The Library... a.k.a La Biblioteca

Hello friends...

One thing God´s put on my heart since we´ve been in Spain is how isolated English speaking expats are here. There are a variety of factors that contribute to the isolation.

• Transportation is expensive. Think gas is high in the US?? Double the price for Spain!
• The metro is great... but it can take 90 minutes to get from one side of the city to another... hard for people to get together. Especially when the work day ends at 7pm. Many people here for short stints don´t buy cars. They are very expensive to purchase and to own. So they spend a lot of time alone.
  
• TV is hard to understand in Spanish and the English channels are boring world news over and over (BBC World, CNN Int´l , etc.) Not entertaining.
  
• The same can be said for Newspapers and Movies. Expensive and often in Spanish only. For instance, I paid 5,20€ for a recent copy of The Economist. That´s about $8 for a magazine!! (what was I thinking???)
• A newspaper subscription is about 1€ ($1.50) per day. Off the newstand, they are at least $3.50US.
  
• Lastly, English books are hard to find and VERY expensive. The Chronicles of Narnia set is $90. Obama´s new book (softback) is $22. Ouch.
  

As a result of all this... I´ve been looking for something that will help people be less isolated and give them something healthy, free and enjoyable to do. The one thing that keeps coming to mind is a library. Our church doesn´t have one.

So... (if you´d told me I would do this sometime in my life... I would have laughed at you...) I´m working to setup a small library for the church. I have a couple office quality cabinets on order that will arrive in about 10 days. I´m building a book list and planning a big US purchase (my Dad will bring some books over in early July) and perhaps a big Amazon UK buy. The UK books are reasonably priced and the shipping isn´t too high.

I´ve gone back and forth about whether to blog about this... but I decided that some of you might like to get involved. Please feel no pressure.

Here´s how you can help:
- pray that all the logistics and such go well. I´ve not done this before!
- send me a copy of your favorite book(s) to add to the library. I´m looking for mainly Christian books, but they can be anything of good quality.
- send me a small check ($25 or $50??) to buy a book or help cover the cost of shipping
- send me a list of a couple books you´d suggest. I´m always looking for more ideas about what to include in the wishlist.

If you´re interested in either sending a book over (the shipping is expensive, so beware) or sending a check, please let me know. My sister has agreed to collect checks made out to me and deposit them in my BofA account in the US. Send me a note and I´ll either send you her address in Texas, or our address here in Spain.

jnrisley@gmail.com

Most of all... pray for people here. It´s hard to move into a place like this. Becca and I have done pretty well at this. I´d say better than most... but we still have our share of challenges. People are HURTING here. Isolated and struggling. Pray for them and if this interests you, please drop me a line.

Call me a librarian and watch me cringe,
Jason