Merry Christmas from all of us

We, Patrick and Ivy that is, are back home. I assume Don and Sancho are still in Spain. We arrived back Tuesday night and are very glad to be back, 107 days later.

A Lot to Be Thankful For

We picked olives on Thanksgiving, at El Buen Samaritano, a drug rehabilitation center in Cordoba province. It was a beautiful day, a little cool, but very clear. We gathered a lot of olives and it was a lot of work, but I think harvesting is a good thing to do on Thanksgiving.

The center (click here for a link to their website) is self-sufficient, with a well, solar panels for electricity and hot water, a large brick oven/building for baking bread, and a greenhouse. There are about 1000 olive trees, and the olives are for oil. The approach is ecologico, or organic. The center is part of a co-op that processes the olives into oil.

We were at the center for four days; there were 8 Spanish residents (there for a year each) and a Dutch short term group (there for a week). And us, the two Americanos along for the ride, trying to interpret for the other two groups (!!). It was an interesting mix, but a very good experience. I felt that there had been a lot of pain and shame in the lives of these men, but that God was doing a healing and restoring work.