My husband and I have been missionaries for 30 years in Spain and Venezuela.  We have tried many ways of reaching people with the Gospel.  Some of the ways have worked, others not.  Two years ago we returned to Spain to work as a team with our children and their spouses.   As we serve the Lord over many years, there is a tendency to keep on doing things the same way.  We think our way is the only way.  We are so excited that God has allowed us to be part of a team in which each member is excited about doing a work for God and is attempting to try new methods to reach lost souls for Christ.  Since they are young, they understand how this generation thinks and what things will make them interested in hearing the Gospel.  We live in the city of Parla, with approximately 120,000 people.  We are committed to making sure that every person in this city has an opportunity to hear the Gospel many times. 

Last year we produced a Gospel DVD and put one of them in every home in Parla (over 38,000).  This year we are handing out Gospels of John and Romans along with a Gospel tract and an invitation to our church.   We would like to put some piece of literature or DVD into every home every year so that people know that we exist, where we are  and that we want them to know Christ.   We also have a webpage where people can readarticles on the Bible and see a Gospel presentation.  We have also put a monthly advertisement of our ministry in a local newspaper that reaches all of our city.  The Lord has also allowed us to rent a billboard at the entrance to our city with an advertisementto our church.  Our job is to share the Gospel with everyone.  We leave the results up to God.  So far 2 families have come and been saved and baptized because they received the Gospel DVD, one family has been saved after finding our webpage and another family came because of the Gospel of John and Romans that they received in their mailbox.  It is exciting to see what God is doing.  We will keep on trying every method to reach Parla and other cities with the Gospel.

Discipleship truly transformed our ministry many years ago.  30 years ago as new missionaries we did not know much about Biblical discipleship.  Of course when people got saved we would help them as much as possible in their spiritual growth and we would encourage them to be faithful to church so that they would hear the teaching and preaching of the Word of God.  But so many of the believers would get discouraged or would start causing division or would leave the church and take others with them.  We had fruit, but that fruit would not remain.  During our  second furlough we were in one of our supporting churches that showed us Biblical discipleship and how to do it.  We went back to Spain for our third term excited about trying discipleship.  What a change.  Our ministry began to grow, Christians were maturing in the things of God, they had a desire to serve God and we truly began to see fruit that remained and still remains til this day.  These mature believers were then ready to become leaders and we trained them in our Bible Institute and  many of them are serving the Lord as missionaries and pastors today.  When we moved to Venezuela we immediately began discipling new believers and the same thing happened.  We left a church in Valencia with mature Christians that have a desire to serve God with their lives and the church is growing and thriving even today.  Since returning to Spain, we have made discipleship a vital part of our ministry.  Since we are working as a team we have more people to disciple the new believers and we are able to spend valuable time with each one of them and help them grow in the Lord. The material you use is not the key, but the time spent with these new believers, teaching them the Bible, praying for them, helping them through their spiritual growth, answering questions, visiting them and inviting them to our house.  We make it our responsibility to make sure that the person we are discipling becomes a mature servant of Christ and that he or she knows the Word of God and is able to disciple other new Christians.  Our next goal will be to take their training to the next level and begin preparing leaders for the ministry.  We pray that God will help us to train pastors and missionaries to continue the work here in Spain and around the world. 

Happy Anniversary to Julio and Andrea Velasquez.  They are the parents of my wife, Deanna, and they celebrate, today, their 33rd wedding anniversary.  They have been serving the Lord as missionaries for the past 30 years.  Right now in our church, we are doing a series on Marriage.  Being married for 33 years is a great testimony to the people of our church as well as to all of us.  We hope you have a wonderful day! 

Since Deanna's parents have arrived, we have been busy from morning until evening running around, looking for apartments, doing paperwork, etc.  The days have been very productive.  They were able to begin their paperwork and they got an appointment scheduled in 2 weeks to submit their papers.  This is amazing considering it normally takes 2 months to get the appointment.

We found a great apartment the other day.  Everyone fell in love with it.  It was a nice size place (for Spain standards) and it had a patio and a yard which is very rare here.  The price was reasonable and it comes with several appliances that noramlly aren't included.  The owner mentioned that he liked Deanna's parents the best out of any of the other potiential renters that have looked at the apartment.  When we went to the agency that handles the rental agreements, they told us that they may not be able to accept them because they do not hold a job here in Spain.  The reason being if they were to default on there agreement, this agency could actually go directly to the tenants workplace and take the money owed by the tenant.  This was odd to use since Deanna and I went through the same agency and they approved us.  The agency still took their information and said they would review it.  Please help us pray that they get accepted.  This is a very nice place at a reasonable cost, especially for all that it has, and they really like it.  Moreover, the container that was shipped is suppose to be here in 2 1/2 weeks and if they don't have a place, a storage unit will have to be rented and it will make things much more difficult.  

Tomorrow is another day to accomplish many things.  We praise the Lord for the opportunity to be here and to serve Him.  It is an honor to be God's servant and to be doing His will.  

Thanks for your prayers.  Julio and Andrea Velasquez landed in Madrid at 8am this morning.  They are excited to be here but extremely tired.  They weren't able to sleep on the plane so they have basically been awake since yesterday morning.  The trick is to try to stay awake until 8pm or 9pm Spain time.  That will help get your body adjusted to the time change sooner.  We will be busy over the next few weeks helping them get settled in, doing paperwork,finding an apartment, etc.  We are looking forward to starting our work together. 

We give thanks to the Lord!  Julio and Andrea Velasquez officially have their visas in hand.  They have only 4 meetings left and are preparing their things to come to Spain.  They have bought plane tickets and will be arriving on April 1, 2009.  Thank you for your prayers.  Please continue to pray that the rest of the paper work process will be just as smooth. 

Julio Velasquez is a product of missions.  Because a missionary accepted the call from God and went to His town, Julio was able to hear the message of the Gospel and be saved.  It was a message that he had never heard before the missionary went to his town.  God has worked in Julio's life in a tremendous way and it has resulted in almost 30 years of faithful service on the mission field and 3 Godly children who are serving God.  Listen to the radio broadcast of the testimony of Julio Velasquez on "Unshackled."