Fins

I´m going to go ahead and admit that this title will seem like a stretch, but trust me that you´ll get a kick out of the end result.
Dinner was delicious, as I expected, and we followed it up by sharing a quarter of a watermelon I saw at the grocery while I was buying orange juice. We had to use dental floss to cut it, but that worked better than expected and we then followed it up with some icecream cones. After a bit of lingering we parted ways and I made the long and very sweaty walk up to the bus station, where I stared off into space for a while and then went down to the bus.
Rather than tell you directly about my experience on the bus, I´m going to tell you a little story. Call it a parable if you want. Once upon a time there was a sardine in a can. This sardine had longer fins than all the others, so he was much less comfortable than they were. The average-height sardine right in front of him also ignored his barely muffled "oomph" as the average sardine leaned his chair aaaaaall the way back right into the long sardine´s knees that were already touching the back of the seat. Needless to say, the long sardine was not very comfortable, but he still got an adequate amount of sleep. The end.
And speaking of Fins, the girl sitting next to me, who was so petite that I found my legs coveted her size, was from Finland (see, I told you you could trust me with the title). She cycled the Camino, so we had plenty to talk about and it was very fun to compare hometowns, especially with the length of days in the seasons. Good seatmate, especially because I was able to use some of her legroom since she was so tiny.
Arrived to the bus station about an hour late, but since I was already getting to Madrid 5 hours early and figured out my metro route ahead of time that was no problem. Got to the right stop and wandered a bit before finding the Episcopal Cathedral and then set about finding a hostel and breakfast (by this time I was pretty disgusting, so a shower was out of the question). I found the latter first and after a lot more walking around I found a hostel that was open (€50 for the night! eek!) and not full and took a nice shower. I put on my best clothes, meaning I zipped on the pants attachments onto my less sweaty shorts and wore my long-sleeved tshirt and also my boots for the last time.
I was still really early, but I went ahead and waited outside the church anyway and was warmly greeted by the diocesan secretary and a pastor from Cuba who was attending some sort of Spanish Episcopal synod that concluded today with the ordination of three deacons and one priest. I understood very little of the Spanish of the service, but at least I had an order of service so I could read with everyone else rather than standing silent like I did in mass. We also sang four hymns, which was fun because a couple of them were familiar tunes. Bishop Carlos gave a (though brief) sermon (from what I understood of it) and after Communion we finished. At that point the couple sitting next to me who had gotten in after the start of the service introduced themselves as Presbyterian church planters and were very interested in the vision God has given me. They´ve been working alongside the Anglicans here (apparently the Anglican church has sent four Australian pastors to Spain as well) and are working to plant churches in Madrid.
After the service was a fellowship time with quite a bit of good food, though I saw little of it because of the number of people (apparently alot of laypeople from the diocese [so, Spain] came to the cathedral for today) and finally received an excited greeting from the bishop himself.
He said several times how happy he was that I came and that he´s really excited for the vision. He listened very attentively to the ideas I´ve had floating around in my head for the past 6 weeks and also inquired about whether the two churches supporting me in the States would be willing to cooperate with the Spanish church (take note, NAMS folk, I think we´ll want to keep in touch with him). He was most excited when I mentioned Léon because apparently he´s been praying about that city because he considers it a critical place and has also wanted for a long time to have a pastor serving pilgrims. He´s working right now in fact to send someone to Santiago itself, so that could be a place with which I could network once I get back here.
All in all, it was a very exciting meeting and I´m praising God for his receptiveness to the ideas. He offered any sort of help, particularly legal advice which was worrying me since my talk with the American missionary yesterday, he could give and I asked for him to pray. He said he´d add me to his list and then prayed for me right then and there and then hurried off to visit a parishioner in the hospital. (I know life as a hospitalero isn´t exactly a walk in the park, but seeing him definitely reminded me why I hope God never calls me to be a bishop. He is one busy guy!)
After I left the cathedral I walked around for quite some time trying to find my hostel again and then obtained a map from the hostess while trying to translate for some Korean businessmen who were checking in without a word of Spanish. They were all very interested that I had walked the Camino and appreciative of what little help I could give them. Now, after a bit of searching (during which I saw a place that looks like it would serve falafel... score!), I´m here.
Tomorrow I fly out of Madrid airport at 11:00 am Spain time and get to D.C. sometime in the early afternoon Eastern Time. I´m pretty pumped to get back home, but not so pumped about sitting on a plane for 8 or so hours. Please pray for safety and good movies (like Kung Fu Panda 2, for instance, though if that´s still in theaters in the States it´s not quite as urgent)! Until next time, God bless!