Spain

From April 5-19 we headed to Mijas, Spain. 

A friend of ours from here in Zap married a Spaniard last summer and they are living in Madrid so we flew there to spend a couple of nights with them. We spent a day wandering 20 km all around Madrid.

We rented a car and drove the six hours down south to Mijas and it was soooo lovely to be there. We were immediately invited by the interns to a birthday party where we were able to meet all the current G42 interns as well as catch up with the G42 staff that are currently there. 

The second day that we were in Mijas I felt so terrible. My clavicle and arm were hurting, my neck was aching and it triggered a brutal migraine. Steve had gone out with a friend in the evening and after they were done hanging out he sent me a message that they were coming back to pray for me. They picked up another guy on the way and so here are these guys - one who I had met the day before and one who I had never met before but we had the common bond of Christ and here they were praying for me. While they were praying I felt a snap in my upper back - it was like one of the big muscle knots that is always there just disappeared with a crack! I knew it was God, I knew it was an answer to so many prayers and I knew that He was giving me one portion of relief. I know that my journey through the pain isn't over yet but I know He has a purpose and He can heal me. I am so grateful and thankful because He is always good. 

We spent the week there going to as many classes as possible - Andrew was teaching and there was another teacher the first few days we were there who wasn't part of the teaching team when we were there. Another teacher we knew came the day before we left so we were able to have dinner with him and catch up. We also talked logistics and future plans with some G42 staff members....there are some plans in the works that hopefully involve us but they won't come into play for about a year so we'll talk more about them later when we have more information and confirmation. 

We were staying in an apartment by ourselves which is always kind of a bummer for us - we love being around the interns as much as possible so we always prefer staying in the intern houses where they can't get away from us, ha ha. But it worked out really well - we were able to be with the interns for meals and spent a lot of evenings together hanging out. We connected really well with a lot of them and were able to share what God has been doing in us and in Ukraine. It's interesting to be back there and to share how all of the things they're learning about look in real life after they're done G42.

It was a wonderful time to refresh and prepare for our busiest season ahead but we were definitely ready to get back home by the end of our time there.

We had an afternoon to wander Kiev on our journey home - this picture is on the spot that is 444 km from Zaporozhye:

There was eight inches of heavy wet snow two days before we returned home....no one currently alive remembers Ukraine ever having snow in April. Apparently there were widespread power outages, there are many trees down, the apricot and cherry season has been devastated and Dezmond's school was closed until today - because it was TOO COLD INSIDE. The heat is regulated by the city and was turned off in March and it takes too much effort to turn all the heat back on citywide. The mayor made a special decree that all heat should be turned on in the hospitals and kindergartens but not for apartment buildings. Inside our apartment has been *quite* cold - we've been running our space heater most of the time but mostly we've been staying bundled up under blankets! I feel like it's been colder inside our building than it is outside and by Thursday it's supposed to be in the +20's so hopefully the inside warms up soon!!