Thursday, June 4, 2009

June 2009




Sin Dios, ni Patria, ni Amo

These words of graffiti are written on the apartment building where some of our immigrant friends and families from Africa are living in a neighborhood near our home in southern Spain. These words mean, “Without God, or Home Country, or Love.” Many immigrants come to Spain from Africa in search of a better life, survival, peace, or just to find a way to feed their families. When they arrive in Europe they often find these dreams very hard to attain; and they become lonely, hungry, and sad. We hope to become friends with many immigrants in order to offer them friendship, hope, and a sense of “home.” We are hoping to start a center for immigrants called “mi casa es tu casa:” (my home is your home.) This center will serve immigrants from Africa and provide a place they can come to receive food, clothes, friendship, learn Spanish, share meals from their home countries together, and discuss spiritual questions in a home setting. (For the full project description see below, towards the end of this post.)

Please pray that we will be able to help our immigrant friends “experience God, a sense of their home country, and love” here in southern Spain.

African Experience in Yegua Verde

Yegua Verde (Spanish for “the Green Mare”) is a small community in the middle of many greenhouses. Many immigrants live here and work in the greenhouses. Recently we were invited to a new friend’s home in this area for a meal. It was an incredible day. We arrived with vegetables and drinks, and Tiffne began helping the women prepare the meal of cheb-o-gin (Wolof for “rice and fish.”) While the meal was cooking we watched a video and looked at pictures of a beautiful Senegalese wedding. The children also enjoyed seeing the sheep that was tied up in the yard. During the day there were about 15 people from Mali and Senegal visiting together. The men ate from one large platter, while the women and children ate from another large platter. In Africa, each person just eats a pie shaped portion in front of them. The platters are placed on a mat on the floor and everyone gathers around to enjoy the delicious meal. After lunch, which we ate about 3:30 p.m. we drank ataya – delicious, very strong African tea with mint leaves from their garden – while we watched the men cut up the sheep that they had killed, and Megan had her hair braided into cornrows. For the rest of the evening we visited outside while everyone cooked the sheep seasoned with salt, pepper, and magi (an African version of beef bullion) on the grill and enjoyed tasting the “barbeque.”

Prayer Update:

  • Please pray for Megan as she finishes first grade – her second year in school here in Spain. She will have a dance recital at the end of school also. Please begin to pray for her new teacher next year.
  • Please pray for us as we prepare to travel to the states this summer for medical stuff. It is possible that Cade, Dylan, and Tiffne might each need small surgeries. We will also all have various medical appointments and check ups. Please pray that our medical situations will be able to wait for care in the United States and not need sooner treatment here in Spain. Pray that the follow up after our surgeries will be straight forward and easy to accomplish.
  • Please pray for our friends from Africa, that during the lean months of summer they will have enough to eat and would also begin to understand the “Bread of Life” that will satisfy the hunger of their souls.

mi casa es tu casa project description:

Project Info:

mi casa es tu casa

Account #: 89834

Contact Info:

twhitley@thefellowship.info

blog: http://www.nabcsf.org/

click “Banana Boat Blog”

Being an immigrant, migrant worker, or refugee in a new land can be lonely, depressing, and often times just plain scary. Through our work in the Almería province of southern Spain we have seen hundreds of internationals live through this type of despair just hoping beyond hope that they can find a job, a friend, or a meal. This project “mi casa es tu casa” is aimed at providing a place of rest and help for those internationals struggling to find a way. We hope that this ‘casa’ will provide hope and a sense of ‘home’ to those that have left their homeland and families in Africa. We also hope that this ‘casa’ will be a place of rest and spiritual growth for missional church team groups who come to work alongside our ministry. It will be their ‘home away from home’ in a sense too.

Project Goals:

  • Provide a safe, immigrant friendly site for groups to meet, study, and fellowship together.
  • Create an easily accessible food and clothing distribution site that will allow us to track and follow-up with those that we minister.
  • Establish a place that would facilitate congregational mission involvement by providing a readily available place to house volunteer teams who will work in the ministries of this center and with our other projects through the missional church programs.

Project Involvement:

  • Pray…Pray for the peoples who make dangerous journeys along the migration routes from Africa to Southern Spain.
  • Give…Support the work of CBF field personnel by giving to the Offering for Global Missions or specifically to this project. Send donations to: Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, Resource Center, P.O. Box 101699, Atlanta, GA 30392. If giving specifically to this project, be certain to include this project’s account number in the memo line. (project # 89834)
  • Serve…Join this ministry by sharing it with others and by participating in mission service.

Love from the Whitleys in southern Spain

twhitley@thefellowship.info


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