Today was a highlight of our trip! There are a couple of destinations on this trip that we did specifically for a family member. Once we discovered that it was significantly less expensive to fly into London than Rome, it opened up some opportunities for us to go to these places.
Emmy desperately wanted to go to Paris because of the Fancy Nancy books (books really do take you places)!
And I wanted to go to Barcelona to be able to attend ICB, International Church of Barcelona.
I started listening to ICB on podcasts in 2020. I was looking for a church that was lead by the Holy Spirit and needed podcasts to fuel my whole I was training for a half marathon. I fell in love with ICB and have been listening to Pastors John and Brandi Carrano ever since!
In 2022 we found Atmosphere and I had two phenomenal churches to fill my cup each week. In my opinion, they would be considered sister churches.
Pastor John and Brandi have something special about them. The way they deliver God’s word and they way they love people comes through every word. You can even feel it through a podcast, halfway across the world.
This church has been especially special to me over the last 8 months as we have been diligently praying over what God has next for us. Every time I turned on a sermon, God spoke through them straight to my heart.
One morning I was particularly distraught over the decision to sell our home and move out of CA or not. I was looking to get as much of God’s word as I could to gain some wisdom. I listened to a sermon of Pastor John’s where he shared a story of when they lived in Florida and had a messed up lawn. There was one small area where the grass grew lush, but otherwise the entire lawn was overgrown with weeds. They had were faced with the decision to dig up the entire lawn, leaving it a muddy mess for several weeks while the new seed grew in, or leave it and love that one little green area. They didn’t want the eyesore of the mess, so they kept it as it was. But you can’t obtain an entire new, green lawn if you don’t dig up what’s there and get a little messy. When listening to that sermon, I felt like we could have this great little piece of beautiful grass and God would bless it, but if we let Him dig everything up, if we (literally) uprooted ourselves, the blessing would be bigger.
So, here we are, selling everything and going on somewhat of a quest to see where God will lead us next.
To say that meeting Pastors John and Brandi was a bucket list item, is an understatement! To attend ICB, hear worship in Spanish (or was it Catalan?) was a beautiful experience! I was brought to tears many times. It’s such a wonderful thing to see God moving all over the world! Even though our home church, Atmosphere, is our favorite, there are so many other churches pointing people to the greatest gift of all - Jesus Christ! It felt like a little sliver of home, all the way in Barcelona!
We were able to meet other church leaders, Angela and Paul Trementozzi, who gave us instruction on how to obtain dual citizenship in Italy. Pastor John is getting his as well. It is something we were already looking into, and welcomed the advice! Angela and Paul were so kind and welcoming! They also took the time to pray over us, our travels and clarity on direction that God has for us.
I had been praying that God would be so kind to give us a word while we were there. It wasn’t a word per se, but I did ask John if he could talk to Emmy about what it is like living in a different country than his parents or friends. He has been fortunate to have lived in many places in his lifetime. He was able to share some sweet words with her about how God will grow her through these unique opportunities. Every word he said to her were exactly the reasons that are in Damian and my hearts. It was an unexpected confirmation in my spirit.
We are using the rest of this Domingo as a day of rest, and then will explore more of the city this week.