Cross Country Skiing Thirty Years Later

 It has been 30 plus years since Sharon and I have been cross country skiing. What a fun day we had up in the mountains just North of Madrid.

 We skied on about two feet of snow.

 There was a 4 Kilometer loop that we were able to do twice.

Green Ring "Anillo Verde" Around Madrid

On January 10th Sharon dropped me off at Daniels house with our two mountain bikes. The plan was to ride around Madrid with Daniel and his friend Julio. I had asked Daniel if Julio could meet us at his apartment with his ride. Somehow they thought I was going to bring a bike for the both of them. So our trip started with a ride on the metro to pick up Julio's bike. A hour and a half later we were finally on way. This extra time allowed for some safety tips for our ride. My last trip around the ring back in October ended up at the medical clinic. My friend Renato was going down hill and hit the brakes right in a patch of sand. He lost control and took a tumble. Thankfully he had a helmet on when he hit his head on the ground. He was able to ride back to our apartment. For safety measures we took him to get checked at the clinic for a concussion. He was fine, just sore for awhile from the scrapes. So Daniel and Julio... Saftey frist!!!

 Julio and Daniel taking a breather!

 One of the nice outings here in Madrid is to ride this bike route that circles the city of Madrid.

 The "Anillo Verde" is a 64 kilometer ride that will take you through a number of parks, and communities that circle the city of Madrid. Construction began back in 2003.

 This time of the year you will see snow on the mountain North of Madrid.

Thankfully I finished my third time around the ring with no problems. Just two youth that were dead tired and ready to get off their bikes.

Peter Sings in the Messiah in Madrid

On December 16th and 17th Peter had the opportunity to be part of the 450+ choir that sang Handel's Messiah in the National Auditorium in Madrid. The director, Richard Egarr, orchestra and soloists were from the Academy of Ancient Music in England.

Here are a couple of link from you tube from our concert. Not the best but give you a little of the concert.  

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzzWY3YY2EE
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2znRpQl0GRA

9 Marks books in Spanish for 2014

In November Peter and the Spanish translation team were able to complete and publish three new 9 Marks books in Spanish. Peter is working with 9 Marks to coordinate the translation of their books into Spanish.

 300 preaching books were printer for giving away in Spain

 200 books of "Am I really a Christian" were printer for give away

I

 All these books and other are available in pdf for free download on the newly updated Spanish web page for 9 Marks. http://es.9marks.org/libros/

Peter's Valencia Marathon

The goal was to finish the marathon and try to do it under 5 hours. What a beautiful city for a marathon. I think there were some 24 bands that were playing as we ran by.

Just before the start of the race. There were so many runners it took about five minutes just to get to the starting line.

 23,000 some runners

 A spectacular finish line

Crossing the finish line

Just finishing the race!

With my friend and running partner Paco

Discipleship training in Oxford

A number TEAM Spain missionaries have spent the last two years in a learning community with 3DM Ministries in Oxford, England.

 The learning communities have focused on how to develop a discipleship culture. If the church that we live is going to have a impact of the society in which we live, we can no longer wait and expect “them” to “come to us”. We need a missional approach to reach out to the cities in which we live. The church as establish by Christ is God's tool and means to each out to the lost world. Our learning community has spent time reviewing how Jesus taught and trained his disciples to carry on the work after he had left them. The focus of his training was to make disciples, spend much time with them modeling what he was teaching.

Fellowship with others in the learning community

 Small group sessions

TEAM missionaries from Europe

 Pretty canal near learning center

 Pub where C S Lewis would meet with colleagues

 Visiting Oxford University

Visiting Oxford University

A suprise Birthday Party for Sharon

 Peter had a lot of fun planning a Birthday party for Sharon. I invited some of our neighbors, our friends from choir, church and also students from Sharon's English class.