We are here now

Well here we sit in Brussels, there is an earlier flight to Madrid, but they won’t let us change. I have 5 hrs to kill so I’ll tell some more stories.

John is another of those remarkable people. We rode to the airport and sat in the waiting room with him. I had met him at ELWA, but hadn’t spent much time with him. He had been in Liberia for 6 weeks. Some of that time he spent in ELWA, the rest out visiting churches he had planted. John is late 60s early 70’s and “retired”. He lives in Portland now, but comes to Liberia for at least 6 weeks every year. He also goes to eastern Russia for 6 weeks each year. He would go more but he made a consesion to his wife. He, his wife and 5 daughters lived in Liberia from 79 to 90 when he had to evacuate because of the war. He was one of the first back after it was “safe”, and stayed until the next war broke out. He has some real war stories, he thought it was the end a few times, but he said God spared him. He said when he returned and saw all the destruction he just wandered around ELWA in shock, asking why? He went into the gym at the school, it had been hit by mortar fire, but still on the wall was a map of Africa with an inscription that read “Jesus loves Africa”. He said he thought about that and knew it was still true, so he just started worshiping God. He loves the people he is discipling and communicates with them over the phone and internet when not here. He grew up in the Port Angeles area, one of 10 children. His father became a Christian when he was in his mid twenties and felt called to preach. John said his father never got a regular paycheck the whole time he grew up. His father just traveled around preaching. They had twenty acres and grew and raised just about all their food. John said that he decided to be a missionary at the age of 10 and never had a thought of doing anything else with his life and never regretted it. Of his 9 siblings 6 were missionaries. John is undergoing treatment for multiple myoloma. You see John is dying from cancer, he doesn’t fear dying, but he said he hates the thought of not being able to share Jesus with lost people.

Well we finally made it to San Sebastian. We spent more time in Brussels than we were suppose to. Our flight out of there was delayed 2 1/2 hours so when we got to Madrid our train had already left. We stayed the night in Madrid at a nice hotel right across the street from the train station, that gave us a chance to get tickets and check the place out. It turned out to be a good thing, because if we took the train we were suppose to we would have been in the dark most of the way. From Madrid to San Sebastian you pass through some very picturesque country. Not far out of Madrid you pass though a long tunnel then you go through country reminiscent of Eastern Washington, then you pass through some large cities, farm land and villages. You alternate through flat farm land, hilly farm land and wood lots. It was all very interesting. Then you get to the Basque region and it was spectacular. Every where you looked it was like a calendar or post card picture. Some of it looked like what I would expect to see in Switzerland, with chalets in high meadows and cottages in steep valleys by steams. I was glad we got to see it all. It was a beautiful day with clear skies most of the way and about 60 degrees when we got to San Sebastian. We met up with Joel, Kelly, Caden and a sick, coughing, Owen. I felt sorry for him he had a fever and didn't feel well at all. We went for a walk around town, it is really neat, very different from Liberia and home. We are going to have fun exploring it all. We don't have any specific plans, but I'm sure we won't have any problem finding stuff to do. I'm not sure how much more I'll be blogging, you'll just have to wait and see.