This is the second and last newsletter from Madrid.
Tomorrow I will be making little videoshots during the Serve the City Madrid projects, and Noemi Mena will interview.
We actually made a promotion movie for Serve the City Madrid a month ago. It's this funny stop-motion short that tells the story of how people can make the day of homeless man, just by being nice to him. He also gets encouraged to do nice to others and before he knows, he is off to his brand new job...We shot this short with friends and all the spanish people that participated were willing to make free time and were super enthusiastic.
I have to say that during my entire stay in Madrid so far, not one single setback has occurred. Except for one: I accidentally dropped my laptop and the screen broke (again). Although I was devastated, it's just a laptop, and I remembered a preaching from a pastor in the International Baptist Church saying: also at setbacks praise God! For He does turn all the bad situations into opportunities. It's an exercise though, it doesn't come naturally to us to praise God when uncool things happen.
Starting the day with God led me to many encounters with the people of the neighborhood.
One day as I was sitting on the bench reading a chapter out of 'Walking with Gay Friends' (highly recommended!) a man approached me and introduced himself. He said he is a Gipsy and had had a Dutch mother. He started singing beautiful flamenco songs to me, one entitled 'Flaca' meaning 'skinny'. He saw how my nail-polish was all worn off and he said: "I'll go home and get you some nail polish remover. I'll be right back, give me 20 minutes.''
He did return with the nail-polish remover and a whole beauty box with nailpolish and he polished my nails dark purple, to my choice. 'But,'he said, 'the middle finger you should give another color, in case you meet rude people, you can give them a very subtle hint'. Also another gipsy joined us, his name is Louis. Louis made me choose of colored paper and then he made me paper flowers. During the process he said: Remember the thought you have while I make this. Afterwards he told me to close my eyes and choose a parfum as he sprayed to different kind of scents on my hands. I chose a parfum which he sprayed on the flower he made and he gave it to me. 'Now, go to my facebook page PapelFlores and write down the thought you have'.
I spend the entire afternoon with these gipsy men, as they sang and we ate sunflowerseeds and tamarind juice, to celebrate the Caribbean. They invited me to go to the beach in Valencia, which I politely declined.
I also met an old man with superlong white hair and a beard like Santa Claus. But he was very tall and skinny. He didn't speak. He wrote down his thoughts and referred to himself in the plural form. We had a very interesting conversation, he has some interesting wisdom and we shared a very nice self made lunch together, including saliva as we shared 1 calebas cup with chai tea, that afternoon. I felt so Jesus-like. But each time I brought the subject to God or Jesus, he reacted very angry (although not with words, but with body language). He was very busy rejecting God and I'm afraid something terrible happened to him that he blames God for and won't speak again. However, he was referring his hatred with bible texts and such. Being so busy hating God is also a good thing, ánd reading the Bible, cause he is busy with God still. I shared this encounter with Kelly and he had tried to have conversations with him too, but the man always reacted very aggresive towards him. Which must be spiritual battle, because Kelly here is one of the most humble caring people walking these Malasañan dog-peed streets I know.
I continued to meet René, the guy who felt sharing whatever was on his heart every time we met. His friend has a drug addiction and gives him also financial problems. I would just listen and pray for him, which he highly appreciated. The next thing was to introduce him to Kelly and April, so they can continue this friendship. They are looking forward to that.
Meeting people went all automatically some days. Just sitting on a terrace with potential missionaries from the US who came to ask Kelly questions (for God called them to Burgos, the north of Spain) led to 2 Americans joining our table and later on also 2 Indonesian girls. In the end I was with one American girl who is from Austin, Texas and the two Indonesian girls of which one is also an artist. We went out that night to dance reggae and next thing I know I met the coolest reggae band on a personal level ever. With some people you just know the friendship is long-term, although you met very shortly. That's how it felt with Seedee (Senegal) Seb, Lif, Fred and Leo (France), Matt (UK) and Xavi (Spain), who all live in the south of Spain, Almería. These guys were very dedicated to their music and very laid back and friendly. Of course this is very normal attitude in the reggae scene, and I wish their type of kindness was also so automatic in the christian scene.
Meanwhile back in Madrid it is very nice to be connecting and catching up with the Spanish friends I already have, like Noemi, Ana and Nuria. I am also learning a lot about church planting and mission from Kelly from Decoupage. I guess I do feel called to start a similar group in Curacao. I have friends there who each time I go back ask me: Is the Zolder coming to Curacao? Yes? Will you start the Zolder here? To which I always react like: whah? me?! who am I to start a church. I have totally other ideas for Curacao (see previous posts), but then again: why not? and how about a home church with an art ministry focus?? Involving my christian art friends, Operation Mobilisation, the art and reggae scene... Hmm, something is brewing here...
Being in Madrid has been a lot about the people and their stories. I have this also re-occurring in the drawings I made here. Together with Chris I spread my drawings guerilla style. I was very happy to be able to exhibit my paper installation cloud during the Sofa Underground (an underground living-room concert organised by Chris and Gloria, changing living rooms each time in the city) It's a nice concept: you make a list, and everyone wants to be on that list. But it's a limited number, so then people want to be part of it even more. Nice idea for ArtSpace50, which also has underground aspects.
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| people could write down their wishes, desires and new starts |
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| of the Single Cloud series |
Miguel is an architect/artist and has studied in Rotterdam, so he has fond memories of Holland and was happy to host me in his art space. I will be taking his drawing workshops just before my return to Amsterdam. Decoupage community that invited me over here, has also learned from me, as I have from them. They also desire to have more encounters with their random neighbors, of all sorts. They also learned about being pro-active and self-initiating when it comes to being a professional artist, but still knowing that God is the true manager and provider of work.
during one of the microResidencia's we went with the community Decoupage
I have had a super blessed time here and God's presence was with me 24/7 as he gave me rest (Exodus 33:14). A great part of this I have you to thank for, your good will, prayers and financial help has made it a carefree stay in Madrid, without all kind of struggles or setbacks. It was merely about God's presence, and me calling on to his presence for each day, and the peace he gave me. As he told Moses:
''My Presence will go with you and I will give you rest''
I am also very inspired to continue with installations and guerilla art. I will take this new inputs with me to Amsterdam. I see you all soon again in the near future! thank you for reading.in Him,
Avantia
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