Fayón

Straight after camp we headed further inland, to a small village on the Aragonese border called Fayón, where Sam's granny lives. Despite its population of less than 500 people, Fayón is quite a well known village because of it's history. It was an important town in the Battle of the Ebro during the Spanish Civil war about 75 years ago, but also because the village was flooded.

The village was built on the banks of the Ebro river, but had to be flooded few decades ago as a water company wanted to remove a damn from further up the river. One evening we headed up to a small church on a hill from which you could see the old church steeple peeking out of the Ebro river; the rest of the old village remains submerged.

We spent the week in the new Fayon: beautiful little white houses with terracota rooves. One day Sam and I found a pear tree hanging out of one of the houses walls, and we found almond trees, olive trees and grape vines along the streets too. On the night we arrived there was a huge party in the Plaza Mayor, bunting with the Aragonese flag hung over the long tables which filled the square and hosted the whole village as they enjoyed their summer parties. Bread, chicken, salad, wine and food was enjoyed and shared before a prize giving with Spanish ham and local wine given to people who had one the raffle and various other competitions over the last few days. Little children dancing, adults chattering away enjoying the oasis of cool air in the midst of the humidity now that the sun had set. The following night we went to see jotas, the typical Aragonese dance.

Berea

7.25 - Alarm

7.30 - Coffee and Biscuits

7.45 - Morning meeting/devotional

8.15 - Wake up the kids.....

A challenging, fun and rewarding week in the beautiful catalan countryside. I'm not especially used to getting up this early in the summer, but each day I got up and attended the devotional, which was a great way to start the day! I was the 'monitora' of three girls aged 15-17, and Sam was in charge of the eight boys in the same age group, so after our meeting we went to wake up the teenagers. 

During the week we had time to play, use the swimming pool, sing and learn about Jesus with studies expanding on the theme of the week was 'Obedience'. To introduce the daily topic, each morning we had a meeting in a marquee outside, with a side theme of 'how it's made'. Hosted by three 'professional' experimenters, the children got to watch experiments such as how to squeeze a hard-boiled egg into a water bottle. One of the hosts was English, so I was asked to translate up front...

One of the things I'll remember the most was the Sunday, the last day. The parents of all the children were invited to spend the day with us, and the team organised a morning meeting, with songs performed by the different groups and a small talk. I was asked if I'd talk for 5 minutes and share my testimony.

I shared that I've always gone to Church and that I always thought I lead a 'good' life. However, in the Bible it says that no one is good enough. God is perfect, and we are sinners (whether we have told a simple lie or murdered somebody...)

Perhaps you know that in Spanish there are two verbs which mean 'to be', and depending on which one you use with certain adjectives, you can change the meaning of what you say. In front of the 100 or so people, instead of saying that I thought I was good (era buena), I said that I was sexy/hot (estaba buena). Thankfully, I quickly realised my mistake, corrected myself and the audience laughed along with me...

"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven." - Jesus

(Matthew 21:7)