Hiking the Camino with friends from Siloam Springs, Arkansas

It was great to receive a team of Friends this summer to hike the "Camino de Santiago." Fun and refreshing getting to know them and having good times together. Thanks for taking the time and investing your summer in getting to know us and culture and needs in Spain.

A quick tour of Madrid

 

Heading off to get the train

Community festival in Oporrino

Roman bridge leaving Pontevedra

Storage bins for garden crops

Yeah we made it! Picking up our certificates

A visit from Heather

It was great to have Heather with us for a couple of weeks on her way back to the States from South Korea. We enjoyed a outing with her to Portugal and Galicia.

 

 Porto, Portugal

 Cathedral Beach, Northern Spain

Construction at the IBM Church in Venezuela

I wanted to add some pictures of the construction at the IBM church in Lecheria, Venezuela. Little by little the construction is coming along.

 This open area that you see will be the main Hall for the worship service. When finish they should be able to seat 300-400 people. This is a view from the apartment building next to the church properity.

 Getting ready to pour the first floor

 Elder Alejandro Molero at work doing some plastering

Work day to help hand pour the second level floor.
There were 56 Men from church helping to pour the roof by hand, 19 of them were engineers. There were also 30 plus women there cooking food and serving refreshments. A true church project.

 Notice the walls have grates in them to make it harder to break into the church, the windows are also narrow so that no one will try and fit through the window.

 All poured by hand

This is where they will have the second floor classrooms.

Cell group activity at the Park

We try and have a monthly activity each month for our cell group. Here we are at Juan Carlos Park on a Sunday afternoon picnic.

 

Ladder golf is still a big hit wherever we ser it up to play!

Peter Runs the Half Marathon in Madrid

I had a good time today running in my first half marathon. I ran with two of my neighbors; Mario, who also is taking English classes with Sharon, and his father Juan Carlos. I couldn't believe it when I passed the 10k mark at 57.30.

 

 

Jaun Carlos and Mario went on ahead of me at 14k, but then to my surprise I pulled ahead of them at 19 k and finished with in 2 hours, 2 minutes and 57 seconds.

 

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.