That All May Know Ministries Blog

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. 

Read More...

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!

February 2009


Dear Co-laborers in Christ,

G

OOD NEWS!  OUR VISAS HAVE BEEN APPROVED!    AMEN! After two months of waiting Julio was notified that his visa had been approved the end of December.  Then the end of January they called to tell us that Andrea’s had been approved.  We are so thankful to God for helping us through all the visa process.  Now we are on the final stretch before leaving for Spain.

God has been so good to us during our time of furlough and trying to raise necessary additional support.  We are now

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.