the nearness: Berea

Two weekends ago, we hosted our first Berea conference of the year. Michael Mahoney, pastor at Grace Community Church, came and spoke on conflict resolution.

We had record numbers of attendees and were actually unable to house anymore people. A good "problem" to have. Thankfully people still drove from León, about 30 minutes, and I am pretty sure this was one of the highest attended conferences we have had.

Gus played in the worship band and, as usual, they did a fantastic job. The worship music always sets the stage for excellent preaching in these conferences. The song choices are excellent and the musicians very talented. The singing is definitely one of my favorite times of the conference.

The sessions, as I mentioned above, were on biblical conflict resolution and communication. Michael is an excellent speaker and every message was very convicting. Many people were very impacted by the sermons, myself included, and many people who were not able to be in Toral, listened online. The messages were very convicting and applicable for me, in every relationship I have. It was a great reminder!

Michael came last year, in February also, and spoke on parenting. I remember listening to those messages and not understanding ANYTHING. So it was pretty cool, just a year later, to be able to understand 75-90% of his sermons. A few times, I even forgot that he was speaking Spanish, forgot to translate in my head, and I just listened from the heart to what he was saying. Those were break-through moments for me that even brought me to tears because of how thankful I was to be able to understand so well.

Fellowship was another highlight of the weekend. People were there from all over Spain and in between every session, there were key moments of conversations and encouragement.

Sweet baby Oliver! Sadly, the photo is a tad too dark but you can still see how cute he is. Every time I see him, I just want to squeeze him and munch on his little cheeks!!

Here are all the sweet ladies from our church, who attended.

As usual, my boys had a blast! They love being outdoors and making friends! Some sweet girls from our church held a Sunday school for the kids during each session, so not only were we receiving biblical messages, but our kids were too. What a blessing!

No time in Toral is complete with excellent mealtimes and this weekend was no exception! Not only was the food terrific, but every meal is an opportunity to meet new people and have great fellowship.

There was even a kids table and Cael was very excited to be old enough to sit at it!

Meet Miguel Angel and his wife, Raquel. They are a sweet, dear family that live in Sevilla, a city about 8 hours south of us. We enjoy every chance we get to spend with them and are encouraged by their example in the Christian life and how they apply it both in their marriage and in their parenting.