Graced
Today has been an especially good day in Spain. As usual I am writing from a café, with my café con leche in hand. Just a moment ago while clearing a litter of twenty empty glasses in front of me the waitress made a crack about me having drunk quite a bit and having made quite a mess. Not only did I get the joke, but I managed to respond that, “Yeah, I was really thirsty.” Humor is especially difficult in a second language and it was an encouraging sign that I’m understanding. Earlier this evening, for a change of pace, I walked to a Lebanese and then an Italian restaurant near my apartment. (It is wonderfully ironic and indicative of our times that I find myself going to an Italian or Chinese restaurant when I want to feel a little more at home.) Both were closed. Instead I ended up at a previously undiscovered Spanish restaurant and dined on two fantastic Spanish specialties, gazpacho and paella. At work I put the finishing touches on the website for Agape’s national video and photography contest, “El Mundo Atraves de Tus Ojos” (”The World Through your Eyes” at comoloves.com), made significant strides in learning our film-editing software, and tutored a Spanish coworker on how to build a webpage.
For the most part, I feel like my whole first month in Spain has been graced in this way. Months ago, when I first considered returning to Zaragoza, I hoped and prayed that I would find a place to live in my favorite locale, Plaza San Francisco. My prayer was answered and my balcony overlooks the plaza and a daily montage of all the best of Spanish life. My door opens just a few steps from the university, from my favorite cafés, and from a bus stop on all the best bus routes in town. The first time I returned to my favorite café, Olga the attendant raised her eyes, and in that wonderful Spanish way, pointed to one of them in recognition. I said, “Hola”, but she insisted on two besitos (those small kisses to the cheek). She asked about my family and we caught up a bit. I felt very welcome. Also, already I’ve had the chance to see my brother twice, once for fun and once on the job. God has provided instant fellowship with old friends and new and a weekly men’s bible study with my coworkers. And finally, the many creative projects at work have been rewarding and challenging. My only lack, in the busyness of this first month, has been for times of stillness with God.
On my webpage you can view a photo exposé of the Fallas, a Spanish fiesta like no other. The last day of the Fallas début with an earth-shaking, spine-tingling, I-think-I’m-in-the-opening-scene-of-Saving-Private-Ryan-ing, fire cracker show. We were amongst the survivors, and we spent the next several hours touring many of the three-hundred huge papier-mâché sculptures that populate every street corner and crossroad in the city. Around midnight every arsonist’s fantasy is fulfilled when they are all burned. T-minus two hours and counting we camped-out to save a front spot to see the first prize meet its fate. When the time came, the mob behind us was crowding and pressing forward only to be startled into a backwards stumble as a curtain of sparks showered down upon us… and then there were rockets and fireworks till the whole thing was burning and smoking furiously. At the intense blaze, the crowd instinctively shrunk back about ten steps just as the firefighters lost hold of the fire hose and it whipped back towards us. Once they had apprehended it, their connection to the main pipe busted. It was classic, and it was glorious. And I hope you realize by now that you must see this spectacle yourself at www.grublet.com/spain. Just click on the tickets, and then on the photos.
May 7, 2001
For Easter I had the privilege of traveling South to the most famous of Spain’s Easter spectacles: Semana Santa in Sevilla. My brother led me to a plaza in the city center, just a block from Sevilla’s Guiness World Records sized cathedral. Before long, hundreds of “penitents” started streaming through the crowded plaza, clad in long, klanish white robes and white pointed hats and masks. Their covered faces are meant to represent their self-abnegation, and their pointy hats are supposed to direct glory toward God. But the crowd’s horizontal gaze leaves no doubt that the penitents, in all their fanfare, are the attraction. Nonetheless, when the floats arrive, each borne on the breaking backs of thirty men, the crowd hushes in reverence for the statues of the suffering Christ and of the Virgin Mary. An old lady, barely audible from her third story balcony, sings a song of thanks to God. I am touched, and I wonder if this garish display might in some way be honoring to God. For a week, thousands and thousands of penitents walk and countless floats are carried through the city in honor of Christ’s death and to pay penance for sins. On Easter Sunday, a single procession passes through the city in honor of Christ’s resurrection. It is attended by a smattering of bystanders who watch without elation. Surely there is some great insight here into the religious life of Spain, but I do not pretend to perceive it.
Speaking at length with my neighbor on the train home, I learn that he bore one of these floats on his back. I ask him why? Whether it was meaningful? He is young. He says that it was “cool”, “fun”. He says he enjoyed the way the crowd applauded when they would heave the float onto their backs. His sentiment is not unusual. When I attend Mass here I am one of a very few under forty. I am continually struck by this widespread indifference within a culture so rich in religious reminders and pageantry. So, we are trying to gain a fresh hearing for Jesus in a culture full of religion, but sorely lacking in the experience and knowledge of God.Much of what AgapeCampus does in Spain is designed to give Spaniards a glimpse of God. Each summer we walk the last 100 miles of the Camino de Santiago with many of our Spanish friends. As we trek together through God’s breathtaking creation, our Spanish friends get a glimpse of Christian fellowship. Several of them have come to Christ in recent months specifically because of seeds planted on the Camino. This last week I completed a brochure, webpage, and promotional video (my first film) to encourage our friends to join us this year. See: agapecampus.org.
AgapeCampus has also been using art in a number of ways to help Spaniards catch a fresh glimpse of Jesus. For our Cenas Colloquias, in the afterglow of a hearty dinner, we discuss great paintings with our friends that express humanity’s grasping for God or illustrate an episode from the life of Christ. Paintings have included Caravaggio’s amazing “Doubting Thomas”, and Van Gogh’s “Starry Night”. Each painting is accompanied by the biblical story or a related quote. One discussion centers around three poignant paintings that express CS Lewis’ concept of “sehnsucht”, that longing for another world that sometimes pierces our soul. I designed posters for these discussion dinners that display each painting much more dramatically and incorporate the accompanying quotes. I’ve also designed a webpage for Agape’s national student video and photography contest, “The World Through Your Eyes”. See: comoloves.com. This creative spirit has extended as well to a weekly artists meeting and our involvement in publishing a book of poems by three Christian friends and colleagues. All of this experimentation with art in our ministry has been tremendously helpful to me as I contemplate my own future as a writer and artist.
Our next big project is a video of several new Spanish Christians sharing their testimony. We have struggled to determine just how to best present their stories and there is a mountain of editing waiting at the end of our filming. Several other projects also beckon and I most definitely am not lacking for work. But it is good, challenging, and fun work. I feel privileged to be here and a part of what God is doing in Spain.Thanks for your support, for your prayer,Nathan Jacobson“What seems to me one of the strongest proofs of the existence… of God and eternity — is certainly in the infinitely touching expression of such a little old man, which he himself is perhaps unconscious of, when he is sitting quietly in his corner by the fire. At the same time there is something precious, something noble, which cannot be destined for the worms… This is far from theology, simply the fact that the poorest little woodcutter or peasant on the heath or miner can have moments of emotion and inspiration which give him a feeling of an eternal home, and of being close to it.” (Vincent Van Gogh, The Complete Letters)
Prayer Requests
- Our original movie-making goals have become a little lost in all the other smaller projects vying for our attention. Please pray that God would guard our time and lead our minds to creative pastures.
- My eyes are bugging-out from too many hours in front of a computer screen resulting in sometimes splitting headaches. Pray that I can find some way to avoid this problem before it seriously diminishes my ability to work.
- A number of Spanish students are raising support to join Campus Crusade summer projects in the States. These projects are a tremendous time for training them and expanding their vision. Pray that they would be able to go.4. Pray that I would long for and find times of quiet stillness with God in my very busy schedule.
