, and Manuel

And this stretch of grass is our land!

Next stop was a tour of the city, first stop being the Roman walls still standing

And of course the Cathedral

And this interesting guy!

Then they went to the Mayor's office. This is part of the gang; you will also see Henry Tolopilo, Michael Mahoney, and Kevin Edwards, all pastors from Grace that accompanied John to Spain.

This is a councilwoman that John gave the Gospel to! She was asking a lot of questions and very interested in the church and in God. So they gave her a MacArthur study bible in Spanish and John was able to share quite a bit with this woman, which was amazing!!

Praying in the Mayor's office!!

Next stop was lunch! This is the whole group, leaders from our church and their wives. It was such a treat to spend time together!

The next part of the day was divided: The men went to Toral and the women came to my house for a tea. But unfortunately I don't have any pics of the tea because Gus took the camera to Toral! It was a lovely time though! Patricia and Cece Sykes came to spend time with several leader's wives from our church. All the ladies brought their favorite Spanish pastry (YUM!!!) and we sat around and had a little Q&A session with Patricia and Cece. Both ladies are very wise and answered a lot of our questions about parenting and marriage! It was a great time with the ladies and I was so thankful we were able to be together!!

Like I mentioned above, all the guys went to Toral. Friday night had 2 sessions with John; he spoke to church leaders about leadership and Gus said it was phenomenal! There were over 80 men present!

Tan, the worship leader for our church, first led worship for all the guys

Then Jubilant Sykes sang for the guys. Yes, Jubilant also came to Spain! And wow, what a TREAT! That guy is amazing. Not only a voice! But such a nice man; I really enjoyed getting to know both him and his wife better!!

Then John spoke..two sessions

And here is the voice of John in Spanish. Luis Contreras, who is a Grace missionary to Mexico, is also John's translator when he speaks in Spanish. Luis can translate simultaneously, which is SUPER hard to do. Listening to Luis as he translated was amazing; he is so good that he even takes on the same intonation, speed, volume and even breathing of John! He did such a great job and we were so blessed by his ministry!

They also gave away several free MacArthur books, which have been translated into Spanish!

At the end of his second session, John also did a Q&A with the guys

The response from the men to John was incredible! Many came up to ask him questions...

Many came up to have John sign their Bible or one of his books. At one point Gus was standing next to John, translating for him. This guy came up with one of John's books, The Master Plan for the Church. It was highlighted in several colors, old, and very worn. He told John in broken English, "See, this I try to follow!"

John was SO gracious and posed for pictures with so many people! He was given a room to rest in between sessions but instead wanted to be out and spending time with the guys!

And here is John, somewhere among these men. After every session he was mobbed! People stood in line to meet him and shake his hand! So many people commented that there was something different about him; they recognized that he was feeding their souls by giving them Scripture and Gospel Truth! Amazing!!

We ended the night together by eating dinner at a Bodega, or underground wine cellar. Loida and I took Patricia and Cece to meet their husbands and join them for dinner. Because I didn't get a picture at the tea, I got one with the four of us at dinner!

There were about 50? or so men from the sessions who joined the dinner

The food at the Bodega is always amazing. I've gone a few times before and never tire of eating their amazing bread, meat & cheese platter, and salads. This time were given raw beef on a plate with this stove to cook it on. We sprinkled coarse sea salt on both sides and cooked it over this fire. They were small pieces, very thin, and cooked in under 5 minutes. It was so fun! And AMAZING beef. I've NEVER had better meat. It was so tender it literally melted in your mouth. Words cannot describe how good it was! Well let me tell you one more thing about the meat: it was ox meat! Gus told me yesterday that I had eaten ox that night and I practically fell out of my chair! I can't believe I ate ox but I would eat it again, it was that good! Lesson learned that sometimes it's best not to know beforehand what you're eating!!