Giving Voice
Last time I wrote I described an evangelistic tool we were developing called a University Survival Kit. After working till the eleventh hour, some nine thousand kits are now in the hands of university students in the cities of Malaga and Barcelona. Here in Barcelona we asked our Christian friends to save us from having to assemble the five thousand kits ourselves and sweetened the deal with the promise of Chocolate Chip Cookies. A throng of eager students answered the call of the sweet tooth within and we spent the evening inserting CD’s and sticking stickers, laughing and praying. It was exciting for us to see their excitement at being a part of this initiative on their campuses. That next week the Campus ministry manned the metro stations and handed the kits out as students emerged from the subterranean metro tunnels and into the light. The kits were received enthusiastically, and it is exciting to think that so many students have the Gospel in their hands. Still, it is impossible to know just what affect the kits have had in the hearts and minds of most of the university students who received them. We have received relatively little feedback from the website, but the responses we have received have been very positive. Some want to know more about Jesus, and some are Christians who want to be involved with our ministry. This is our first effort of this kind and we are listening carefully so that we can learn how best to speak to the longings of Spanish university students. (more…)

How can I describe the last months? I spent last summer hiking through the breathtaking hinterlands of Northern Spain and running a refuge in a cow town amongst throngs of friends, relatives, pilgrims, and neighbors. This year, as the rest of the Agape staff headed for the hills, I retreated into my cave in Barcelona. For two months I have been working away day and night in relative obscurity. It is an awesome thing to be alone with one’s self. Not a few wise people have suggested that the reason we busy ourselves and fill all the nooks and crannies of our lives with noise and entertainment is because we dread our own company. Well, my own company has not been all tea and pleasantries. In these many undistracted hours I have dwelt at length with my will’s unrelenting equivocation, with ulcer –inducing anxiety about rent and bills, and with feelings of inadequacy from pushing up against the limits of my creative abilities. My soul is worn ragged, and yet… and yet God has made himself present in a new and reassuring way and given me a taste of that peace that passes understanding. This tumultuous time for my inner life has turned out to be a rich blessing. So, what have I been working on these many days? (more…)

LIFE : Our lives continue to be interesting. Recently, on our way home, we passed a crowd of drunk, English soccer fans (”hooligans”), brawling as part of the traditional post-game celebration. Exiting the plaza, we passed one such stumbling drunk being “helped along” by four or five of our neighbors as they rifled through his pockets. I stopped and yelled at them to leave him alone, causing one of them to charge at me muttering and gesturing something to the effect of, “stay out of this, or else.” Considering the situation in haste — his wallet or my health — I walked on. My coworker, Nate, recently interfered in another robbery provoking the thief to come at him with the sharp end of a broken bottle. Just yesterday we confronted a neighbor who was slapping and kicking his girlfriend at our front door. Actually, we rarely feel threatened by the criminal element in our neighborhood; they know us and they leave us alone. They leave us alone, that is, as long as we do not interfere. (more…)

Our lives are at once bitter and sweet, beautiful and horrible. Louis Armstrong whispers “O What a Wonderful World” while another Rages Against the Machine. Sixpence pens songs about “This Beautiful Mess” and Alan Paton puts his “Cry for the Beloved Country” to paper. They all speak truly, for this is the human condition. And it is the Christian story alone that begins to make sense of this profound paradox. My recent short film, “Speechless”, attempts to recount the story of our world, a work of art created in beauty by a good God, but perverted and corrupted by its inhabitants. We look around and see that this is true. The Good News is that God is restoring His people to beauty. The arts have a unique ability to retell this story to a generation that is wary of the Church and its checkered past. Indeed, in our experience in Spain, the arts have found eyes and ears to listen where other expressions of the Gospel have failed. I have also been encouraged in this process by the immediate enthusiasm for the studio amongst fellow post moderns, both Christian and not. (more…)