carpe diem?

We arrived back to rain and clouds, the girls headed off to Barcelona leaving me with use of a washing machine, laptop, bathroom and room to myself, other than the comatosed state of exhaustion it was bliss.


I waited in the airport for Hannah and the rest of the Moroccan team to arrive back like a little kid, over the next few days we head out to Huertas the writers district of Madrid with its funky jazz bars and little streets, plazas and typically Spanish restaurants and pavement cafe scene, this was the ´northern quarter´ of Madrid.

After the the following weeks teaching, Hannah and I headed to Segovia an old city with beautiful streets cathedrals and castles, it felt a little like the truman show that you would hit the edge and find a door out. Spain was gorgeous, and after a days wandering we finished with a few sangrias, best ive ever had too, not bad for a euro.

This week was evangelism again, cant say I was too enthused, I dont want to do evangelism - i just want to tell people about jesus, there was something about walking straight upto people and interupting their life to tell them your view, maybe it was the british in me but i hated approaching people. I never thought id be one of those people with tracts, one of the leaders when asked if he´d used them said "yeah, ive used them, ive also had to save people from them" We walked upto a few people, some older spaniards, they were very closed. We walked on disheartened and approached some teenage girls, to be honest if id have been them id have thought the same, id have though we were harry krishners or something, we lacked enthusiasm warmth or general people skills as we handed them some tracts adn tried to ask them how they were doing. It was bad we were discouraged and lacking in confidence. we sat down to pray, why were we doing this?, taking it back to basics what was so mindblowing in your relationship with god that made you stand on a street corner or approach complete strangers and bring a conversation out of nowhere which leads to god? ok god was going to have a huge part of it, infact all the credit has to go to god, but how and why were we willing to put ourselves out there for him to do it?

we discussed our fears, feelings and excitement about god, prayed and headed back trying to approach people as we did, we returned to meet the others and listenened to their stories of how they had told the gospel to people or prayed with them, and headed home wondering what we were doing.

The following afternoon we had some time to relax following some hard manual labour on a churches renvations and expansion, Guillihermo a crazy brazilian guy who cant help but tell people about jesus anywhere and everywhere we go (especially as we are just heading off home!) was walking with us and wanted to approach a young couple on a nearby bench, I stayed back not fully joining him but not leaving either. He started talking to the guy who turned out to be morrocan, Guillihremo chatted away having just been to morrocco himself, but but didnt mess around the conversation was about god pretty quick, i thought he´d hand him a tract and we´d be on our way but no, slowly I moved closer til I was partly in the conversation, still shy in my spainsh i listened. But the conversation came round to carpe diem ´seize the day´ and living the moment, my heart started beating fast, they were like me 8 years ago, partying and not caring about much, but i knew more partying than they may ever know and i knew nothing would satisfy like god, there was a peace and a joy that satisfied beyond any sex, drugs or drink. Cotty had also hung back but stayed at a distance until now, I turned and asked her to translate me, I would only end up frustrated if I tried to unsuccesfully say what I was dying to say. I gave my testimony. I did it I told someone the relivant truth about jesus and what i knew of him, how my life had changed. It wasnt for me to change their life but for the holy spirit to, I had done what he needed me to do and all that was left was to pray for them and hope that god could or had used my words somehow, that someday they would remember them and turn to god and find out for themsleves what he was like.