Robyn.Bowles.es

We have been hoping and searching for a contact in Spain as well as a community of which we can be a part in Madrid. We had spoken with several wonderful people who know people in Madrid, but had yet to make the direct connection. . .

A few weeks ago I was browsing a website about Madrid and found a link to a church, so I decided to check it out. It is a new church forming in Madrid. I looked through the information about the people involved in getting it started and was especially drawn to the information about a young couple from Iowa who are there now. I decided to write to the wife of the couple, to introduce myself and ask about the church. I’ve sent a few emails to other churches, and never heard back, so I wasn’t sure what to expect.

The next day I noticed that the email had been sent back to me due to an incorrect address, but I wasn’t ready to give up yet. I re-sent the email to the “info@” address and requested that it be forwarded to April. The next day I received the church’s email newsletter. While reading through it I noticed that the couple (April and Kelly) were at that time in the U.S., and planning to be in Chicago the following day! I thought, wouldn’t it be great if we could call them “locally” while they are in the states? I sent another email to the church requesting any contact info they’d be willing to give, and sent our contact info asking that it would be passed on to them. This was about 6pm – midnight in Spain – so I didn’t expect to hear anything until the next day.
Samuel and I went out for a few hours and when we got back, I checked my email again and noticed a letter from April! The church HAD forwarded my original email to her. She had written it about an hour prior, and not only were they near Chicago, but less than an hour away in Kalamzoo that night.

Samuel immediately decided we had to do whatever we could to track them down that night!

After reading through their personal website and finding Kelly’s parents’ phone number in Iowa, Samuel called his dad, got the Kalamazoo information and called. To shorten this long story, I’ll just say that we decided to meet them that night! We left our house at 10:30pm, arrived at 11:15pm and proceeded to talk with them for about two hours.

It was the greatest blessing, and way better than we could have ever planned on our own.

We discovered a lot of mutual interests among us (including a shared love of Macs), they offerred great advice and tips and encouragement, and greatest of all – they opened their home and their community to us!

God works in such wonderful ways! We look forward to getting to know Kelly and April more and more, and to be welcomed into their Madrid community – their limb of the great body of Christ.

« The emotional toll of leaving …     Why Spain? »