EDGE Program 2014
This week, Gracie Bartel shares poetically, her adventures with EDGE.
The sea beacons me with the waves she holds in her hands, motioning me to draw near. And on her shoulder sits a charming town made up of a tourist culture, but filled with the Spanish hospitality we all expected. Spain welcomed me with open arms and the relationships, that I had said goodbye to last summer, were rekindled as if time hadn’t even elapsed. The same cultural I had fallen in love with kissed me once on each cheek and invited me back in to the family.
The cultural temperament keeps me from the homesickness that would have been expected from anyone. But however friendly and inviting and free spirited it may appear to be, the people here draw the line where mine begins. The inviting culture compares drastically to the religious depravity and it only makes it more difficult than ever to share with them the Gospel that had saved me. Where I might be discouraged, I find hope in the open arms; I find hope in knowing that those same arms might open to the heart of Truth as they did to this odd foreign traveler.
I love how Europe is so closely knit and how it continues to tie together the cultural divides by bringing young travelers from country to country. This year I met Sneha and Sejal, two Nepalese girls. Sneha is just a year younger than I am and her cousin, Sejal, is nine years old. I met these two girls within minutes before one of our gallery openings and invited them to join us. Despite the language barrier, these two girls (and Sneha’s aunt) came and enjoyed our group and took dozens and dozens of pictures with us. I didn’t notice we had made an impact until Sneha began posting about the “new friends I’ve made” on Instagram and Facebook. Our small friendship is such a lovely assurance that the Spirit inside us is beaming with His light.
Is there any adventure more exciting than meeting new people and finding out what lives within them?
