Homeward bound! We left our hotel at 10:15 a.m., and only had a 5-minute ride to the Madrid airport. Our flight to Atlanta wasn't scheduled to leave until 2:10, but the travel agent wanted us to have plenty of time to check in and to work out the details with our equipment. Yesterday we asked you to pray about our overage costs. Imagine our excitement when God worked this out by having a Delta employee who is "an evangelical musician" assigned to take care of these details for our flight! This wonderful Spanish man tagged all our extra pieces and put them on the plane as cargo. So we didn't have to pay any overage at all! Thanks for your prayers about this. 

We had a couple of hours at the airport to finish spending our last pesetas at the duty-free shops. When we finally did board the plane, we were told that we were going to be delayed. We sat for awhile, then took off at 2:50 p.m. - 40 minutes late. In Atlanta, we had to collect all our baggage and go through customs, then re-check everything. We hurriedly made our way down to the gate for the connecting flight to Dallas, only to find more delays and problems. They had "downgraded" our aircraft; in other words, they had given us a smaller plane, so all seats had to be reassigned. There weren't enough seats on this plane to go around, so a few of our group members (and many other people not in our group) didn't make it on the flight. We assume that all of our group is safely home by now!! It was a frustrating time for us, but we praised God that this didn't happen to us on the way TO Spain. At least we all arrived there at the same time. 

We can't begin to put into words what we have experienced in our hearts and lives this past 11 days. We hope this journal has given you a little glimpse into our trip. We do appreciate your prayers more than we can tell you. When we think about all the answers to prayer we have seen this week, and about the lives that have been changed, we stand in awe of God's mighty power! We thank Him for the opportunity to praise Him and to spread His word through music. We are reminded again that music opens doors! 
 
 

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . We asked some of our trip participants to give us short descriptive phrases about our trip, finishing the sentence: "Spain is...." Here are the responses.

Spain Is

• Historic
• Hard rolls, 
• Cobblestone streets
• Always uphill!
• Friendly people
• Ham and cheese
• Fanta limón and naranja (lemon soda and orange soda)
• Beautiful beaches and mountains
• Rocky
• Lots of traffic
• Castles
• Enthusiastic hand-clapping
• Flamenco dancing
• Tortillas de patata
• Cobblestone streets
• Staying up late
• Ornate cathedrals
• No jeans or tennis shoes
• Music-loving people
• Jamón (locally cured ham)
• Millions of olive trees
• Laundry hanging on patios
• Pesetas (local currency)
• Conservative dress
• Siestas (every day the shops closed from 2-5 p.m. then reopened from 5-8 p.m.
• Fun shopping (but not in the afternoons during siesta times)
• Bullfighting
• Cobblestone streets. (Yes, we know that we listed cobblestone streets three times. We walked on LOTS of them!!)