Christ is Risen

Photo: Zagrilla
Photo: Small Tomb Stone in the Garden Tomb Jerusalem.

The church in Cabra is part of a wider church IEMA which is large enough to be recognised as a church by the Federation of Evangelical Churches in Spain. It is made up of the evangelical mission churches in the region of Andalucia. They are all about the same size as Cabra 30 to 40 people. Five churches all up. We had a great weekend in the Serria Subbetica, the mountain range close to where we live. It is near a very pretty, old village called Zagrilla. See the photo of the village at sunset on Saturday arvo.

I didn't have much idea what was going on. I guess being Easter we were celebrating Jesus' death and resurrection, or at least that's what I was trying to do. It made it a long weekend in more ways than one! By the end I was exhausted. Trying so hard to listen to the conversations, knowing one or two words every now and then and with those trying to fill the gaps in between. It's amazing how much you can make out of one or two words. Fantastic things which you find out later are completely wrong!

Tomorrow I go to Cordoba to begin Spanish lessons. Looking forward to learning more so I'm able to communicate a little better. It is quite frustrating wanting to say things, having things to say and not being able to express them adequately. With time and patience you do get by. The universal language of gesture comes into play. It is a good experience to go through and gives you an idea what it is like for people from overseas who come as immigrants to a foreign country. It does give you more empathy for their circumstance.

One of the hard things about learning Spanish in Cabra is that the Andaluces speak slightly different Spanish. They aspirate the endings, so Buenas Dias becomes Buenah Diah or even less pronounced sounds like Buena Dia. It's the sort of thing we do in Australia also with G'day. Also the crew at Cabra are characters so they speak in phrases, like we would in Oz also. Little sayings like "Killing two birds with one stone" and your talking about going out for a coffee and wondering why they're talking about birds and stones!

I'm really enjoying hanging out with the Cabra church people, Paco and Manolo and Sensi and Fede and Fenando and Gabriella from the church at Cabra. They are very patient and have 'taken me in'.

Happy Easter from Spain.

Christ is Risen, he has risen indeed!