Parque Este Connections Trip 09: "I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship"

Our first official day in Spain was marked by multiple firsts. Today was the first time we all spent time together as a group with all members present on both teams- Buckhead Church and Parque Este. Today was the first day we got to walk around Aracena and explore the area.

Today was also the first day that many of us encountered “the Dave.” And no, it’s not the newest dance craze since the Macarena or Electric Slide. “The Dave” is a system or set positions that derive from getting the desired photograph. It’s similar to yoga because yoga is a system of set of breathing exercises and postures that one does to achieve spiritual unity. “The Dave” also does not just consist of one pose, although it does have a signature. (See pictures below) “The Dave” is any position that one must change into to take a high quality picture. “The Dave” includes squatting/laying on the ground, leaning over ledges of tall cathedrals, and most importantly, sticking your elbows out with a slight bend in your knees. If your elbows hit people, signs, trees, etc. it does not matter because getting the picture is the prerogative. Now I’m explaining this all to you because “The Dave” is present in many photos. In fact, it’s kind of impossible to miss or avoid. You all may think “The Dave” sounds strange or very odd, but believe me, if you’re around it enough, you’ll find yourself doing it too. It’s contagious.

Now on to the important stuff. Our team met in JuMaris’s (that’s Justin and Amaris combined, kinda like Brangelina is Brad Pitt + Angelina Jolie) room for a group devotional and pep talk. Justin and I were the leaders of the day and we didn’t have any definitive plans except to accommodate and assist the leaders of Parque Este in relaxing and enjoyable activities in Aracena. We mentioned to our group that Pepe had told us the previous night that he had wanted to take a walk through town and go and explore the old cathedral that overlooked the area. Consequently, we all decided that we would go do that if the leader of Parque Este still wanted to do so. After our discussion, we all prayed for a successful and blessed day and set out to meet the Parque Este leaders downstairs.

We walked down the big steep hill that the hotel sat upon and made our way into town. Since Aracena is a mountain town, there were lots of hills and steep roads. It reminded me of San Francisco a little bit, minus the cable cars, tourists, Ghiradelli Square, piers… okay maybe Aracena isn’t like San Francisco after all… But in any case, the hills did make us to break a sweat and exercise. I personally don’t know how Kevin did it with al his heavy camera equipment, but I guess to professional paparazzi, this walk was nothing.

The walk to the old cathedral was very enjoyable because it gave us all a chance to talk to and get to know the various leaders of Parque Este. The walk also was the beginning of Ben and Marco becoming best friends (more on that later).

We didn’t exactly take the best or fastest route to the cathedral because none of us really had a map or idea of where we were going. We just figured we’d keep walking towards the church/cathedral. After all, it was huge and the main landmark. The only GPS we really had was Justin’s iphone and Pepe’s internal one that he jokingly said was implanted in his right foot. We were walking for a while when we ran into an elderly man who was sitting outside his house. Pepe asked him if we were walking in the right direction of the cathedral and he told us yes. Then Pepe asked the old man if he knew when the church was built. The man said, “I don’t know but it was there when I was born.” Consequently, this just reinforced the fact that the cathedral was very old…very very old.

We finally got to the cathedral and found out that it was actually a 13^th century Medieval-style Christian castle built over an Arab castle. According to the sign and the (un)official tour guide (none of us could figure out if he was paid to be there or if he did this just because there’s not much else going on nearby), the French army destroyed it in 1812 and was rebuilt again over a former mosque that was constructed during the reign of the Moors. The cathedral was breath taking and it made me wish that the United States had more historical buildings. We stayed there for a while listening to the (un)official guide then decided to visit La Gruta de las maravillas or the Cave of Wonders.

As we made our way down to the cave, I looked backed and realized that half of our group was not with us. We stopped and waited for 15 minutes but we did not see them so we sent Dave to see what was taking them so long. He returned a few minutes later and informed us that they were gone and thought that they took an alternative route to the cave. We kept walking towards the cave when all of a sudden we ran into another local. She was an elderly…well I shouldn’t say that, she was a more mature woman and was very friendly. In fact Ben and Justin were so touched by her friendly spirit that they asked her to take a picture with them. Pepa’s friendly spirit clearly shows in the picture below by her warm smile and also by where her hands are…if you know what I mean…

We reunited with our group at the Cave of Wonders (I think that was the name of the cave in the Disney movie Aladdin… little trivia fact you all can use next time you play trivia or if you’re trying to impress a date or employer). We weren’t allowed to take pictures because of the effect the flash would have on rock and crystal formations, but some of us… ahem Dave…became mavericks and took contraband photos. The Cave of Wonders was amazing because there were breathtaking halls and passages of stalagmites and stalactites. Stalagmites are formations of mineralized calcium carbonate that rise from the floor and stalactites are formations that hang from the ceiling. In other words, they are pretty crystal thingies that come from the floor or ceiling. You can remember that stalagmites are from the ground because the letter “m” in stalagmites goes from the ground up and the letter “t” in stalactites hits the ceiling. Who says this mission trip isn’t educational?! And I’d like to thank Justin and Justin’s science teacher for that tip.

After we came back from our adventurous morning and afternoon, we all enjoyed a wonderful lunch together at the hotel and then most of our group decided to go horseback riding. Now since I was one of the ones that stayed behind I can only tell you the stuff I heard. I was told that the horses and horseback riding were great except for Amaris’s horse who had a little boo boo and slipped so she had to jump off the horse to save herself. Talk about High Ho Silver…sheesh.

We then all reconvened for dinner and enjoyed an amazing meal together. We’ve had so many wonderful meals I couldn’t exactly tell you which one was my favorite but I can tell you that there was probably ham or a ham product in it. My message to vegetarians, vegans and non-pork eating people, bring your own food or be prepared to eat meals of bread, cheese, and olives. Oh and water too.

The night ended with some great fellowship. We said our good nights and made our way to bed exhausted from all the fun activities.

There wasn’t a huge profound moment from this day but the thought I had throughout it was that I felt so blessed that we had this opportunity to form new relationships with the leaders of Parque Este because of our common vision to carry out God’s will in our own lives and in the lives of others. Although we had just met each other, it felt like we had known each other forever and our bonds were formed quickly and strongly because of the love we had for serving each other and serving Christ. In the book of John, Jesus talked to his disciples about how friendship and being a friend coincides with one of His greatest commandment which is to “love one another as I have loved you.” (John 15:12) Jesus told his disciples “I no longer call you servants, because servants do not know their master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.” (John 15:15).

As I stated, today was the day of many firsts. There were many first experiences and occurrences. However, most importantly, today was the first day that we all became friends and united in a journey together to carry out God’s love and will to each other and to the people of Sevilla.