"To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven" Ecclesiastics 3:1

My dear friends...OH, how I have longed to swop stories with you all in person, to speak with you face to face and do life together.  Even though many of you are far, far away, I often think about you.  It has been almost a year now since I moved from Montreal Quebec to Albuquerque New Mexico.  It feels like yesterday and an eternity all at the same time.  I will tell you that when I left Montréal I was hoping to be in Spain as soon as possible, not wanting to be in transition for too long.  It has been difficult at times to wait these many months, sometimes feeling like a fish out of water even in my hometown.  As much as I didn't want to admit it a few months ago, I now realize that I needed this time to really process the six years I spent in Montreal in ministry. When you are a part of a church plant you undergo heart surgery about a thousand times.  When you move away from that church, no mater how good the reason is, you can experience the pain of loss that I can only describe as similar to the death of someone very special to you.  This year I have felt a bit bipolar concerning my emotional state missing my family back in Montreal with all my heart and at the same time so excited to move forward in my plans to move to Spain.  At times it has felt like a crawl this moving forward but I can not trust in my timing.  The Lord has been doing a work in my heart and I trust that He knows what He is doing with my life even if I do not always understand His ways.  If I move forward at all, it is one step at a time and by HIS GRACE alone.   

I am learning about what it means to wait.  Oh waiting... Is it as hard for you as it is for me?  I guess it really depends what we are waiting for and how important it is to us.  Right now I am waiting on an official document from Canada before I can go to the Spanish embassy to apply for my visa for Spain.  This is just one of the many papers I have been required to obtain in order to apply for a Spanish Religious Workers Visa.  I would like to tell you that waiting all this time for this visa to come together has produce a ton of patients in me and that my faith has increased ten fold but I will not exaggerate the truth.  In fact this year has been a huge mirror showing me just how much I struggle with faith and patients.  I have never been so provided for and have felt so venerable at the same time.  I have never received so many blessings and have felt so insecure.  I will not forsake telling you though, that the Lord HAS provided for me on so many levels that it would take all day and then some to write about it.  One example is that while I have been here someone donated a car to me...they just up and gave it to me.  Another example is that in February I found out that I needed an operation and within a week it was over and done with.  I have also had the privilege of being here for the birth of my third nephew Lorenzo Levi Gonzales.  He is hands down the most beautiful baby ever born.  I might be exaggerating just a little bit but in the words of Bono "love is blindness."  There have been so many ways The Lord has shown me time and time again that He loves me, that He is my provider and that I am in His hands.  Why I still lack trust from time to time, I will never know.  I can tell you that I don't deserve this amazing love but it is really there and that is for sure! 

While in ABQ I have had the great blessing of being able to audit the School of Ministry, (which I attended from in 2000-2001).  With mostly all new teachers and new books it has almost felt like I am attending for the first time, minus all the pressure of the mountain of assignments that are required to complete the school.  I get a few rolled eyes from the students now and then when they remember that the assignments are not requirement for me, but I hope they love me despite their derision.  The School of ministry has been a huge blessing.  Within the school I have made a lot of lifelong friend who it will be hard to leave when the time comes.  I have also been blessed with opportunities to minister to school of ministry student and kind of organically disciple a few of them.  This year I have also had time to build a team of partners in the ministry called a “Care Team” and some of these wonderful SOM students are part of this team.  A Care Teams purpose is to be the arm of my sending church which provides prayer support, moral support, communication support, financial support, logistical support and reentry support.  Basically a team of Awesome!  They help to keep me connected to my sending church in a way that this outreach to Spain will be the churches mission not just Bernadette going to Spain for ministry.  

I have also had time this year to contemplate what specifically the Lord might be calling me to focus on in ministry.  Throughout these many months I have had a deeper understanding that this world is only getting worse and that as a church body we cannot be afraid to reach out into the darker places of this world with the light and love of Christ.  There is no place on this earth that is untouched by Satan's plans for the absolute destruction of God's beloved human race.  Even in just this year alone our church family in Albuquerque has been hit by quite a few shocking tragedies.  Being in this time of transition I have had a lot of time to meditate on these things, to lift them up to the Lord in prayer.  I have asked Him what should our perspectives be and how we should respond in such a time as this.  Through all of this processing and through times of  prayer I found that my heart in a deeper way has been broken for the situation that women and children are facing concerning human trafficking.  This is an area of ministry/research that I would like to pursue while in Spain in addition to ministering to the people of the church, whether it be looking into volunteering at women's shelters, orphanages, or even maybe one day a safe house.  I do not feel that I am built to work in a humanitarian organization full time.  I know how important it is to use the gifts that God has given us for the edification of the whole body and my true passion in ministry is discipleship connected to the church body.  I also see it as important, if it be the Lord's will, that while in Spain that I continue to pursue opportunities of outreach to women and children in great need who are not necessarily connected with the church.  I dare not attempt these things on my own or without the support of my future church community.  

So It has been a long process/learning curve, this preparing to go but I take comfort when I think of King David and his time in the wilderness.  Even after he knew about the calling on his life to one day be king of Israel, he spent years in exile before it came to fruition.  The Lord is not slack in His promises and he does not need our help to bring them to pass.  He just wants us to trust an obey.   Please pray that I will have patients for this marathon that I thought was going to be a sprint.  That I keep my eyes on Christ, the whole reason for this crazy life that I lead.  With out Him my life makes no sense at all.  The Lord is faithful to complete what He began in us so the Bible tells us.  May we believe it! 

If you are interested in how you can be involved by way of financial support you can do so by contacting:

Global Adventures

Phone #: 1(505)338-3680

4001 Osuna Rd NE Albuquerque NM 87109

E-mail: contact@globaladventures.org Website: www.globaladventures.org