Merry Christmas!

From our family over here, we wish you a wonderful Christmas day. We´re getting ready to go down to Olga´s parent´s home and there we´ll have the typical Christmas dinner: huge shell-shaped pasta soup with meatballs and canelones, flat pasta squares rolled up with meat inside. And then we´ll sing Christmas songs with Olga´s aunt and uncle. Have a blessed Christmas!

December 6-9, Quite the weekend!

Wow! What a weekend! From Thursday to Saturday about 22 kids and young people played and spent time in God´s outdoors.
The girls rigged the 25ft. bunkbed so they wouldn´t be so cold. They put a small hot air heater on one level and they all slept there. They had a one inch thick rubber pad to sleep on...some found that uncomfortable. The guys, 9 of them, slept out in a large tent... I guess they slept, but from what I hear the lack of sleep was not so much from the cold but from various other factors.

We went fossil hunting one day with the kids and we found fossilized coral, fossilized worm holes, clams and snails. On Saturday morning we went to the house of Lluis, a man that I met through Sr. Agustí. He has a fossil collection in his basement in town--more than 4000 fossils. He has a fossilized giant mussle, too. It´s about 3 feet long and 18 inches wide! A neighbor dug it up with a tractor deep down under his field.





We showed two Christian films: Pamela´s Prayer and The Key to the Mystery of Life. Both films are really worth seeing.



Anyway, Saturday we were shot tired, many had very little voice left, but in spite of all that, we practiced for the following day. On Sunday afternoon we sang in front of about 120 unbelievers. It was an amazing opportunity: to sing a Christmas cantata in front of so many people, knowing that from now on things will change for us in town because now we are the talk of the town.

The crowd was very receptive and some tears even fell over the true story of a rebel son who returns home and gets saved after having spent all his savings. The Gospel message was crystal clear...Peter read the narration and Kevin directed.

After the cantata we were treated to the Catalan snack of farmer´s bread and salt cured ham and lunchmeats. We sat around and chatted. One lady said, "That was a sermon we needed to hear, and it is a much better substitute to the mass." That was the wife of Joan Coll, the president of the retired folks´ association. Joan, himself, said that we should take our cantata to the public school.

It was such a blessing to have the help of our home church group. By the way, the retired folks´ association has invited us to come back next year...

It was a tough weekend but a blessed one. Thanks for praying and pray for fruit to come from our new friendships for eternity. The ice has been broken. Now we fish.

Oh, one more thing. Pray for Angels, the caretaker of the millhouse. Kevin was able to open up a neat conversation with her about prophecy, past and future...and she was amazed. Pray for these doors to remain open and that we will be able to offer Christ with clarity to many.

Some video clips from the last months

Here´s a series of clips from the last months and days. You can see a bit of our kids wrestling, participating in the Celebration of Fall, the first ladies´s meeting, Cristian´s birthday party...a bit of the English academy and a glimpse of our choir practice in the social center. Hope you enjoy it.

E-News Update November 23, 2007

Good morning to everyone!

The last four weeks have been amazing, and there´s much to explain, so I´ll try to summarize things as much as possible. But before I do, let me thank all of you who communicate with us through Christmas gifts, prayers and conversations over the phone. Thanks to all of you from the bottom of our hearts.


JOSE LUIS AND IDALIA One of Olga´s Bible studies during the week is with Idalia, José Luis´ wife (on Thursday . I have a Bible study with José Luis on Wednesday evenings. Please pray for them because both of them are believers that are making an effort to grow in their commitment to the Lord. They are very faithful to the Sunday Bible studies and their daughter, Victoria, comes every Thursday to the children´s club.

THE MOIA BIBLE STUDY Little by little German and Elisa´s apartment is getting to be too small for our Sunday afternoon Bible studies. In a way this is because one by one there are more adults coming, but one of the main reasons is that more children are coming. We have been keeping the kids in the livingroom with the adults, and they have sat around the diningroom table coloring and doing crafts and listening while we adults have our Bible study. That worked out fine while we had 4-5 kids with us but now we sometimes have 8 around a small table, and they seem to be happy just to color and listen (well, some have a hard time whispering :), but it is getting difficult. Well, we threw the need on the table to our group and José Luis and Idalia have offered to have Olga take the kids to their apartment just down the street for that time. This will be a real blessing and the kids will be able to have class of their own. Please pray that the kids will start to really understand the Gospel and start to develop a personal relationship with the Lord.

THE RETIRED FOLKS SOCIAL CENTER...
PRAY FOR THE MANY RELATIONSHIPS THAT ARE OPENING UP
You know, what I have to tell you now is quite amazing, at least for me. It all started with my teaching an English class at the town´s local private academy. I do that every Thursday evening. Then Sr. Agustín, the older man I do bookbinding with on Wednesday mornings, found out that I like music so as I said in the previous update, he signed me up without my asking to the town choir (about 30+ folks in all) and so they introduced me there as an English teacher. Everybody really welcomed me and I´ve been going since for 2 and a half hours of practice a week. Well, the next thing that happened is that Joan Coll, the president of the retired folks center invited me to teach English at the center (we found out later that a young lady at the employment office that Olga has a lot of contact with, takes her cookies which she loves :) was pushing to have them get me to teach there). Well, I started teaching a basic level for those who have no idea and an advanced level for those who can hold a conversation. I have 12-13 students in the first class and 5 in the second class (I have an 88-year-old student who loves to tell stories of the day...many years ago...that the USS Enterprise from the 6th Fleet docked in Barcelona and came to Moià to do a concert...he loves Americans :). You know, these are the people that are the heart of the town and it´s amazing now to go to town and people say hi to me that I don´t even know yet, because I still don´t know everyone from the choir and am just getting to know my students. This is all very good and people are beginning to accept me into their circle, which is very hard to do in a small town. I must say that many remember my parents and ask how they are doing and when they´ll be coming back for a visit! Mom and Dad really laid the groundwork for me. Thanks, Mom and Dad! I´ve got to tell you the latest developments, though. A week ago, the president offered me the use of the Social Center for our meetings! He just handed over the keys and said, "Go ahead, use building on Saturday afternoons and Sunday mornings as many times as you like." That just left me speechless. I mentioned my need to Joan and I got it! We asked the Lord and He gave it to us. Please thank the Lord with us for this. As long as we don´t get anything from the town hall, Lord willing, we will meet in the social center for worship services starting January 2008. And then we would like to plan activities directed toward unbelievers: Bible studies, Christian films, etc., on Saturday evenings on and off.

A FEW LAST PRAYER REQUESTS Last night after the town choir practice, Joan Coll, the president of the social center and who sits beside me for the practice, came up to me all excited and said, "I know you have a church choir down in Castellbisbal. Why don´t you come on the 9th of December with the group and sing for us. We´ll treat you all to "pan con tomate y jamón" (that´s local farmer´s bread with rubbed-on tomato, olive oil, salt and slivers of salt-cured ham [yum yum...:)]). Well, I just talked to Peter and, Lord willing, we´re planning on taking up this amazing invitation. I´ve been doing something I´m feeling my way through since I ´ve never studied to lead a choir... At Castellbisbal I´ve been leading the choir in practicing a cantata called "Born to Die." It´s about 80% cooked right now (meaning that it´s medium rare and needs a lot of work yet). The problem of the 9th is that it is a Sunday evening at 6p.m. which of course is when the Church service is in Castellbisbal. But we´ll have someone stay behind and take care of the preaching. It is going to be such a good chance to share the Gospel, and the amazing thing is that they know who we are and they are inviting us! For them it´s a social event, but for us it´s a great opportunity! Please pray for us and this opportunity. For wisdom and a steady, consistent witness in town.

Yesterday I had a good chance to get to know my mechanic, Josep. And what I´m noticing is that the older people in town are sick and tired of the degeneration and wickedness of their society. They still want God somehow in their lives but they are very cynical of the Catholic ways and traditions. It´s an open door and we need wisdom to know how to step through it with the Gospel. Pray for Sr. Agustí, too. He´s a kind man and our conversations are getting more and more open and personal. I´ve opened the Bible several times with him (I´m tearing apart, resewing and recovering my first leather Bible) and he´s very open to talk.

Finally, but not the least in all of this. The town hall of Moià has approved our use of an old restored mill house (a very small building) off to the side and out of the sight of the town. We, along with our home church, are planning a spiritual retreat for the families of our church on the 6-8 of December. Those are vacation days here so the idea is for the young people to stay overnight (boys in a big tent, BRRR! and the girls in a tri-level 20 foot wide bunkbed). I´m the main coordinator and Peter will do the teaching. We´ll be watching two excellent films: Pamela´s Prayer (on sexual purity before marriage) and Unlocking the Mystery of Life (on Intelligent Design). This is a major challenge for us. I´ll send you pictures, but just pray for this retreat and the opportunity for the group in Moià to get to know the group of Castellbisbal.

Sorry for being so long, but I had lots to share with you. Thanks again for being there and supporting us in so many ways.

Kevin & Olga (Reuben, Stephen) Kenney

P.S. OUR VAN FUND: Our mission headquarters has approved the opening of a van fund for our ministry. In time our old Ford that we were given will need to be replaced (it has some mysterious major hiccups; the mechanic says that it has witches inside) and a 7 or 9 passenger vehicle would really be a big help. My mechanic is keeping an eye out for a good deal on a used 9-passenger van.