Preparar

 

To Prepare

     This is what I should be doing, but I think I'll blog instead, and watch The Good Wife at the same time...I think that's what they call multi-tasking.  It has been a challenge these last two weeks to think about our upcoming trip, mainly because we have been extremely busy with wrapping up our spring semester with RUF at Alabama.
      
        The end of the school year is always packed with activity, but this year it just seemed to get here so much faster. Dinners, parties...I'll spare you the details, all to say it was fun and now we are about to attend our week long national conference down at the beach, life is just really hard right now...so ya'll can pray for me;)

   Seriously though, it has been easy to keep from preparing to go to Madrid. I still need to get lots of things done. We have to get the house ready for eight weeks without us,throw a fourth birthday party for Mae, find some sort of lightweight travel crib for the baby to sleep in while we are there, the girls need new jackets, and of course I need a pair of jeans that will make me look amazing. These are little things for sure, but those listed and many more add up to time I need, that I may not have...(Oh, and all the students going are each raising around $6000 in two months while finishing school and taking exams...no big deal)

         What I have found comforting, when I am wallowing on my 'before sleep guilt pillow', as I affectionately call it, (you know that time at night, right before you fall asleep, when you start to think about all the things you need to do, all the things you should have done/said/thought/prayed/read/watched/worn...whatever) is that God is never unprepared. He actually can't be, because you know, He's God and that would sort of go against the definition of being God. God is not unprepared to meet me right where I am, nor is He unprepared for what is happening and will happen as we head to Madrid. He is ready. As I heard this morning, before preparación to take communion..."Jesus is not/ cannot be #1 on your priority list, He is THE LIST." God controls time, it's His. He is the lens through which we 'do' all of life. This is the hope and truth we take to Madrid, that history and time are moving and working for the glory of God and His story includes the people and the city of Madrid, just as it includes the people and city of Tuscaloosa, or where ever you are as you read this. God has time on his hands so to speak, literally (I am saying that in my Rob Lowe Parks and Rec voice). So, while my confidence in myself to get all my Ts crossed and check off my list of things to do both, for this trip and for my soul, ebbs and flows( like it has my whole life) it's soul filling, life giving, contentment bringing to know that God is neither alarmed nor stressed or on the brink of what I like to call a 'a sure way to send your children to therapy later' breakdown. He's there. Ready.

¹³ I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” Rev 22:13

well, ill leave you with that. Pray for us as we prepare, but pray knowing that God is working already.

Muchos gracias,
Ada

Quién, qué, cuando, por qué

WHO? WHAT? WHEN? WHY?

Four small questions you might enjoy the answers to...at least from this blog. Let me share some more details about our upcoming travels, so that you might have a better idea of whats actually going on (and of course, by typing this out, I too, will have a better idea of what's going on).

Quién(Who)

Our team (we do not have uniforms) is made up of our little family, six students from the University of Alabama, one student from Mississippi State University, and one student from Covenant College in Lookout Mountain, GA...just a great looking group, if you ask me...not so good looking that we dont need your prayers, though. Please pray for Emily, Melody, Amy, Mary Frances, Scott, Hall, David, and Johnny. Each have to raise over $6,000 for this trip, they each have to say goodbye to family and friends, and they each have to immerse themselves into a culture that is not their own, all for the sake of the gospel. THEY NEED YOUR PRAYERS. Yes, we are going to a beautiful place, a new and exciting city, but this trip is going to be very trying on all of us...not to mention they are going with this guy as their "mentor"

I'm not worried...you shouldn't be either.

Qué (What)
      So you know by now that this group of all-stars will be in Madrid (hence the picture all the way at the top) for eight weeks...doing what? Well to begin with, we will be doing a lot of listening. Already in Madrid is a group of missionaries who have devoted their lives, their full - ima-gonna bring my family and live here because I know how much I'm loved and want to go love other people lives-to the city of Madrid and we are gonna listen to what that have to say and they are gonna tell us what we need to do! (i thought that deserved an exclamation point. ps. I love exclamation points and these guys {...} so I am sorry if that gets annoying) But we do know a little bit about what our days are going to look like while we are there so Ill explain...
       The kiddos, as I affectionately call them under my breath, will be serving as interns to the missionaries already in place. Part of their time will be spent in Spanish class at the University in the city and the goal, while enrolled will be three-fold. 1. learn Spanish  2. get credit that applies to their own degrees 3. make friends...you didn't know that ministry was so easy, did you? This time spent at the university is crucial though because this is where, Lord willing, relationships will blossom. It is our prayer to see our students form relationships with Spanish students that would in turn lay the very foundational (and basic) ground work for a campus ministry to begin to form with the already there, already awesome MTW team. So you see, this too needs your prayers. Please begin to pray for the University students we will be in contact with, please pray that real 'seeds' of relationship would be planted that over time would grow into a lasting ministry that would be well known in Madrid....The God I know is one who can do BIG things, even though they may start very small.

Cuando (when)

     We will be leaving the states on May 24th and returning July 20th. Would you please pray for our travel...this is honestly the area where most of my worry rests. Travel is stressful. There I said it, its out there. This is what i fear our travel will look like...with the baby somewhere under the seats.

     We need prayers for our girls, who love airplanes...but who also love being their very fun exciting ages of four and two. Traveling with kids demands serious organization, serious patience, and serious flexibility...all of which I am lacking. We are thrilled to be taking our little ones on this adventure, excited to see them in a different cultural setting and looking forward to what God will do in their little hearts....but we actually need to GET TO SPAIN for any of that to happen.

Por qué (Why?)

     This is not a European vacation for our family, this is not a summer break for these kids. We are going to be a part of something bigger than ourselves. Something that exists just as much in Tuscaloosa as it does in Madrid...God's kingdom. Our time in Madrid will be a short moment in our lives, but we go with the knowledge that God has been in Madrid since He created it and our prayer is that He would use us as He would see fit. Jesus, His person, His words, and His work are why we go. We go not to bring Jesus to Madrid, He's already there, we go to see what He's doing and be apart of it...please join us with your prayers.

as always
Muchos Gracias,
Ada



 

Hola

  For those of you who don't watch as much Dora as we do, 'hola' means hello in Spanish...I am not trying to insult anyone's intelligence by beginning this way I just can't think of a better way to start.

The Moore family (Ryan, Ada, Mae, Anne Hardin, and Virginia), along with eight college students are headed to Madrid, Spain for eight weeks this summer on a great adventure...and I honestly feel a little like Dora the Explorer, excited and ready for anything that might be ahead of us ,though not knowing much Spanish, no backpack that contains everything we might need, nor a talking map that can always tell us how to get where we need to go...so basically I feel like a little girl about to head across the ocean to a place I know nothing about ,where I can't speak the language, and I am taking my three small children. Sounds fun right? Who's with me?

How did this happen? Well, it's a sweet story of God's own weaving people together. To begin, Ryan, my fearless and handsome husband has been working for Reformed University Fellowship at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa for the last five years. He is amazing and pretty much the greatest person I know, so I've got that going for me. Anyway, Ryan is always up for an adventure and when our friend David Barnes contacted him about the possiblity of spending the summer in Madrid it was a no brainer...bring your family...sure...Bring students...absolutely!! All so exciting, right? Well here's where it gets fun, David and Daniel Brink have just recently moved to Madrid with their families for a long term mission with MTW (3 years to be accurate) from their home in Germantown TN. Ok, guess where I am from? Guess who I grew up with? These guys!! It's crazy, I know! I would have never thought that our lives would intersect this way, I would never have planned for my hubby to be Skypeing and emailing with guys that knew me when I was an obnoxious teenager (I've really changed A LOT since then, really A LOT).

 So that is just the beginning of this story. Since then, God has brought together a team of eight students, who instead of spending their summer making money or laying out ( the way I like to spend my summers) chose to leave the comforts of the USofA, their families, their friends and venture into the unknown to see what God might do through them....heroes I tell ya, heroes!  I'm not nieve enough to think that this little escapade won't have it's share of troubles(the details alone, of traveling with three kids four and under are keeping me up at night) but I am so encouraged already, just by the way that God has brought us all together!

And now here we are...on the internet, reading a blog about an upcoming trip to Spain! The primary purpose of this humble blog is to simply record and communicate the events of this adventure...to give a glimpse of what the Lord is doing in the world through His people. I hope you will be apart of this, I hope you will pray for us and enjoy hearing about our endeavors, struggles, mistakes, and successes! I also hope you wont judge my grammar, or be too put off by enormous amounts of pictures of my kids...

Muchos gracias,
Ada