It's the little things in life

This past week has been pretty busy for me, between language school, meetings, going out with friends, mentoring and activities with my host family my schedule has been packed full! Even though this week was so busy there was multiple times God really supplied exactly what I needed. These are the experiences that really spoke to me, and encouraged my week and I thought I would share them with you!

The Gym was my Home
Many of you may know that in Canada I worked at one of the largest gyms in the country. I LOVED what I did, getting to interact with members everyday, having amazing co-workers, and overall enjoying what I did. Not only did I love working at a gym, but I also loved working on my own personal fitness, this was not only something I found pleasurable, but it also helped me deal with the stress and anxiety in my life. Since arriving in Spain I have got the opportunity to join a gym near my house. This past week was my second week attending this gym location and while walking in I was greeted by the front desk worker (as normal) and with my limited Spanish I said "Hola" while walking in. On my way out the gym the guy at the front desk said "bye" to me, this kinda stopped me in my tracks, I was thinking "did he actually say bye in english or am I hearing things," he continued to ask "where are you from?" Apparently he had heard me on the phone one day speaking english, and had been seeing me around often and has wanted to know where I was from. We continued to chat about Canada, and how he knew english, and before leaving we exchanged names. Since that conversation every time we are both in the gym we say "hi" to each other, and have a small conversation. 
I was him in Canada, I worked his front desk position, and I know how much I enjoyed having genuine relationships with my members. I know that when members came in and you knew their name they were often surprised but felt important. But I also knew how much it meant to me when the member knew my name as well, and wanted to have a conversation with me. 
All that to say, this new interaction has meant so much more to me then he probably realizes. Being able to communicate and have a friendship in a place where I feel the most like I'm at home, completely brightens my day. I now look forward to going into the gym each day, knowing that there is someone I can have a small conversation with when I arrive.

Lost Metro cards
Friday was kinda a crazy day in the Metro for me, not only was it packed full and I mean packed! You couldn't move, but while trying to put my metro card into my bag, I must have missed. When I got to class and realized my card wasn't in my bag it was already too late to go looking for it. So I sent a message to our team leaders wondering what I should do, since in order to get home I had to take a bus and a metro. Their response was to go in with my passport (which is necessary for government documents) and get a new card made, only problem was, I didn't have my physical passport on me, only a photocopy. Their next idea was still for me to go in and in my broken Spanish tell them I lost my card and hope that they took pity on me. So thats what I did, shooting a quick prayer I approached the front desk apologizing but I only spoke a little Spanish and saying that I lost my card. The lady responded in English, apologizing that she only spoke a little English but could help me with only a photocopy. This was honestly such a "praise the lord" moment for me. Not only was I able to get my old card canceled but also was able to get a new card made, without any problems.  

Facebook Messages
This week I received a Facebook message from a old camp consular saying they read my blog and had found it "encouraging" and "exactly what they needed to hear." When I started this blog I wanted it to not only help me track of this journey,  but I prayed that it would somehow speak into the lives of others. Receiving this message not only encouraged me to continue to write but reminded me how God uses other peoples experiences to speak into the lives of other people. 

Parcels
To end this week off strong I received a parcel from home. My mom never fails to amaze me with the little things she does. Inside was my requested "Nature Valley, Crunchy Peanut Butter Granola Bars." Unlike North America, Spaniards aren't obsessed with all things peanut butter, this was leaving quite a large void in my life here. It also had needed hand sanitizer, I don't want to say I'm a germaphobe, but being in the city and using public transit definitely makes me feel a little gross, and by a little I mean a lot. The rest of the package had my favourite heart gummies from bulk barn that you can only get around valentines day. (There's only 12 so I really have to savour them.) A lovely note from my dad, and some kleenex with a little note that says "for when you are feeling a wee bit sad... you are not forgotten <3" I never knew how much  these few small things could really pick my spirits up, sometimes you really just need a bit of home to feel more comfortable in a new situation. 

Overall, this week has been a week of encouragement and blessing, thus ending my first official month living in Spain. I am constantly amazed of how God steps into my life and supplies exactly what I need, exactly when I need it. It's all these little things that add up to one big God that loves me more than I can ever imagine. 

"...for your Father knows what you need before you ask him."

Matthew 6:8

An Unorganized Schedule

I love my agenda, and I seriously mean LOVE. I always have loved planning, loved seeing my day get filled in with activities and loved tracking everything I do. The truth is I just love having a schedule and knowing what to expect each day. As you may guess moving overseas, with out a clear schedule of what my daily life would look like, sent me into a somewhat panic. Now that I have almost been in Spain for 1 month I can see how God is using a somewhat unorganized schedule to help me draw closer to Him and rely on His plans.

Host Families & Door Handles When I left for Spain on January 9th, I left without having a host family to move in with. When I arrived, where I would be staying was still up in the air. For the first two nights I had the opportunity to stay with a young family from the church, I then was moved to the pastors house for a few days, and it wasn't until a week after arriving in Spain that I had found a host family. 

The first week was full of learning 3 different bus times to get to places, it was filled with digging through my suit case everyday trying to find where my mom had cleavery packed everything. (Even now that I've unpacked I haven't found teabags, even though she swears she packed them... I'm pretty sure she never did.) And for a added bonus door handles in Spain are a lot different than in Canada. In both my temporary host homes it took me minimum 20 minutes and a lot of tears before I could finally get into the house. Overall my first week was unorganized, unfamiliar and not anything what I expected. 

In this first week of not having a host family, I had never felt so jealous of what someone else had. The other girl on our team had been placed right away with her host family, she was becoming part of the family, while I was spending a lot of time alone. Everyday in our orientation class when I saw her, she would talk more and more about how great her family was, meanwhile I got greener and greener with envy. I didn't understand why she had the perfect family while I was left all by myself. Every night I was arriving to my temporary host home feeling sad, cold and very alone. In this first week God really showed me how this experience was not going to be easy, nor was it going to be comfortable, and if I was going to make it through I had to really rely on Him, and on His timing. 

During that first week little did I know God did not only have a host family in mind for me, but had made them the perfect match for me. And exactly one week after arriving in Spain, I was moving into my new home, I was unpacking my things, and I finally felt "at home" in my new country.

God Knows
When I was deciding a year ago what I should do after high school I felt God's clear calling to come to Spain. Though this entire process God knew my every need and supplied more than I could ever imagine. Now that I have been in Spain for almost a month I can see how God's timing with my host family was the perfect timing. That in that first week it caused me to really fall on Him, and trust He knew better than I did. At the end of the day God knows us better than we think we know ourselves, and I'm really learning that though sometimes things seem difficult and unreachable, but God is there and he will carry us through. 

"In him we were chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his 
will, in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory" 
Ephesians 1:11-12

Getting to Madrid

As the countdown for Spain changed from months, to weeks, to days, it finally was my last weekend at home, and I still hadn't packed, or really thought about packing. The realization that I was leaving that Monday still seemed like a lie. But soon the weekend was over, my bags were packed, I had said many heart felt goodbyes, and I left my organized life to take on an adventure were not every detail was final.  

Monday January 9th my parents, sister and I all headed to Buffalo, New York where I would be catching my first of two flights to Madrid, Spain. With time to spare before my 1pm flight from Buffalo, we decided to do a little shopping around, before heading to Panera Bread to grab an early lunch. After ordering I logged onto the wi-fi, to check that my flight to JFK had, had any changes. What I didn't expect to see was not only had my flight changed, it had been canceled. In a disbelief and panic we all quickly packed up our lunches and headed to Buffalo airport hoping to get some answers. My flight couldn't be canceled, I had to catch another flight later that day to go away for 6 months! Once we arrived at the airport we were told that I had been rescheduled for the next day, except I couldn't go the next day, I needed to get through today. As the airline looked for any possible way of getting me onto another flight that day, and we all prayed for some kind of airport miracle. God answered our cry for help, and it came in the sentence of "Oh it looks like we had a cancelation for the next flight, would you prefer the window or the asile seat?" 

This was just the beginning of a crazy day, but God used this to show me, even something like a flight (which seems so small) was something I had to completely surrender to Him. I know for myself that I often take for granted how easy situations are supposed to be, organizing details and completing them carefree, is just part of my day to day life. What I often forget is that ultimately it is God's flight, His details, and we need to trust Him in every situation no matter how "normal" it is to us. 

With my flight figured out and the appropriate changes made, I got to spend what was my last few hours with my family, in a airport bar, laughing and enjoying each others company for the last time for a few months.  

Soon the hours few by and it was time to say my final goodbyes. (or "see you later!" as I prefer to think) With teary eyes we parted ways, and I started the journey that would be my next 6 months. After making it through security, finding my gate, waiting through a 40 minute delay, we finally were boarding on route for JFK airport in New York City, New York. 

After a hour and 30 minute flight (30 of those minutes being circling the airport waiting for the okay to land) we finally touched down. After getting off the plane I rushed to grab my bag so I could recheck it with the other airline. With both my carry on, my big suitcase and a giant tote I started out to find the Delta check in desk. After being direct to two of the wrong areas in the airport, and after a solid 30 minutes of power walking,  I finally found the Delta check in. With sweat dripping down my back I got my bag checked in, and I was off to security. After getting through the unorganized security line, I finally found my final gate and the other girl in my program, Rose. 

Together we waited anxiously for our new chapter of life to begin. And soon after a long day of complications and delays we were finally boarding our flight to Madrid, Spain. Six and a half hours later we were preparing to land in Madrid airport. It was now 9:30am on Tuesday January, 10th, and with only two hours of sleep we started day one of our next six months.

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God is good! A year ago I was just applying to the STEP program, I am now writing this blog post from Spain and have started the program. This past year has really taught me to rely on God for all things. Over the course of this year He has shown His provision in providing the total funds to come on this trip, as well as the spiritual support needed to keep me going. Thank you to everyone who has felt lead to support me financially and through prayer. Without your help this journey would have never happened. I hope that you enjoy these blog posts from Spain over the next six months! 

Training Weekend

I can't believe that I am leaving in less than 1 month! Thank you to everyone for taking the time to follow my journey over the next 7ish months! All of you have played a major roll this journey through financial support, spiritual support and prayer, or just by dedicating time to read my blog!

This past weekend I had the amazing opportunity to participate in a training weekend with my team mate Rose. The weekend was filled with team building, laughs, and most importunately strengthening our relationship with God. 

Throughout the weekend we learned about creating nutrient rich soil for our roots to grow in. Our speaker Chris started off our weekend with a get to know you time line. (or flow chart in my situation) There we had to write four positive times in our life and four negative times. As we listened to each others story's of how they got to this current point in their lives, you could really see how God took even the difficult situations and used them for something positive. 

One of my negatives was when my parents felt called to go into full time camp missions, and how during that time I struggled with anger, and lack of self worth. Through this first exercise I saw how my experience wasn't that different from everyone else. Often during that period in my life I thought that "no one understood how I felt" but in reality everyone faces difficult periods in life, and though we can't compared who has a "worse" period, we can all identify with how they must have felt in that moment.  I found this opening activity very encouraging, even though the reality of life is everyone faces hardships, to have someone openly be vulnerable with what they have faced in life helps you to create a deeper connection with how they got here. 

As the weekend continued we studied the parable of the sower (Matthew 13:36-43) and how the seeds were planted in four types of soil hard-walked on soil, thorny soil, rocky soil and healthy soil. As we read Chris got us to identify the bad soils in our life. All the things holding us back from having rich, nutritious soil to grow our roots in, whether that was; fear, guilt, emotions we thought we have "rights" to and more. I personally had never seen the parable in this way, I had always seen it as making sure you weren't one of the "bad" soils, not that we could have bad soil holding us bad from having good soil. As we identified these bad soils in our life, and listened for God's still small voice, I could almost feel the weight of things I thought were in the past be lifted off of me. I am always still amazed how gracious God is, and how if we really take time to bask in Him, He'll meet you were you are.

Overall this weekend was an amazing opportunity to get to know each other as a team, finding out each others likes and dislikes in order to strengthen our relationship. Not only did this strengthen my relationship with Rose, but with God. I was able to be released from things holding me back from a better relationship with Him, I learned more about how to effectively share the love of God, and most importantly learned how I could strengthen my own relationship with Him.

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas! 

Team building game! We could only step on the "lily pads" 

Those "WOW" Moments

   I believe that everything that happens in our lives is part of God's perfect plan. Even when His plan is not what or how we envisioned how our perfect plan would be. He's a God that likes to "wow" you in His own timing. In moments when you start to doubt, and you want to give up, when you are stuck trying to wrap your brain around something that seems so impossible and you start to wonder if you are actually meant to do something, He steps in and you say "wow."

   When I was applying for STEP I 100% felt that was where God had wanted me. I printed off the application, filled in every question, got my references, mailed it, and waited... and waited... and waited and as the weeks went on I came to the realization that I must have heard God's call wrong. It had been weeks and I hadn't heard even a "sorry to inform you" email. When I was about to give up and start looking for the "what's next" my mom said, "well maybe they never got it." I wasn't sure but even so, I contacted the head of the STEP program who replied saying "no we haven't received your application." This lead to the two week search of trying to find my application and getting it re-mailed to the right location. Over all this time I slowly felt myself start to doubt if STEP was where I was supposed to be. I mean if it was why did my application take so long to get where it was supposed to be? Another week went by and the STEP head contacted me saying I had been approved for the phone interview. After all the interviewing process was completed I heard back saying I had been accepted. Again I felt "oh yes this 100% where God wants me." 

   After being accepted I started making plans of how I was going to raise my financial support, I sent out tons of letters, I set dates to speak to churches, I talked to every person I knew and I waited... and I waited, and again I started to doubt that this was God's plan for my life. I didn't understand why I had been accepted if I couldn't raise any funds. So I started to think that maybe I should pull out of the program, because even if I picked up every available shift at work I would never be able to meet the deadline. These are the moments I really believe God enjoys. Those moments when we are totally feel beat down and unsure of whats next when He steps in and we say "wow."
   For me this happened driving home from school and I was set, when I get home I would email the STEP head and tell her I've decided not to go, that this isn't where God wanted me. And when I got home to a letter from two missionary friends visiting from Scotland, and in that moment I realized that God was saying "Hannah your not giving up on STEP." Because in this letter was what extra money these missionaries had received for coming to Canada and they felt it was meant for me, so I could make it to Spain.

   As the months went on slowly the funds started to amount to the numbers I needed to make 50% of my funds, and when 50% was due on October 15th I had it. I have no idea how I got it but God is so good. 

   And now after a rollercoaster of doubt, I am going into my last two months before starting this journey, and God is still showing how good He is and how this is truly His plan for my life. Even though I faced a lot of doubt during this period, I can see how God was teaching me so much more, that with Him you can do all things, and that He knows what you need more then you do, and sometimes He's going to make you wait because He wants you to fully trust in Him and trust in His timing. 

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   I'm so thankful for everyone of you who has contributed to my journey so far, both through prayer and financial support (and for those who took the time to read my amateur blog!). I truly feel that each one of you have played an important role in planting and caring for this seed in my life. I look forward to sharing my experience with each one of my readers over the next 8 months! If you would like more information on how to get involved through prayer and financial gifts you can contact me at hannahhoover.STEP@gmail.com or click here! And select Hannah Hoover from the drop down tab.

The Who, What, Where, Why and When

Welcome to STEPping out with faith,. Let me introduce myself, Hi I'm Hannah and this blog will be following my journey over the next year of participating in BICWM STEP Team 2017.

To start this blog off I thought I should fill you in on the Who, What, Where, Why and When of my journey and STEP.

Who: Me! This 2017 STEP team consists of myself as well as another young women.

What: You may be wondering what STEP is, so let explain. STEP is a 6 month missions trip from BICWM (Brethren in Christ World Missions) that focuses on different aspects of learning: including discipleship training, missions, language and cultural studies. During the duration of your time in the program you work along side the based missionaries from the country you are stationed in. What that entails I'm still not 100% sure! but what I know from previous "STEPpers" is you not only help out in local churches but also participate in local organizations. Overall we are telling people about Jesus and what else could be better!

Where: I am very excited to be going to Madrid, Spain during the duration of the program!

Why: Why am I excited? Because I get to show and spread the love of Jesus, plus how cool is an opportunity to live in Spain.
But in all seriousness why am I going? In order to fully understand we have to start from the beginning.
   The beginning starts with my parents and their calling to help with Latin American Missionary retreats there my sister, parents and myself helped to put on children programs for the missionary children attending the retreat, this is also where I was introduced to my first "STEPper." At the time I was only nine but the idea that maybe one day I could be part of the STEP team was planted.
   After that first year we continued to help at the retreat until I was 15. Every year I was able to meet more people from the STEP team and continue to hear all the stories they had from there time in the program. Including every single details about digestion problems they had had.Some things you wished you didn't have to hear.
   Now the seed for STEP had been plated when I was nine, it was watered throughout the years helping at a retreat but it wasn't until I truly experienced change that I was able to realize I could do STEP. At 14 my parents felt they were being called into a new missions opportunity, but instead of a fun trip to tell bible stories I was being forced to move.. onto a camp grounds... WITH BAD WIFI!! Yes, you can say 14 year old Hannah was not impressed with having to leave her entire life behind. During the first year in the new house I battled daily with extreme anger, not only towards my parents
but towards God as well. In my new school I struggled to make friends, I felt like I was trapped and I considered suicide multiple times, something before the move I would have thought was crazy! After a year battling with acceptance about the entire situation I started to see a silver lining on my new life. I made friends with a strong christian who worked with my parents. She, no matter how hard I tried to get rid of her, stuck by me and literally smuthered me with the love of Jesus. Slowly she helped me  come out of what was a depression and see the positives of the move, and how though it was hard it was more importantly God's will. In this I learned "Change is not easy, but change allows for new beginnings."
   All this lead me to grade 12, starting in September of the school year I focused on praying and asking God to show me where he wanted me to be next year; in school, working, traveling, STEP, etc. During this month I was reading through Romans, and Romans 12:2. The verse said NOT to conform to the patterns of this world, to me the pattern of grade 12 was graduate and go to post secondary. Its what everyone did, its what my teachers expected. This verse continued to say instead of conforming to be transformed, I wanted to be transformed. The sudden realization that I was called to be a change, to be transformed brought me to tears as I printed off the STEP application form.
   Through all these things we are finally up to date with the journey that got me here, now I am actively fundraising and praying. I have come to terms that if this is truly God's will He will supply my every spiritual and financial need.
    Therefore this has been the "why" of STEP.

Finally...
When: So when do I leave, I leave on January 9, 2017, which is exactly 161 days away!! After I leave I'll be coming home June, 25,2017. And I truly believe I'll be returning home changed.

I am so excited to experience this leap of faith, in STEPping out of my comfort zone and more importantly becoming more like Jesus. I hope you enjoy this blog as I prepare to go and as I'm away.

If you have any questions I can be reached at hannahhoover.STEP@gmail. com
and if you wish to donate you can online you can click here