The Mayer Family

To the country with friends

2008-05-06T15:30:52Z

On Sunday, we went with Wendy’s friends Marjorie and Alejandra (and families) outside of the city for a change. It was great to enjoy the countryside and the kids loved running free and enjoyed playing kid-style baseball. Ellie was our wanderer and liked to try to disappear into the trees to explore what new bugs she could find or dirt she could play in. Although we saw people in the park cooking Paella (a Spanish rice dish) over an open fire, we went a little less complicated route and had things prepared ahead of time like Spanish tortilla (made of eggs and potatoes etc) with a Mexican flair made by Alejandra from Mexico, French-style quiche and biscotti (Marjorie is from France), and American-style potato salad and tapioca salad made by guess who? The husbands enjoyed getting to know each other, since it’s usually the ladies who get together the most.

The group

The food

The wanderer

Evan recites La Primavera

2008-05-06T15:25:59Z

Evan has been doing very well in school. He usually looks forward to his day, is making lots of friends, and is learning Spanish very quickly. A few weeks ago he had to memorize a poem for his homework, and here he is practicing it:

For the non-Spanish speakers- the translation (more or less)
I'm so happy
Spring has arrived
with it's poppys (the flower)
with it's thousand rains
everything is radiant
everything shines
and I just want to sing

Dia de la Cruz

2008-05-06T15:18:39Z

Another fiesta happened on Saturday…Day of the Cross. Approximately 45 crosses made of flowers were set up for display across the city, and everyone went out to see them, a lot of women and little girls displaying their fancy flamenco dresses. The day is more a competition of who has the best decorated cross display than anything religious.

One of the displays we saw...

We made our way through the “cross crowds” to Abuelas (Miguel’s Grandma’s) where Evan was playing with his friend. Here is Abuela with Elisa and Ellie.

The girls on the playground…

Friends visit

2008-05-01T15:31:26Z

Mark & Charlene Troyer stopped by to visit for a few days after their Prayer walk in Albania. It was great having them here, and we were encouraged by our time together. On their first day here, we all had the privilege of helping Pablo & Judi move into their new apartment!

Here’s Ellie, hanging onto Pablo’s hand as usual

P&J in their new apartment

The ladies (and Evan) in Judi’s new kitchen

The gang, except Evan, who was in school

Kevin took Mark, Charlene, Judi & Pablo on a hike overlooking Granada where they prayed for the city

Pablo & Judi Arrive

2008-05-01T15:28:42Z

It’s so great to finally have a team! Pablo & Judi arrived on April 3rd. Check out their blog to see what they’ve been up to. Ellie has especially taken to Pablo and loves sitting on his lap and hanging out with him.

Evan’s first day of school

2008-04-01T20:24:17Z

Yesterday Evan started at a local school in our neighborhood called Ave Maria. This is a new experience for all of us, so I think we were all a little nervous…except Ellie. We all went with him in the morning to get him registered and settled into his classroom. Ellie wanted to climb right in to Evan’s chair and stay for school, but Evan knew that he was the one really staying, and there were plenty of tears from him. It was so hard to leave him, but when I went to pick him up at the end of the day, I found him happily playing outside with his classmates. There were tears this morning too, but they didn’t last long, and he had a great day. His class went on a field trip today to a park close by to examine the nature (trees, leaves, dirt, etc.).
Here he is that first morning…

A shot of his classroom…

Losing it...

2008-03-30T18:12:58Z

...our internet that is:) After tomorrow, we won't have internet in our apartment any longer, and will need to go to an internet cafe to check email, update blogs, etc. So these updates will probably happen a little less until we get things set up in our house again, which could take a little while.

We will be checking email every few days, but if you need to reach us immediately, our cell phone number is:
(from the US) 011 34 678 880 301

Pray for Evan as he starts school tomorrow. I think we are all a little nervous!

Easter

2008-03-26T19:22:45Z

We spent Easter day a little differently this year, away from family. After church in the morning, and Chinese for lunch, we had a surprise Easter egg hunt for Evan and Ellie with a treasure hunt at the end.
Easter morning…

The hunt…

We watched The Passion movie on Good Friday (Kevin and I). We were so deeply touched by the incredible pain that Jesus went through for every person. During Jesus’ suffering, they showed flashbacks of his life and it was so powerful to hear the words of truth that he spoke. His words contain so much power for then, and for today. It’s so amazing to me when I read the Bible and can feel God speaking to me through those ancient words…they can feel so new for today. I love that.

In current news of our lives, we’ve decided to send Evan to a local school, starting Monday! This will give him a head-start on Spanish before school next year. He is getting pretty excited, although a little apprehensive. We visited the school (Ave Maria) for the second time today (in addition to 2 others) and when we met his teacher and saw his classroom that sealed the deal. We were really impressed with her, and are excited for Evan to start. If you think of him (and us), please pray for a good adjustment for him, and that it wouldn’t be too intimidating not understanding everything at first.

In closing, here are Evan & Miguel playing with cars. They still play together almost every day, and are great buddies.

-W

More on Semana Santa

2008-03-22T20:52:43Z

All week long, Spain has been celebrating Semana Santa (Holy Week). Honestly, we have mixed emotions on the celebrations here. While the celebrations are religious in nature and they are done to depict scenes of the life of Jesus (see previous blog), in many ways it feels more like a competition to see which church puts on the best show (it reminds me just a little bit of our Mennonite “World Series” softball tournaments to see which Mennonite church has the best softball players :). The amount of money and time put into each procession is extremely extravagant and into the thousands and thousands of dollars. Interestingly enough, this week when I was talking with my friend Jose about Semana Santa and I was asking him if he enjoys the processions, he said that his wife, who is very religious, does, but he doesn’t enjoy them nor does he plan on watching them at all. When I asked him why, he said, because they (the religious celebrations) are idolatrous. Wow! He hit the nail right on the head. As strange as this may sound, being Holy Week and all, we have sensed a profound heaviness and strong spiritual oppression all week. It is so difficult to see people so fervently enthused and passionate about these religious celebrations, but yet not really understand, comprehend, nor live out the true message of Jesus’ life and teachings.

Video of procession—This is a procession we watched close by our house on Thursday evening.

We’ve been told that each of these “KKK” hats (see previous blog for more on these hats) cost around $500.

How many hours do I have to walk anyway (says the guy in the middle)? Yeah…well…that would be maybe about 6 or 7 more hours…better not start looking at the watch now!

I’m not sure if the little ones last that long…

-Kevin

Semana Santa & Tapas

2008-03-18T21:52:55Z

All schools and some businesses are shut down this week for Holy Week, and every evening there are processions parading through the streets.

If you are interested in a little more info on Semana Santa, read on…

Semana Santa dates back to the 16th century when the Church decided to present the story of the Passion of Christ in a way that the layperson could understand. It was decided that the best way to do this would be a series of processions through the streets, depicting scenes from the story of the fall and rise again of Jesus Christ. Today it involves a lot of money and glamour. I’m not sure how much is depicted other than who’s who in the Catholic Church, and who has the best procession, costumes and floats.

Most processions include two floats, which are very heavy. Strong men carry the floats, and trade off throughout the procession since they last for hours. We talked to a Spaniard last night who will be helping to carry a float tonight, and he described it as a great thrill to hear the band music from underneath, but very tiring to help carry the float. The float rests on the heads of many men, and he said that each man carries around 60-90 pounds.

The tall hats worn are not Ku Klux Klan. It is said that early KKK members saw the Semana Santa celebrations and adopted the costume, so impressed were they by the effect the design had on onlookers.

Check our blog later this week for more pictures, or check out April of last year if you want to see some pictures and video now.

We did see a procession in our neighborhood last night, and the kids were SO excited, as you can see by Ellie’s expression. It was too dark to get good pictures.

A few days ago, we went out for Tapas (Spanish appetizer-type foods) with our neighbors Cesar and Cristina. We’re sad they’ll be leaving in a few weeks to study in England for a few months. They’ll be moving back to Granada this summer, but to a different apartment, so we probably won’t get to see them as often.

I especially enjoyed this graffiti art.

30 Minutes to (another) Culture Shock

2008-03-12T22:33:53Z

Last week we rode the ferry into Morocco to meet with other workers for a retreat time. The ride from the tip of Spain to the top of Morocco is a short 30 minutes on the fast ferry, but a huge change in culture on the other side. The differences between countries are so great…in religion, food, dress, and other ways.

Our time together included…

Babysitters! Thanks Normie, Carmen, Bethany, Wendy and Kayla!
Wendy & Ellie

Kayla & Ellie

Evening game time

This one’s for you, Bob…

Sharing & communion

Here’s our group…

It was a refreshing time for us. On the way home (in Spain) we stopped in Algeciras and Gibraltar for the weekend.

Ellie loved the turtle (maybe too much) that took up residence in the back yard where we stayed. Yay for grass...we don't see it often!

Both kids had fun with the monkeys at Gibraltar.

And somehow I got a monkey on my head too!

It was really good during our time away to take some time to talk and pray about some upcoming decisions we have to make . It was a great blessing to just get out of our city and normal routine. Now that we’re back, we are hitting the language study hard. We are pursuing some schooling options for Evan & Ellie and hope to visit some schools this week. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers! -w

One-Year Anniversary!

2008-03-09T16:22:48Z

Yesterday, March 8th, marked our one-year anniversary in Spain. Whew! It has been quite a year!

Last year at the Columbus airport getting ready for the long trip to Spain

While we wouldn’t trade our experiences, learning and growth of the past year, we certainly would never want to have to go back and relive it either. (not for a million bucks!). Honestly, this has most definitely been the hardest year of our lives. And from what we understand, many workers like us who have come to Spain never make it to the one-year mark. We understand the discouragement and disillusion they must have felt.
For those of you who have gone before us or those of you who are doing this now, you understand the stress and difficulty of transitioning into a whole new world. One year ago, we arrived here hardly knowing a single person in the entirety of Spain, and we feel so blessed with the relationships and friends we have been able to make over the last year. We are so thankful for God’s sustaining grace in our lives and our faith has been strengthened through the tough days and trials we have experienced. We have been challenged to be faithful to Him, no matter the circumstances. We have been reminded of the importance to seek for the better hope of God’s presence over the better life of His blessings.
I recently read a quote that I really liked:
“The single best way to develop leaders is to take people out of their safe environment and away from the people they know, and throw them into a new arena they know little about. Way over their head, preferably. In fact, the more demanding their challenges, the more pressure and risk they face, the more likely a dynamic leader will emerge.”
Wendy and I have jokingly said that if this statement is true, then maybe now we’re ready to take on Hillary and Bill in the primaries:) Well, we’re not sure about the dynamic leader part, but we resoundingly resonate with every other part of that statement.
I think maybe to sum this all up, is that while this past year has been extremely difficult and challenging, our relationship with Jesus and our faith and dependence upon Him has grown deeper than ever. For those of you faithfully praying for us—thank you! Please continue to do so—we could have never made it through this past year without you.
—Kevin

What are we celebrating anyway?

2008-03-02T15:05:22Z

We’re still not sure if everyone took off work and school on Thursday to celebrate Kevin’s birthday, or Dia de Andalucia. In any case, it was a fiesta day, so we went with the church on a fun outing to the countryside. We did a little hiking before clouds started threatening rain, then headed back to the church for lunch.

Birthday Boy, Ellie & Cortney

Ellie & Noemi

Our friends Andrew and Jamie came for coffee in the afternoon. Ellie was fascinated by Andrew and sat and stared for awhile before rubbing his hairless head.

Jamie & Andrew

Jamie & Ellie

We’ve been packing for our upcoming trip to Morocco, and it looks like we’ll be able to take Ellie since she fits in the guitar case.

About our residency cards…we won’t be able to get a needed document in time, so we’ll be letting our cards expire and hope for the best when we get the document.

Here’s a parting shot of Evan & Miguel proudly displaying their coloring artwork.

Residency Cards and a DATE!

2008-02-24T20:56:27Z

Life has been happening. It comes, it goes, and it’s still here. The last few weeks we’ve been working on the process of renewing our residency cards. It hasn’t been pretty. After multiple visits to the police station and many hours of waiting in line, we still don’t have all the needed documents. We are praying that things will work out before we run out of time. We leave for Morocco in a week for a retreat with some fellow workers, and our cards expire while we are gone.

On a more positive note, we were excited to have a date last night! That’s right, just Kevin and I, alone, without kids! We had a splendid time, and greatly appreciate our friends Aaron & Holly and four kids for caring for Evan and Ellie! They had so much fun that they didn’t want to leave their house when it was time to go! At the beginning of our date, we happened to walk by a cathedral as evening mass was beginning, and decided to pop in for a bit. The large cathedral was pretty full and we discovered they were having infant baptism, so we stayed to watch. We were kind of in the back, but it was an interesting experience, and the music was pretty…

In one of his helping big brother moods, Evan offered to read Ellie her bedtime story. We like these moods much more than the chasing or tormenting or bothering moods.

Elephant for Ellie!

2008-02-13T22:22:51Z

Those of you who know our children well know that Evan has a stuffed Elephant that has been his pal since he was a baby. And that since Ellie has been big enough to be interested, she has been constantly trying to take Elephant from Evan and to say the least, the ragged little guy gets a LOT of love!

Guess what arrived in the mail yesterday but Elephant #2 from Grandpa & Grandma Byler!? They were able to find the exact same Elephant on Ebay...in his original soft light green (and unloved) form. Ellie was delighted to see him and has been giving him lots of love! Thanks G&G for such a special gift, and for the other treats that came in the package!

-W