Hoorah for random processions

We think this must've been in honour of us leaving or some saint
thing or something to do with holy year ....... We have no idea! It
was similar to a procession we saw in Madrid. We had a lovely
traditional spanish picnic on the beach with more meat than we could
eat in Pontedeume followed by an evaluation and general giving thanks
to God and saying goodbye to each other. Our car's packed, sandwiches
kindly made for us by Manoli and we just need a good night's sleep and
hopefully an early start. Thank you all so much for all your prayers
and encouragements along the way.

Finale

Well yesterday was our last day of active missioning, I can't believe
it! We had a similar low key kids event in A Coruna which actually
went really well. We shared the story of Mary and then the disciples
going to the empty tomb and their joyful reaction being the same as
ours hence us being there to tell them about Jesus. We told them about
Jesus being our friend and about how he can be their friend too. we
then went with each of the children and got them with help to tell
their parents.

Next we had a big concert at the place the other group have been
working at this week which was ace and 2 young guys gave their lives
to Christ, praise the Lord! We didn't get home till midnight but the
kids had a great time. We had ice cream and chips before giving
Danyelle and Haddis a lift back to the Om house.

Trainee Acrobats

This is the 1000th photo I have taken on my iPhone ;-)

Storyboarding in the park

Day 3 in Culleredo, and a change of gear. No audio amplification
today, mainly low key personal evangelism, backed up with a storyboard
presentation of Jairus's daughter, which went very well by all
accounts. More extended conversations with youth and young children.

Because there was no loud music or clowns, our presence was much more
discreet, but that didn't make it less effective, in fact quite the
opposite as it seemed to be easier to have in depth conversations
without distracting things going on.

Day 2

Day 2 in Culleredo started well with an earlier arrival time by the
bulk of team. We had 2 clowns who were well received again. We also
had a short puppet show although we did have some problems with the
sound system - this is one thing we could really do with some prayer
for. We don't want to come cross as completely incompetent!

Peter some more cool piano playing and was briefly interviewed by
Julio. People then went off in one's and two's to do personal
evangelism and I think some good conversations took place. Emelye was
able to have a long chat with a group of young kids and prayed with
them and I think Julio had a bit of a chat with some youth.

Unfortunately the programme sort of fizzled out at this point which
was a bit if a shame. I thought there was going to be a kids story and
some more music. Of course the one on one conversations are probably
the best way to really explain the gospel but the loud, fun bits are
great at attracting attention and drawing people in. Hopefully at this
afternoon's planning session we will address why things fell apart a
bit and how we can do it better this evening.

Starting work in A Coruna

Yesterday we started the new outreach in the outskirts of A Coruna in
an area called Culleredo where a new evangelical church is getting
established. We are helping this church this week, and they have
provided PA equipment and managed to organise permission from the
authorities to use it in the local park which is very close to the
church.

The church is located in a quiet and respectable suburb of A Coruna.
The park is small but is surrounded by street cafes and has children's
play equipment. We got their early to meet up the David, the pastor,
and to start handing out flyers. There were some kids around all
afternoon but by the time the rest of the team arrived at the park at
7ish the park was really starting to buzz - it is actually a brilliant
place for this outreach.

Day one was a little disorganised if we are completely honest,
starting quite late (the rest of the team's lunch didn't turn up till
gone 4pm!) but we were well received by the kids who obviously thought
it was great fun even though some parents wanted to take them away as
soon as Jesus was mentioned.

Please be praying for us today and for the people of Culleredo, that
their hearts to be open and that we would be able to reach as many
children as possible today, and that we might be slightly more
organised!

Morning workshops

This morning we have started our workshops. I (Giles) learnt an
evangelistic technique with pictures, basically a new take on 2 ways
to live.

I am now doing some writing with Joseph and Ethan whilst Emelye goes
to the workshop on using the sketchboard. Sophie is having a nice long
sleep on someones bed.

We're going to go into A Coruna soon to distribute literature ahead if
the kids work in the park which isn't scheduled to start until late
afternoon.

Eating lunch at 3:30!

Honestly, we thought we were pretty chilled out about time before we
came here. Our stomachs definitely haven't adjusted to mid-afternoon
lunch, no matter how big the lunch is!

The children are coping incredibly well. Thank you God!

This week we are going to be working in A Coruna, 50km away. We are
feeling pretty nervous about how it's going to work out as the planned
children's work doesn't begin till 5pm.

We are going to be studying i.e. evangelism training every morning -
to be honest we're not too sure what the kids will be doing at this
time. In makes us retrospectively very grateful for the week just gone
which has been so children-friendly.

Please pray for us that we would know God's peace and make wise
decisions for our family. Please also pray for the outreach work, and
for the struggling church in A Coruna (a congregation of about 10).

It's funny to think we only have 4 more days of mission proper, as in
Friday we plan as a team to participate in the traditional pilgrimage
of Santiago de Compostela.

p.s. Giles's preach went well, thanks for your prayers (that means you
especially Connie!)

Enlarged team

Yesterday (Saturday), the second team drove down in the minibus from
Madrid where they have been doing evangelism training and outreach in
the city. These are the international folk most of whom we attended
the Rome conference with. Sounds like they had a great time in Madrid
and have been working very hard. This quick beach trip yesterday
evening was their first chill out! They were staying in a nice air
conditioned house. Things are going to change for them accommodation
wise.

Along with some other people (associates of Julio I think), the
enlarged team is around 40, most of whom are staying in the OM house
where there are only 5 bedrooms, 2 toilets and 1 proper shower! The
guys are staying in tents (the Chanot tents are proving their worth).
Ouch!

Staying in Trevor and Manoli's lovely little house up in the hills
suddenly seems very much like a major blessing.

Quick prayer request

Hi, here's another shot from the beach in A Coruna from Thursday.
Sorry about repeating the photo from Valdovino btw!

Just a quick prayer request reiterating one from last night: Emelye
and the kids have gone to the OM house to help with tidying up and
putting our tents up as there's not enough room for all the new team
members. I have been left in peace at Trevor and Manoli's to prepare
tomorrow's sermon. I've just realised that there may be some newcomers
there due to all the publicity we've been distributing during the last
week, so that makes my job a little bit more interesting! Please pray
as I write it now...

Today's the day!

Phew, finally got up to the present with the blog (we think one post
we did earlier in the week disappeared into the void).

Today is the day of the film at the Ferrol church we have been
distributing invitations for all week. As we were not able to attend
ourselves we haven't heard yet how many people turned up but if you be
praying retrospectively that it went well that'd be fab!

We spent today doing last minute blanket inviting for the event,
coming across increasing numbers of people who had already received an
invite. We also put up posters directing people to the church as well
as balloons on the church itself (in reality it's just an anonymous
apartment and is easily missed).

Prayer requests:

- Giles preparing Sunday's sermon
- the international team arriving from Madrid tomorrow, for safe travel
- continued unity as the two teams get to know each other
- we are going to be sending two separate teams out to 2 locations
next week for children's work in A Coruna and Pontaderme, please pray
as the two teams are worked out and as the programmes are worked out
and rehearsed etc
- please pray for our children as the kids work will be taking place
every afternoon and evening, for strength and energy

10 years today, hurray!

Thursday was our 10th wedding anniversary! After Giles did the morning
devotion, we took ourselves off to A Coruna, the regions biggest city.
We climbed the Roman lighthouse, the tower of Hercules, found some
delicious squid tapas for lunch and went to another lovely beach.

Kids work in the square

Sorry it's been a few days, we've been fairly busy! Just trying to
catch up the blog now. So on Wednesday we were doing more children's
work in the square. Same puppet show followed by a slightly better
attended story time - The Lost Sheep. There was quite a buzz generated
by what we were doing which was cool, with many passers-by quite
intrigued by what we were up to. There was also a crew from Ferrol TV
filming general goings in in the square and they took quite an
interest so apparently we appeared on local TV! The town mayor even
made an appearance (probably why the TV cameras were there if we are
honest!).

As a family we also spent some time doing literature and invitation
distribution. We were already beginning to find that many people we
spoke to already had received an invitation to Friday's event or knew
about what we were doing, so it seems we are doing quite well at
blanketing the town!

Heart-shaped balloons!

Today, the young people from Zaragoza decided they didn't want to do
door knocking so we went to the square we went yesterday and they did
a really fun puppet show with dancing and singing which fascinated the
little children. At the end they obviously wanted more so the team
leader for this week (with sone prompting from Emelye) shared the
story of Noah.

The adults stood at a distance while the children were eager to join
in, and all went away holding heart shaped balloons.

After lunch (which starts here at 2:30 at the earliest) we took some
time out as a family and went to a gorgeous beach called Valdovino,
which was heaving with Spanish people. This is not a very touristy
area but we were amazed how lovely the beach was.

We have just prepared tomorrow mornings devotion and it is definitely
time for bed! Night night zzzzzz

Pyjama Supper

Cheesy!

Getting to know some more of the team

This morning I (Giles) started a series of short bible talks or
devotionals that I will be doing with the OM team all this week. We
then went out on outreach into Ferrol.

At lunchtime we went back to the OM house where the rest of the team
are staying. These are young Spanish Christians who were not able to
attend the Rome conference. The other international folk we met in
Rome will be joining us next week.

God has provided a lovely, if temporary house for OM here in north
west Spain, with plenty of room for the team to stay which will number
about 40 next week I think.

Door knocking in Ferrol

Today we finally started on the outreach here in Ferrol, after months
of anticipation on our part, and years of planning by the originators
of Transform 2010!

More about our experiences later...

Testing the waters of baptism

Time to explore!

Having been installed in our hosts' house, we decided to go for a
wander. (this is the morning after we arrived).

Australian style eucalyptus trees everywhere, grown for woodchip and paper.

Galicia, north west Spain

Views from the road

Leaving Madrid

Great food!

One of the best things about the Rome conference was the food. Every
evening meal started with pasta, and it was really nice pasta. Second
course was generally meat and potatoes.

Giles felt well catered for. Sophie didn't do too badly either.

In Ferrol

We've finally made it here after a very long journey yesterday, driving across the whole of Spain (something we'd really recommend, it's an absolutely stunning mountainous country and..... WE SAW WILD FLAMINGOS). We're staying in such a beautiful area, surrounded by hills covered with eucalyptus trees which you can kind of smell in the air all the time. There's flowers everywhere especially big blue hydrangea bushes. We're staying with 2 of the OM leadership team: Trevor and Manoli in their home. The house where Manoli's grandad was born.

Having arrived at 11pm last night we've had a full on day today, meeting the rest of our team who are all spanish, from Zaragoza. Giles has been asked to preach in church next Sunday, we both gave our testimonies in a service that lasted a couple of hours with us sitting in the front row. The children did SO well. We then went to a river for a picnic and baptism which lasted into the evening. It's all so beautiful and unknown. Meeting so many new people let alone speaking and hearing Spanish all the time is exciting but exhausting!

We'd love you to continue praying for us. Giles is leading morning devotions for the team every morning at the OM house a 10 minute drive away at 11am, please pray for him for truth and clarity. We're going to be doing 2 lots of evangelism in Ferrol every day this week starting at 11.30 in the morning and 4.30 in the afternoon. I think there's things we're going to be inviting people to and finding anyone who's interested for the church to follow up later. Please pray for the children, Sophie's completely off any schedule which she's coping very well with please pray she'd be able to get good sleep in her pushchair and would quickly get used to all these new people. Pray for Joseph that he'd gain greater insight into living for and sharing Jesus. Pray for Ethan who's quite tired that we'd be able to comfort him and have time to enjoy him. When he gets tired he just wants to go home to Bristol. Pray for Emelye for good sleep, lots of energy and improved Spanish and an insight into all these new people to be able to support and encourage them.

Thank you all!

Rome conference 23rd July

It is such a privilege to be here, surrounded by spiritual giants from all over the world who understand so much more than perhaps I ever will about putting Jesus first in their lives and seeing Him do more than they even imagine. It's so exciting and challenging and inspiring. We've thought abou postmodernism, the history of Islam, the Roman Catholic church and so much more. We've talked lots about God's power at work in us.

We've met our Spain group:
Haddis from Mexico has just finished seminary but is also a secondary maths teacher, she hopes to go on the OM ships; Kady from Hong Kong, Danyelle from Chicago, Micha from Switzerland, Wille from Finland, Julio from the Domincan Republic who now works for OM in Barcelona and is our team leader here; Prter from the Netherlands who's a fireball of joy, Valerie and Hannah from Germany. What a team!? They are going to go to Madrid for the first week while we head to Ferrol. Please pray for them in Madrid

Meeting people in Rome

Yesterday afternoon we all.... 600 of us got on the train and headed into Roma Termini. Quite a lot of us headed for the Coloseum. On leaving the train we immediately bumped into a girl we´d seen 2 days before creatively begging - helping people to use the ticket machine. She was sitting alone looking bored and so it was easy to go and talk to her. Despite not having a shared language we were able to communicate something. I gave her a book that she was excited to receive, it felt great just to be able to tell her that she´d been noticed. We had an opportunity to pray for an old man who had a bad leg. When he understood we wanted to pray for him he cried and cried. Lots of people didn´t want to talk to us or to be given something by us, but it was the conversations with people from all over the world which felt like such a privilege.... chinese girls who´d never even heard the name of Jesus, or who´d heard he was famous in other places in the world but didn´t know why. Joseph and Ethan really enjoyed giving people things and the ice cream but mainly they were too hot.

Roma!

Just wanted to email this photo whilst I am connected to the
tempremental hotel wifi. Will blog more about our trip to Rome later.
This is us outside the Colloseum, where we tried to meet folk to talk
about Jesus. Seemed an appropriate place as so many martrys had their
blood spilt here.

Greetings from Pomezia!

Hello all!

This the rather nice hotel where we are staying in Pomezia, one stop
on the mainline train out of Rome. As you can see Sophie quite likes
crawling around the shiny floor and pointing at the fountain. We are
all sharing a room with only 3 beds but we managed to borrow a travel
cot so it's actually quite comfortable. After camping anything else is
luxury but this place is actually quite luxurious. One of the leaders
challenged us to leave our comfort zones as we reach out to the people
of Europe. He said we had got quite used to "JC with AC".

On the contrary, central Rome (and the train to and from it) is almost
unbearably hot; see next post.

Prayer Requests!

Today we are going to Rome, to reach out to the city that Paul was
brought to in chains, with the same gospel of good news that Paul
brought. Hopefully we won't be arrested or end up being fed to the
lions in the colloseum, but who knows!

Please be praying for us as we go out into the city. We are having a
great conference here in Rome, with some truly inspirational speakers
and great worship. I think the kids are enjoying their groups,
especially when they get to play games outside.

To pray for:

- safety as we travel into Rome
- opportunities to meet the people God has prepared for us
- courage to reach out to people with the question "If you could ask
God for one thing today, what would it be?", and the pray with them
- pray God would help our kids cope with the heat and be excited
about sharing their faith and love of Jesus, maybe to other children
they meet.
- pray for us as we hand out literature

That's all for now - I am supposed to be in a postmodernism seminar.

More later!

We made it to Madrid!

Hurray! What an epic journey. It was a very long way, but thanks to A
gracious God (and some excellent French and Spanish toll motorways or
peages) it was feasible in the limited time available.

Soon after we left Azur and got onto the motorway it didn't take long
to get to the Spanish border near San Sebastian. No passports required
obviously.

Crossing from the french plains it suddenly became more undulating
until we reached the foothills of the Pyrenees. We passed through lots
of road tunnels up to 1km in length. Over the next couple of hours we
enjoyed some spectacular mountainous terrain before going back onto
plains that lead to the interior, where the road takes you higher and
higher to the central plateau at around 3,700 feet. Passing through
some rocky mountain tops we came out and at once saw the skyscrapers
of Madrid 40km off - amazing!

Not being able to immediately locate the campsite we opted for the
much more sensible option of a cheap hotel near the airport where the
car currently sits recovering. We, perhaps foolishly decided to pop
into central Madrid for dinner on the metro. It was about 35 degrees
and the children were very very tired. Madrid seemed a very lively
city,we saw a procession of people in national costume playing
bagpipes whilst eating tropical salad and chips! It stayed hot until
late in the evening.

Azur Campsite

Sorry we've been quiet for a few days - we've only just got connected
to hotel wifi (more about the hotel in a later blog!) so we are now
going to catch up with our adventure so far.

After a shockingly late start leaving at 10:30 we bombed down France.
Fantastically Joseph hasn't been at all travel sick and all the
children have, generously, so far really enjoyed the car journeys!
Thanks for your prayers in this regard.

In the photo you can see a lovely tree at Camping le Tuc in Azur near
the west coast of France (see the photo map for exact location!).
Lovely campsite, very French but in a completely different way from
Chanteloupe - this feels more sea-sidey, not that we had time to see
the sea on this mad dash down to Madrid!

The boys really love having a tent just for the two of them and are
being really good about having a bit of a chat and then going to
sleep. It helps that they are going to bed at the same time as us in
true french tradition! It felt lovely sitting eating pizza in the
campsite cafe whilst the boys were off playing with french children.

Camping in France

So we've just had our first night's camping in France at the beautiful
Castel de Chanteloupe in woodland near Le Mans. We all wanted to
explore more (maybe next time) but we did spot a rare and lovely red
squirrel which was a treat!

We didn't get to bed until 11pm but then all slept very well until
Joseph woke us at 6:30 with the traditional blessing "Wake up
sleepyface!".

On the road now trying to reach Azur before teatime. Hopefully with a
nice picnic stop for lunch (baguettes in the car!)

The White Cliffs

So here we are waiting for our ferry by the lovely white cliffs of
Dover! We arrived exactly on time for checkin, having stopped en route
for second breakfast.

We are now ready for lunch ;-)

Here's hoping the crossing is calm...

What's it all about?

The Chanot Family are going on a mission this summer. Friday in fact.

All of us are going - Emelye, Giles, Sophie (9 months), Ethan (4 - as of tomorrow) and Joseph (5) .

We're going with Operation Mobilisation as part of Transform 2010.

So on Friday we're driving, yes driving to Madrid. We then fly to Rome for a 5 day conference before returning to Madrid and driving up to Ferrol, which is at the north west tip of Spain. That's where we'll be doing the mission for the following 2 weeks.

We'll be doing friendship evangelism, children's work (puppets have been mentioned), street theatre and literature distribution. Sounds cool, huh?

Please be praying for all of us! Over the next couple of days please pray for our final preparations and for safe travelling.

Keep coming back to see what we've been up to, we hope to update the blog most days.