Pirates of the Spanish Main!

So here is the saga of the our shipping container. It's a long and tragic tale, not for the faint of heart. Read on if you dare!!

We went with a company we will call Bob. Bob said the truck that we would load all our stuff (winter clothing, bed, etc. etc.) would arrive on Tuesday. On Monday I called Bob to confirm that the truck would be there on Tuesday. (We had asked a bunch of folks from our church to come and help us and all our utilities were going to be turned off on Wednesday morning.) Well, apparently Bob forgot to book the truck and was less than forth coming about that little detail. With a flurry of phone calls and lot of sweat and tears, a truck was booked for the Wednesday and the closing of the utilities postponed to the next day and all of our help graciously rescheduled to come the following day.

On Wednesday a truck did arrive as promised and our wonderful friends loaded the truck in less than an hour.

Fast forward to the end of August. Our container is shipped from the US and arrives in Spain on Sept. 4th. Our lawyer here in Spain begins to work on having it cleared from customs. Because it is a container full of personal items, there should be little paperwork and no import fees.

Apparently Bob booked the "worst company in Spain" (words from our attorney) to receive our container. We'll call this company "Stanley" Instead of writing "Personal effects" on the paperwork for customs Stanley puts "For Resale". Stanley realizes the mistake and crosses out "For Resale" and writes under it "Personal Effects". Guess what? Customs didn't buy it and hit us up for a TON of import tax.

Weeks of our attorney throwing paper at them ensue. Add to that a trip to the US Embassy and the Spanish immigration office in Madrid, several missed classes at language school and blizzard of paperwork from our offices in the US.

The final resolution was that we were given clearance from our freight fund from our home office to pay the ransom to have our possessions released. It should (Lord willing) get here tomorrow at 10:00.

During this process the Lord has taught us a lot about patience, and that there are indeed things we can live without. (Although I highly recommend a real bed instead of an air mattress on a hard wood floor.) Did this work out the way we had planed? Nope. But it didn't catch God by surprise. He is a God of grace who loves us and gives us the strength we need every day.

And now for something completely different.

A huge thanks to all of you who have responded with Bug Bite remedies. I've been using them! From Hydrocord-a-whatever-it-is to ammonia I've been using them! Apparently I'm alergic to what ever is biting me. I had a few new bites last night. One was on the Elbow. Now I have two elbows on my right arm. Thanks for all your tips and most importantly your prayers!

~Tony

Tomorrow is Our First Final

Do you know how long it has been since I've taken a college exam? Well we have one tomorrow. I expect Anna to do well since she is the studious type. I, on the other hand, stay mostly confused during most of the class. The smiley face above captures that look exactly (well I have curly hair and he's bald, but you get the idea).

The grammar teacher told us the grammar part of the test should last about two hours, after which we have the conversation part of the test with our conversation teacher. The longer we talk the better our score. Ordinarily talking long wouldn't be a problem, but when your vocabulary is that of a 5 year old... it might present some difficulty.

On the other hand, our teacher said we are all doing well in class. Normally the A1 class only gets to Chapter 6 in the book, but we are the first class to ever finish the book.

Well I gotta go cram for the test.

Here's a question for you. What do you call someone from the United States of America? Someone from France is French, someone from Japan is Japanese, how about the U.S.A.?

Oh other highlights I want to mention more about later:

• I had the privlidge to speak at the International Church of Madrid.
• Our Stuff is being held up in Customs.
• We had a few more "care packages" arrive as well as a card signed buy a lot of our Youth from PC 1st! Thanks guys that was such a blessing!
  

There is Spanish then there is Spanish...

As I've mentioned in previous posts, Anna and I are taking Spanish Classes at the University of Alcala. Prior to coming to Spain all of our exposure to the Spanish has been Latin American Spanish, and in some ways there are some huge differences.

If your familiar with Spanish then you know that Spanish verbs conjugate like this:

Beber (to Drink)
Yo Bebo (I Drink)
Tu Bebes (You Drink)
El/Ella/Usted Bebe (He/She/ Drinks)
Nostros Bebemos (We Drink)
Usted Beben (They Drink)

There is also another tense that we use in the Southern US all the time but is very rarely used in Latin America but is often used in Spain. It is Vosotros form. Going back to our example it looks like this:

Beber (to Drink)
Yo Bebo (I Drink)
Tu Bebes (You Drink)
El/Ella/Usted Bebe (He/She/ Drinks)
Nostros Bebemos (We Drink)
Vosotros Bebeis (Ya'll Drink)
Usted Beben (They Drink)

Then add to that, many words we learned from our Lain American Spanish are not the same!
Coche - Car
portatil - Laptop
Ordenador - Desktop Computer

And this one really threw me! Torta in LA Spanish is Cake... here in Spain... it means Slap! I'm sure glad I didn't walk into a Pasteleria and order the Mocca Torta to go!

Thank you West Florida!

Thanks to the wonderful provision of our Lord we now have our Speed the Light vehicle!

A lot of people have worked very hard for this to happen. Our West Florida DYD Scott Lingerfelt, who crosses the district with a passion to see lives changed through the power of the cross. Our home church, Panama City First Assembly of God and Lead Pastor Phil Edwards and Youth Pastor Ryan Johnson, for all their love and support. Not to mention all the Pastors, Youth Pastors and the incredible, awesome, youth of West Florida!

We love you all an appreciate your hard work and sacrifice. From all of us, a heartfelt "thank you". Every time we get in the car we thank God for all of you.

Our First Care Package!

Today we received our very first care package from the States! It was full of all kinds of treats from home. Kool-aid, Microwave popcorn (with cheese!), Mac & Cheese Packs and Pop Tarts! Stuff that is very hard to find here and if you can find it, it will be quite expensive.

All of us express our heart felt thanks to Cheryl, Ron & Brittany Hartzer for their kindness and generosity! We love you guys!

A special shout out to Britt, one of the special young ladies in our youth group back home!


And about that exciting news I mentioned in my last post... you'll just have to wait until tomorrow :)

A Plague Upon us...

Being from Florida we are use to mosquitoes and other biting insects. (Mosquitoes are so big in Florida they might as well be our state bird!). Bugs really never bothered me in Florida, I guess I don't taste very good (too much garlic in my food I suppose). But here in Spain the bugs must love garlic. Something has gotten into our house the past few night and really made a meal out of us, and boy does it itch! If anyone has some advice on how to treat horribly itchy bug bites we are all ears!

In other news some very exciting things have happened! But I'm not going to tell you what just yet (I know, I'm a stinker). As soon as we have a moment I'll let you in on some cool stuff the Lord is doing and had done! I gotta get back to conjugating verbs...

Second day of School..

...and our brains are melting. Well it feels like that anyway. All four of us newbie missionaries wound up in the A1 class (beginner class). In addition there are two girls from Holland and one from Serbia and another from Korea. Since it's a small class there will be a lot of interaction and we can be salt and light! Pray that we'll have opportunities to share the gospel with our fellow students and teachers. And pray that our brains will hold out. Each day we cover about four weeks worth of material.

School Starts!

Today Anna and I, along with new missionaries Shawn and Deb Galyen and veteran missionary Ellen Cannon started language school! Due to an accident on the road, traffic was backed up for quite awhile and we were late for class. Everyone at the school was taking the placement test to see which class they would be in. The Test consists of 100 multiple choice questions (in Spanish) a short essay (in Spanish) and then an oral test where one of the instructors has a conversation with you in Spanish.

The good news is I was the first one to finish the exam! The bad news is I only knew one answer on the test (I think). I'll definitely be in the A1 class (beginning class). Anna did really well. She was one of the last ones finished and even had a conversation with one of the teachers.

Tomorrow we find out how we did and begin our classes. Well, the others will anyway. Today I found out that you have to register to pay sales tax on your car. The car dealer where we are getting our STL vehicle from tried to complete the transaction but could not do it because we had not registered to pay the sales tax (It never occurred to us that we had to!)

So tomorrow I get to play hooky and pay taxes... I think I'd rather be in school.

Prayer Points:

• That we can get our STL car by Thursday so we can use it for our long trip to Tarragona, Spain where we will be having our Missions Orientation.
• Our Attorney will be going to the Government offices tomorrow to straighten out our Visa problems. Her name is Silva, please pray that God will give her favor and wisdom.
• That we can learn Spanish for God's glory (Especially me!).