Written By: Brett McCracken
When I think about my time in Altea, I think about good eating and good drinking in good company. I can still taste, see, and hear it all: 
Eating Serrano ham, Iberico cheese, bread with olive oil and a glass of red wine at a cafe on the top of the hill that is Altea. Drinking cool mojitos on a humid August night. Enjoying paella on the beach after taking a brief dip in the Mediterranean. Eating an afternoon feast on Arianna’s patio: garlic and feta and tapas of all sorts, as hours of conversation serenade the sunset.
Or wine-tasting out in the country at Enrique Mendoza vineyard. “We are artisans; not industry,” said Pepe Mendoza, a 2nd-generation winemaker who regaled us with beautiful stories about Shiraz and Monastrell grapes.
Then there’s the experience of an art night at El Diseno: Strangers stopping to dance; impromptu tours of a neighbor artist’s home; conversation and art and of course, good food: Brittany’s coconut creations and chocolate truffles with fig and balsamic reduction. Oh so good!
Such is life in Spain. Or, at least the dreamy life of three summer days spent in Altea “on the edge.” People here see time differently, losing track of it on a regular basis as dinners linger on and on into the night, siestas sleep away the afternoon and midday heat slows everything to an eerie standstill. But at night, things are so alive.
In Altea, everything is an art. Food is an art. Wine is an art. Jazz and dance and conversation are art. Talking about life and God and dreams is also an art. Everything is appreciated, savored, sought out, discussed. It’s a place where love of “the finer things” is palpable. And in this context, the Edge Mission fits in perfectly.
The Edge cares about the finer things too; cultivating spaces to showcase beauty, establishing networks and friendships around aesthetic appreciation. Here, in the conversations and holy moments, over tapas and Shiraz, the mission is not to beat people over the head with the Gospel. The mission is to meet people in the mystery of life and share the journey with them, seeking truth together and living out the Gospel in love—sharing Jesus the way he so often shared himself: at the dinner table in conversation, sometimes with good wine.
