That All May Know Ministries Blog

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. It is amazing how fast 2009 flew by. God is always good and we were able to see Him working in 2009. We expect Him to also work in tremendous ways in 2010.

We start the New Year wanting to address 2 very exciting things in this prayer letter. First of all, we have been working really hard to get the building finished. It turned out to be a little more work than we thought, but nothing major. We have put up divisions, filled in holes, sanded, painted, put up lights, and cleaned. We have a few minor things left and then we will lay some carpet. We are waiting for some quotes on installing heat and air, but other than that, we are most complete. I am adding some pictures of the progress. Lord willing in the next letter, you will get to see the finished product.

Secondly, Deanna and I have some wonderful news. We have decided to adopt a baby. We are very excited. Since Aaron’s second birthday, we have been trying to have another baby. Aaron is now 7 and we have not been able to have another child. Deanna and I have been praying about adopting for some time now. We recently decided to start the process. At this moment, we are moving in the direction of adopting a baby girl from China. The process will be long and expensive, but we are trusting the Lord through every step. Please pray that the Lord will give us wisdom through the process. We also need your prayers for the timing of everything as our resident papers have strict requirements on how long we can be out of the country, renewal, etc. We are simply trusting in the Lord to work out every detail.

Thank you so much for your prayers, support, and friendship. May the Lord bless you.

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

The DVD Project

The Lord continues to bless the Gospel on DVD Project. So many people are realizing the opportunity to have a direct impact on the people of Spain through the Gospel on DVD project. So far enough has been given to get the Gospel on DVD to approximately 18,500 households in our city. We have been duplicating DVD’s every day. We have over 10,000 DVD’s done. We posted a video update of exactly what God is doing through this project. You can view it here:

http://www.thatallmayknow.net/blog/DVD-Project-Update.html

New Building

In September, Deanna and I said farewell to the people of Iglesia Bautista Bíblica de Villa Rosa (Bible Baptist Church of Villa Rosa) where we had the privilege to work, as I learned the language, for about a year. Around the 2nd week of September, we began looking for a building. We found several that were available but they were either too expensive, not in the best location, or not exactly what we wanted. We decided not to jump into the first thing that came along and be patient and wait on God. Deanna and I had faith that God would provide the perfect place for us with enough space for the right price. After only a month of looking, that is exactly what God did. We found a place that is big enough to start for a very good price. We will begin fixing up the building, adding some divisions, etc. very soon.

Mini-Missions Trip

Several weeks ago, Deanna, Aaron, and I were able to take a mini-missions trip to visit our good friends working in North Africa. Aaron and his family are working with the Muslim people in North Africa and doing a great job. It was a real blessing to see the Muslim people coming to Christ. I met one man, Ali, who had been to his first service and was so happy. He gave his testimony of how he wanted to end his life because of how unhappy he was. He said that he saw a man and his wife on the street that he didn’t know and went up to them and asked them, “why are you so happy?” The man was a Christian and told him that was why. The man called Ali a few times to talk to him about the Lord. Through this and the Internet, Ali came to Christ. It was awesome to see the change in his life of once wanting to commit suicide and now so happy wanting to live for Christ. The whole experience impacted our lives, gave us perspective, and gave us a greater burden for reaching the Muslims in our community. There are many in our city that have come to find work. Just to give you an idea, the second largest nationality in Aaron’s school, behind the Spaniards, are those from North Africa.

New Address

We have moved! I can’t say too many good things about the crisis, however, one good thing that has been a benefit to us is the decrease in the cost of housing. They all say that this is the time to find good deals on rental housing and we were able to take advantage of the good deals. Please take note of our new address:

The Andrews Family
Calle Miguel Hernandez 26

28991 Torrejon de la Calzada, Madrid
España

Dear Praying Friends, Family, and Churches,

Again, it is a privilege to be able to report to you on allthat God is doing.  I must say this every time, but we count it such an honor to serve our Lord.  It is not about the place or the people, it is about our Lord. Obeying His command!

THE GOSPEL ON DVD PROJECT

We have received tremendous comments on this project.  Many have watched the video that we will be passing out and have given us great feedback.  Several missionaries who are working in Spanish speaking countries have requested the DVD so they could also use it to reach the people in their city.  Our goal is to reach the people of our city and now, God is going to use it to reach many more people around the world.  Several of the believers here in Spain have asked for the URL so they can email it to their family members who don’t know the Lord!!!  We are thrilled already at how God is blessing this effort.  This is not about us, but about His Word going forth.  So far, not including the money that we have invested as a team, churches and individuals have given enough to get the Gospel on DVD to over 3,400 people.  We have also been contacted by a Christian School who will use this project as their annual missions fund raising project.  HOW GOOD IS OUR GOD!!!

The BEST NEWS is that I now have the video available to view in ENGLISH!  Get on the internet and type in this URL into the address bar:  http://www.thatallmayknow.net/the-gospel-on-dvd-project.html

Read More...

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