The Mercat. Valencia's oldest market.

The trip got off to a rought start with arriving just in time to the gate because I had a person at check-in who didn't want to take my ID. Luckily my friend was kind enough (after he had just taken us to the airport) to go back to my apt. and pick up my passport and bring it to me! So I made it to Valencia and it's my job to collect all of this demographic information and document it. Getting started can be really difficult, but the Lord provided! There is no one difinitive way to do all this. So we get started by looking on the internet where restaurants, stores, government groups and churches that may have the information we're looking for. Just showing up at their doors, and asking a lot of personal questions can seem pretty strange. And it is. That's why we do a lot of praying before and during this scavenger hunt! The first thing we did when we arrived was go to a neighborhood that was known for having a high population of Latino immigrants and walked around asking for a restaurant that is in the area. The first people we asked spoke some English! (this never happens in Spain!) A passer-by heard us and asked if we needed help finding something. This girl was just a lil older than I, and had spent some time living in Australia, so she spoke perfect English! We never found out about a restaurant, but after carrying on a short conversation and sharing with this girl why we are here, she gave us some information that helped us get started on this adventure! Her mother went to a protestant church, and so she called her mother and gave us the address of it right there on the spot. "L" (the girl on the street) is 7 months pregnant with a baby boy and waiting on the father to move to the city with her and get to know her family. L says she no longer attends church b/c she's been to "naughty". So please prayer for L. Before I leave I'm going to write a letter to her thanking her for her help and to encourage her to find her way back to the church and Christ.The information she gave us lead to us meeting some missionaries who then introduced us to another pastor and some other nationals, and basically all the of the information that we've collected. So the Lord used this girl, who felt she wasn't good enough to go to church, to facilitate all the work we've done here. Hopefully the information we found will lead to other missionaries coming here and spreading the Truth to the city of Valencia! This is a beautiful city, and I'll hate to leave, but I'll be glad to be home for atleast a little while! Thank you for your prayers and your messages. It's so encouraging to here from you!


The science center. This is one of Valencia's major attractions b/c of the architecture, this picture really doesn't do it justice, though. It poured rain 2 min. after I took this!