YAY! It's finally begun! Last Thursday we hosted our first Bible study of the semester! After a month of planning, a wonderful visit from Judy Chastain, a team bonding ski day and some minor house renovations we are back to "normal."

Our big three events all went really well last week- each with some additions and updates from the previous semesters. Tertulia, free lunch on Tuesdays with a short devotion, is becoming a more high energy event with the addition of a round of trivia following the weekly devotion as well as our new theme of "Disciples: Wanted Dead or Alive." We are taking a closer look at the 12 disciples and the lessons that we can learn from their lives, and also interspersing several interviews with modern day disciples such as friends from the local church. One of these modern disciples is an En Vivo alumni, Noemí, who left last week to intern with Globalscope Chile for the next 10 months.

Café Inglés continues to be a nice mental break for our team every week as we brew coffee and invite students to spend two hours practicing their English with us. Thursday Night Bible Studies are still the 800 pound gorilla of En Vivo events. We have three series planned for the semester and are currently preparing for our second talk in a series about "Celebrations." We kicked off the semester with a talk about the 3 Hebrew words for love (thanks to St. Valentines Day falling on last Thursday), and we are looking forward to preparing talks themed around a birthday party, a wedding, Holy Week and more!

Along with our regularly scheduled events we are adding spice with several girls/guys-only events such as a guys' soccer tournament and girls' progressive dinner. We also have our biggest array of small groups ever, thanks to the initiative of our interns and exchange students. Now students can come to the En Vivo house any day of the week to find a group of friends doing anything from studying the book of Song of Solomon using Tommy Nelson's video series, to exercising, painting, cooking desserts, learning "Bible Basics" or preparing to go cheer on the University of Salamanca's sports teams. Throw into this mix the coffee dates, lunches, café outings, pick-up basketball and flag-football games and trips to the movie theater, and you have a typical action-packed week at En Vivo.

This is my first glimpse of a spring semester in Salamanca (I just arrived last August) and already I'm loving it. You can even see a difference in the face of the students...they have settled into the school year and are excited about the possibilities that the semester holds, as well as the anticipation of warmer weather. This semester is longer than the fall, but has several holidays built in that will allow us more time to build relationships with students and develop quality bible studies. Holy Week is less than a month away, and with that comes a two-week break in classes and a first for En Vivo- a mission trip to Portugal with Habitat for Humanity! We are working right now to build interest amongst our students and to find financial support so that the the trip will be affordable for students.

One last note and then I will leave you to check out the rest of the this website- photos, prayer requests, and all: one of our Interns, Kristina Hull, has poured an amazing amount of time and effort into reworking our ministry's student website. We couldn't be more proud of her or the finished product! Even if you don't speak a lick of Spanish its worth a look: www.en-vivo.org

Thank you for all that you do to make the above mentioned events possible! We are so very grateful!

~Ansley Cleveland, 02.19.08