I feel like a horrible person for not writing sooner! So sorry for slacking on this!
On Wednesday morning, we sang at Jose Maria's church again, this time for an elderly ministry. They told us that there was really no outreach program to the elderly before the church took up the commission to create one, and that they have had an incredible influence on the community since then! Praise God! The rest of Wednesday consisted of train travel back to Madrid, then renting a couple of vans for team use in Pamplona and heading up there. We arrived after dark, but the Leatherwoods were very welcoming regardless! We will be staying in their huge house this week, which is the remaining (and somewhat renovated) part a 500-year-old castle! The family itself consists of Dan and his five children, Anelise (18), Aida (just turned 16), Andrew (9), Ashton (7 or 8ish?), and Avery (5 or 6ish?). He lost his wife, Lisa, to cancer two years ago, but the family is still faithfully serving God in Spain. Lisa was actually part of the very first VISION team, before VISION was even established! She was also the sister of J.D. Bennett.
On Thursday we spent the day mostly chilling and getting used to being in Pamplona, and we also got to wander the Castillo de Olite, which is a huge and very fairytale-like castle! Whoo! It's awesome spending time with the Leatherwood family and with each other as a team.
On Friday we walked up to the top of the hill that overlooks Artajona, which is the actually city in Pamplona where we are staying with the Leatherwoods. After lunch and some down time, we traveled an hour away to another church where we met the pastor. We walked around the downtown area for about half an hour passing out flyers for a performance we were holding that night in an auditorium in the local library, then had the actual performance. We had a relatively large audience, of which Dan said a few families were not believers! Dan is amazed by the extent of the openness shown to this group. Artajona has a speaker system throughout the town, and every morning the town announcements are given. This entire week, they've been announcing VISION's upcoming performance at the local Catholic church after mass, free of charge! The priest whose mass we are following used to turn and walk the other way whenever he saw Dan coming, but he's been asking more about us and trying to make sure we are being publicized!
On Saturday afternoon we went to a mall in Pamplona for a couple of hours to look around and wait out the rain, then we walked around the old part of the town and walked the route where they do the famous running of the bulls. When we got back home, we walked over to the Catholic church and performed for the post-mass audience there. We started out with only a few audience members, but the crowd grew with each new song and drama. And the reaction of the people was incredible! We even got a standing ovation at the end of our long performance. It's exciting to see God at work in Artajona.
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