SEVILLA, SPAIN

yesterday, our friend sean came to houston for a visit to the consulate. sounds important doesn't it? sean and i were on staff together at a small church in fort worth for a few years back in the last millenium. his family now live in spain, and have been waiting on visa issues to clear. they are part of a church-planting team in sevilla. last night we hung out at the apple store for a little and he took me on a helicopter tour of his city and where they are ministering. there's not a better way to listen to a missionary than standing in front of a 24" iMac with google maps. i told him that it was way better than flannel-graphs and pie charts.

during our conversations, we discussed church-planting and the path they are on in sevilla. they are currently half-way through a 1 year language/culture introduction. this is very significant in their context because they need this time to get acclimated to the culture. successfull planters don't just plop down into a country and start doing church - notice i said "successful." in many ways, we were sharing stories. we may be planting a church in an american city, a texas city, but we must be careful to apply the same sort of respect for those people we are trying to reach - our culture.

league city is different than houston. it's different than galveston, san antonio, austin, dallas or fort worth. we must understand the place where god has planted the springs. what do the people in this area think about work, family, play, etc.? what values do the residents of our area share and wish to promote? what music do we listen to? what papers do we read? what struggles do we share? all of this information allows us to be springs that promote life in this context. we are not content to just sit back and watch other people suffer. we wouldn't do this if we passed an auto accident, and we can't do that with our friends, neighbors and co-workers.

as we continue along this incredible journey, reach out, pull someone else into the life-sources we call friendships - the springs!