Hello again from the Hearn family.
It’s now May, our 5th month in Spain, and already we’re realizing that we’re exactly where God wants us to be. Although we’re really just starting, you can see that He has paved the path for us, and we’re already seeing fruit in the lives around us.
We started our first term of the G42 Leadership Academy on the 2nd of March, with a class of six interns. We are blessed to have this group, as they already realize the authority, boldness, and power that God has given them. They’ve been challenged by teachers and their world is getting rocked with the responsibility that we’re sharing with them—to bring light to the dark places of the world, and bring the hope of Christ to a desperate people. A typical day at the academy starts at 9.30am with a two hour class, right now the subject being covered is “Covenant”-what covenants are, what they mean and how do you walk in covenant today? All good stuff. We just had two excellent guest teachers, Jon Marsden teaching on the pastoral side of ministry and Ted Hanson teaching about the prophetic, and activating it within the interns. They were blown away and totally challenged by both. This is not milk they are being fed, but hard core steak! The interns then break for lunch and have class again from 2-4:30. After class, a different team each week makes dinner and we all eat together and hang out and chill at the ‘kitchen table’.
Student life.
In this first class alone, we have pastors, evangelists, teachers, and other tremendous gifts. We are enjoying living in community, and having them in our apartment for some fun times and good food. It is a wonderful thing that we live between the school and the village store, so we are forever having “pop-ins” and we get to just drink and hang with all the interns on a more one-to-one basis. We also have some brilliant game nights where your stomach hurts from laughing so much. These are top-notch people devoted to the call of God on their lives; there is no mediocrity in them at all. We just love being with them. And of course, they also get to enjoy the beautiful countryside, the beach, and traveling on the weekends.
Family life.
A normal day for Bec is dropping the girls off at school, hanging with Ben at home or having coffee with the school mum’s (it IS a hard “ministry”, but someone has to do it), picking the girls up at 2.00pm and chilling at home for a few hours, or having the girls’ friends over. Then off to Villa Los Grillos (the name of the school villa) to eat and hang with the interns until about 7.30pm. Meanwhile during the day, Dave has been the school shuttle driver, accountant, administrator, web master and graphic designer etc… He has had the opportunity to sit in on a few classes, but most of the time, he is just too busy. He has taught a few classes on leadership, and is in the middle of planning the interns’ practicum in Morocco, where he will go with them for a week and put into practice the last three months of studies. This will be exciting to see God move in this Muslim country. Bec will also be teaching a class here soon based on the book by Bill Johnson and Kris Vallotton, “Supernatural Ways of Royalty.” We eat with the interns four nights a week and have three evenings with just our family.
Emma is still full of ideas, and she fills notebook after notebook with lists, business ventures, party plans, game ideas, and yet another role she would like to fill as she grows up. She is enormously generous and recently tried to spend all of her savings on a cake for Rebecca for Mother’s Day. Gabriella has definitely blossomed in Spain—she actually enjoys school, and is showing a creative streak that amazes both of us. She is so helpful and kind to little Benjamin, a mommy-in-training for sure. Benjamin has also grown into his own, after many ‘trials and errors’ learning to walk, he is now running around the house looking for the most expensive and dangerous items to pull off of shelves.
All of the children love spending time at the Villa with the interns, and have taken over the role of school mascots… but the interns love them and have fun chasing them around the house. What a wonderful thing to be brought up with that environment as part of your life.
It is an amazing life, and we are blown away that we get to live it. There is something to be said about being absolute sure you are where you are supposed to be. It has been a long time coming, but we know without a doubt this is the right time the right place and the right vision. Our family itself couldn’t be in a greater position—after a (miraculously) smooth transition, we are enjoying our time and our life. It seemed like the first few months we were adjusting to all of the new bugs and viruses of Spain, but now everyone is healthy and the sun is finally shining on the Costa del Sol!
Thank you for joining us on this adventure, thank you for your generous support and prayers. We love hearing from you and hope you keep in touch!
-Talk to you later!
Here are some photos of Dave and the students ministering at a youth camp over Easter week.
