October 2024 marked my 5 Year Anniversary of living in Mallorca! Below were my initial thoughts on the morning of my 5th year anniversary on October 1, 2024… 

Mixed feelings – normal. 

My Loved ones – still far away. 

Two “homes” – a reality.

Los Angeles, CA – forever love.

Mallorca, Spain – new love.

Calling – big sacrifice. 

Jesus – worthy of it all. 

I would love to elaborate on this a bit more, specifically on what I’ve learned as a missionary, as a missionary living in Spain, and as a single missionary living in Spain. 

What I’ve learned……AS A MISSIONARY

• My “Yes” to Jesus, involves sacrifices I did not think I was actually going to have to make. And they can be tough to go through. 
• It’s never easy to be far from family.
• God truly cares for me as His daughter. He is faithful. 
• God provides for things I didn’t know I needed and they have been the biggest blessings on this island for me.  
• Prayer is a life line, a place of comfort, where miracles happen, deep heart work also happens, strategy is given, discernment is sharpened, and beautiful communion is shared in the loving presence of the Lord. 
• When you “show up and let God do the rest”, it really does work! (Neal, I will never forget your advice!)
  • **Before the school began, the first teacher we hired and I were praying about how I have never led a school before so I was asking in prayer for a lot of wisdom.  She then remembered that she had a hard drive with all the documents needed to run a preschool. It had all the documents I didn’t know we needed, protocols and policies already written, attendance logs etc. Before school started, we had everything we needed administratively because of that hard drive!!  Just show up, and let God do the rest.
  • **As we were designing the school playground, we needed artificial grass in a specific size for a certain area of the playground. We found one but it was beyond our budget so we prayed and left it in God’s hands to provide. Almost a year later, I received a phone call at 11:30pm telling me that there was a big roll of artificial grass next to the trash can on the street.  We rushed over to pick it up and it was the exact size we needed and it was brand new! Not sure why it was by the trash can?!  Just show up, and let God do the rest. 
  • **When we first started the refurbishment of the building we are in, the architect we hired spoke to the council members at our City Hall to ask for certain documents needed for the property.  He let them know that we had a meeting with the Secretary of Education of Mallorca.  The council men were in shock and asked our architect, “Who are your clients? Are they important people on the island?”  He said, “They’re from the Christian church!”  Unbeknownst to us, the Secretary of Education was a very important person that rarely sat down to meet with people.  We met her, we found favor, she drew up the plans needed to have our school, and she was amazingly supportive.  Just show up, and let God do the rest!!

What I’ve learned…as a missionary LIVING IN SPAIN

• The siesta hours are a real thing in Spain 🙂  
• As beautiful as Mallorca is, the Lord has continuously confirmed that He has not sent me to a place but to people living on this island.  So, my love for the children and their families in the school are those people God sent me to, and I love them so much more because of that. The local church I serve in, the community I live in, the relationships formed, are people God also sent me to and I also love them so much more because of that. 
• Relationships revolve around a nice cup of coffee. My love language!
• Relationships can take a lot of time to develop here (it’s taken me 3 years to befriend my neighbors). 
• In Mallorca specifically, the demonic presence is very apparent and a common part of their culture.
  • There is a little car ride in front of our school that has a license plate with 666.
  • The mascot for the Mallorca soccer team is the demon called the Demoni (he is like the patron of Mallorca).
  • The two big public Mallorca holidays revolve around extremely open demonic celebrations.  They are called San Antoni and San Sebastián. 

What I’ve learned…as a single missionary living in Spain. 

This is a topic that I don’t speak about too much in public spaces. It can be the elephant in the room when I go back home. It has also brought on very embarrassing moments… Like that one time I was at a wedding and a well-meaning pastor asked a few people to circle around me in the middle of the reception hall (no privacy at all and unsolicited on my behalf) so that they can lay hands on me and pray for my future husband.  I had many hands on me as I bowed my head and tried to be thankful for the well intentions of the pastor, but I could not help but want to be outside that circle.  This all took place while loud music was playing in the background and my friends were enjoying their time on the dance floor. This is an absolute true story!  My hesitancy in sharing revolve around these kinds of experiences but nonetheless, I know I’m not alone in this singleness journey so even more so I see the importance to speak a bit more about this very real part of my life.  I have been feeling this tug in my heart to address it here, so I hope it blesses whoever needs to read this. 

To my West Coast friends in the US, you should know that there are many in Spain that also desire to be married! You’re not alone! I have learned that this desire is the same no matter where we are from, where we reside, whether we are millennials, Gen X, Gen Y and everyone before and after said generations.  We all desire to marry and we hope it happens sooner rather than later. Having realized this, I asked the Lord, “Why do so many of us want to be married, or more specifically, why do we greatly want to be loved?”

After sitting down with the Lord about this, I truly believe the answer is … that we desire to be loved in a perfect way.  We seek this perfect kind of love.  A love that will make us forever happy, that will satisfy us, that will love us just the way we are, that will love us sacrificially, a love that will be unconditional, a love that will never fail…etc.  

As we hope for this kind of love, we try to find it ourselves, or we feel that it can never be for us. I don’t mean to throw in the Sunday School answer but, it is THE answer….Only Jesus Christ can love us perfectly. His love will make us forever happy, it will satisfy us, He already loves us just the way we are, He loves us sacrificially, His love is unconditional, His love will never fail. 

I often get the question, “Zully, do you want to be married?” (My mom gets bombarded with this question about me too.) However, for me the question is better asked if stated, “What kind of man do you want to marry?”

That is the better question because who I marry will be the one that will best represent Christ to me on a daily and intimate basis. It is from Christ Himself that he will draw the best kind of love from which to love me.  The way he loves, serves, and fears the Lord will reflect that.

Personally as a single missionary woman, the desire to be loved perfectly is encompassed by so much more and not just solely about marriage.  For example, the feelings can be quite strong when I am missing my family and on top of that, I am looking at wedding pictures of not just childhood friends, but of my former students! Over and over again. Year after year.  I am not saying that for all my aunties out there to start sending me profiles of candidates! (I guess you can if you feel led to, my mom would be most thankful!!) I am just sharing this so you know how to pray for me. Thank you in advance for your prayers. If you are single and need prayer, please reach out to me. I would love to pray for you too. 

I can make this conversation much longer and answer many more questions about singleness but I would like to end here with this true statement that has brought so much comfort to me.  Love originated with the Lord, God is holy, He’ll never make a mistake in the way He loves us. His plans for me are perfect and good, so I know I can rest in His perfect kind of love for me. 

Thank you for being on this journey with me. For your support, love, and prayers. Many of you have sacrificed alongside me as we together share the gospel to the children and families in our school. We are in this together for as long as the Lord desires. I love you all!