Chapter 8: Almeria Alegria

October 2017, Irma stepped in the plane on her way to a big adventure, a pilgrimage of trust. She is about to explore the life in a small community together with two other girls that she doesn’t know, to pray together, help the local church of Vicar and Roquestas and share the values of Taizé. She went in trust toward great uncertainty and returned with many good memories, experiences and friends. She was hosted like part of a family and promised to return one day. http://taizecomunidadvicar.blogspot.com/

That day has arrived now. How precious it was to see all the familiar faces of these friends again and introduce them to Gideon. How good to see the smiles of recognition, to meet pastor Antonio, to be in these churches again, and in Cosario. Cosario, our own little house, which felt so luxurious after a time of travelling. Our own beds, shower, kitchen and washing machine. And best of all, our own chapel, that still had all the Taizé decoration, like how Irma had left it. Antonio even was so kind to buy food for us, so that we had a full fridge upon arrival. During our journey, we believe that God leads us and provides for us. We left with a small but precious budget of money given partly by friends and family and we believe that in Gods hands this will provide for all we need. We felt so blessed by God fort he provision He showed through this gift of Antonio, and the kindness of everyone that invited us to eat with them these days. We even got bags full of fruits and bell peppers and fresh eggs from a woman who showed us around in Berja, because she got them in abundance from a local farmer. Here in Vicar we saw how rich we all are if we share from our abundance.

What did we give to this community in return, you might ask. First of all, the joy of seeing old friends. But also time. We gave our time to help with the social work, our time for everyone that needed a listening ear, a hug, someone to talk to or play with.

Every Tuesday and Thursday children from the neighborhood come to Cosario to do homework together with the Carmelite sisters, Carmen and Mila. On Wednesday these lovely sisters go to another quarter of Vicar to visit and play with children that live in poverty there. These weeks we joined them and it was so rewarding to see these children smile and to play and hug them. All the love that you give them comes threefold back to you. 

One of the difficult but beautiful places that we visited was the prison. Manolo, one of the pastors, has a weekly ministry to visit the prisoners and to engage with them, and every Saturday he leads the Holy Mass. This week we were invited to come along. It was the first time for Gideon to visit a prison, but Irma immediately saw some familiar faces from her visits last year. In endless joy we were received. During the mass we were amazed by the depth that the faith and hope in Jesus has in places like this. Together with the men we were delighted to sing, and we were invited to read from the Bible – in Spanish.
Prison can be a dreadful place, but when it is received as a time of self reflection, rather than a time of punishment and a place where creativity is stimulated rather than neglected, it can be a place of hope. And this we saw here in Almeria.

Another day we helped out with Caritas, the social work platform of the Catholic church that organises food distribution and other goods for the poor. Together with three ladies who work for Caritas we went to a village where a lot of Marroqui live, to hand out baby nutrition and other needs for their babies. We had some time to spare before we started the distribution and were invited by one of the Marroqui women in her house. She made some coffee for us and quickly baked a cake. After a while more people that knew we were there and we would soon start distributing would come and join us. This was one of our first experience of Arabic hospitality and I am curious what our time in Beirut later in March will be like. After this encounter Irma has a bit more of an impression of how easily welcoming people from this regions can be and we are looking forward to it.

Pastor Antonio is a man that knows many different people. Everywhere we come, people somehow know him, and he know the right people to get us in the right places. So one day he said: ‘Do you want to present the story of your journey to secondary school students? Because I know a religion teacher who would love to have you.’

So the next week we gave a presentations in five different classes in two different schools about our journey, and about Taizé, because that’s how we came to Almeria in the first place. First of all, we introduced the children with the Monastery of Taizé, and why so many young people go there every year, and secondly we explained how Taizé and many other people and projects have inspired us to set out on our journey. It felt absolutely incredible to stand in front of the classroom, and to encourage the students to find out what their dreams are, and what the stories of others are, because every one is interesting. To tell that their dreams are possible to realize when you have faith, for ours was made possible by having faith in God. We tried to convey the trust that we felt from the teachers – inviting two stranger from the Netherlands, and not knowing what they’re going to tell, is a real leap  in faith. For also trust is one of the pillars on which our journey is found.
We finished our presentations in a small Taizé-style prayer. This means, inviting all the students, and the teacher, to go and sit on the floor; sing some repetitive songs, read a part from Scripture, and let the silence inspire the children to think and pray over what they just heard.

After our first day of presentations, we still had a few hours of spare time to waste before we had any other plans. And what is a better place to waste it than the Spanish beach. On our way down to the beach, we encountered a small Dutch camper van, and as we just preached that every person is interesting, we tried to see if there was someone in the van. To our luck, there was. We introduced ourselves to a bright, blond lady, who has been traveling from the Netherlands down to Spain, for about the same time as we have. She was surprised that we stopped by her because ‘nowadays couples are way to much into each other, with no eye for the people around them,’ she said. To which we replied: ‘We believe that everyone we meet has an interesting story, and if your traveling in a van from the Netherlands, even more so.’ We explained the purpose of our journey, and she was amazed by our zealousness for following Jesus. She wasn’t too religious herself, but in the past few months, when she needed some time away to sort her life out, she felt strongly that Jesus has been revealing himself to her and guided her from place to place. Especially in the Basilica of Vezelay, France, she felt a strong presence of Light that gave her rest and hope. To which we told her our stories of Vezelay, and that this doesn’t sound unfamiliar to us as well. Before we left, we prayed together with her, and we were very glad to have met her, and she with us.
This is one more encounter that tells us: everyone has an interesting story, as long as you’re willing to step out to them, and listen.

Our days in Almeria came to an end, but we couldn’t leave just in the shadow of the night, so we decided to organize a little fare well party in our little house in Cosario. We invited Antonio, Manolo, Marie-Angeles and the Carmelite Sisters. We had a wonderful meal and prayer time afterwards.
During the evening mass, Antonio asked us to come to front and to give us a blessing for the rest of our journey. Together with the whole church he sang a blessing for us, and laid his hands on us as a sign of sending us out in the name of God. He then asked every one in the church to come forward and to bless us and pray for us. We felt like the first apostles Jesus being sent out to share His words. And in our best Spanish, we thanked the church, saying that we really have found a family in Spain.