I Still Have My Computer

“Why you want know my name?” the guy who had stooped down next to me and started chatting with me asked me in broken English. He was young, about my age. Caucasian, not exactly fat, but certainly not skinny. He wore blue jeans, a blue Puma brand sweatshirt, and nice shoes. He didn’t look like a needy person, physically speaking.
“Okay, don’t tell me,” I said. Geez, it seemed like a fair enough question. I knew Spaniards weren’t exactly friendly to strangers but, wow, this is strange.
It was a beautiful day. It was about 1:50pm (Madrid time). I was sitting on the ground on top of the “mountain” in the park behind the YWAM base thinking about the class we had just had and writing a few thoughts on my laptop. The class had been about the cross of Christ. The class was really good. In fact, I actually cried in it. (In case you don’t know, I don’t cry often, but thinking of the cross does occasionally bring tears to my eyes. This happened when the teacher was talking about the meaning of the last words of Christ, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?”)
“I want money,” the young man said.
Ah, yes of course, he’s robbing me!
“Sorry, I don’t even have a cent on me right now,” I said, truthfully.
“Oh, I sorry,” he responded, pointing to my laptop. “I going to have to take dat, den.”
I laughed nervously. “Yeah, I don’t think so.”
“No, give it to me.”
“Why should I?”
“If you not give me dat, I punk you.”
Okay, good. He doesn’t have any weapons.
“You’re going to punch me, are you?” I asked, standing up. He stood up also. He came up to about my shoulders. What a sad theft attempt. He’s alone, unarmed, smaller than me. Poor rich kid.
“Take off your glasses,” he tells me. “I not want dem break.” I took off my glasses cautiously watching him. He didn’t hit me. The act reminded me of Inigo Montoya, the Spanish fencing prodigy in the Princess Bride, when he helped the man in the black to get to the top of the cliff and even waited for him to clean out his shoes before attacking him.
“Okay, hit me,” he said.
Isn’t that your job? I thought. “Uhhh, no,” I said aloud. "I'm not going to hit you."
“Hit me, hit me,” he insisted.
“No,” I said. “Hold on a sec. I’m going to put the computer in the bag so we don’t break it while we’re fighting.” I kneeled down and put the computer in my backpackThen I stood back up, ready to fight or flee. We looked at each other. Then he looked behind me squinting.
“F***ing police!” he muttered. He repeated his interjection once or twice and slowly began to walk away. I looked around. I didn’t see anything.
“Thanks, Lord,” I said and walked back home for lunch.

What's That, Lord?

Is that really you, Lord? How can you ask so much? Wasn’t it a gift from You? Didn’t You give it to me for a reason? I’ve already given it to You, so what more do You want? You can’t really mean it. Okay, if You really mean it, prove it. Give me a sign. What? Your command is enough? I already know what to do? Okay, I’ll do something, but why this? Why can’t I give something else? Maybe the translator, or the backpack, even the computer! Anything! Why this? Oh, come on, won’t you just give me a little sign? No? Just this feeling You’ve put in my heart? But is this really from You? How can I know? Oh, right. Of course it is. I wouldn’t have thought of this myself. Would I? Alright Lord. I know it’s from You. I know that You want this of me. I obey, Lord. Take my camera. It’s Yours already. I gave it to You when I bought it. If You choose that it should change hands, so be it. I want to obey You, Lord. I wouldn’t want anything to stand between us. Lord, I love You. Always.

What are you talking about, David? Okay. Now for a little explanation. This week, we are learning about spiritual warfare. This morning, after a lesson on materialism, our teacher told us to pray for a few minutes and ask God to give us the name of someone He wanted us to bless. He also told us to ask God how to bless that person. Well, we did, and I felt that Lord was telling me what to do. I didn’t really like the idea, but I knew it was from Him. He was asking me to give away something very precious. Not only was it a very expensive object, but it was also something that represented a dream of mine, it was something that you might even say was a part of me. But the Lord was telling me to give it away. So, after much struggling with the idea, I obeyed. The teacher gave us a five minute break in case anyone felt that God was telling them to give something that was in our rooms. So after watching a few others leave the room and after struggling with God a little more, up the stairs I went to my room to get the camera. When the time came, I presented the camera and gear to Jona, my DTS mentor.

Well, the Lord confirmed to me that it was the right thing to do. After taking the heavy camera bag in his hands, Jona put his head down, touched his face to the bag with a lot of emotion in his face, and momentarily began to cry. He picked up his head again and began to tell how it had always been his dream to use photography in service to the Lord. He said that his wife and he were planning on going to the store this very day to buy a camera. Not one like mine, of course, because they didn’t have the money for it. But, he said, the fact that this camera came right before they were about to buy a camera could only be from God. As he was saying these things, I couldn’t look up. I wasn’t crying actual tears, but I had my face down on the table. I was realizing the camera was gone for good. Another of the students, Claudia, the expecting wife another classmate, got up, stood behind me, put her arms around me and began to pray over me with her gentle voice. I was grateful for the comfort she gave. Jona told me a few minutes later on the way to lunch that, even before I gave him the camera, he had felt that God wanted him to have a professional camera, although he didn’t have the money for one.

So I know now that this was from God, and I am happy for it. It’s interesting, perhaps, that He didn’t give me the sign I asked for before my obedience, but after it.

Praise and glory to Jesus

First Week

It's been my first full week here, and it's been quite nice. The first week of classes has been pretty good. The topics have been orientation, worship and intersession. We've had times of prayer for each of the students. This was a very good and interesting time. We went one by one through the students. Each of us gave our testimony, and the rest of us had the opportunity to pray for and bless that individual. It was really cool. We had worship here twice. The worship was pretty intense. That's cool though. Friday night was the weekly evangelism night. We set up a booth in the town center and gave out free hot chocolate, had conversations with people and invited them to a meeting next week here at the base. Yesterday, some of us went into Madrid. We didn't go to any museums, but that's okay. There's plenty of time for that later. Last night was game night. The games were nuts. Or chocolate, rather. Hmmmm. (You can ask me about that later.) This morning was church. I went to a church called Iglesia Evangelico Calvario, or Calvary Evangelical Church. It was not too far different from my church back home except that the service lasted about twice as long. For lunch we had a special meal. The three Chileans got together and cooked a traditional Chilean meal. Wow, it was good.

Well, do keep praying for me. There appears to be a bug going around, so keep that in your prayers. Also, pray for my room mate, Christian. He wasn't a Christian before coming here (except in name), so pray that he would be able to understand and accept Christianity without being too weirded out.There is a married couple here attending the DTS and the wife is expecting a baby in July, so please keep Claudia in your prayers, too. Also, there is a girl here from England named Vicky who was estranged from her dad very early in her life. He lives here in Madrid and the two of them will be getting together sometime next week. Please pray for her.

A street performer in Madrid

Mucho Gusto Conocerte

I've been here three days now. Several of the other students are here and they all seem really cool. We are a very diverse group. We are Americans, Canadians, Spanish, Chileans, and one girl from the Faroe Islands. The school has it's officially begins tonight. They are preparing a special meal to kick it off. Mmm, it smells good.

Arrival

I have arrived safely. I'm here in Torrejon de Ardoz, a town just outside Madrid. So far, it's been fine. I'm the first student to arrive, so it's pretty quiet here so far. I had a nice video chat with my mom and sister over Skype. I'm very glad for the Internet. Well, other than that, there's not much to report.
Now I will return to my fight with Jet Lag. (Not to be confused with Jet Lee.)

First post

Thanks for checking out my blog, I should have something more interesting coming soon! For now, this is a picture of some kids in Santa Cruz, Bolivia.