I've been lazy or busy or invovled in other things, but I want to keep writing about coming to Spain with a touch of realism.

My first word is don't come unless God has called you. My second word is come to experience love.

Leave your expectations in a labelled box in your family basement. Leave your opinions in a ziplog bag, whatever they're called. Especially leave your idealized love of country and your flag behind. The culture you come from will be accepted here to the extent in which you accept the culture here.

If you come to love, decide in your heart and mind that it will be magnified, for it is God's love that called you to Spain to love the people and to represent His love, and then your own human heart will find much to enjoy and learn from here.

So come expecting to love this country. To love the people. To love their rich heritage and history. To love to become fascinated endlessly with its sights and sounds. To absolutely love its food. To love the beauty of everything in its simplest form.

Read and study about its history, its art, its treasures. I read James Michener's "Iberia". But nothing will prepare you for the real thing. My mouth gaped open for three whole years as we took in with our eyes and ears the richness of what Spain has to offer. My mouth still doesn't close shut... after 29 years I can tell it never will.

The big picture you find in books or online is fabulous, but the tiny details are even more impressive. One of my hobbies is to drive into forgotten villages to discover the treasures that are not in the tourist books. There's not a town that will disappoint the hunter, the photographer.

We are all born to experience love. If people here sense that you love their country, their food, their language, their culture, their minds and hearts will open and warm to you. Love shows, and it's not just a message, it's the real thing that touches lives, opening doors.

Comparisons are deadly. Difficulties to adjust must be faced with humor. Culture shock is real. Ask for help and don't despair. Ask questions, how things are done, what people think. Be outspoken, but in a way that will cause others to chuckle and want to give you a helping hand.
Keep criticism quiet. Keep a thankful heart and cultivate a cheerful disposition. You'll need it!

I want to keep writing about many topics: what clothes to bring; what spices to bring along; what cooking is like here; what housecleaning here is all about; what people spend their money on; what people here earn; what job opportunities are open for foreign missionaries without a work permit; what housing costs are; what drivng licenses cost; what it costs to eat out; cost of living; schooling for children; university possibilities; what the weather is like; and whatever else I can think of, and if someone has questions, that would even be better yet!