I know... finally a new blog.  And in fact, this one is from Emma.  Trust me, she wrote the entire thing herself and even asked me the interview questions at the end.  I will be in touch soon... Until then, here's Emma! //Dave

Spain!G42!

Hey Americans! This is Emma the daughter of David Hearn. Spain is beautiful, Its looks old but beautiful old. There is so small sidewalks,(They look cool but if there's a fat lady there when your trying to go past, You have GOT to go on the road) and Its  A little bit hard when there's a car and your trying to walk on the sidewalk. Anyway, I'ts old fashioned and its beautiful. I'm a good singer so when you're here if your lucky, Ill make a song for you. And I own a candy shop at the place for students like.......... Lolipops  for 10 cents and candy bars for 50 cents, Sodas for 50 cents, Resses cups for 10 cents, packs of gum for 50 cents, Etc,etc  sometimes we have a party like 1 time we had a surprise party for 2!  One person thought  It was a surprise for the other person and that person thought It was a surprise for That person. So It was a surprise for both of them! And of the starting of the class we have a special dinner and for the graduation we have a special dinner. The students take turns cooking, and cleaning, For a whole week. Oh and I have a massage and spa thing I do. Its awesome here Its like boarding school but better It has dorms and you stay all day and all night. Some nights we have game night where we play games. I have 1 sister and 1 brother ( I think you will think my brother is cute) And sometimes we have movie nights where we watch movies. There is all kinds of events! And we have a library where you can get books and keep them for as long as you want (but you have to return them before you leave) (By the way your house is like a beautiful princess house I am so jealous of it) And you do bible classes of course. And we are also looking for a few more students. And you have a grocery store so close to  you Its like a 10 sec drive. And you can get tattoos (My sister does that). There is a beach here and a wonderful view some days you can see Africa from the view. And you can have a trip around the town on a donkey for 10 euros Have a trip around the town on a cart that the donkey pulls for 15 euros Or a longer trip around the town on a bigger cart that's been pulled by a horse for 20 euros. Hope you like it, Oh I'm not done. Well, My house is close to yours its like a 40 sec drive. This is my interview with Dave...............

What is g42?
G42 is a network of people, Who want to plant churches and ministries who want to spread  the kingdom of god around the world. And develop leaders passionate leaders to spread the message.

What are we doing?
Of course we are doing G42 academy, but also we are growing our networks with ministries of our graduates.

What is coming up on G42?
Our next term starts October sixth. We are also accepting applications for our January term.

How many students are their going to be on October 6th?
On October 6th we have 6 students. But we're hoping for more.

Ok! I'm done! Hope you come soon!
Emma

Ben seriously burnt his feet, but now four weeks later, he can do everything he did before, but he will not go without socks and shoes, the new skin is still very tender and crumbs and debris on the floor seem to hurt.  But he is wonderful and brings joy wherever he goes.

Em has been going through a rough patch. For some reason whenever she would wear trousers or shorts she would just be so uncomfortable to the point of sheer frustration.  Her toes touching would be so uncomfortable, that she would be in tears asking us why God was doing this and not helping.  It is such an oddity to Dave and I, so we have been praying and really just asking God for wisdom.   We have also had to change our parenting, it's sort of humbling when you have to re-evaluate because what you are doing is not working.  But we have seen that in Emma, that her drive to be ‘perfect' and to please was too overwhelming, she would feel guilty to the point of condemnation and feel worthless.  This is no way to live.  So we have talked with her about the truth of  who God says she is, the truth that we all mess up daily but we walk in forgiveness and that God see's us as perfect through Christ.  I think she is getting it, and I have seen a big difference the past few weeks.  I think the ‘toe' thing bought all this to light.  Better a month or so of oddities, than a life of never feeling good enough. She is amazing, she is beyond smart and constantly writes songs, poems, and has a new business venture weekly.  We have stamped on Satan and his lies and she is starting to realize the truth of who she is.

Gabriella is still our artistic one, the irony being that she has become the "easy child!"....she never stops asking questions, and cannot be fobbed off with nonsense.  She is still my right hand when it comes  to Ben.  She bought her first chapter book this week and read it....so it was a big proud moment for her.

The school is doing really well.  We have nine interns this semester, five of them graduate in a month, and so have had to "make a plan and say "amen" ... our married couple are going to go and plant a church in Georgia, one is starting a college campus community, another is going to start a ministry to teenage girls and show real relationships and godly lifestyles. We have others going to teach in Eastern Europe with a desire to bring life and light to the atrocity of genocide,......This is a group that will enact change and refuse to let the status quo take control.  The momentum is growing and we continue to be amazed at the caliber of young adults wanting to come to the leadership academy.  

The visiting teachers, Ted Hanson,  John Marsden, and Hermann Haan....have made the interns heads spin and spirits soar.  It is fantastic, anointed, academic, it is about seeing the offices of "pastor" "teacher" "prophet".....it is about letting them see it all and watching as a switch in them is turned on.

We have had a few visitors too, who seem not to notice the plumbing issues ( still can't flush toilet paper!) etc etc, but they see ‘church', they see a bunch of people, just having fun and living life to the full and living to encourage each other and to worship God.

If you want to visist you are more than welcome!

 

So after years of being told that "God cares"  I am finally beginning to believe that He truly does...He cares about the big and the small.  I am finally believing that He does want us to be blessed and happy.....( That is my next blog...."destiny, happiness, and guilt").  Whether it's healing feet, touching body parts or finding plastic toys, God is a big God  who desires to show love in so many ways. 

So that is to catch you all up a bit, and hopefully you are getting the blogs we post on facebook, and our adventures in missions page.  If not let us know.  Thanks for everything!  LIFE IS GREAT :o)

It seemed just as Ben's feet were healing, we were hit with yet another spritual battle.

Emma has developed a bit of a frustration with her feet and clothing.  Pants and shorts are a big no-no.  Even underwear is a struggle some days.  Bathing suit bottoms, for some reason, are too tight and restrictive, so we've gone to the pool in underwear.  A then there's her feet.  She doesn't want her toes "touching", and goes to great length to keep them separated.  This means that most shoes won't work.  Another interesting thing is that this frustration will go unnoticed one day, but the next, causes temper tantrums and tears.

Emma....!

Now, remember, Emma is our super-smart one, but also super-sensitive.  She is generous and thoughtful, and routinely gives her allowance to others, tithes, but yet can also save for the future.  She is business minded, and daily thinks of a new business or idea.  She is creative, writes short stories and songs almost every day–the girl is truly amazing and blessed with smarts and beauty.

That's why it is so hard for us when some days she is completely not herself, shouting "I hate my feet!", "Why would God make my feet icky!?!?", etc...

On one hand, maybe this is normal.  She is growing, (only 7 years old but still growing fast), she's gone through wierd phases before, and we know this will pass.  And when we read reports of "hyper-sensitive" kids on the net, Rebecca and I wonder what kids in the 1860's did, or orphans who have little to eat–did they worry about how their feet felt, or how their pants frustrated them?

But on the other hand, when we hear her crying about how she is mad at God for her feet and see how much her demeanor changes, we realize that this could be another spiritual attack on the ‘fabric' of our family.  We've prayed for her, had the students and other teachers pray for her, replacing her shouts of frustration with shouts of blessing and health.  It just seems we've been under constant attack & stress since we've been here in Spain, in one way or another.  (BUT– we've had times of feeling we're at our best, and we're right where God wants us too–we know that what we are doing has eternal signifigance!)

Please, keep us in your thoughts and prayers...don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to over-spiritualize everything or make you think that our family is falling apart.  Overall, we are doing well, and using all of these things to grow as a family ( like explaining to Emma how every body part is important, and each has it's own job, just like Christians in the "body" of Christ)

Sorry I haven't blogged in a month!... I've finally been able to have some time in the office.  You can check out the latest blogs from the interns at the Leadership Academy at http://blog.g42globlal.org .  Today, I just want to share with you some of the battles we've been going through.

Hamming it up from his hospital cage--I mean, crib.

 

Yes, this is where Rebecca slept, and yes, they are SHARING a blanket.

It was an intense time... we contacted as many people as we could to pray for Ben, especially when the doctors thought they might have to do a skin graft.  We were scared–Ben was in intense pain, and basically trapped in this hospital for an indeterminate amount of time.  We turned to YOU, to our friends and family, who encouraged us tremendously and prayed for us, no matter where you were in the world.  And we believe we got a little miracle...

Their home away from home

Ben didn't need a skin graft.  After the first scare was over and some pain medication kicked in, he was back to his own happy self, smiling and "brrrrrm- brrrrrrm"ing his cars over everything.  We were allowed to leave the burn unit and continue his treatment at home after a week in the hospital.  {Thank you Elizabeth, a nurse in the local church, who volunteered to keep an eye on Ben and help us with the bandages!}  Being allowed to leave the hospital was a miracle in itself–doctors and other parents on the ward had told us to be ready for a long stay, and none of the other children in the burn ward while we were there had left earlier than three weeks-with various degrees of burns.

Hamming it up at home (taken before the burn)

But through it all, we stand together, knowing this is all for a Greater Purpose, and we are committed to working and growing through these speed bumps.   We know that Ben will have a tremendous testimony and "Walk" in the future...

In part 2, I'll seek your help for the next battle in the war.  Stay tuned.

I took a team of the interns to Morocco last week after they completed their first term at the G42 Leadership Academy.  Our primary mission was to make contact with some new “friends” that are living and working inside Morocco to bring peace, hope, and love to this nation caught between Islam and the West.

In one of the medinas -

Morocco is interesting in that it sits on the Straight of Gibraltar, just an hour-long ferry ride from Spain and Europe.  Because of that it is one of the more ‘progressive’ Muslim nations, trying to hold on to the rituals and rules of Islam while at the same time, embracing and befriending the West.  I was struck by the true “Clash of Civilizations” going on in this nation. On one hand, it is truly an Islamic nation, with tight controls on behavior, dress, and religious practice.  On the other, the younger generations listen to American pop music, dress in trendy European styles, and enjoy practicing their English.  And here we were, American (i.e. Christian) tourists who were continually the object of attention for most locals.

On the trek near Moulay Idriss

Since our goal was to make contact with as many future partners as possible, we traveled around quite a bit.  We were based in Meknes, which was a medium-sized city that was central to many of the places we wanted to travel.  So we did, by taxi (7 people jammed in one taxi for 2 hoursâ€"fun!) and train, and by foot.  We got to trek into villages and speak to locals with a mix of Spanish, French, and Arabic; we got to wander in old medinas full of colors (and smells :^P ); and we got to visit and play with orphans at the Village of Hope orphanage in Ain Leuh, Morocco.

The Village of Hope isn’t really an orphanage, it’s more of a children’s home.  And it was nothing like we expectedâ€"it wasn’t rows upon rows of dirty beds, bored children, and dusty grounds.  It was an oasis of family, community, life, and love!

A bit of backgroundâ€"in a Muslim society, sex out of marriage simply “doesn’t happen.”  If somehow a girl does get pregnant, she is shuttled off to the city to have an abortion or off to the country to have her baby, leave it at an orphanage, and then return to her life.  In fact, we were told that Muslims believe that orphans are born without a soul, therefore it is okay to kill them.  So orphans in Morocco really don’t have a chance to ever re-integrate into Moroccan society.  BUT, at the Village of Hope, each orphan is actually adopted by a family that commits to raising that child as their own until they are 18 years old.  There are currently 4-5 families with 8-10 “children” (natural and adopted) each that live at Village of Hope.  They live in community, and their children attend school on the grounds, provided by Moroccan teachers, in Arabic.  The parents come from South Africa, Holland, America, the UK, and around the world.  So these kids get to grow up learning multiple languages, in a family that loves and cares for them.  It’s an amazing concept!

And the Village of Hope reaches out to the community as well: children from local villages attend the school, they are currently building a clinic that will not only care for the families on-site, but will care for villages as well, and they bring in local tradesmen and farmers to teach the children to be workers and leaders.  They are truly building a generation of Moroccans who will re-enter society, no longer stigmatized, but who will be a light to their fellow citizens!

…

That is just one place that interns and graduates may be involved in the future… I will try and write more soon.  Just as an update, the June term starts Monday 15 June, with four new students in addition to the five already attending.  We are growing quickly and we are hopign to move into a larger, more modern facility by September!  Please be in prayer that a property opens up that will be perfect for us. Other than ongoing classes, this is my highest priority right now, to find a place that will have the sleeping capacity, classroom space, and a large kitchen to accomodate all of the students we are planning on having.

Thank you to everyone who is following us and praying for us on this journey…. and thanks to Michelle for letting me use her photos…!

Khalid, (with Sean and I) our unofficial tour guide for the city of Moulay Idriss

Hello again from the Hearn family.

It's now May, our 5^th month in Spain, and already we're realizing that we're exactly where God wants us to be.  Although we're really just starting, you can see that He has paved the path for us, and we're already seeing fruit in the lives around us.

We started our first term of the G42 Leadership Academy on the 2^nd of March, with a class of six interns.  We are blessed to have this group, as they already realize the authority, boldness, and power that God has given them.  They've been challenged by teachers and their world is getting rocked with the responsibility that we're sharing with them-to bring light to the dark places of the world, and bring the hope of Christ to a desperate people.  A typical day at the academy starts at 9.30am with a two hour class, right now the subject being covered is "Covenant"-what covenants are, what they mean and how do you walk in covenant today? All good stuff.   We just had two excellent guest teachers, Jon Marsden teaching on the pastoral side of ministry and Ted Hanson teaching about the prophetic, and activating it within the interns.  They were blown away and totally challenged by both.  This is not milk they are being fed, but hard core steak!  The interns then break for lunch and have class again from 2-4:30. After class, a different team each week makes dinner and we all eat together and hang out and chill at the ‘kitchen table'.

Student life.

In this first class alone, we have pastors, evangelists, teachers, and other tremendous gifts.  We are enjoying living in community, and having them in our apartment for some fun times and good food. It is a wonderful thing that we live between the school and the village store, so we are forever having "pop-ins" and we get to just drink and hang with all the interns on a more one-to-one basis.  We also have some brilliant game nights where your stomach hurts from laughing so much.  These are top-notch people devoted to the call of God on their lives; there is no mediocrity in them at all.  We just love being with them. And of course, they also get to enjoy the beautiful countryside, the beach, and traveling on the weekends.

Family life.

A normal day for  Bec is dropping  the girls off at school, hanging with Ben at home or having coffee with the school mum's (it IS a hard "ministry", but someone has to do it), picking the girls up at 2.00pm and chilling at home for a few hours, or having the girls' friends over.  Then off to Villa Los Grillos (the name of the school villa) to eat and hang with the interns until about 7.30pm.  Meanwhile during the day, Dave has been the school shuttle driver, accountant, administrator, web master and graphic designer etc...He has had the opportunity to sit in on a few classes, but most of the time, he is just too busy.  He has taught a few classes on leadership, and is in the middle of planning the interns' practicum in Morocco, where he will go with them for a week and put into practice the last three months of studies. This will be exciting to see God move in this Muslim country.  Bec will also be teaching a class here soon based on the book by Bill Johnson and Kris Vallotton, "Supernatural Ways of Royalty."    We eat with the interns four nights a week and have three evenings with just our family.

Emma is still full of ideas, and she fills notebook after notebook with lists, business ventures, party plans, game ideas, and yet another role she would like to fill as she grows up.  She is enormously generous and recently tried to spend all of her savings on a cake for Rebecca for Mother's Day.  Gabriella has definitely blossomed in Spain-she actually enjoys school, and is showing a creative streak that amazes both of us.  She is so helpful and kind to little Benjamin, a mommy-in-training for sure.  Benjamin has also grown into his own, after many ‘trials and errors' learning to walk, he is now running around the house looking for the most expensive and dangerous items to pull off of shelves.

All of the children love spending time at the Villa with the interns, and have taken over the role of school mascots... but the interns love them and have fun chasing them around the house. What a wonderful thing to be brought up with that environment as part of your life.

It is an amazing life, and we are blown away that we get to live it.   There is something to be said about being absolute sure you are where you are supposed to be.  It has been a long time coming, but we know without a doubt this is the right time the right place and the right vision. Our family itself couldn't be in a greater position-after a (miraculously) smooth transition, we are enjoying our time and our life.  It seemed like the first few months we were adjusting to all of the new bugs and viruses of Spain, but now everyone is healthy and the sun is finally shining on the Costa del Sol!

Thank you for joining us on this adventure, thank you for your generous support and prayers. We love hearing from you and hope you keep in touch!

-Talk to you later!

Here are some photos of Dave and the students ministering at a youth camp over Easter week.