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!

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. 

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.

Dear Pastor, Congregation and Friends,

Great news! If you remember in our last letter we talked about a special service that we were going to have at our church in June. We called the service “Friend Day” and we really encouraged our people to invite their friends, family and co-workers to the service. We had really been preparing our people to focus their attention on the people that they already knew to start making an impact in their lives for Christ. We told them that maybe their friends and relatives would not come on that day but they would have at least started the process of introducing them to Christ. We, of course, led by example and were able to invite several people. We had some good quality invitations printed up and gave our people a month to invite their friends and pray for them. Two weeks before “Friend Day” we had the opportunity to preach a mini-series about how God used Andrew to bring his brother Peter to Christ and how Phillip did the same with Nathanael. Then we talked about how God values every individual soul and we used the example of how Phillip was sent to preach the gospel to the Ethiopian eunuch. The result was that the people really got the point. We have a core group of 25 people in our church and that’s usually our weekly attendance. On “Friend Day” the Lord blessed us with 50 people in attendance. We had 25 new visitors on that day and they were all the friends, relatives and co-workers of our members. Although no one was saved that day many people were able to hear the gospel preached in a clear way. The best part of this approach is that our people will have the opportunity to follow-up with all those that visited because they are part of their lives already. Praise the Lord!

As we have mentioned already in previous letters our ministry philosophy is based on the model of our Lord Jesus Christ and how he invested His time on this earth primarily on 12 men. We understand that we cannot do the work by ourselves and we must involve them in the mission. In order to do that we must disciple and train those that are saved in our ministry so that they can become reproducing Christians. This also means that we cannot be a one-man band and have to begin to train and equip them to do the work. As you know the Andrews family are on furlough and someone had to take over some of  Jeff’s responsibilities.   Instead of having us do everything Jeff prepared Eduardo (The guy who heard about us through the ministry website) and He has been doing a fantastic job. What’s awesome is that Eduardo immediately got busy training Joao (He came as a result of the “Bible in every home” project) in case of an emergency. Joao, whose main job is to be the greeter and usher, went ahead and trained Paco to take his place in the event that he had to take over Eduardo’s job. Another way that we involve and train our people in the ministry is by having them evangelize the lost with us. If we have the opportunity to visit someone or deliver a Bible to someone we always take someone that we are training with us. We never want to be alone and we try to use everyday situations and turn them into training opportunities. We really appreciate your prayers and support. Please pray that God would continue to work in Spain. God Bless.

About two months ago we had the idea to have a special day at the church on June 12. We decided to call the special day, "Friend Day." The purpose of the special service was to give our people the opportunity to invite their friends and loved ones to church so that they could hear the gospel. We explained that if the people that they invited didn't come it wouldn't be a failure because they had at least initiated the process of introducing their friends and loved ones to Christ. Two weeks before the special day we preached a mini-series titled, "One, not everyone" to encourage our people about friend day. The idea behind the series was to help them understand that God wants us to do what we can do, not what we can't do. We can't single-handedly reach a city for Christ but we can make the difference in the life of one person. If all of us would impact the life of one person at a time than we would ultimately impact the world for Christ and we believe that to make an impact in someone’s life is to lead them to Christ and then to lead them into maturity until they become fruit-bearing Christians that can initiate the process in the life of others so that the cycle is never ending. We used the example of Andrew and how he brought his brother Peter to Christ. Our people really got excited and got busy finding people that they could bring to the special day. Well, on June 12 we had 50 people in total attend the service. We usually average 23 people each Sunday so more than half of the people there were guests. What encourages us the most is that they came because people from our church invited them. All of them were friends and family of the members of our church. Among the guests were Atheists, Catholics, Agnostics, and people that believe that all religions lead to God. They heard a message titled, "How good is good enough?" No one made a profession of faith that day but they clearly understood that good people don't go to heaven only forgiven people go to heaven. What's great is that our people will be able to follow up with them and continue sharing the gospel with them. This day was truly a high point for our young church (we are only a year old) and we expect many more things to come. Just a year ago only two people along with my parents and sister and brother-in-law were attending church services. Now a year later 23 people gather each week faithfully and all of them have been baptized, are currently being discipled one-on-one, and are getting involved in the work of the ministry. We are humbled to see what God is doing. 

Dear Pastor, Congregation and Friends,

Sometimes as I walk through the streets of Parla I am reminded of my childhood here in Spain. I remember like it was yesterday all of the fun things I used to do as a kid in this incredible country. I remember our church in Alcalá de Henares (Madrid). Although we had a small church many pastors, leaders and missionaries came out of that ministry. My friends, Alberto, Francisco (They are both married and on their way to serve God as missionaries in Seville, Spain) and I  would stand outside of our church many times and pass out gospel tracts. What is still recorded in my memory is how many of those tracts would end up on the floor. I remember how my Dad would offer a free Bible on the radio (he had a two- minute radio spot) to anyone who was interested. In five years only one person requested a Bible. So was it all in vain? Absolutely not.

It is very easy to get discouraged if we don’t see the results that we have envisioned. But, what has God commanded us to do? We know that we can’t save anyone. Ultimately a person must make a personal decision whether to accept or reject Christ. We will be successful in Spain regardless of how many people get saved if we have been obedient in making the gospel available to them in every way possible. Also, we will be successful when we diligently disciple and train those that are saved to reproduce themselves into other  Christians. All we can do is obey God and the results are in His hands. One thing that I have observed about Spain is that it desperately needs to be seeded with the gospel. That is why we have aggressively set out to saturate this city over and over again until everyone has had a chance. Then as the Lord blesses we hope to do the same in other cities. 
Because of the gospel DVD project and now the “Bible in every home” project thousands of people have had the opportunity to hear the gospel and some have been saved. We have a billboard in the entrance of the city. We have an ad in the newspaper. We have a gospel website. We have a church building with an attractive display that has allowed us to share the gospel and personally give Bibles to many people. We do all of these things because we want to make the gospel available to them. What thrills us is that more and more people know that we are here and that we want to teach them the Word of God. 

Last month a Bolivian lady named Primitva was saved. Also, we have a new couple that is visiting our church. They heard about us from one of the packets that we left in their mailbox! We have people visiting often. Not all of them stay but we are thrilled that they had the opportunity to hear the gospel.  Please pray for a very special service that we will be having June 12. We are encouraging our people to invite a friend or relative to church that day. We are excited about the possibility of more people hearing the gospel. Thank you once again for your generosity and prayers towards our ministry. 

Dear Pastor, Congregation and Friends, 

It wasn’t too long ago that I was sitting in my office in Atlanta imagining myself in Spain. I am so thankful that I am now exactly where God wants me to be. As a teenager I wanted to go back to Spain but never as a missionary. I had bought into the lie that the work could never really be done in this dark place. I wanted to go someplace were I could be a “successful” missionary. God began to work in my heart and gave me the desire and the vision to go back to my people and attempt great things for His glory. I’m not saying that it’s easy but God has not given up on Spain or Europe for that matter. He is still at work and I have seen it first-hand. In the short time that I have been here I have witnessed God do amazing things and I get goose bumps when I think of the possibilities for the future. He is able.

In February we have been busy getting things ready for our next project, “a Bible in every home.” In the container that I brought from the States we were able to load 50,000 John and Romans that were graciously given to us by Bearing Precious Seed in Ohio. We have placed a beautiful invitation to our church along with a gospel tract in every Bible and we plan to saturate the city once again with the gospel. As a direct result of our Gospel DVD project we have seen 3 people get saved. We are excited to see what God will do through this new endeavor.

Do you remember that I asked for you to pray for Paco’s wife? Last month during a Bible study in her home my parents were able to lead her to Christ. Also, Carlos and Olenka (the Peruvian couple that came as a result of the DVD) have been saved. What a blessing! So far everyone that has been saved has been immediately involved in a discipleship relationship. I say relationship, because we firmly believe that discipleship is much more than just a series of lessons, it’s developing a relationship with someone and helping them to grow and mature in the Lord. We accomplish that by following Christ’s example when he trained the twelve. We want to train people who will train others. In two weeks we will have three more people baptized. So far just about everyone that is faithfully attending the services heard the gospel and was saved in our church. That encourages and humbles us because we know that God is already using our church to impact Parla with the gospel. 

As you can see, your prayers and faithful support are not in vain. You have already had a part in souls that have turned from  darkness to light. Thank you for your generosity. We know that God is doing the work and to Him be the glory and praise! Pray for my neighbors, Carlos and Monica as well as Juan and Asuncion. We are developing a relationship with them and we hope to see them saved. May God richly bless you. 

I was looking through my prayer letters and I noticed that I had failed to post my previous letter on the website and send it via e-mail. The letter was sent regular mail. I am posting it now just so that everthing will be up to date. Tomorrow I will post this month's letter. Here is the January Letter:

Dear Pastor, Congregation and Friends, 

We made it!!! Actually, we have been in Spain now for a little over a month and we have so many exciting things to share with you. First, we want to thank God for answering our prayers and allowing us to arrive in Spain a couple days before our original   departure date. It was April of last year that we felt the Lord leading us to leave for the field in eight months. At that time we had 66% of our needed support. Exactly eight months later we were on a plane headed to Spain with 93% of our support. We are amazed at how our great God provided for our needs and we trust that the rest of our support will come in soon. When we arrived it was wonderful to be greeted by our team/family members. They were such a help and encouragement to us. They helped us with a place to stay while we waited for our container from the U.S. to arrive. They helped us get settled in and made the transition from the U.S to Spain very smooth. We are thankful for the opportunity to work as a team with them. It took us a while to get our      container out of port and so it wasn’t until two weeks ago that we finally moved into our new home. So here we are, all settled in and ready to see God do great things in Parla, Madrid for 2011.

I want to share a little about what God did through the ministry in Parla in 2010. In January, our team members found a place to rent and meet for services and so they got busy remodeling and getting it ready. Then in February, two converts got baptized. In March the building was finished and they started holding church services in the new location (before they were in my parent’s house). In April, they started the gospel DVD project with the goal to saturate the city. In May they finished the window that      displayed information at the front of the church and as a result a curious Romanian by the name of Stefan came into the church and heard the gospel for the first time. In June many contacts were made as a result of the website and DVD project, etc. In July, Sonia was saved and Stefan also made a profession of faith. In August, Eduardo was saved as a result of our evangelistic website. In the meantime all of the converts began growing in the Lord and receiving one on one discipleship time. Also, in the month of August we had a high day of 41 people in attendance. In September, we were thrilled to see a young Spaniard by the name of Paco come to the church because he had received a DVD in his home and was searching for the truth. Since then he has been saved and is    growing in the Lord. His wife has also visited the church. Please pray for her salvation. In October, the DVD project was almost complete. Thirty-five thousand households received the gospel message. The last Sunday of October three people were baptized. In November, another young married couple began to visit the church also as a result of the DVD project. It’s exciting to see souls saved but what encourages us the most is to see those same converts growing in the Lord and with a desire to serve. This year we will be passing out 50,000 John & Romans, gospel tracts and invitations to the church. We can’t wait to see what God will do in this new year. Thank you so much for your prayers and faithful support. Let’s look forward and attempt great thing for God.

I still remember the first day that I saw her. I was 19 years old and I had gone down to Peru to prepare for the ministry. My Mom had been messing with me right before my departure. She said, "I bet you will find your future wife in Peru!" Of course, I was very "spiritual" I told her, "I am going to Peru to serve God and learn more about missions, and plus, all Peruvian women are ugly" (I can't believe I said that). Guess what, God had a wonderful plan for me. My first day in Peru, we went to a youth meeting and there she was. In that moment I took everything back that I had said about Peruvian women. You know what happened? I don't know how to explain it. The first moment that I laid eyes on her, it was as if I heard a small voice in my head, "you are going to marry that girl." It wasn't love at first sight but I knew that she would be my wife. I went to Peru without any intention to fall in love or marry but God brought her to me. I have known Favi for 7 years now and we are celebrating our 5 year anniversary tomorrow. I love you baby! Marrying you was the best thing (after my salvation) that could have ever happened to me.