Last week we had the opportunity to visit Bible Baptist Church in Savannah, GA for their annual Missions Conference. The Lord worked in a mighty way during the conference and our hearts were stirred and encouraged for the road ahead. One of the missionaries invited to the conference was Jason Sykes (Missionary to Venezuela). He wasn't able to go with his family because his wife had just had a baby the day before the conference had started. I had met Jason in Venezuela when I was only 16 years old. He had gone down to Venezuela as a part of the mission program from the Bible College he was attending. During that trip he was able to visit several works and the Lord called him to go to Venezuela as a missionary. It was such a blessing to know that 9 years after I met this young man he is on his way to Venezuela with his beautiful family and I am headed to Spain. I remember when he was in my house he had left his bible on a chair in our patio. Unfortunately for him our dog, Honey, was hungry at the time and she ate his beautiful bonded leather Bible. Thanks to him I had the most spiritual dog in the neighborhood. Please pray for the Sykes family as they raise support for Venezuela.

     This week we celebrated our 31st wedding anniversary.  During these 31 years we have moved 12 times.  Some of the moves have been from one house or apartment  to another one in the same general area.  But four of those times have been major moves to another country. 

     Our first move was to Spain from the USA in 1982.  We shipped only a few boxes and bought everything else there.  The next move was from Spain to the USA in 1996.  Again we sold almost everything we had and only shipped a few boxes.  Then one year later we shipped a container to the country of Venezuela.  It was amazing how that in one year we had accumulated enough things to fill up a container.  When we left Venezuela in June of 2007, we sold almost everything again, except for a few sentimental items, photos and books.  Now we are ready to move again.

      In one more month we will be leaving  for the country of Spain.  Again we are packing up boxes and purchasing furniture and small items to fill a container.  Moving is a real hassle!  It can drain you physically and emotionally.  But at the same time it is exciting.  We know that new and exciting things await us in Spain.  We are excited about renting an apartment, getting settled in and beginning a new ministry there.  But right now we are in the process of packing.  We have to pack boxes, type up a manifesto of everything we have in the boxes and prepare for the day that they arrive at the house with a large container that we will have to pack in one hour. 

 

    Even though selling, moving, packing and moving again is very stressful, we are determined to do it with joy knowing that through it all God is going to use us for His glory on the mission field!  Every time we have sold all of our personal belongings, it is hard to see people walk out the door with things that bring so many memories to us.  But once everything is gone, we have also felt a sense of freedom.  Things can bog you down in your life.  We have learned that all of our belongings are just things.  They can be replaced.  We are taught in the Bible to not love the world, nor the things that are in the world.  Yes, we need things in order to live, but we shouldn't get attached to those things such as cars, houses, furniture.  We should not let those things stop us from serving God.  He has always provided for our needs.  We know He will continue to do so as we prepare to return to Spain.  We have truly enjoyed our time of furlough and raising more support, but we are ready to go now and get busy in the ministry.   So for the next few weeks we will have our noses in boxes!  Praise the Lord!

M

any people have asked me how things are going here as far as the financial situation.  We are all familiar with what is going on in the States and we continue to hear how it is a global crisis.  

I have read a few articles about the situation in Europe and everything looks pretty grim.  Here is an excerpt from one article that I recently read,

It seems the European banking system is about to collapse. An article in the Daily Telegraph claims European banks may have to write down $25 trillion in losses. Compare this to the problems in America... Even "Dr. Doom" – NYU economics professor Nouriel Roubini – says the most American banks will have to write off is $1.8 trillion.

In other words, the problems faced by American banks are nothing but a skinned knee compared to what European banks face.

This is because the European banks lost money in two major financial implosions. They made trillions in loans to Eastern Europe and other emerging markets and they also participated in U.S. mortgage lending, possibly even more aggressively than American banks.

According to the Telegraph, "Europeans account for an astonishing 74% of the entire $4.9 trillion portfolio of loans to emerging markets. They are five times more exposed to this latest bust than American or Japanese banks, and they are 50% more leveraged (IMF data)."

The final clincher is, no European "Federal Reserve" bank exists to print trillions of euros and bail everyone out like we have in America. Now, the European banking system is about to fall apart.

If this and other predictions come to fruition, we may see some devastating things happen on this side of the globe.  

However, how does this effect Spain? Even though the countries in Europe are their own separate entities, at least financially, the European countries are somewhat tied together.  In other words, when something happens in Europe, it affects all the countries within.  

So what about Spain?  Basically, here are some hard cold facts and numbers of what is going on.  

• In 2008, the number of people that were loosing their jobs or didn’t have a job rose by more then 25%.
• 3 million people in Spain are unemployed.  1 million of the 3 million people that are unemployed lost their jobs in 2008.  This is huge considering Spain is only a country of 40 million people.
• Construction has been the hardest hit industry by the Crisis.  One third of Spain’s economy is made up of the construction industry.
• Salaries are not rising in Spain.

Things are not looking up and it seems to be getting worse day by day.  There are so many immigrants here and many of them have lost their jobs and are being forced to go home because there is no work.  Spain has even implemented a program called, “La Oportunidad Retorno.”  Basically, the Spanish Government is paying the immigrants to return to their country.  They give them a plane ticket and at least one month’s salary to return home.  

So how does this affect us and our ministry?  While the economic crisis will be at the forefront of everyone’s thoughts and conversation, a solution, an answer, something of comfort, however, will also be the rare jewel that everyone seeks.  When things go wrong, people start asking questions.  As Christians, we have the Answer for them.  The answer is Jesus Christ.  Everything could collapse around us, but if we have a relationship with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, we can have peace in the midst of the storm.  It is often in the darkest of hours that people search for light, peace, hope and comfort.  So many times in Scripture, we see God take the Nation of Israel through some sort of “Crisis” in order to draw them back to Himself.  May God use the global crisis to bring more people to Himself in Spain and around the world for His honor and glory.  

Thank you for praying for the Men's meeting.  We had a great turn out.  Men from different churches from all over Madrid came to be a part of the meeting.  We even had a small group from Toledo come who are starting a new work.  The breakfast was wonderful and all the men had a wonderful time of fellowship.  Vetern Missionary Mario Waters brought a great message on working and being faithful even in the midst of Crisis.  We also had prayer for the country of Spain and specifically for the new work's that are being started.  To finish it off, the men were paired off into groups of 2 or 3 to pray together.  There was a sweet spirit amonst all the men and God was glorfied.  Some of the men from our church mentioned to Bro. Loveday that they would like to do this more often.

Enjoy some pictures from the meeting below.  Roll you mouse over the pictures to see a desciption of each picture.

 

Here he is helping me cook the eggs for the breakfast. " height="331" width="443" />

 

Miguel is a man of God and is now one of the leaders of the church. He is always ready to do anything that is asked of him. Miguel preaches once a month and leads the singing every Sunday evening. He is a very humble man. In many ways, he reminds me a lot of my father-in-law. Here he is helping me cook the eggs for the breakfast. " height="332" width="443" />

 

 

We give thanks to the Lord!  Julio and Andrea Velasquez officially have their visas in hand.  They have only 4 meetings left and are preparing their things to come to Spain.  They have bought plane tickets and will be arriving on April 1, 2009.  Thank you for your prayers.  Please continue to pray that the rest of the paper work process will be just as smooth. 

A parliamentary commission has suggested de-penalizing abortion in Spain.

Left wing parties are supporting a reform which would de-penalize abortion in Spain. A report drawn up by the parliamentary sub commission, a panel of experts called by the Ministry for Equality, on the subject has been supported by the Governing PSOE Socialists, as well as the BNG, ERC, IU and ICV, Galician nationalists, Catalan Republicans, the Left Wing Coalition and the Greens.

The Partido Popular voted against and the PNV Basque nationalists abstained.

The report proposes reforms of the 1985 law which would take abortion out of the Penal Code. Socialist spokesperson Carmen Montón said it would end the current legal doubts and establish the health service as the provider of the right to abort, as well as end current regional inconsistencies in Spain.

It suggests that children aged over 16 would no longer need their parents’ permission to carry out an abortion. The periods for that would be configured to comply clearly with the jurisprudence established in the Constitutional Court.

The current law only allows abortion when there is a danger to the health of the mother, rape or problems with the development of the foetus.

 Please pray for Spain!  

Please be in prayer for this coming Saturday, February 21.  We will be having a Men's Breakfast.  All men are welcome and the goal is to encourage each other in the Lord.  We will be serving a nice big American breakfast starting at 9am and then Bro. Lavon Waters, vetern Missionary in Spain for over 40 years will be bringing a message. 

In America, we are use to our normal 3 meal per day agenda (breakfast, lunch and dinner), however, the Spaniard is accustomed to eating 5 times a day.   Here is a typical schedule of eating here in Spain:

• Breakfast – A normal breakfast would consist of some type of bread or cookie and either juice or coffee.  Something quick and light.  

• Merienda (or Snack) - depending on the person this could be some king of snack cake and beverage, a small sandwich and beverage, or some appetizer like plates.  

• Lunch – Lunchtime normally begins around 2pm.  In a typical restaurant, you will find some sort of “menu” that you can choose from.  They normally have 4 or 5 selections of different plates to make your choice.  A menu normally consists of a first plate, second plate, desert and drink.  Depending on the restaurant, the portions are normally nice sizes and more then enough food to eat.  The first plate (primero) ranges from soups and salads to stews and rice dishes such as paella and pastas.  The second plate (segundo) is the main course.  This can range from chicken or fish to lamb and beef.  There is usually a sufficient selection to meet the taste buds of almost anyone.  Then for dessert, you can usually choose between ice cream, flan, cake or some kind of pudding.  The drink is included and all this makes for a fine meal for around 9 or 10 Euros during the week and 11 to 15 euros on the weekend.  

• Merienda ( or Snack) – once again, a little snack, sandwich, or some kind of appetizer like dish.  

• Dinner – Normally 8:30pm or later.  Many restaurants don’t even open back up until 8:30pm.  We have seen dinner range from a variety of hors d’oeuvre type foods to a full 3 or 4 course meal.  

In my observation, the people eat “healthy” portions.  However, it is hard to tell because on average, the Spaniards aren’t obese type people.  I guess all the walking they do helps keep the pounds off.  Maybe a good lesson for us Gringos!  ☺

Deanna has been leading the Children's Choir at church and they sang for the first time yesterday.  The kids have been working hard each week in preparation for their first special and Deanna has been working with them to learn the songs as well as the meaning of the words in an effort to help them hide God's Word in their hearts through music.   She has done a great job and God was glorified through it all.  You can view the pictures below and also watch a video of the "Coro de Niños."

 

 

 

Each month, we meet one Saturday for a couples meeting.  No kids are allowed so that each couple can be encouraged in God's Word and think of the relationship they have with one another.  The meeting is also used as an outreach so that the couples of the church can invite other couples to come and learn how God wants us to live as husband and wife.  These meetings are a great blessing to all who come.  We usually do some singing, have some sort of game, someone teaches a bible lesson, and then we gather around a table to have food and fellowship.  This past Saturday, we had 10 couples (20 people) come to the meeting.  3 of the people, that we know of, do not know the Lord as their Savior.  We had a great time of fellowship, the Word was clearly taught, and the food was great.