Or should I say 您会说汉语吗？

   Why learn Spanish if you’re not going to come back and serve here? This is what one of the ladies in Juarez asked me when I was visiting earlier this year. Yes, it’s true. I did not speak Spanish before moving to Mexico. God sent me down there to prepare me to serve in so many different ways. Learning Spanish was one of them.
Spanish is the second most spoken language in the world right now. It has overtaken English, which is now third. Numero uno: Mandarin Chinese.
*thank you Babbel Magazine for the insight (www.Babbel.com).
When I began searching for what was next, I thought I would start with the obvious. I speak Spanish now so God would send me to help Spanish speakers somewhere. Right? So I thought, where do they – for sure – speak Spanish? Spain, of course.

I learned a lot while looking into Madrid.

• There are 6.5 million people living in the Madrid metro area (Juarez metro has about 3 million).

• The media age is 42.7.

• Life expectancy is 79.6 for men and 85.6 for women. I found this interesting as these are higher than the US averages.

• 98.3% literacy rate.

• 67% of people claim to be Catholic.

• 63% say they have never gone to a church. Hmmm makes one wonder how so many who have never gone to church can claim to be Catholic. I digress.

• The unemployment rate was 29.2% in 2007.

That last statistic stopped me in my tracks. Wow. 29.2% is super high. Recent years have seen improvements in their unemployment rates. They are now closer to 13.6%. But the younger you get the higher that number goes. So I wouldn’t want to go over and take a job from a Spaniard. I thought maybe I could start a business and create some jobs. Doing what? I don’t know.
I researched Madrid’s demographics, job markets, neighborhoods, churches, ministries, housing. I enjoy research and I learned a lot about the city and culture there.
As I prayed about going to Madrid I got a solid NO from God. I wanted to throw up. Like literally. I felt like throwing up whenever I talked with God about Madrid. I had no peace. None whatsoever.

   Pray with me if you will. For God’s direction on what is next for us.
I know for sure it is not Juarez and it is not Madrid.
Pray for God to show us the next step.