Monthly Archive for September, 2009

Apartment Update!

Published on September 6, 2009 in Email Updates. 0 Comments

¡Hola Todos!

We wanted to write and give you a quick update on our meeting about the apartment.

We had our meeting with the owner yesterday and things went really good! She and her husband have decided to lower the rent by 15% and we can now afford to rent it! We’re really excited and thankful for God’s provision in this! It’s a great place for our family and a great place for gatherings, dinner parties, and things like that. We’ll be moving in our when our friends move out at the end of September.

There are so many advantages to this situation… to name a few:

  • The owner speaks English perfectly and really cares about her property (and is a really cool lady),
  • The utilities will be all be transfered directly to our name (which means no start up fees or month long delays in internet and phone)
  • Our friends will be leaving their lights, refrigerator, and other things normally not in unfurnished places
  • We won’t have to pay a months worth of rent to an agency because we’re working directly with the owner.

Here’s a picture of the windows on the street (with Jen in the shot a bit too). It’s the three windows with the small balconies:

We’re going to start collecting things we’ll need when we first move in. We don’t have any furniture anymore! Pray for good deals and that we’ll find what we need! It’s nice we’re living in this studio for so little money and can put resources towards things we’ll need for the apartment!

A couple of months ago, someone said to us, “Maybe you haven’t moved to Spain yet because the perfect apartment for you isn’t ready?” They may have been right! Thanks so much for your prayers about this! We’re really grateful!

Talk to you soon!

With Much Gratitude,
Justin, Jen, and Maisie


Fùtbol and Apartments

Published on September 4, 2009 in News. 0 Comments

¡Hola Todos!

We hope you all are doing well and experiencing God’s presence in your lives…

We wanted to drop you a quick line and let you know of some really cool things that have happened and are happening soon that you can be praying for!

Fùtbol…aka Soccer

The other night I (Justin) was in a pub watching the FC Barcelona match (the Barcelona soccer team) and I struck up a conversation with a guy who was also watching the game. I had great conversation with this guy and we talked a lot about life, his experience with church, and the soccer team he is playing on here in Barcelona. Another guy from the team was there and invited me to go out for ‘training’ (ie. practice) on Thursday.

So last night I headed out to the field for practice. When I got there I realized that I was the only American and (to my happiness) was not the least skilled player…but close! I had a really good time and enjoyed meeting the guys. The team is incredibly international and speaks a fluid mix of Spanish and English. The best part for me was after training was over! (for more than one reason) All the guys were hanging out and I was able to get to know a few of the guys better and have some more meaningful conversations about why we are here, relationships, breakdown of marriage in society, and the Church…and of course we had some laughs too! I am so grateful that God has me stumbling into this after only a week and a half! So please pray that:

  • My soccer skills to greatly improve quickly! (I’m only kind of joking)
  • My conversations to continue to be meaningful
  • I’ll fit in quickly with all the guys
  • My body won’t fall apart!

Apartment News

If you remember from our last email, we found a nearly perfect apartment for our lives and ministry here! The only problem is that it’s out of our price range! I did get to talk with the owner (who lives in France) about lowering the price over the phone last week. We have a meeting with her tomorrow in Barcelona! Please pray that we will connect well with her and that she would lower the price so that we can afford it. Our meeting is sometime between 2:30pm and 4:30pm our time.

Also, last Tuesday we moved to a new studio flat for the month of September. It’s brighter, cleaner, more comfortable and cheaper than our place when we first got here. We’re living here temporarily while we look to find a good long-term place to live…hopefully in this neighborhood! Here’s an action shot of me looking for apartments online:

Financial Update

Since getting our visas to move to Spain our support situation has been really up and down! We’ve had a number of new supporters come on board, but have had nearly equal the amount have to stop! So, while we have gained new financial supporters, we have also lost donors who have faithfully given for a long time. We have been praying that God would bring along 15 new supporters at 100 dollars per month. We are on the way with 1 family already committed today! Praise God for how he provides for us in all things! Big and small! Would you please pray about this situation along with us? Do you know anyone who we might be able to get in touch with that might share a passion for Europe? This extra support will go towards Maisie’s pre-school, our language school, and our housing.

Family Update

Jen, Maisie, and I are doing well. We are so thankful for the few friends that we have made already and for the opportunity for me to play soccer. We’ve been amazed with the conversations we’ve already had about God’s grace and love with new friends! We have found people to be very inquisitive and open to hearing about what we are doing here. We are so blessed to have already found people who have been so welcoming to us newcomers in the city! I know that things don’t always translate well in email, so to say it outright: God is working all around us already! We are amazed at how clearly we are experiencing Him going before us!

So far, I think that our move has taken the hardest toll on Maisie. She was so used to playing with her cousin 24/7 and now she is starting over with friends…and that’s hard for a 2.5 year old! She asks us daily to play with “friends.” We want to get her in school ASAP so that she can be with other kids!

We have found a couple of options for the birth of the baby in November (or December if he is late like his sister). Jen has been working hard at figuring out how this will work and we are hopeful that one of the options will work out. If not, we know this baby is coming sometime and that God has the right situation prepared! One thing to pray about is that on top of Jen’s eczema she’s gotten heat rash due to the humidity! Maisie and I have it a bit too…Thankfully, the weather will cool off this week and it will hopefully go away!

Thanks so much for all of your prayers! Here is a quick list of things to pray for:

  • Our meeting with the owner of the apartment we want tomorrow!
  • Maisie to find friends and be absorbing Spanish quickly
  • Us to continue to develop relationships with people in the neighborhood
  • Justin to be a blessing on the ‘futbol’ team and continue to make friends
  • Us to have wisdom in choosing which options we’ll pursue for the delivery of baby Powell
  • 15 new supporters at 100 dollars a month

We’ll be in touch soon to let you know how our meeting went. Thanks for your prayers for us, our ministry, and for the people of Barcelona…We are all blessed by your love for us.

Grace and Peace,
Justin, Jen, and Maisie Powell