Hope for Sevilla

After 1 1/2 years of separation, our church planting team is together once again!!! There was much rejoicing at the reunion of families Blacksten and Acton. The Actons were mostly just glad to hand over Sushi, our dog, after five months of houndsitting. Sean (hereafter known as "Juan" to the Spaniards) and Shelley (pronounced "Chelley") are jumping right into full-time language school while staggering their schedules to accomodate Shaphan's homeschooling. Two days after arriving in Spain, Shalyn (now Chay-lynn) started in a Spanish school learning the language the hard way. We all try to speak what we have learned in our new host language, but only German words come out...God, grant us mercy!...Our house is very comfortable, but somewhat smaller than Germany. Right now one bathroom is being used as a storage shed until we figure out what to do with all our extra stuff. The first phone call we received after arriving was the bank letting us know our new debit cards were in. Sean ("Juan") in his best Spanish told the clerk three times with great confidence and pride that we will be coming to pick them up yesterday. Senora Fort (my high school Spanish teacher) would have been mortified. We are certain the language mistakes only multiply and become more embarrasing from this point on. We learned to laugh at ourselves long ago...and just for the record, the clerk at the bank did take the chance to make fun of me when we showed up the next day to pick up the cards.

Please pray for these requests of ours:
--quick language aquisition
--effective homeschooling for Shaphan to help him continue to attack the challenge of dyslexia
--visas to live in Spain (We applied back in October and are still patiently waiting for permission to be here.
--divine encounters with those in our city who are already seeking to find God! (Persons of Peace--Luke 10)
--vision to see God's strategy for church planting in this city of one million with only one small Baptist church that's on the other side of town.

German movers unload the truck with our things from Magdeburg into our house in Spain

Hello from Sean, Shelley, Shalyn and Shaphan Blacksten!

Well, I sit here in my living room this morning in Amarillo, Texas writing about Germany and thinking about Spain. I knew the day would come where we cut some ties with the past to begin growing mental roots somewhere else.

Shelley and I were in Richmond, Virginia for some training last week and the kids stayed with the grandparents. One night before bed, Shalyn began to cry almost bitterly. Grupmy (Shelley’s dad) said to Shalyn…”I guess you miss your parents don’t you”…Shalyn didn’t respond…Grumpy: “I guess you don’t want to leave Texas and your family here to move to Spain do you.”…after a minute Shalyn told Grumpy that she missed Germany and wanted to move back there. There are certainly days we all feel that way, but our calling to Spain at this point is strong enough to make us have to say good bye again to family in Texas (where it’s comfortable) and family in Germany (where it’s comfortable) and start a new adventure.

This will be the very last Magdeburg Prayer Newsletter that I will send. We hope many of you make the jump and continue to pray for God’s work in and through us in Seville, but please know we will not be automatically adding you to the new list.

We hope to communicate better in the future through a blog-style website at www.hopeforsevilla.com . We have quite a list of prayer supporters and will start fresh to gather names for our prayer team for Spain. If you do not want to continue to receive prayer updates from us, simply do nothing, you will be dropped from our list after the next update. If you do want to continue to pray for us and receive updates, please reply to this email and you will be added to the new list. If you replied to the last email I sent out, there is no need to reply again.

Answered Prayers:

--Manfred Beutel is the German pastor moving to Magdeburg to lead the church there. He arrives in two weeks and the church is very excited to have him there.

--The church in Magdeburg celebrated their 3 year anniversary in the theatre building on November 1. This was the first time they organized a major celebration/event without missionary support. Even the new pastor was not able to be there so they did it all on their own. The day was grand, the house was full and I was very proud of them for all they pulled together on their own.

--Shaphan has made great strides in his reading this semester. His teacher has praised his progress and we have seen Shaphan for the first time in his life take a book and read on his own without us forcing him.

Prayer Requests:

Hello from Sean, Shelley, Shalyn and Shaphan Blacksten!

Thank you for many seasons of faithful praying for us and for the work in Germany as we wrap up a chapter in our lives that has lasted almost 8 years. God has honored your intercession and blessed with new churches in Magdeburg and Stassfurt , more than 60 baptisms and a regional impact that has influenced countless communities. Please be assured that your prayers have changed eternity for many families and individuals. Thank you again!

Well…it’s been too long since I communicated and a whole lot has happened since the last time—our family is now back in Texas for a semester, we have packed up our house in Germany, we will be moving to Spain in the coming months and the church in Magdeburg is now completely in German hands.

Our hope is to move to Seville, Spain by the end of the year and join the Acton family, who were our church planting partners in Germany.

Answered Prayers:

--The Church in Magdeburg has called a German Pastor! Manfred Beutel and his family will be moving to Magdeburg later this year. In the meantime, the Church Leadership Team is holding things together well.

--Shaphan is receiving a good dyslexia therapy. He in the 3^rd grade again here in Amarillo, going to English-speaking school for the first time. His school has a grant that supports a quality program to help him. We are looking for a homeschool curriculum that will meet his needs as we move to Spain. Shalyn will go to Spanish schools.

Prayer Requests:

--Visas for Spain: We will only be able to move to Spain in a timely manner if our visas come through. Pray for grace from the Spanish Consulate in Houston.

Our contact information:

Email: Sblacksten@aol.com

Website: www.hopeforsevilla.com

Skype: Sblacksten

www.telleurope.org What God is doing in Europe.