Vision Norte and a Shoe on the Roof

This morning, Gail Castro took me over to Paul and Sylvia Cummings' house, where I had breakfast (and a lot of coffee) and a good chat with Sylvia.  Then I went on a driving tour with Paul Cummings and Daniel Castro, of an area they have named "Vision Norte" ("North Vision").  There are 70,000 people living in this area, which has enjoyed recent, rapid growth because the residential property values are much less than those in Madrid.  They are hoping to reach two distinct people groups living in the area:  young couples and retirees.  We drove a huge circle around this area, stopping in a couple of locations to pray for the ministry.

Me, on an area overlooking the Jarama River Valley, the site of the Vision Norte ministry.

Gail was able to meet us for lunch after her day of teaching at the missionary kids' school was over, and then we went to the school to pick up Melissa and Ruth, the Castros' two daughters.  Melissa showed me around the school.

Ruth

Gail (L) and Melissa (R)

Then we headed back to the Castros for some siesta time.  I went upstairs to put my things down and heard Melissa and Ruth in one of the girls' rooms.   My parental commotion alarm went off, so I went to investigate.  It seemed that Ruth had opened the window to shake some sand out of her shoe, and the shoe was now resting on the tile roof, too far to try climbing out to retrieve.  First the girls tried throwing some of Max's tennis balls at it to dislodge it, but that only served to now have tennis balls on the roof along with the shoe.  After about 10 minutes, I realized I could be charged with aiding and abetting, so I left the room and decided to wait it out.  A few minutes later, Ruth confessed and asked the parents for help.  So they found a ladder and an extending window cleaner pole, and went out into the yard, where Max the Dog was racing madly in circles and barking at the pole.  Max kept fetching his ball and bringing it to Daniel, until Max lost the ball under the hedgerow.  Gail and I stood on the back porch doing what mothers do best--giving directions.  Finally, the shoe came down, but poor Max is still missing a couple of his tennis balls.