A view of the sunset from my rooftop in Mijas, I love my new neighborhood
Something I have been thinking about recently is if people actually know what I’m doing. It seems simple but I think amidst all of the traveling, Facebook photos, and hearsay about where I was last or where I’m going to be it could be a bit confusing, especially for someone who keeps up with me only through the blog. While I’d love to have conversations with everyone I realize it’s not realistic so hopefully this blog will provide a better look into my life!
I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say this fall has been one of the harder times I’ve had in awhile. Not so much the “tons of bad things happening, making drastic decisions, to much to do” type hard but more of the “stillness, my life isn’t crazy, tons of time to think, who am I and where will I be in 10 years?” type hard.
For me it’s much easier to find closeness with God and even value in life when the circumstances around me are way up or way down. In fact, this is usually the litmus test for where I am in my relationship with Him. Through this I’ve noticed a lot of inconsistency because many times my spiritual authority has mirrored my positional authority which isn’t good
Why? and What does all of that actually mean?
Well I’ll say it this way: since my positional authority in life (event coordinator, church roles, leadership position, job title etc.) will more than likely be like a roller-coaster sometimes going up, down, or upside-down (even if it doesn’t seem like it’s necessary), my spiritual authority (relationship with God, identity in Christ, listening to what he is saying about me) should be more like a level highway with bridges and tunnels not bending (even though it seems like it needs to) to my surroundings. It seems pretty obvious, but I think I’m just getting to a point where I can clearly see the difference in my life not just hear someone else talk about it.
This is a reality that I feel confident in building my life on and while I’m not 100% sure of what my “building” will look like one day, I want to share some of the bricks that I’m laying right now that I think will give you a good idea of where it’s all headed.
1. My City
Malaga is the city I call home and where most of my family in Spain lives. While there is a surprisingly large evangelical community, in the past is has had a of lack unity amongst pastors and has yet to see a movement of God that changes Spain like we know is possible. This is changing. There is a growing desire to more of what God wants for this city and my ministry, Burn 24/7, has a huge role to play. These next few weeks we are organizing an event called “Proyecto 132” (Project Psalms 132) where we will gather churches, pastors, and musicians from all over the city and surrounding areas for one purpose: To come together and set aside time to give God the worship he is due with no other agenda. It sounds simple, but I believe these nightly meetings will give God a space he is rarely given in our busy church culture, and set the stage for what he going to do here. These meetings will be at different churches throughout the city for about 17 days during the next 3 weeks and will last up to 6 hours a night with different groups each taking 2 hour sets. (Nov.26-Dec.14)
A shot from me teaching english here in the village…love these kids
2. My Chuch
While I came to Europe simply to see people grow in intimacy with their Father through worship, it would be pretty misleading to say that having “times of worship” is what I do with most of my time. God has always put the desire on my heart to tangibly influence a community and bring his kingdom to people regardless of their beliefs in God.
One of the ways I’m doing this is by teaching English. In comparison to the rest of Western Europe, Spain has a struggling economy and in my city poverty and joblessness is even more accentuated because of the immigration from Northwest Africa, and Eastern Europe. Providing a skill set like learning a second language can really change someone’s life and the economy. Especially when the church steps out and offers it to people who couldn’t normally afford it. In January I will be starting this program at my local church as we are continually working on new ways to reach out to our community.
3. My Mission
I love thinking about the big picture. What was nice about this summer was I got to see more of what God is doing throughout Europe, and I really believe that what I’m doing here in Spain directly affects what is happening through Europe and into Northwest Africa. One of my goals is to help Burn 24/7 Europe build a platform for missions reaching from the next country over all the way to the ends of the earth. Even now, I’m starting to organize trips for this summer where we are going to travel throughout Europe, worshipping in keys cities, supporting our Burn family, encouraging other like minded people, and even go places where there is nothing and declaring the work God is going to do. Burn Europe is taking one of their first trips to India this spring and it’s encouraging to see how hearts for the nations are growing as our community of worshippers grows. We are continuing to build great relationships with our friends in Morocco and have been looking forward to investing in them more since our last trip.
As far as attempting to explain my life in a blog 1000 words or less…that about sums it up!
I know this was a bit different post but I want to be as real, honest, and descriptive as I can be with the work I’m doing so please don’t hesitate to ask me more questions about what I’m up to a aboehm88@gmail.com.
What's God's Point? 