Beginnings (the 6th day)

Today is September 14, and the rains have arrived. Brooke and I are struggling to calm the "ca-rata" which is Mallorquín for "rat-killing dog," (which is what his species does). The "ca," named "Toffee" alternates between poles of nose-burrowing terror at the thunder rumblings, and brief but valiant counter attacks against the distant monster. The differences of this place are peculiar, even quirky, and often profoundly familiar.

When in the church, with the church, we comprehend what we´ll call the Van Steenberg Effect, since one Van Steenberg so recently articulated it. The Van Steenberg Effect, part dèjá-vu, part haunting-comfort, and all mystery, comes when the full world of the Gospel comes home to the observant believer - when Christians of Chilean, Bolivian, Dominican, English, American, Spanish, German, Ghanan, Phillipino, Romanian and Bulgarian find themselves perfectly familiar - united by faith as much by culture, in so far as that culture is rooted in the same scripture.

The content, as much as the content of the form ring home. The hymns, different in language, bear the same meaning as our home-hymns, and come wrapped in the same reverence: the inexplicable mixture of major and minor chords, never ecstatic, never desponent, but altogether immoderate on account of the message we sing. The preaching, vaguely Spurgeonous, I believe by design, spent an hour this Sunday on none other than Leviticus 16:30, as it is "the most important verse in Leviticus" and the central message of the whole Bible.

After the haunting Effect, and armed with dozens of encourgements from our home friends, Brooke and I decided to capture some of our already quickly flying time for writing a bee-log on the days in Spain. We can assure you that many days will be missed, and many more events will go unrecorded. But what little we have will help us keep our record of our time, and keep you, our dear friends, abreast.

The title of this bee-log takes its name from the street on which we live: Calle (I don't know how to say 'steet' in Mallorquín, the dialect of not Spanish, but Catalá which is spoken here ... we are very far from home) Ortega y Gasset. José Ortega y Gasset was a Spanish philosopher and public intellectual of the first half of the 20th century. He was intrigued with Protestantism, I´m told, because it stood out (who ever heard of Protestantism in Spain?).

And so we're here, in Palma de Mallorca, Spain. We'll have more news to share soon. Brooke will be far better, as usual, at the details, and the more friendly and relational posts. I'll just keep doing what I dont know how.

N (+B)