Dear Co-laborers in Christ,
What a blessing it is to serve our Lord Jesus Christ!  Since our last newsletter we have had many answers to prayer in our personal lives and also in the ministry.  Both of us have been able to renew our resident visas for another two years.  Amen!  My leg has also healed completely and I am able to walk well and do the ministry.

We asked prayer for Stefan to come to know Christ as His personal Savior, and about 6 weeks ago he came into church on Sunday morning and said he had some exciting news for us.  He then proceeded to tell us how on that previous Monday he had repented of his sins and trusted in Christ alone to save him.  Amen!    Since that time we have begun weekly discipleship classes with him, have visited him in his home and have seen his wife and two sons visit the church.  Please pray for all of his family as Stefan desires for them to be saved!   
Update on our DVD project!

We have now distributed 23,000 DVDs.  This means that potentially  69,000 people have had the opportunity to hear a clear presentation of the Gospel.  We have been duplicating more DVD’s over the past few weeks and by the middle of September we will be ready to continue distributing DVDs to the rest of the homes in Parla. Pray for the funds necessary to finish this project.  We have received love offerings from 2 of our churches these past two months and we are truly appreciative.  Click here to see the video update on our DVD project.

We have also placed a very large billboard at the entrance of our city with a message about the DVD, asking people if they have seen it and advertising our website.  We will change this billboard approximately every three months with something thought-provoking for those seeking for the truth.   We have  recently purchased space in our city’s monthly newspaper.  We will have one-fourth of a page to write whatever we want every month.  This paper is distributed free of charge to 30,000 people in our city.  Pray for new contacts through this outreach.  We want to continue sowing the seed of the Word of God in every home in Parla.  Recently a young man contacted us, requesting a free Bible.  His name is Eduardo and he had seen our website and was interested in what he had read.  We were able to visit him in his home and even though he lives one hour away from our city, he came to the service last Sunday.  Praise the Lord he trusted  Christ as his personal Savior this week!  He is so excited about growing in the Lord. We will begin discipleship classes with him next week.    Last Sunday we had a very special service in our church with an emphasis on the Family.  We sent invitations to all the contacts we have made recently.  We were so thrilled Sunday morning when 41 people attended the service.  We were filled to capacity.  Amen!  Now, we understand that people will come to special services and  maybe not come again, but we now have more people to pray for, visit, and encourage to find out the truth from God’s Word.  The seed has been planted, we are watering and we know that in God’s time, there will be a harvest of souls. 
Continue praying for David and Favianna as they have submitted their papers for obtaining visas to come to Spain and are waiting for approval.  They are still planning on coming here on the 1st of December.  We are excited about having all the team here in Spain to serve our Lord together.  Thank you again for your faithful prayers and financial support.  You also are part of the team for reaching souls for Christ here in Spain.

In His Service, 
Julio and Andrea Velasquez

     How important is one solitary soul to God?  Is God interested in reaching out to a handful of people living in a remote village in darkest Africa or in the jungles of South America?  Is God interested in the single person that a missionary in Europe has been able to reach during his first four years on the field?  Does God truly want us to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature, or does He just want us to go where we can reach the most people in the shortest amount of time?   We see in many places in Scripture where God was interested in individuals.  He sent Phillip to the backside of the desert because there was one man who was searching for God and needed the help of a Christian to show him the way.  Jesus himself had to go through Samaria because there was a woman at the well that needed to know that she was a sinner and in need of salvation.  Many times Jesus preached to multitudes of people, but He was always interested in each and every individual soul in need of Christ.

       As missionaries we do not pick the place where we desire to serve God.  It would be easy and advantageous for us to peruse through world atlases and travel catalogs and find the most beautiful places to be a missionary.  We could find places where the weather is always nice, the food is delicious, the people are all friendly and desirous to be saved and where there are good doctors and great roads.  But that is not the way God works.  He speaks to us with His still small voice and puts such a burden in our hearts for a place to serve Him.  it doesn't make sense to root up a family with small children, pack them into a mini-van, take them over 200,000 miles of interstates to visit over 300 churches over several years, then have that family move to a god forsaken country where living conditions are not very good and where good doctors are hard to come by.  Worse yet is the family that goes to a country where the people are not interested in hearing the Gospel or where the law prohibits a person from sharing his faith with others.  In our own understanding these things don't make sense.  But we cannot lean on our own understanding.  God is interested in every person on this earth hearing the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Some missionaries go to countries where the people are very receptive to the Gospel and in a matter of 4 short years, they are able to establish a good church, train leaders and have those leaders prepared to begin more works.  Many of these missionaries are able to start 30 or 40 churches in their years on the mission field and lead thousands of people to Christ.  Others spend 30 or 40 years in one church and lead only a handful of people to Christ.  Is this a waste of time and money?  Of course not.   

      Having been brought up on the mission field as a young child, I have spent almost all my life working in missions.  We have served in Latin America as well as in Europe.  We have seen the difference between working in a third world country and working in a modern developed country.  We have worked with poor people and have also worked with middle/upper class people.  There are so many contrasts and differences, but God has been interested in each person we have been able to reach for Him.  In 1992 while serving in Spain, we were able to see a young couple come to Christ in our church.  Their names are Alberto and Paqui Puente.  After discipling them and helping them grow in their Christian faith, they went to our Bible Institute and desired to serve the Lord full time.  A few years later, they moved to the States where Alberto pastored a Hispanic church in Alabama.  The church has grown and out of that church many have been called into the ministry.  They are sending missionaries around the world now, including two of their sons who will be returning to Spain as missionaries within the year. Even though many others trusted Christ as their Savior, if Alberto and Paqui had been the only ones  who had gotten saved during our first 14 years in Spain, it would have been worth it.  God loves every single person and He died for every single person in this world.  Our job is to obey God and share the Gospel with every person that God puts in our path.  Whether you live in a metropolitan area in New York or in a small rural town in Wyoming or in a mega city like Mexico City or in a jungle village in the Amazon, whether you can reach thousands with the Gospel or only a handful in your lifetime, we are to keep on obeying God and reaching  souls ,one by one, for whom Christ died.  

My husband and I will celebrate our 30th year as missionaries this coming December.
We have served in Spain and Venezuela.  In these two countries we have been able to participate in the start of 3 Baptist churches.  I remember each one of these churches and the excitement we felt as people began attending services, making professions of faith in Jesus Christ and growing in the Lord.  We look back at how these churches are still preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ, how people are still getting saved and how young men are being called into the ministry from these churches.  There is something very exciting and awesome about beginning a new church!

We are now in the process of beginning again!  A little over one year ago we arrived in Spain once more and moved to the city of Parla.  During this year we have, along with the other members of our team, studied the city, strategized as to how we can reach the city for Christ, rented a building and made the necessary repairs to use it for services.  We have also done a lot of praying, planning and preparing.  In April we finally opened the doors to our building to begin having Sunday morning services.  At that point we had one lady who came faithfully every Sunday.  She has been a real blessing in our church as every week she witnesses to people she meets and invites them to our services.  She is very excited about seeing the work grow.  Right now we are laying the groundwork for the ministry.  We are evangelizing the city, trying to share the Gospel with every person in the city of Parla.    As with past experiences in starting churches, we know that if we do what God has told us to do, then He will bring the increase.

We are excited, just like we were 30 years ago when we first began our missionary endeavors.  We don’t know how fast the work will grow, who will get saved, who will remain in the church serving God, who will be called into the ministry, but we know that God is going to do His work here.  We are just vessels to be used by God to do His work of planting the seed of the Word of God.  Then God will give the harvest. 
How exciting it was when two months ago a man entered the church to find out who we are.  That man has since, come faithfully every Sunday, brought his wife and son and three weeks ago, trusted Christ as His Savior.  Two weeks ago, a middle aged lady came to know Christ as her Savior in her home while we were visiting with her.  These are the firstfruits of the work in Parla.  How exciting!  Already we can see some new contacts whom we are working with and who seem interested in knowing more about God.  We are using all the means we can to get the Gospel into homes, through DVD’s, tracts, billboards, webpages, newspapers, etc.  We are beginning to see fruit and it is the most exciting experience that a servant of God can feel.  This is just the beginning of what God is going to do.  We have the same promise that God gave to the apostle Paul in Acts 18:9-10, “..Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace: For I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee: for I have much people in this city.” 

Dear Co-laborers in Christ,

“Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift” As Christmas time approaches again, we are reminded of God’s unspeakable gift, the gift of His dear son, our Lord Jesus Christ!  What a joy it is to serve our Lord and Savior and we are so grateful for the free gift of salvation which He gave to us and which we share with the lost here in Spain.  We are excited about having our first Christmas back in Spain after so many years of being away.  We are happy to be able to be part of the Spanish Christmas traditions and to eat all their traditional Christmas foods, but greater than all of these joys is the joy that we will have to share the gift of God with so many of them.  We are almost finished duplicating 18,500 DVD’s which contain a clear presentation of the Gospel and very soon we will be putting them into the mailboxes so that 18.500 households will be able to listen to the Gospel, many for the first time in their lives. We can’t emphasize enough the importance of needing your prayers so that as the people receive these DVD’s they will watch them, listen to the message and that the Holy Spirit will begin a work in their hearts and that many will trust Christ as their personal Savior.  Will you please partner with us to pray for this project?   Our goal is to not only distribute these DVD’s to the city of Parla, but to at least 10 more neighboring cities over the next few years.  We need your prayers and we need money in order to purchase more DVD’s.  Will your help this Christmas Season?

We have a building for our future church! Praise the Lord we have found a building in a strategic area of the city which is on a busy street and only one block away from public transportation.  We have much work to do now in order to get it ready for services.  It is one large room with one small room that we will use for an office.  We are needing at least one more room and so we will be building two walls to form a nice size room.  We also have to install heat and air conditioning.  Then we will fill in holes in the walls, paint, lay carpet and put up a sign on the outside wall.  In January we are planning on starting English classes and piano classes in order to make contacts.  Through these activities, we are praying that the Lord will allow us to share the Gospel with them and that many will be saved.   We are praying that we will be able to open the building for use by the beginning of January.  Please pray with us about this. 

New Contacts! Please pray for new contacts that we have made.  We have neighbors who are from Colombia and they are very much interested in the Gospel.  I have also had the opportunity to witness to several Muslims and have made friends with a Muslim man who lives in our apartment complex. They need Christ!  Will you pray for their salvation?

The Family is Growing! We are very happy to announce the birth of our third grandchild.  Hayden Mikaela Velasquez was born on November 5 and she is our first granddaughter. David and Favianna are thrilled with this special gift from God and Ian is a very proud older brother.  We are so anxious for them to arrive in Spain to help us in the work.  Please pray that they will be able to raise the remaining 40% of their support  in a very short time so that they can join us in the ministry. 

We want to thank all of you for your faithful support over the years.  We have been missionaries for 29 years and God has been faithful in supplying our needs.  He has used you to supply that need.  Thank you for your prayers, letters, gifts and monthly support.  We love and appreciate all of you.  May the Lord richly bless you this coming year as you serve our Lord.

In His Service,                                                                                                                         

Julio and Andrea Velasquez

September 2009

Dear Co-laborers in Christ,

We are close to the end of a very hot summer.  Most days temperatures were in the high 90’s and nights would be very warm also.  Spaniards usually enjoy one full month of vacation time, either in July or August.  Now most people have returned home and within two weeks school will begin again.  This is the time we have been waiting for to begin distributing the DVD’s with a Gospel message.  We would like to thank all of those individuals and churches who have sent offerings for this project.  This will really help us purchase more DVD’s. If you have not sent in an offering yet, there is still time, since this is an ongoing project.  We will continue to give out these DVD’s until every home in Parla and the surrounding areas has heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

We have been looking for a storefront building to rent in order to begin church services.  Most of the places we have looked at measure around 800-900 sq. feet and cost anywhere from $1200 and up each month.  Please pray that we will find the right place that God has for us.  Our desire is to use this building for church services as well as discipleship classes, English classes and counseling sessions.  We will use any means to reach people here in Parla with the Gospel.

While attending a Baptist church in Madrid over the past few months, we met a lady named Isabel, who had begun attending the church.  She was travelling over 2 hours every service to attend the services, but when she found out that we will begin services in Parla she was so excited because she lives fairly close to our city.  We thought she was already a believer in Christ, but last week while attending family camp, she realized that she was a religious person, but had never put her faith in Christ for salvation.  Now she is a true believer and is excited about attending our church as soon as we begin having services.  She wants to bring her family and friends to the services also. Praise the Lord for our first member in this new ministry.

As we mentioned in our last letter, Spain is full of immigrants from all over the world.  I have had the privilege of sharing the Gospel with at least 40 people over the past few weeks representing 8 different countries including Spain.   Please pray that the seed that was sown in their hearts will take root and many will come to know Christ as their personal Savior. One great blessing in my life this month was the salvation of my brother in Peru.  I have been praying for him for 34 years and he finally trusted Christ as his Savior.  He had gone to Cuzco to have surgery and we contacted a missionary there to see if he could share the Gospel with him.  He sent a man from his church who became friends with my brother and then shared how he could get saved.  Pray now as he returns home that he will be able to find a good church in order to grow spiritually.

Thank you so much for your prayers and faithful monthly support.  The Euro is getting strong again and makes it even more expensive for us to live here, but we know that God will continue to provide our needs.

May the Lord richly bless each of you as you serve Him.

In His Service,

Julio and Andrea Velasquez

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.

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

     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!

at 95% and we know that by the time we leave we will be at our full support level. We have been to some wonderful churches and we still have 8 more churches to go to present our burden  for the country of Spain.


Within the next two weeks we will be purchasing our airplane tickets for Spain.  Our last meeting will be March 11-14 and then we will need a couple of weeks to finalize our packing and get ready to leave.  We are so excited about getting to Spain and beginning the ministry that God has called us to do.  Please continue praying for our son and daughter–in-law, David and Favianna, as they continue with their deputation.  They are at 40% of their support level and are asking God to allow them to leave for Spain in one more year.  We are desirous for all the team to be together in the ministry.

Thank you so much for all you have done for us this year and for the churches that have voted to support our ministry we are truly thankful to our God.  We are excited about partnering with you in the ministry.  May the Lord richly bless each of you as you labor for Him in your area. 

In His Service,


Julio and Andrea Velasquez

We praise the Lord for his goodness.  We have both received our visas for entry into Spain.  We are planning on leaving for the field at the end of March.  We have several meetings and are busy packing and getting ready for the move.  Thank you so much for praying.  We are excited about what the Lord is going to do.