Dear Pastor, Congregation and Friends,

Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. (Phil. 1:6)

I

t is so wonderful to see how the Lord has worked in my life. I was five years old when I was saved and I surrendered my life to be a missionary when I was eleven. All of these things came to my memory just last week as I attended a mission’s conference in North Carolina. The speaker was veteran missionary Bro. J.T. Lyons. He is well in his eighties and has suffered a great deal with his health. In spite of it all he preached five blazing messages that stirred my heart once again for the need of missions around the world. You see Brother Lyons was a missionary in Liberia, Africa as well as in Spain. I had known him growing up in Spain and the last time that I had seen him was when I was eleven and it was precisely under his preaching that I answered the call of God in my life for missions. The last night I went forward and recommitted my life to Christ’s service. I pray that the Lord will continue to perform His work in me until I see His face.

Deputation News

Since our last letter we have had six new churches partner with us and that means that we are now at 52% of our needed support. Praise the Lord! We are are confident that we will be in Spain soon.

Also, a couple weeks ago we were able to find out that we are going to be having a little girl! My parents are really happy because this will be their first granddaughter.

We have very exciting ministry news to share with you. Although we are not on the field yet we have been very busy alongside the other families in our team planning ways to reach the community of Parla, Madrid with the gospel. In the city of Parla, where we will be working, the population is roughly 150,000 and we figure that there must be approximately 50,000 households. Our goal is to reach every one of these households with a gospel DVD. We have produced a professional DVD which clearly explains the gospel message. It is very hard to get into the homes of the Spanish people but we are praying that God will use this DVD to not only reach souls for Christ but also allow us to gain contacts to begin our church. We are praying that many of you would be involved in this great ministry opportunity. It is easy to give. Kids, Sunday School Classes, Adults, Churches, etc. can participate in this project.  We have figured that the cost to make each DVD is around 50 cents. So for 50 cents, the Gospel on DVD will be given to someone who may have never heard the Gospel before.  For $5.00, the Gospel on DVD can be given to 10 people. For $100, the Gospel on DVD can be given to 200 people and so on. We are not asking for money for ourselves we simply want to give you the opportunity to have a part in someone hearing the gospel. If you would like to be involved you can send donations to:

Every dime that you give will go directly to getting a Gospel DVD into the hands of someone who doesn’t know Christ as their Savior. In the future we would like to follow up with even more DVD’s as well as gospel literature. What a great way to make our way into the homes of the people in Parla and allow them to hear the good news of the gospel for the first time in their lives.We couldn’t be more excited about this project. We are so grateful for all of your prayers and financial support. Only one life will soon be past, only what’s done for Christ will last. We love you. God Bless.

Dear Praying Friends, Family, and Churches,

It is a privilege to be writing this letter.  First of all, we are so thrilled to be able to serve our awesome God.  Second of all, we are humbled to know that we have so many friends and fellow Christians who are praying for us and supporting us.  We thank God and you all for this great privilege.

The Gospel DVD Project
We are so excited to present this new project to you.  We have planned, prayed and worked on this project and we are very close to getting it under way.  I want to use the majority of this letter to let you know what the project is all about.

We have two main goals that we want to accomplish for our ministry here.

• The first goal is to get the gospel on DVD to every person in our city.
• The second goal is to use a variety of means to build a contact base in order to start a church.

In order to begin accomplishing these two main goals, we have come up with our first major project…The Gospel DVD Project.

The gist of the project is to get the Gospel on DVD to the city of Parla.  Parla is the city where we live which is a suburb of Madrid.  There are approximately 150,000 people and counting in Parla.  A rough estimate would give us around 50,000 households in our city.  So our goal is to get 50,000 Gospel DVD presentations into each home in our city. The DVD is an eight-minute presentation of the Gospel with contact information at the end. Through this, we are praying that God will give us contacts to start a church.  So please help us pray that God will work in the hearts of the people who are able to see this Gospel DVD presentation.

We also want to give you the opportunity to give directly to missions.  Every dime that you give will go directly to getting a Gospel DVD into the hands of someone who doesn’t know Christ as their Savior.  God has really brought us to a strategic location.  In our city, there is a heavy population of Arabic People, Chinese People, South American’s, and of course, Spaniards.  So in essence, you could be giving the Gospel on DVD that would reach a Muslim, a Buddhist, a Catholic, etc.

It is easy to give.  Kids, Sunday School Classes, Adults, Churches, etc. can participate in this project.  We have figured that the cost to make each DVD is around 50 cents.  So for 50 cents, the Gospel on DVD will be given to someone who may have never heard the Gospel before.  For $5.00, the Gospel on DVD can be given to 10 people.  For $100, the Gospel on DVD can be given to 200 people and so on.  You aren’t giving your money to our team or me or to any missionary.  Your money, as well, as our money that we give, will go directly to getting the Gospel on DVD to someone.  To be honest, this is not a letter that is asking churches for money and if the churches don’t give, we can’t complete our task.  We know that eventually we will get the gospel on DVD to every home in our city.  This is a letter giving Christians the opportunity to be directly involved in distributing the Gospel in a foreign land.  We have already made a huge monetary sacrifice of our own to get this project started.  Through the money that our team has given and some gifts from others, we already have enough material to distribute 5,000 DVD Gospel presentations to our city.  Can you imagine being involved in a project where the entire population of a city is able to hear and watch the Word of God being presented?  Can you tell that I am excited about this project?  We believe God is going to do great things through His Word being presented.

If you would like to be involved you can send donations to: 

Jeffrey Andrews

C/O MWBM

P.O. Box 519

Braselton, GA 30517
Designated to: 010 Misc. Projects

Right now, we only have the DVD presentation in Spainsh.  I am working on putting it into english so you can view it.  If you would like to see the Spanish version, you may click here to see it.  It is low quality due to the compression of putting it on the web.

June 2009

Dear Co-laborers in Christ,

T

These past two months have been busy, hectic, frustrating, but for the most part exciting and blessed. We arrived in Spain on April 1 and were met at the airport by our team members and family, the Andrews. It was a joy to see them again and especially our 6 yr. old grandson Aaron. We stayed with the Andrews for one month while we worked on paperwork for the final approval of our visas, opened a bank account, found an apartment, submitted papers to get permission to rent the apartment and purchased a good used car. All of these things take time and patience. On May 5 our container arrived at our apartment and several missionaries came to help us unload and carry our belongings into our apartment. It was a real blessing to finally be in our own home again.

We have been visiting several  churches on Sundays in the Madrid area and renewing old friendships with missionaries and believers.  Last Sunday we were able to visit our former church in Alcala de Henares and it sure brought back a lot of wonderful memories of the 14 years that we spent there.  Most of the members that we left, are now in other places serving the Lord as missionaries and pastors.  It is a real blessing to see that our labor for the Lord is never in vain.   We would ask you to pray in particular for Manola and Belen, a young couple who were saved years ago in our church, but have been away from the Lord for many years.  They invited us to their home last week and we had a great time of fellowship with them.  They went to church with us and we could see a spark of desire to serve the Lord again.  Pray that they will come back to God and serve Him with their lives.

We are living in the city of Parla, about 30 minutes from downtown Madrid.  It is a city of over 150,000 people who need the Lord. I have walked the streets and had the opportunity to witness to several people, and I notice how hardened their hearts are to spiritual things.  I would ask you to pray for a couple, Valentin and his wife,  who own a small store close to our apartment.  They  are from Ecuador.  They are very friendly to us and we want them to be saved.  Besides Spaniards, there is a huge population of immigrants.  There are Latin Americans, Romanians and a large group of Muslims.    We have begun preparations for our first evangelistic project to reach them for Christ.  We plan on producing 20,000 DVDs with an illustration and a short salvation message.  Our son David will be recording the DVD this week and then we will be making copies of the DVDs,  and  putting them  in the mailboxes of 20,000 homes.  Please read the enclosed  flyer on how you can help with this project.

Make note of our new mailing address and our Vonage phone number at the bottom of this page.   Thank you so much for your prayers and support.

Dear Pastor, congregation and friends,

“But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.” (Romans 8:25) Although we may not have reached the end of our deputation quite yet, we have faith and patience and we look out into the horizon knowing that the prize is near. We are encouraged to know that with every new church that takes us on for support we are one step closer to our goal. Since our last prayerletter we have had five new churches partner with us and we are now at 46% of our needed support.

Praise the Lord! We are praying to have all of our support raised in one more year. For those of you who may be wondering we are still driving our 1990 Cadillac Deville and it’s still going strong. We have put 70,000 miles on the car and I really believe that it will be with us till the end. What’s funny is that the car is only two years younger than my wife. Next year it will be a classic.

One of the things that burdens my heart as I travel and visit different churches across America is the lack of laborers to reach the Hispanic community with the gospel. Time and time again we have heard from pastors that desire to reach the Hispanics but simply cannot because they are unable to communicate with them in Spanish. Please pray that God would raise up men and women to learn Spanish and be used of God to evangelize the vast Hispanic community of America. I was so blessed as I visited a church in Ardmore, Alabama that had a Spanish ministry. The man that was in charge of the ministry was a man that had taught himself Spanish and with the little Spanish he knew was being used of God to reach souls for Christ. He invited me to preach to the small congregation that was gathered as a result of his labor and after the service I was able to lead a young man by the name of Armando to Christ. What went through my mind as the young man announced to the church that he had trusted Christ as his Savior was that had it not been for this faithful laymen in the church he would not have his name written in the Lamb’s book of life today. How many young people like Armando have come to our nation and never heard the gospel. Thank you once again for your faithful prayers and financial support. To God be the glory. We love you.

NEW BABY

Well, I am excited to announce that we are going to be having another baby. Last year around this time Favianna had miscarried our second child and we had been praying faithfully that the Lord would bless us with another little munchkin. Favi and I have always loved children and we are excited about raising them to love God and serve Him with their lives. I know that God has a special plan for them and I would sure love to see my children serving on the mission field.  But more than anything I pray that they will love God and put Him first in every decision that they make. Our baby is due on November 15th. So please pray that God would protect our child and that the pregnancy would be smooth for Favianna.

Dear Praying Friends, Family, and Churches,

W

e have so much to report that we won’t be able mention everything in one letter. Please go to our home page abd read our weekly blog. You can stay informed with much of what is going on in our ministry.

The current “crisis” is the topic of discussion in every corner. I personally know people who have lost everything because of the current crisis. For missionaries on deputation, churches have seemed to slow their support for new missionaries. Veteran missionaries are beginning to feel the crunch as some of their supporting churches are starting to lower their monthly support. However, in every crisis, we can see God’s hand at work. God took the children of Israel through many a “crisis” to teach them certain things, but especially to trust in Him.

One of the advantages of the “Crisis” here in Spain has been that the cost of living is slowly decreasing. In the past 4 or 5 months, the cost of goods and services have started to come down. Apartments, cars, food, etc. are getting a little cheaper. When we first came to Spain, not only were we taken back by the exchange rate, but by the prices of what things costs. Even if the exchange was equal; 1 Euro to 1 Dollar, the prices of items here in Spain were more than what they cost in the States. So a gallon of Milk that cost $3.50 or less in the States, would cost around 4 Euro or more here in Spain. So even with a 1:1 Euro/Dollar, our purchasing power was less. Then when you added an exchanged of $1.60 to 1 Euro, it was at an even greater deficit. Now, the prices have started to subside a little, so with a 1:1 ratio Euro/Dollar, the prices are comparable. Some things are still more expensive here, but now, some things about equal. So our purchasing power is a little less or equal, if we had an equal exchange of 1:1. However, with the exchange, we are still at a great deficit. But we are thankful for the slight decrease in prices of somethings.

Another blessing of the “Crisis” is that people are becoming more tender to the things of God or at least looking for answers. In a society that has “had it all” for some many years, people are beginning to lose their jobs and their sense of security. Over 3 million people are unemployed here in Spain (a country of 41 million) and 1 million of those 3 million lost their jobs in 2008. During this year, in the ministry here, we have seen 5 people come to Christ. 3 of those 5 people have been adults. Another lady wanted to talk more, this past Sunday night after the service, about spiritual things and is very close to trusting in the Lord as her Savior. So even in times of “Crisis” God works and glorifies Himself. We praise the Lord for His goodness.

The second week in April, we had special meetings for “Semana Santa” or “Holy Week.” My father-in-law preached on Saturday night, Jack Loveday preached Sunday morning, and I preached on Sunday night. Then 2 weeks later, we had a mission’s conference. The people were challenged to do more for missions. Thank you so much for your prayers and support. Don’t forget to visit our website www.thatallmayknow.net to learn more about what is happening here in Spain.

 

APRIL PRAYERLETTER

Dear Co-laborers in Christ,

I

t is with deep appreciation that we write this letter this month to all of our supporting churches. Many of you have faithfully supported our ministry and have fervently prayed for us for many years.  At the same time we now have many new churches who are supporting our ministry and we are thankful for all of you who have been sensitive to God’s leading in your lives to hold the ropes for us so we can do the ministry in Spain that God has called us to do. 

The month of March was a very busy and emotional month for us.  We spent the month packing boxes and purchasing household items that we will need in Spain.  On the 28th of March a group of men from our home church, Pleasant Hill Baptist church, including our pastor Lamar Rackley,  came to our house and helped us load a 40 ft. container to ship to Spain.  We are so grateful for all the hard work that these men did in spite of the heavy rain that fell that day. 

On March 11 we had the special joy of attending our son David’s ordination to the ministry.  I was able to give the charge and our pastor led the ordination.  Several pastors and missionaries, including 3 from his own family, helped in the ordination.   We are praying for him that God will continue guiding him as he tries to raise his support to go to Spain also. 



In His Service,


Julio and Andrea Velasquez

Trusting God in Trying Times

Dear Pastor, congregation and friends,

 

How that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality. (2 Corinthians 8:2)

 

 

I

t never ceases to amaze me how in moments of necessity and difficulty I tend to draw nearer to God and I realize my total and complete dependence on Him. This has certainly been the case with many of the churches that we have visited in recent months. In a time when all we hear is doom and gloom about the financial state of our country and when many people are losing their jobs we have seen churches grow in their faith and confidence in God. I cannot begin to express my gratitude for all of the churches that have been faithfully supporting us while on deputation. We would like to inform our supporters as well as those who plan to support us in the near future that we are working as hard as we can to raise our support to be in Spain in 2010 and we will continue to work while in Spain to see souls saved, churches established and leaders trained. We will serve Him until he takes us home. Thank you for your liberality in this time of recession!

 

 

 

This month I had the wonderful blessing of being ordained at Pleasant Hill Baptist Church. The reason we chose this month is because my parents are leaving for the field March 31st and they wanted to be in my ordination. During the ordination I had the privilege of hearing my father present the charge and my pastor, Lamar Rackley, preach the message. I was blessed to have my uncle, Lee Lawrence, in the ordination council. He used to be a missionary to Spain and is now the assistant pastor at my church. I was also able to have my other uncle, Carlos Arce, who is a missionary to Venezuela. Both of these men have known me from when I was young and they have had a great influence in my life. One of the pastors that came was Alberto Puente. He was saved under my father’s ministry in Spain and is now serving as the Spanish pastor at Madison Baptist Church. As he placed his hands on my head he prayed that God would use me in Spain to see souls saved. My heart was touched as I remembered how he was saved and his life changed by the power of the gospel and now he was praying that God would use me to reach his people. Thank you once again for your prayers and generosity towards our family. God Bless.

• Deanna has been able to start a children’s choir at the church and has put a lot of effort into helping the kids learn how to sing and understand what they are singing.

• On Valentines Day, we had a special couples meeting.  There were a total of 10 couples and 2 of the Spaniards that were present don’t have a relationship with Christ.  Pray for Jesus, the husband of Nora.  He attended the Special Christmas program and has been to the couples meeting twice in a row. He is very hardened to the Gospel, but we can see the Lord softening his heart little by little.

• We had a Men’s meeting for all the churches in the Madrid area.  We started with a breakfast and I was named the resident Chef.  They tagged me with the nickname “Jeff the Chef.”  We had a good Ole American Breakfast (Eggs and Bacon) and then went upstairs to hear a message from the Word of God.  After the message, we all prayed together 2x2 for the country of Spain, more laborers and more souls for His glory.

• I have been able to preach once a month on Wednesday nights.  It is still a challenge preaching in a different language, however, it gets easier each time I do it.  The last time I preached, I brought a study on Matthew 5:13, “Ye are the salt of the earth…”  It was encouraging because after the message, one of the ladies spoke up and said, “I just wanted to make a comment about the message.  I read this passage this morning in my devotions and I didn’t understand what it meant.  Now I understand what it means when Jesus called us the salt of the earth.”  It’s nice to know that they are understanding my Spanish!  ☺

There is so much more we could write about.  Please, follow us on our blog.  We update it every week with what is going on in our ministry.  As you can see, we have completely re-developed our website.  It is now the official team website for That All May Know Ministries.  We will be working as a team here in Spain with two other families.  You can get to know them by exploring the website.  If you haven't already, you can also keep up to date with us in the following ways:
Staying in touch has never been so easy.  Again, thank you so much for your prayers and support.

with Jack and Joy Loveday in the Iglesia Bautista Bíblica de Villa Rosa, Madrid (Bible Baptist Church of Villa Rosa, Madrid) while I continue learning the language. During the month of November, we held an evangelistic campaign over 3 nights and had a total of 7 visitors. God’s people were encouraged to stay faithful to His work and those who didn’t know the Lord heard a clear presentation of the Gospel. Four weeks later was the annual Christmas Program. This program is one of the main outreach programs of the year. So many people worked very hard to make this program a success. This year, the program was spread out over 2 nights because of the lack of space. Each night we had around 78 people. There were a total of 114 dierent people with 50 people visiting who did not know the Lord as their Savior. Out of these 50 people, 31 of them were rst time visitors. The program was lled with guitar playing, utes specials, Choir specials, Children specials, a Drama, and an evangelistic message. There were 31 people who participated to make this happen. God blessed in amazing ways. The rst night (Saturday) was geared toward the deaf people. We had interpreters, videos, and power point to bring the night alive visually for the Deaf people. Amazingly, 6 deaf people attended and heard a clear presentation of the Gospel. Esther, one of the young ladies in the church who has been working in the deaf ministry had been working with a couple for over two years trying to get them to come to a service. After two years, they nally accepted the invitation and came to the Christmas Program. Many of the Deaf that came were very impressed at the number of people in the church who know sign language or at least have an interest in learning. Some of the young kids were able to communicate a little with the Deaf people and it made an impression on them. All in all, the Lord truly blessed all the prayer and hard work and His Name was gloried.

So where did we put 78 people in an auditorium that seats around 60 people? We set up a video camera and ran a feed downstairs so we could put all the kids and a few workers down there to free up some space. If you would like to see the Christmas Program, you can view via internet by visiting www.iglesiabautistavr.com

We pray that everyone had a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year. May this year bring twice the blessings that last year brought. God bless!

that the Lord allowed me to do in 2008. We really finished the year on a high note. We had the opportunity to travel to California and see what God is doing in this wonderful state. While California is notorious for being one of the most liberal states and it appears that they have turned away from God we were able to witness what seems to be the beginning of a revival. We were so excited to see churches that were involved in starting new churches as well as the young people that God is calling into the ministry. We are currently at 40% of our needed support. We are so thankful for the churches that have partnered with us. We know that right now the financial situation is very difficult and that many churches are struggling but in spite of all of that you have remained faithful. We De don’t take your sacrifice lightly.

Even though we have seen God do amazing things in our life last year we want a double portion this year. We want to grow closer to Him in our daily life and experience the joy that only comes when we put Him first in everything that we do. One of my resolutions for this year is to have a stronger marriage and home. We know that Satan is going to try to attack us on every front so that our ministry in Spain will be     ineffective. This year we need to strengthen ourselves in the Lord for the challenges ahead. One of our desires for this year is to keep in touch with all of you in a better way. We are going to begin sending our prayer letters every two months and sending more e-mail updates. Also, we are working on setting up a website about our family and ministry. We have faith that this year we are going to raise most of our support. We already have sixty meetings scheduled for this year and we are busy scheduling more meetings. It’s easy to get impatient while on deputation because we want to be on the field. We don’t just want to talk about our burden we want to walk on the streets of Madrid and see the faces of the people and share the greatest story ever told with them. But right now God has chosen to take us down this path and we need to be diligent on deputation. We need you to pray for us so that we can raise our support this year. That is the goal that we have before us today.

We have good news about one of the families on our team. My father has just had his visa approved by the Spanish consulate in Miami. Now they are just waiting for my mother’s visa to be approved. This is very good news because that means that they will be in Spain Lord willing on the second or third week of March. Ever since the Lord led us to work together in Spain He has guided our steps and blessed us in so many ways. With Deanna & Jeff already in Spain and with my parents close behind we are the only family that still needs to raise support and complete our paperwork. What a blessing to know that the plans that we discussed as a team are very close to being fulfilled. Praise the Lord! We are thankful that the whole process to obtain the missionary visas has gone smoothly for my parents. We pray that the same will happen to us when we start our paperwork.

Once again we would like to thank you for your prayers and faithful support. Happy New Year!