We're in Spain because of Felix Ortiz. He is a member or the Ra�ces team of which we are a part. Ra�ces is a youth leadership training movement made up of people from lots of different organizations who have voluntarily committed to work together to more effectively provide conferences, materials and online training for youth workers in the Spanish speaking world. Over the last 5 years 1200 youth leaders have received in-depth youth ministry training and another 250 have been trained as �trainers�. Felix invited the Ra�ces team to meet in his home city of Barcelona and since he is "a friend of the monastery" the Benedictine monks at Montserrat - just outside Barcelona - allowed us to use their facilities.

Felix is an amazing man. Six years ago when Annette and I did a survery of bookstores in Mexico looking for books on youth work, we only found about 45. Nearly half of those - and nearly all the good ones - had been authored by Felix Ortiz. He is a prolific writer, an engaging speaker, and a fun guy (see photo for proof)

Now that our official meetings have ended, we are hanging out in Barcelona enjoying the sites and tastes of this historic city and taking a more in-depth look at our future and Raices' with Felix.