Dear Pastor, Congregation and Friends,

“And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.” (Acts 5:42) I believe that the main difference between first century Christianity and our twenty-first century version is that the early Christians never ceased to proclaim the gospel regardless of results or persecution. I often wonder what would happen if I were truly constant in preaching Christ and in teaching others to do the same. I pray for more courage and boldness. It is our desire to find every way possible to make Christ known in our city and abroad. We prefer to take an ‘all-of-the-above’ approach in our evangelistic efforts instead of just trying one method. We have three different approaches to evangelism in our city and we are seeing God work in all three of these areas.

 Mass Evangelism: We have determined to saturate our entire city with the gospel at least once a year. Last year we were able to get a gospel DVD and a John & Romans into every household. This year we are working on saturating a neighboring town (Torrejón de la Calzada). After that we want to reach the city of Parla once again with some sort of gospel material. We continue using our gospel website (estudialabiblia.com). We constantly want to improve this website to be more and more effective in   reaching the masses. Already the website is helping other churches in Spain as well to make contacts and give them a free Bible.

 Relationship Evangelism: From the moment people are saved in our church we begin to teach and train them to reach out to their friends, relatives and co-workers. One method that we are using to help them in this endeavor is by starting Bible studies in their homes. So far we only have one home Bible study but we desire to start more. In April we started a Bible study in the home of Eduardo and Angie. I have the opportunity every Friday at 5:30p.m. to train this lovely couple for the work of the ministry and then at 7p.m. we have our evangelistic Bible study with people they invite. We usually fellowship with them until midnight. Please pray that this Bible study would grow and that people would be saved. Last year we had a special service that was a great success; we called it ‘Friend Day.’ This year friend day will be June 17. I have several people that I will be inviting to that special service. Pray that many lost people will hear the gospel and that souls would be saved.

 One-On-One Personal Evangelism: We have been taking to the streets Tuesdays and Thursdays to distribute gospel tracts and evangelize people one-on-one near the train station. I must say that Spaniards are no different than any other person in the world. They consider themselves good people and that if there is a heaven certainly they will be going because of their good works. It is only the gospel that can penetrate those hearts and help them realize their sinfulness and total need of a Savior. I have had such good conversations especially with young people. Also, my father and I have had the opportunity to witness to people that stop by the church building out of curiosity or requesting a Bible. Please pray for Spain. We are confident that God is still on the throne and he isn’t finished with these people. Thank you for making these evangelistic opportunities possible through your prayers and support.

We are thrilled to announce that our third child, Alexandra May, was born April 24. She was born a month earlier than we had expected but thankfully she was completely healthy and didn’t need to be placed in an incubator. We will soon be updating the family picture on our letterhead. God Bless. 

Dear Pastor, Congregation and Friends, 

It has been three months since my last Prayer Letter. I usually send my letters out bi-monthly so I apologize for the delay in  sending this update. The next letter I send will be in May. It’s always exciting to sit down and write what God is doing here in Spain. As most of you know I was born in Spain and have spent all of my life involved in missions. At first it wasn’t my choice since my parents and grandparents made that decision for me when they surrendered their lives to be missionaries. But one day I personally yielded my life to be a laborer for Christ on the mission field. I have never regretted that choice. I desire more than   anything to let God use me to have an impact for His glory in Spain and beyond. I want my life to count for the Kingdom of God. 

Even though I grew up on the mission field, being a missionary myself has been a completely different experience for me. It has been exciting, challenging and even discouraging at times. I will have to admit that the last two months have been a little difficult for me. In January, Carlos and Olenka, a lovely couple that was saved in our church decided that they needed to go back to their home country (Peru). After a year working with them and seeing them grow in the Lord we had to say goodbye. Then Cesar, a Spaniard that started coming to our church in August of 2011 decided that he needed to leave our church. He had been saved many years ago in a Christian rehabilitation center for drug addicts and is now working with that ministry once again. Then last month Joao and Rachelle, decided to go back to their former church. No doubt it saddened my heart to see these people leave but God turned my sadness into a renewed zeal to see people saved and leaders trained. It’s curious but most of the people that remain were saved in our church and are more excited than ever to serve God. I realize that this is a normal part of the missionary life. Some people come and some people go but God gives the increase.

We have many things planned for March and April. This month we plan on distributing 5,000 gospel DVD’s in the neighboring town of Torrejón de la Calzada. Also, we plan to distribute tracts and when possible take our men and share the gospel with people one on one. Last month we spent a good amount of time training a few of our men about personal evangelism. It has been encouraging to hear how God is using them to share the gospel with their friends and colleagues. Please pray for  Jefferson, a young man that I have been evangelizing for the past six weeks. He comes to church with his parents but hasn’t been saved yet. I really believe that God is working in his life. We would also like you to pray for three men in particular, Paco, Eduardo and Stefan. My Dad and I will be starting a Bible Institute with them. Because of their work schedules we will be meeting with each one of them individually. We don’t know if they will become pastors or missionaries but regardless we want to train them to be  prepared for whatever God has for their lives. Also, in April I will be starting a Bible study in the home of Eduardo and Angie. They have friends and family that they would like to invite. It will be a great opportunity to evangelize the lost and to train Eduardo and Angie. Thank you so much for your prayers and faithful support.

Shew me thy ways, O Lord; teach me thy paths.  Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day. - Psalm 25:4-5  

Our desire is that the Lord will show us HIS way and lead us down the right path in HIS truth.  We are thankful for all that the Lord has done in our lives.  We don’t deserve all that we have and all that the Lord has blessed us with.  It is a privilege to serve Him.  

Ministry

The ministry continues to go well.  It is amazing how much many of the people have grown and matured in the past year.  At this time last year, the church had been open for less then a year and many of the core group of people that we had were new believers or not yet believers.  Since that time many of the people have matured spiritually by leaps and bounds.  We give all the glory to Jesus for this.  

Adoption

Many of you have been praying for our adoption and I will take the rest of the letter to explain what God has done.  9 years ago, God gave us such a wonderful gift.  Our son Aaron was born and he has brought great joy to our lives.  We love him so much.  Our desire had always been to have more kids.  Deanna was able to get pregnant again however she miscarried 12 weeks later.  Since that time, Deanna has not been able to get pregnant.  After many doctors visits, discussions, and prayers, we decided that we would try to adopt a baby.  In January of 2010, we began the process of filling out the necessary paperwork and fulfilling the requirements for adopting a baby.  We were approved shortly after and the waiting journey began.  

Last June, we arrived back in the USA for a short furlough.  We also had to renew our home study for our adoption.  Our prayer was that the Lord would allow us to adopt while we were back on furlough.  As the end of our furlough began to near, we realized that it was not going to happen.  As we stood in the airport waiting to check in to our flight back to Spain, we got a call from our agent letting us know that we had been matched!!!  We were stunned.  It didn’t seem real.  The thing that we had been waiting for, for so long was finally becoming a reality.  Of course, we were thrilled!  

On January 6th, 2012, Kaira (pronounced Care-Uh) was born.  Her name means, “beloved” or “friend” but also means “right or opportune moment.”  After many years of trying to have a baby, miscarrying, and waiting for the adoption and mentally planning of when would be the best time for us to adopt, God has given us this precious gift in the absolute “right and opportune moment.”  

As I write this letter, Kaira is now 5 days old and she couldn’t be any more precious.  We love her to death and at times it still seems unreal...hard to believe she is really ours.  :)  We couldn’t be more happy and we praise the Lord for this opportunity and for allowing us to care for, love, and raise this bundle of joy!  Thank you so much for all the prayers and kind words throughout this adoption process.  

Dear Pastor, Congregation and Friends,

It’s hard to believe that we have already been in Spain for one year! What’s curious is that we concluded the year almost the same way as we started it. When we arrived in Spain naturally we had to find a place in which to live and we found a house about seventeen minutes from the church. At that time our church had just started and so we had to ask some missionaries and members from other churches in Madrid to help us unloading the container that we brought from the States. Well, just about two weeks ago we moved into a new home right in Parla, Madrid. After living in Illescas for a year we realized that we needed to be closer to the people in order to be more effective in the ministry so we decided to make the move. We are so glad to be living in a home that is walking distance from the church. What blesses my heart the most is that this time when we needed help moving our belongings we didn't have to look elsewhere for assistance because seven men from our church volunteered for the job. This may seem like no big deal but to me it is indicative of the work that God has been doing here in Parla for the past year. I can’t wait to see what God is going to do next year. 

In October our church celebrated its first mission’s conference. The church really got excited about this event and the people were able to learn about the need for laborers all around the world. We invited two missionaries from Spain. They were able to share about the need for more churches to be established in our Jerusalem and Judea. We really wanted the people to know that God is able to use Spaniards as well to do a work for Him. Then we invited Tyler Masters who is a missionary to the Muslims. After he preached we gathered the men from our church so that they would be able to ask Tyler some questions. Two men asked the missionary about finding God’s will for your life and how to know if God has called you to preach. Please pray because our desire is to see leaders raised up and churches established in Spain and abroad. In order to accomplish those goals we need men. Through Tyler’s testimony our people were greatly challenged to reach the Muslim community in their midst. For the last Sunday of the conference we had my grandfather, Wayne Witherell (He has been a missionary in five different countries) share about what God has done through his life and ministry. We learned that it’s important to start well but even more important to end well. During the last two Sundays in October we had 49 and 48 in attendance.

Well, I want to share some exciting news! We found out in October that Favianna is expecting our third child. As I am writing this letter I realize that it’s time to update our letterhead since the family has grown considerably since it was designed. The baby will be born sometime during the end of May. Please pray for Favianna and for the baby that the pregnancy will go smoothly. I thank God for the family that He has given me. I pray that my children would grow up to love God more than anything. I’m excited about what is in store for their lives. Thank you once again for your faithful prayers and support. Merry Christmas!

It is a privilege to serve the Lord.  We feel honored that each day He allows us to glorify His name.

Adoption

I wanted to give an update on our adoption since so many people have asked us how it is going.  We are still in the process of adopting and waiting to get the call or email informing us that we will have a new addition to the family.  We have had some possibilities which have been exciting.  We have had about 4 opportunities so far where we were able to present our profile and allow the mother to consider our family.  So far, none of these opportunities have worked out but the Lord continues to give us other opportunities which is exciting.  Right now there are two possibilities that we are praying about.  Things are moving along and we ask that you would continue to pray that the Lord would give us the right child at the right time.

Ministry

We have enjoyed being able to share what the Lord has done in our ministry in Spain.  We appreciate the investment that each church has made.  We have thoroughly enjoyed seeing old friends and people that we met years ago.  Many of the churches have been really excited about what the Lord is doing in Spain.  We have been in some great churches and appreciate their heart for missions.  I have found that furlough is a great time as it allows you to step away from the ministry and revaluate what is going on and how you can better things for the future.

The ministry continues to move along.  The team in Spain is carrying on and doing a wonderful job.  As most of you know, we were able to complete our evangelistic projects.  The church had been open a little over a year and we have been able to make the Gospel available to our entire city 2 times.  We are excited about that and we have seen much fruit.  At the heart of our ministry is life on life discipleship, training, and church planting.  We have some great people in our church and it is a joy to see men coming to Christ and expressing the desire to grow and serve the Lord.  Our desire is to seed Spain with the Gospel and see more churches planted for His glory.  

The church has been growing during our absence.  When we left for furlough, the church had grown to an average of around 25 people.  Over the past couple of months, the church has grown to average around 35-40 people!  The last two Sundays, there were 48 and 49 people, respectively, in attendance!  Praise the Lord for His goodness!  One of the young men that I have had the privilege of working with and building a relationship with since before he came to Christ has expressed interest in the possibility of being a Pastor or Missionary one day if the Lord so leads.  We are so thrilled to see people who knew not God, coming to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and expressing the desire to know Him and His Word more and serve Him in the ministry.  That’s what it’s all about!  

Family

Furlough is always a wonderful time because you get to enjoy a lot of family time.  Aaron has thoroughly enjoyed traveling to many different places and meeting new people.  However, one of the things that has been a real blessing is Aaron’s willingness to participate in the ministry.  Since we have been back, Aaron has been able to sing with Deanna and minister to the churches through song.  Check out the video of Aaron singing by clicking here.  We praise the Lord for allowing our family to serve Him!

Thank you for your prayers, support, and love!

One of the great joys of being a father is being able to see your kids grow in the Lord and begin to serve Him with their life.  This furlough, Aaron has been able to serve the Lord by singing in various churches that we have been in.  It is neat to see his willingness to sing in different churches even through nervousness and insecurities.  

Here is a video of Aaron and Deanna singing in one of the churches.   

Dear Pastor, Congregation and Friends, 

While on deputation, during a mission’s conference, the guest speaker at this particular church event had some great advice to offer all of the missionaries. I cherish what he said. He recommended that we get a copy of the ministry presentation that we gave at various churches and listen to it after we had been on the field for a while. The idea was, “Are you still doing what you said you would do?” I know that in order to see God move in Spain it’s going to take work, but we must never lose focus of the objective. I believe that Christ gave us the blueprint for world evangelism and we must always go back to the Master plan to measure our success in the ministry. I want to be used of God to make disciples and start churches. It seems like a simple goal but I must be intentional in my efforts for his Kingdom. 

I believe discipleship begins before the person is saved as we teach them the gospel and it continues until they reach maturity in Christ and are reproducing themselves in the lives of others. We have made it our goal to evangelize our city continually in order to make Christ known and begin the process of discipleship. Through these efforts the church has grown to a core group of thirty people. With this group we are now investing our lives in them and teaching them to impact their world for Christ. Please pray for two men that I am especially devoting time and energy in training. Their names are João Gonçalves (Portuguese) and Cesar Barbero (Spanish). I have been working with João since June and recently he has been going with me as I disciple Cesar. I make it a point to do as much as I can in the ministry with others so as to prepare them for the work of the ministry. Soon we will be starting a Bible study in the home of João. He is already praying and seeking out people that he can invite to these Bible studies. I would love to see a couple more Bible studies started sometime next year. These Bible studies will give more opportunities for evangelism and discipleship in the church.  

Please pray as we plan for our mass outreach projects for next year. We are going to try to systematically evangelize every household in our city at least twice a year. It was exciting as I listened to a recording of the ministry presentation that I gave while on deputation. I was talking about the gospel DVD project and how we hoped that one day God would use it to see souls saved. At that time when I was sharing our burden Paco and Veronica and Carlos and Olenka had not yet received a DVD in their home. Now they are faithful members and are growing in Christ. When I would talk about the “Bible in every home” project it was all a dream. Today, João and Raquel and Cesar Barbero are part of the church because they received a packet in their home. I can’t wait to see what God is going to do through future projects and through the testimony of the people from our church. Thank you so much for your prayers and faithful support. God Bless.

When we arrived in Spain nine months ago after finishing our deputation I was finally able to witness first-hand the wonderful reports that I had heard from the team about the church that had recently been started. God was doing a work in Parla, Madrid and it was evident! The church had been started a few months earlier and already souls had been saved and people baptized (every person that was saved, was baptized and was faithfully attending church services). It was great to arrive on the mission field and immediately get involved in the work of the ministry. One thing that quickly caught my attention was the fact that the church was comprised primarily of men and that the men were showing the greatest desire to grow and learn. That is still the case today. As a matter of fact in two weeks we will be starting our first official men's meeting (the guys are really excited). In most churches the women talk like crazy, but in our church it's the men that can't stop talking and the wives have to finally beg the men to leave. I think that's great. If there's one thing that we need in our churches today is godly men. In order to train leaders and start churches we desperately need men. 

I believe, and this is really what I would like to emphasize, that one of the reasons that men are showing such an interest in the things of God is because of the multiple witnesses in the church to the truth of the gospel. This, to me, is one of the great benefits of working as a team. From day one, anyone that visits the church has the opportunity to see that the gospel has impacted the lives of multiple families, in different life stages, from different backgrounds. This is especially true when it comes to men. As soon as the first men began to get saved they had other men with which to fellowship and share their lives. 

My father was born in Peru into a Catholic home and was saved in his twenties. Jeff was born in the U.S.  but didn't grow up in a Christian home and was also saved in his twenties. I was saved at a young age but something caused me to want to continue serving God even after I moved out from under my parent's roof. You see, it’s one thing for one man to preach week after week about the power of the gospel, it's another thing entirely for three men coming from different backgrounds to attest to the same truths. Once again, I am not saying that it is wrong to do missions alone. As a matter of fact, most of the missionaries I know have done it alone. I simply want to share the blessing of having multiple witnesses to the glorious truths found in God's Word. I have found that it has been very easy for men to integrate in our little church as a result of our team. Also, this models what we would like to see in the future as the church in Parla produces other churches. We want to give them the opportunity to start churches as a team where they will also have multiple witnesses to the truth. I think that is what we see in the gospels as Christ sent the twelve and the seventy in pairs. We see it clear as day when the Holy Spirit (men didn't come up with the team concept) commanded Paul and Barnabas to be sent out. I believe one of the reasons for the birth of corporate missions in the New Testament was to have several witnesses to the truth that the gospel is real and it changes lives. 

Many people have been asking about our adoption progress so I decided that I would give an update.  

We are still waiting.  It has been 1 year and 4 months since we started the process.  When we started, the agency told us that it normally takes 12 to 18 months.  When we returned to the USA 4 weeks ago, we had to renew our home study.  The home study is good for 1 year and has to be renewed each year.  

Many of you have no idea how an adoption works (just as I had no idea before we started this) so let me explain the process and maybe it will help you understand a little more of what is going on.  

When you start the process of adopting, you have to fill out lots of paperwork explaining exactly what you want.  You can be as general or as specific as you want.  You really have to make some tough decisions as far as to exactly what you want.  We decided that we would like to adopt a child, boy or girl, age ranging from infant to one year old.  We have also submitted a family book explaining things about our family, home, etc. with pictures and information.  This information is taken and given to perspective mothers who are pregnant and don't want to keep the baby.  These mothers look through several families who desire to adopt and then they choose which family they would like to give their baby to.  So basically, we are waiting to be matched with a birth mother.  In our case, we will most likely be able to be matched with a mother who is pregnant and once the baby is born, we will be able to take the baby home from the hospital.  However, it is also possible that the baby will have already been born.  

So as of now, we are still in the "waiting game."  Some days it seems like it will never happen.  However, so many people who have adopted before have told us that they felt the same way and then one day, all of the sudden, they got "THE CALL" and the next thing they knew, they were home with their newly adopted baby.  

So for now, we wait.  We ask for your prayers in this matter.  We are really praying that the adoption would go through before we leave the USA in November.  However, we know that the Lord's timing is perfect.  

One of the many purposes for our ministry blog is to share our personal experiences in the ministry here in Spain in hope that we can offer some help to future missionaries who are starting a new work. Except for my father, who has been a missionary for over 30 years, my brother-in-law Jeffrey Andrews and I have very little experience in the ministry. I may have grown up on the mission field and worked in various ministries throughout my youth but doing the ministry in the capacity that I am doing it today is very new for me. I say all that to explain that we do not consider ourselves experts in church-planting or in missions but we just want to share some of the things we are trying in Spain that may be a blessing to you in your ministry. We also really want help and input from other missionaries and pastors because we want to learn every day to be all that God intended us to be for His glory. 

One this occasion I would like to start a series of blog posts about Pioneer team missions. I want to share some of the benefits that we have witnessed already as we are starting a new church in Parla, Madrid. So what is Pioneer team missions? Well, it's very simple. A pioneer is someone that is the first to do something or go somewhere. So when we talk about pioneer missions we are talking about going someplace where the gospel has not been preached and starting a work from scratch. That's exactly what Paul was talking about in Romans 15:20, 21 when he said, "Yea, so have I strived to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build upon another man's foundation." But when we talk about Pioneer team missions we are talking about a team of missionaries that go and start churches. 

Now I want to be very careful to explain that we don't believe that PTM (Pioneer team missions) is the only way to Biblically evangelize and start churches. My only desire with this series is for you to see the benefits of this particular approach as we have witnessed in our ministry. Team missions is certainly not easy but we believe that it's worth trying because when it's done properly it can be a real blessing. I understand that different people have differing opinions about team missions and I respect everyone's opinion as long as it's in the right spirit. I did have one pastor kick me out of his conference because he completely disagreed with team missions. I think that's a little extreme! You can argue about which church-planting concept is the best, but you can't deny that team missions is Biblical. 

I do not want to write a Biblical defense on team missions because a lot has already been written on the subject. What I will do is share some of the blessings we have discovered working as a team. I'm sure we will encounter difficulties but I believe the pros greatly outweigh the cons. If you are interested in reading a treatise on the concept of corporate (team) missions here is one that I found interesting. I don't know anything about the missionary that wrote the article and I am unfamiliar with the missions agency but it was a Biblically sound treatise and so I thought I would share it with those that are interested in what the Bible has to say about team missions, specifically in the life and ministry of Paul. Please keep reading as I will share about how working as a team has helped our ministry.