Back in BCN after our conference

Published on August 15, 2010 in News. 3 Comments

Is there anybody out there? (seriously, I’d love for you to comment if you read this)

We went up to Germany for our annual staff conference called Connect. It was a great time of reflection, encouragement, laughter, and community. We rarely spend time with other Christians, so it was nice to be around so many whom get us, our lives, and what we’re doing….whom we also ‘get’ in return.

Thanks for your prayers for us!

We’re heading out to the States in less than 5 days and have a ton to do. We can’t wait to see family, get time to rest, and connect with people that we hope to share a bit of life with. While travel with 2 little ones is exhausting, it will be worth it!


Residency Appointment to Pray For

Published on October 21, 2009 in Prayer. 2 Comments

If you happen to read this post before or around 9:00am Spanish time (12am west coast time), please take a second to pray for our residency appointment. This is the appointment that will determine whether or not we will get the residency we have been working towards for nearly a year.

According to our lawyer here it is ‘a miracle’ that we even got the appt at all! She helped me build our files and we have everything that she thinks we need. We have heard of situations where people have what the law requires but still have been asked for more. So please pray that we have everything and that we are met with friendly government employees tomorrow! It truly is a miracle that this has come into place so quickly and we hope that this answer to prayer has strengthened your faith as it has ours!

Thanks for checking out the blog and keeping up with what is going on! We’ll be in touch soon!

Residency Work

Published on October 14, 2009 in Family, News and Prayer. 1 Comment

Today was a long day and we have some next steps and some good concrete information. In that regard, today was a success! Earlier this morning we were able to get into the office we had hoped to get into and we were able to speak with someone that was really helpful and nice. However, they would not/could not (who knows the difference in these offices) process our application. They basically told us what we thought they would: we would have to go the normal route of sending in a fax and being called back in a number of weeks with an appointment scheduled for a couple of months later. Yes, that is the ‘normal’ route.

We left the office and our Kelly called a Christian law group in Spain called Ferede that helps Evangelicals establish residency in Spain. He spent some time on the phone with the lawyer and after he hung up he told us that we had an appointment at noon to explain our situation further.

On the way to the appointment Kelly told me that the lawyer from Ferede didn’t sound too optimistic about our process. When we got there and talked more about our situation, the lady saw some valuable information about our visa: it doesn’t expire for another month. Therefore, if we sent in a fax noting that this is the case we may be able to still get an appointment scheduled for later down the road. The fax in and of itself is a piece of us establishing a timeline here in Spain, so getting this done was a good thing. Another blessing was that the lawyer offered to be our direct contact with the government. This is also really good news.

So our best case scenario right now is that they would accept our request for an appointment and that the appointment would either be really soon, or after the baby is born. Our worst case scenario is not great at all, but at this point it still doesn’t require us leaving Spain and the life/work we’ve begun. That would obviously be a very disappointing thing.

The good news about our trip is this:

-We had a great time with our friends here and Maisie got some time to play with her friend Alleke! We were all encouraged by our time with each other and it was great to get some time to process life, ministry, and living in Spain with people who have been through all of this before!

-We did what we had to do on this trip and sought out all avenues of getting our situation immediately resolved. Now we have to wait to hear back from the office of immigration to see what our next step is.

-We have been able to process our situation with the help of professional lawyers who see that there is hope that all will work out. This is comforting to know!

Please continue to pray for our residency. The ‘full on’ mode of the past week has been really intense and we have already had our trust challenged and built up, resolve tested, and had to rely on our God for His peace. It reminds me of the book of James chapter 1. I resonate all the more with enduring and finding hope in trials. But all this to say, the process is still just beginning. With the help of Ferede, it will hopefully be less unpredictable and we’ll get clear information on the steps that we will need to take next. These people are truly a blessing and I am so grateful for their work.

I also wanted to take a second to say ‘publicly’ how grateful we are for our friends in Madrid who have empathized with us, gone to meetings with us, translated for us, cooked for us, housed us, got us paperwork….We are so grateful that we have a community of people here who understand and are so quick to serve our needs! You are a great model of what ‘loving one another’ should look like. Thank you!

We’re going to be heading home soon…our next steps are: wait to hear about our appointment, continue to prepare for the baby and enjoy being excited about him (!), and keep engaging with the world around us to shine the light of God’s kingdom! Thanks for your prayers! Don’t stop praying about this…this process has only just begun. We just get to enjoy this time of waiting and focus on ‘the important’ things of our lives!

Talk to you all soon!

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


Moving Progress

Published on August 21, 2009 in Email Updates. 0 Comments

Hola Everyone!

We’re getting so excited about our move! We can’t believe that we’re only 3 days away from getting on a plane and heading to Barcelona! We can’t wait to get there and see what God will do through and in us as we strive to extend the Kingdom of God. Our desire is to live out what Paul talks about in 1 Thessalonians 2:8…”that we would not only share the Gospel of God, but our very lives as well.”

We wanted to give you a heads up on a few of the biggest issues that we’re facing so that you can pray about them over the weekend. Cleverly, they all start with an ‘F’!

1. Finding an apartment

We’re still looking for a place to land when we first get to Barcelona. I’ve made appointments to look at places for our long term needs, which will be even easier to do on the ground, but finding a place for a week has proved harder to lock down! Pray that we’ll be able to find something central and affordable before we leave!

2. Finances

We are so grateful for the many of you that sacrifice so greatly on our behalf. We are always so blown away by God’s provision in our times of greater need. We are currently facing two issues in this regard:

-The increasing strength of the Euro will effect our living costs in Barcelona. While we have already made the commitment to live below our means as best we can (which may just be a reality!), the change in the exchange rate will play a factor for us. Despite all of this, God is already at work and providing for us. We’ve had 5 new supporters start supporting us this week and even more that have expressed some sort of commitment! It seems that God always meets us when we step out in faith! Reminds me of the story (Joshua 3) of the Priests of Israel stepping into the Jordan in faith that God would hold up the water…While our miracles are not quite that fantastic, we are blessed to experience ‘simple miracles’ that build our faith in the same way!

-The other financial matter at hand is one of our overall financial picture. Our traveling to and settling in Barcelona is a big expense and will take a big bite out of our support account. We are still praying that God would provide an additional $3,500. This money will go to our: Apartment Deposit, Residency Fees, and to provide a support reserve in our account in case of emergency, sudden loss of support, or months of shortage. Our desire is to land in Barcelona and be able to focus solely on the work at hand, and to not give unnecessary attention to our finances. Would you pray about this for us? Would you pray about how you may be able to help us with this need? If you have any questions, please contact us!

One great bit of news is that we were able to get our banking situation figured out Stateside. We’ve opened a new account that allows us to manage our account online and will interface well with the account we’ll open in Barcelona. Little things like this can be complicated in our situation, so we are grateful all went so well!

3. Fitting everything in our bags!

We have 5 big suitcases, 4 carry-ons, 1 guitar, a car seat, and a stroller! A big weekend task is going to be making sure we can fit everything we need and keep it all within the weight limits! We’ve become good at packing and moving (maybe too good!) so I think we’re up for the challenge!

Oh, and one last thing:

4. Family!

Jen, Maisie, and I are doing good, and so is baby boy Powell. Our spirits are up and we’re excited to go. Maisie has grasped the concept of flying to Barcelona and is excited because she knows that her brother is going to ‘be in Barcelona’ sometime after we get there.

Jason, Amy, and the Kids continue to be gracious hosts. None of us expected that we would have been living in their living room for 5 weeks! But God has given us much grace and we all still love each other!

Finally…

Here’s a quick list of things to pray for:

Pray that:

  • We get Maisie’s visa soon!
  • Our weekend is productive and we are able to wrap up any loose ends
  • Our flight is uneventful and we get some good sleep
  • Even our goodbyes will be times of joy
  • We’ll find an apartment very soon!
  • Our last bit of funding will be provided and that God will continue to Bring new financial partners! (yeah God!)

Thanks so much for your encouragement and prayers! It was so great to hear from so many of you after our last update! We are so thankful for you and we are grateful for the passion that each of you have for Europe and the people there! Lives will be changed for the good of this world and to the glory of God!

We’ll write one more time before we head out…talk to you soon!

Grace and Peace,

Justin, Jen, and Maisie


On Our Way to Barcelona!

Published on August 15, 2009 in News. 0 Comments

¡Hola Everyone!

Yes you are reading the subject right! We are moving to Barcelona in 10 days!

Thanks so much for your prayers for us over the past few weeks and specifically your prayers for our visa situation. The email that I sent to the consulate two days ago was received really well. The Chancellor of the Consulate is giving us permission to have a family member pick up Maisie’s visa when it arrives in Los Angeles (hopefully not ‘if’ it arrives!). So, in the meantime we can move to Spain and wait for Maisie’s visa there.

We are thrilled to get over and begin this next chapter of our lives and ministry. It has been a long time coming for all of us. To the point where I almost feel like it is surreal! But we trust that God’s timing is good and we are happy to have waited on it regardless of how difficult it was at times. We’re looking forward to sharing videos, pictures, and stories from Barcelona where we know that the good work of God in our lives will continue to work and serve the many in Barcelona who do know the hope of Jesus.

We found a really great deal on our tickets too! We leave on Monday the 24th of August. The tickets that we found were nearly $1000 cheaper than the days before and after. Before taxes they were less that $300 each! This is the cheapest we’ve ever been able to fly to Europe! (Check out http://www.yayama.com to see the site we used). We’ll have two layovers on the journey, which is nice to have the trip broken up a bit with a little one. It is weird to think that this will be our last flight with only one child!

Our bags have been packed for nearly a month now, but in the next ten days we’ll be working with more urgency on many of the things we’ve been doing over the past couple of months:

  • Studying Spanish
  • Looking for apartments in Barcelona
  • Final fundraising efforts (we’re almost there!)
  • Getting banking set-up stateside
  • Last minute organizing and packing up
  • Getting extra pages in our passports
  • Connecting with people in Barcelona
  • Wrapping up life here
  • Saying Goodbyes

There are many things that we could use your prayers for! Here’s another list for all of you ‘list types’:

Pray that:

  • we find a temporary place to live when we first arrive.
  • we find a good apartment to live in for our first year.
  • we can get a bank account, phones, and other things like that without any holdups
  • our travel will be uneventful and everything makes it ok
  • we get Maisie’s visa before we leave!
  • God gives us courage, grace, and peace as we settle in
  • God will provide the funds we need to move and settle well

We’ll send out another email soon and let you know how things are going.

***Please take a moment before finishing reading this to give thanks to God on our behalf for all that He has, is, and will provide!

Psalm 126:2-3

Our mouths were filled with laughter,
our tongues with songs of joy.
Then it was said among the nations,
“The LORD has done great things for them.”
The LORD has done great things for us,
and we are filled with joy.

We’re so grateful for you all and for your prayers for us during this time. We’ve learned and experienced things that have made us more resilient, determined, and ultimately more faithful. Thanks for your partnership!

Talk to you soon!

Grace and Peace,

Justin, Jen, and Maisie Powell


Newest Visa Update

Published on August 13, 2009 in Email Updates. 0 Comments

¡Hola Todos!

We hope that you are all doing well and living in the freedom that we have in Jesus (Gal. 5:1)

A lot has been going on since we have written last. We wanted to update you on what is going on with our visas and some decisions that we have coming up for which we could really use your prayers.

Since writing last, I’ve visited the consulate in Los Angeles twice, called numerous times, written a number of emails, and all three of us went this morning. The fruit of all of this has been us learning that there is no new information on Maisie’s visa. To say that this is frustrating is an understatement! I don’t remember if we’ve communicated this or not, but we moved out of our apartment on July 18th and have been living with our family since then. We expected to get our visas a month ago and to be living in Barcelona already! There are a few other things that complicate our situation even more than it is…

The Spanish Consulate doesn’t know why Maisie’s visa is being held up and they don’t have a timeline for when it could be granted. It could be tomorrow, or it could be another month. This uncertainty makes it really difficult to make plans and it seems like even they are at the mercy of the Immigration Authorities in Spain. From what we learned today, the only way we could communicate directly with this office would be if we were to ask someone in Madrid to go to the office on our behalf. This may become a legitimate option if we don’t hear something soon. We drove up to the consulate today to try to come up with some creative solutions to our problem. There aren’t many options and it may be hard to be given a loophole in a very structured system. I am going to be emailing the head of the consulate again today and asking him to consider some options for us.

In addition to this, Jen is approaching her sixth month of pregnancy. This puts a different type of deadline on our need/desire to move. Our window to move soon is shrinking as we need to fly before Jen isn’t allowed to fly anymore. We also need time to learn the logistics of the medical system in Spain once we get there. Jen has been doing a lot of reading and communicating with people about this, but there is only so much we can do from here.

One of the biggest bummers of us not getting our visas is that we will be missing our annual staff conference called ‘Connect’. We’re really sad to be missing this time of community with our friends and coworkers as we only see most them once a year. This is the first one we’ve missed in our 5 years of being on staff. I still have a little bit of hope that we could go, but as the days go by we are increasingly letting go of our sadness to miss this and moving on.

Because of these things, we are going to be forced to make some big decisions about when we will be able to move to Barcelona. Our hope is that we’ll get Maisie’s visa and be able to go ASAP. That is what we are praying for, working towards, and is our best case scenario. But we’ve learned that God’s timing is not ours and we have to trust that His is better. So, please pray about this for us.

Considering all things, life is going really well. I can definitely see how our struggles have helped increase our prayer life and we’re feeling a very real dependence on God. (Which is one of the best aspects of being missional people!)

Jen and I celebrated our 8th year of marriage Monday! She surprised me with a really romantic picnic and we had a great time spending a few hours just the two of us. She is such an amazing wife and I’m so thankful for her partnership in the craziness of our lives. The pregnancy is coming along and Jen’s belly is quickly growing. The baby’s kicks and punches are a lot more obvious now and Maisie is getting excited about having a baby brother. Her due date is November 28th in case you were wondering.

Despite living in such close quarters, we are enjoying living with the Edwards’. Maisie and Avery play so well together and we are so glad that they are connecting in such a special way. Our time with family is precious and we enjoy laughing, talking, processing, and praying for all that is going on in our lives together.

Here is a quick list of things that we can use prayer for:

  • Maisie’s visa to come quickly!
  • That we receive a positive response from the consulate in regards to our email
  • God to give us wisdom and faith in the decisions that we need to make
  • Continued financial provision
  • God to continue to fill us with hope, vision, and passion (Proverbs 13:21)
  • Jen and baby to remain healthy
  • That we’ll be able to move soon and the logistics to all come together

Thanks for your prayers, support, and encouragement. We are so grateful that we have a team of people that are passionate about Europe, love us, and believe along with that God is working all things for good through our lives…despite how lost we may feel from time to time. We are thankful for you all!

Please feel free to share any thoughts and words that the Lord has given you! We could really use encouragement and any wisdom you have to share!

Grace and Peace,

Justin, Jen, and Maisie Powell


Fires in the Mediterranean

Published on July 27, 2009 in News. 0 Comments

BBC NEWS | Europe | Mediterranean fires still burning

If you haven’t heard already, there are massive wildfires burning all along the Mediterranean Coastline, including around Barcelona. Officials are saying that it was caused by arsonists.

Please pray for the families of the 6 Spanish firefighters who lost their lives last week.


76 Days and Counting

Published on July 9, 2009 in Prayer. 2 Comments

76 days ago we applied for our visas. If you had told be that we’d still not have our visas by now, I would not be that surprised, but would be disappointed. And as I sit here and type, we don’t have our visas and I’m not surprised but kind of bummed about it.

In a week and two days we’ll be out of our apartment. Our stuff will have been sorted. Some given away. Some sold. Some ready to be shipped. I’m really praying that we’ll have our visas, our plane tickets, the support we need, and even more faith as we’ve seen God, once again, take us to the wire and teach us to trust.

Join us in praying for these things! Thanks for keeping up with our lives…

Justin