As i peeled my sweaty body off the train seat and stepped onto the station the sign read 38 degrees, it was half five at night and i was stepping onto Atotcha station central Madrid.
M.O.L.A. seemed a lifetime ago and this week had been the most emotional off them all, de-brief and re-entry, saying goodbye to people, and praying for one another in the hot seat as we had done all those months before, i can still remember that first day....four hours sleep, bundled myself and my stuff on the morning train, wandering round this very station until a Spanish girl and her Swedish friend approached me asking if i was v-keey marrrrrr and looking bewildered when i had dumped my stuff and ran off to use the long que stinking public train station toilets. Those same women had been my mentor, Spanish tutor and both friends who i would stay in touch with for hopefully years to come.
I walked down from Atotcha and met Hannah in the Jazz bar in Huertas, our fav spot, as i quietly died of heat exhaustion over a cold glass of water Hannah approached with what i could only presume to be a Californian or at least American.
The girl turned out to be Megan a 25 year old from California, she'd been living for a month in salmanaca a near by university town and was flying out the next day, the girls had rescued her from some sleazy guys in Retiro park. We moved onto a local bar a hybrid of Irish meet Spanish with an Afro Caribbean twist, we drank a jug of sangria and started to get feel for Megan, she was direct, which i liked, and her humor had a spiky sarcastic twist. There was personality there and we chatted about various things from meeting real parents to wild bore on the menu and the Spanish's love of all things seafood and tuna on everything.
We headed towards Sol through Santa Anna plaza. We found a Hawaii bar on the corner and for 18 euros filled the table with about 5 kinds of tapas and a volcano cocktail with 3 metre long straws the staff gave us a plastic lei, cocktail umbrella and carnation each. At the end of the night Hannah and i said goodbye to Megan and strolled for the last time down Huertas's gorgeous streets.
This morning however had a different feel to it, with a cup of coffee down me i sat and tried to compose a video for the staff, a collection of every ones photos onto DVD, research my next trip and take my copy of photos from Hannah's collection, Graduation started at 6 and at 5.30 i was still in front of a computer..actually i was in front of two armed with my mates Spanish brother to help and only a language barrier and fight against time to contend with. Running across our floor with arms full of clothes and make-up while things downloaded, uploaded and saved i tore my hair out that i spent two days doing stuff and yet had seemingly accomplished nothing, i hadnt a clue what i would stand up and say when presented with my diploma, I hadnt eaten lunch never mind shaved my legs!
Yet this evening i graduated, complete with make-up and might i add - in a dress! and not a black one! i gave a perfect speech if i do say so myself and tonight after the slap-up meal we came back and blessed the staff, washed their feet, prayed for them and played them a complete video of their last 6 month highlights!
It was really the end, and i really had made it...i stayed! and was actually under the 2007 graduation banner! i had faced my past, met my natural father, been out to lepper colonies, worked with children, prayed in crowds of people, eaten whale..(that one was tonight) and generally learned who I am, what a relationship with God can really be when your baggage starts to be removed and was going home with vision for the future on what I wanted life to be.
Its not that i lacked personality, drive or vision before, its just that there was a new sense of life being about even more, a stronger desire for God to be the focus of life and hopefully finally my identity would be in him and not my ability as a designer, not whether i was in shape or not, i wasn't scared for people to see me for who i really was, because i was turning to God for stuff.
YWAM DTS's do what they say on the tin...knowing God and making him known.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment