on why I knit every once in a while instead of expositing Scripture

If I was to evaluate the "Christian woman culture" that I have seen and lived in my short life, I would say that we are often prone to laziness when it comes to understanding and communicating God's delightful, profound word. Sooo . . . let me make this clear - - I'm all for women exerting themselves to be faithful, diligent students of the Bible (and other relevant non inspired writings). go for it! read more, think harder, reason thoroughly . . .

Soooo . . . today I want to encourage you all to take the time to knit (or cook or sew, or scrapbook, or hot glue pom-poms onto your daughters keds, or whatever lovely crafty thing you like to do), Because I find it impossible to read a science book, or go to an aquarium, or to exposit the first couple of chapters of Genesis and not be overwhelmed with God's delight in beauty and variation, and in the actual process of design in creating. It's fascinating, don't you think, that in the tremendous act of creation, God chooses, not to speak the completed universe into existence all in one shot, but instead to spend six days creating and ordering the earth (days 4, 5&6 of creation filling up what was created on days 1, 2&3 - - look! it's there!) and its inhabitants into the final "very good". Do we not, then, reflect the image of our creator when we ourselves order and create?

A special thanks to you, mom, for living this out for me- -You have been Faithful in your study of the word, complete in your love and care for Christ's church, and always an example to me of a woman who reflects God's love for beauty and creation - - in different cultures, with eight kids, with a pretty much non existent decorating budget!
a good book to read on this topic (recommended to me, of course, by the lovely Darcie Newton)- - Edith Schaeffer's The Hidden Art of Homemaking
I took these pictures of home - - last time I visited mom

on raising boys in Spain

two weeks ago I caught Malachai, excited about the upcoming summer barracas (fairgrounds), in a corner, quietly practicing his rolled R - - it evolved quite a bit like this:
"badacas . . . . baracas . . . barracas" (he did it! he rolled his R!) . . . "barrrrrrrracas! "
So now, two weeks later, his rolled R perfected, he is managing to put a rolled R into pretty much any word imaginable - - English or Spanish - - single R or double R, words that have R's and words that don't have R's . . . .

we went up to Pamplona early this morning to watch to watch "those who run with the bulls" run into the bull stadium. When I told Malachai about our plans he asked oh-so-casually - - "will I be running with the bulls too?". it's funny now; it won't be as funny when he asks the same thing ten years from now (and really means it)!

after the bull stadium we paraded along the city streets with the gigantes and cabezudos (pretty much my absolute favorite part of the festival in Pamplona)
here are Joshua and Josu being chased down by one of the kilikis - - look closely and you can see the his sponge ball peeking out behind his back - - being wound up to hit them. These guys are masters at what they do with their sponge balls; they always hit their target - - viciously whacking the taunting preteen boys and gently tapping the toddlers (and getting in some pretty good playful whacks at innocent bystanders too)Josu lucked out and got picked up by this zaldiko and was trained in the fine art of whacking. (poor aunt Rachel!)

the team

we are exhausted and still a bit giddy as we recover from the week we just had with the short term team that came out from Faith Community church who came out for a week to teach English conversation and culture classes in a nearby neighborhood. The time spent with them was so good; they were the sort of short term team that every missionary dreams of - - they were prepared, flexible, excited about Spain and our ministry, loving and warm and humble with their students, and they were encouraging and generous (and much, much more!) to our family. We are so thankful for them and look forward to seeing the fruit of their efforts in our ministry in the future!

One of the team members (and a wonderful friend), Nicole, has stayed with us for an extra ten days; we are thriving on all the wonderful conversations and spirited card games that she provokes! We spent the day downtown with her today . . .