The Basque Country

From the North West Corner of France we took a series of trains to get to Paris and then a direct train to the South of France.





We arrived in the Basque Country, the place the Garro Family moved from in the early 1900s. We met up with Maie & Rene, they are like my Grandparents and we love them so much. We ended up spending a week with them. This has definately been the most relaxing time of the trip. Most days we wake up about 9-10 am. We eat breakfast. Go into town for an errand. Eat lunch. Take a 2-3 hour nap. Go for a walk or take a drive. Then we'd come back for dinner, conversation and go to sleep.



We did visit my cousin Josefina in Lesaka. She owns a Basque Resturant there and we came during the Fiesta de San Fermin. This is the same festival where they let the bulls run loose in the streets in Pamplona.



Seeing this "Fiesta" really made our hearts break because the Basque youth really seem lost. They are all into drinking, partying, pot and clubbing. Almost none of the Fiesta we saw seemed culturally Basque but just like clubbers in the US. They seem to be so far from God and don't seem interested in hearing about Chirst either. My heart has been stirred for these young people. We know that a group in California has a great idea regarding reaching these youth. They invite groups of Basque Students to come to California for a Christian Summer Camp. They have done this two years now: 40 Basque students came to the first camp and many made decisions for Christ. The last summer they had 80 also with the same positive results. The problem, as I see it is that these people have no Pastor or church to guide them when they return to Spain and I'm guessing that many of these new Christians are lost. Pray that God would raise up workers to reach the Basque people in their homeland.