"JOGGING" into the New Year

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!

Starting out a new year is always exciting, we make resolutions and set goals to grow and achieve more than we did the previous year. I am in the same boat and feel inspired to jump into 2020 with fresh vision and passion for ministry, but at the same time I feel God speaking the word “Jog” as I pray about His will for starting the year. God is teaching me the importance of balancing things properly to be fruitful and not burn out by trying to tackle too much at once. I am a visionary and I like to "run fast" and get things done but I never want to run ahead of Gods leading. So my resolution for 2020 is to walk or "jog" in step with the spirit as the year begins and to follow Gods leading in all the areas of my life.

The Spanish holidays are almost over, they continue with Kings day a national holiday celebrated today. Tomorrow everything goes back to “normal” and YWAM Barcelona opens back up as we get rolling with all the new programs for this year. I wanted to share a little recap from the holiday season and a recent testimony from PanamaLab.

This Christmas was special because it was my first Christmas together with Loida and her family. This time last year Loida and I were “close friends” traveling together to France on a little road trip, this trip turned out to be when things became more clear for me that I wanted to be in a relationship with Loida. We have enjoyed a lot of quality time with Loida's family over the past few weeks, relaxing at home, playing games and eating some really good food.

Loida has been living at home for the last month because she had to get surgery on her jaw and has been on medical leave until she recovers fully. She is doing much better now, the operation went well but the healing process was slow and painful. The nice part of the whole situation was that we spent a lot of time with her parents and I feel much closer to them now after helping care for Loida during her recovery. I missed my family very much this Christmas but was blessed with a beautiful family to celebrate with here in Spain.

I wanted to share a testimony of a girl who I have been sharing my faith with while working at PanamaLab. This girl started coming to develop her film at PanamaLab and prefers to develop it herself rather than just dropping it off for me to develop. I like when people come to the lab not only for the services but to connect with other artists and learn more about analog photography. So basically this girl would stick around after developing her film to just talk about art and ask questions about photography. One thing leads to another and she asks me about why I came to Barcelona, I began to share my personal story and what brought me here. In a natural way I was able to share my testimony with this girl, share my faith in Jesus and begin to share the Gospel. The girl told me that when her friend told her about me and that I was a Christian she was completely shocked and had no idea how that could be. This girl is from Spain and I am glad God has placed me in her life to redefine what is can look like to truly live a life in relationship with God through faith in Jesus. This girl had never heard someone share about Jesus in this way and I trust God will continue to give me opportunities to share Gods truth with her.

This photo above is of Huckleberry, Fabi (left) a girl skater from Brazil who is visiting Barcelona and volunteering with Calling All Skaters, Laura (right) a girl from Colombia who is living in BCN and is a part of the ministry, and then theres me... don't ask why I was wearing those glasses.

I am ready to jump back into my normal ministry routine and feel rested after a few weeks of holiday rest. Please keep me in your prayers, it is going to be a busy year but by Gods grace a very fruitful one as well.

Please pray for my sister who is a missionary in Vanuatu with her husband, she has been very sick and will be transferred to the USA to get the proper medical care she needs for her recovery.

Thanks

DAVE