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A team of missionaries dedicated to fulfilling his command.  God has brought us to work together in Spain for His honor and glory.

david_littleDavid Velasquez
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That All May Know Ministries Blog

"That all the earth may know that there is a God..."
Tags >> Bible
Sep 01
2010

Julio and Andrea Prayer Letter - September 2010

Posted by Julio and Andrea Velasquez in Velasquez Family , Spain , Salvation , Prayer Requests , Prayer Letters , Missions , Ministry , Julio and Andrea Velasquez , DVD Project , Bible

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

Aug 30
2010

10 Things Every Christian Should Know About Spain: (#2)

Posted by Jeffrey Andrews in Spain , Salvation , Culture , Christians , Bible , 10 Things Every Christian Should Know About Spain

Written by: Scott Newton

#2: Spain has been without a major Gospel preaching movement for at least 1600 years.

AD 33-70: Christianity came very early to the Peninsula. According to some ancient writers such as Clement Of Rome & Eusebius, St. Paul visited Spain (see Romans 15).

AD 70-711When the Visigoths, whose leaders professed Arianism (the denial of the divinity of Christ), invaded the peninsula, Christianity had been fairly firmly established for around 240 years, and had held its own councils and used a liturgy different from that of Rome, known later as the Hispanic Rite.

There were more than likely many true believers in this church, however, they had from AD 70 been corrupted through following the teachings of the Didache, supposedly a summation of the Apostles teaching.

The majority of this document was a paraphrase of biblical text, but here is the hook at the end:

16:2But be ye gathered together frequently, seeking what is suitable for your souls; for the whole time of your faith shall profit you not, unless ye be found perfect in the last time.”

Early writings confirm that this movement clearly taught a grace+works salvation. Not Gospel.

AD 711-1478 With the invasion by the Moors at the beginning of the 8th century, Christians suffered greatly. The Catholics who lived under the Moorish domination became known as Mozarabic Christians. By the end of the 15th century when the Reconquest of the peninsula from the Muslims was completed, the Mozarabic Christians had been subjected to the Roman liturgy and strict papal jurisdiction.

THE REFORMATION 16TH CENTURY SPAIN

However, it was not until the 16th Century that some people, interested in the writings of Luther, started to share a different Christianity among the Spaniards.

At the beginning, Spanish protestantism was accepted among the noble and high classes, due to their interest in reading the Bible. There were important reformers in Spain, such as Juan de Valdés, Francisco de Enzinas and three ex-monks, Casiodoro de Reina, Cipriano de Valera y Antonio del Corro. Reina & Valera were the first ones to translate the Bible into Spanish, with the support of Oxford university. (AD 1569)

However, soon after the entry of the reformation movements from Europe, the Inquisition made sure they would not succeed. The majority of Spanish protestants went into hiding, died, or left the country.

PROTESTANTS LIVE AS OUTCASTS DURING 17TH AND 18TH CENTURIES

During the following two centuries (17th and 18th) any attempt to reformation within Spain and the catholic church was stopped, or had to go underground. Yet, from some historical records from the Inquisition itself, we do know that protestants continued translating the Bible into Spanish and Basque and made it available to people. Others, who were exiled, continued translating Christian literature; while others who remained in Spain died in the hands of the inquisitors. There were 3499 court cases against Lutherans in Spain and Italy during that time, which is 7,1 % of all the inquisition cases recorded.

During the 18th and beginning of 19th Centuries, economic and military relations with England eased off the pressure over the foreign protestants in the country, allowing them to have freedom of conscience, though not freedom of practice.

The Second Republic (1931-1936)

During 1931 and 1936, under the auspice of the second republic, there was freedom of religion once more in the country which allowed growth. These 5 years, added to the 6 years of the first republic, made a total of 11 years of religious freedom in the whole history of Spain.

First stage of intolerance (1939-1966)

The civil war and the regimen afterwards, were devastating against the protestant churches, even though protestants had not taken positions in the war. At the end of the war, there were only 7000 protestants left. Most churches had been raided, along with schools and cemeteries. Some others were burned down or closed by the authorities.

It is estimated that over 80% of the churches were closed down.

THE CONSTITUTION OF 1978

After the death of Franco, Spain moved on to monarchy and democracy, reaching a crucial moment in 1978, when the country adopted a new constitution. King Juan Carlos I was in favor of democracy and religious freedom.

MODERN DAY SPAIN

Spain now enjoys religious freedom, and God is starting to move in big ways. Pray that the Lord of the Harvest will send forth more laborers, Spain is white unto harvest!

Aug 26
2010

The Worth of a Soul

Posted by Julio and Andrea Velasquez in Spain , Salvation , Missions , Ministry Philosophy , Ministry , Julio and Andrea Velasquez , Christians , Bible

     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.  

Aug 25
2010

Bible Evidences for Baptist Evangelism

Posted by Jeffrey Andrews in Velasquez Family , Spain , Salvation , Missions , Missionaries , Ministry Philosophy , Ministry , Julio and Andrea Velasquez , Christians , Bible , Andrews Family

Ron Maggard is a fellow missionary and a good friend of mine.  The Lord used him to play a significant role in my christian growth while I was at Beacon Baptist Church.  He wrote an article that goes along with our Ministry Philosophy that we have been posting.  Enjoy!


Making The Case For Baptist Evangelism

Written by: Ron Maggard

Two thousand years ago our Lord gave His churches a clear and definite command. He said, “Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” Matthew 28:19-20

After the persecution began in Jerusalem the followers of our Lord give clear evidence as to what they understood the Lord to mean in His commission. “Therefore they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word.  Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ unto them.” Acts 8:4-5  “Philip was found at Azotus; and passing through he preached in all the cities, til he came to Caesarea.” Acts 8:40 Philip understood what was expected of him as a messenger of the Great Commission.

“And it came to pass, as Peter passed throughout all quarters, he came down also to the saints which dwelt at Lydda.” Acts 4:38  From Lydda it is recorded he went to Saron and from Saron to Joppa and from Joppa to Caesarea to preach to Cornelius. Peter understood what was expected of him as a messenger of the Great Commission.

“The Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.  So they being sent forth by the Holy Ghost departed …” This was their first missionary journey and they preached the Gospel in Selucia, Salamis, Paphos, Perga, Antioch in Pisidia, Iconium, Lystra, Derbe, and then back through some of them again to build up the converts and establish the churches which were planted as a result of their evangelism.  And Paul made a second and a third missionary journey using the same strategies.  Paul and his team members understood what was expected of them as messengers of the Great Commission. So did the church that sent them and those that supported them.

These passages reveal to us solid Bible evidences for the principles and practices of missions.  These strategies worked for them.  They will work for us today.  They can and must!  The world population now exceeds 7 billion people.  Statistics on modern missions and evangelism show we are simply not getting the job done by using our modern 21st century mission practices.

The modern missionary techniques which are widely used today around the world reveal something to us.  Either they in the 1st century did not understand what the Lord meant in the commission or we in the 21st century do not understand.  Which could it be?  Look at Paul’s words in Colossians 1:23.  “…Be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven whereof, I paul am made a minister.” Some interesting evidence is revealed in this scripture.  At the time of the writing of this letter Paul could say by the Holy Spirit inspiration, “the gospel … was preached to every creature which is under heaven.” The mission strategies, practices and principles which allowed them to be obedient to the Great Commission, even with their limitations of travel, equipment, resources and conveniences, reveal they accomplished an amazing task.  Yet today, we with all these advantages don’t come anywhere near their accomplishments.  We simply and plainly are not getting the job of world evangelism done.  We are not keeping up with the population.  If something is not done, many of the 7 billion souls living on the planet now will never hear the Gospel and have an opportunity to trust in Jesus Christ as their Savior.

What must be done?  We MUST have a return to the principles, patterns and strategies of the 1st century missionaries.  We must give up our modern, traditional, siege mentality of missions that has a missionary go to a town and put down his roots to contextualize for years and years before he can expect to effectively reach anyone with the Gospel.  We must do better than the type of missions where a missionary with just his family forms a church and then goes into their new community and environment to invite them to come in to their “church”. We must go out into their arena with the powerful Gospel message to evangelize first.  We must get back to the strategy in which churches are the natural outgrowth of evangelism, instead of the other way around.  That is where we are failing in missions.  That is why so many missionaries never move on to the next towns or the regions beyond. They are so busy trying to build up a big church crowd, that they never evangelize – they don’t properly evangelize so there is no one for them to use to build the church.  What a tragic and unfruitful cycle the devil has many running in today and all the while millions of precious souls die without ever hearing the Gospel.  So sad and eternally tragic.  Please let us read the book of Acts again!  I promise it is the very best text-book on missions ever written.  This is a call for us all to examine the evidence and then return to the principles, patterns and strategies of the New Testament missionaries.  If we do not we can not be obedient to our Savior’s Great Commission.

Baptist Evangelism is the name of the Maggard’s mission ministry.  It tells who they are and what they do.  Pray for them as they “go into the next towns” preaching the Gospel, planting churches and training leaders.  See more about this ministry  at www.baptistevangelism.org

Aug 22
2010

We had 41 in Church!!!

Posted by Jeffrey Andrews in Velasquez Family , Spain , Salvation , Prayer Requests , Missions , Missionaries , Ministry , Julio and Andrea Velasquez , Christians , Bible , Andrews Family

The other day I asked for prayer for our special family day.  It was our desire that God would work in a great way, not just to give us numbers, but to work in the heart of each individual that would come.  We prayed for people to hear the Gospel, for God to be glorified, and for people to be edified.

All in all it was a tremendous day.  We had 41 people in total, our highest day yet.  However, a number really doesn’t mean anything.  The largest church in the USA averages 43,500 people per week but if the true Gospel isn’t being preached, if the Word of God is not being taught, what’s in a number?  If the people are only hearing men’s philosophies and not the Word of God, what’s in a number?  The number of people that came to our service is not what is important.  What is important is that each person has a soul that needs God and the teaching of His Word.

What’s important is that Robertson and Laura came...a couple who we have been working with who are struggling to make ends meet.  Laura has confessed that she is not a Christian.  They need forgiveness for their sins and to meet the Lord Jesus Christ.

What’s important is that Eduardo came.  Eduardo found us through our website www.estudialabiblia.com and requested a Bible.  Even though Eduardo lives an hour away from us, we decided to go and give the Bible to him and at least give him a clear presentation of the Gospel even if we never saw him again.  Even with the distance, he came.  Eduardo is struggling to find work, having problems with his wife, and really, really searching for the truth.  This morning Eduardo raised his hand expressing his desire to give his life to the Lord.

What’s important is the owner of our building came with her mother and daughter.  There is a good chance that they have never heard the message of Salvation that we find in scriptures and this was their first time.  They were able to listen to songs that talk of God’s amazing love.  They were able to hear the testimony of Alberto Puente, a Spaniard who was saved years ago in Spain under my father-in-laws ministry and is now in the ministry serving the Lord.  They were able to experience a Bible message about Family and Faith.

No, the number “41” is not important.  What is important are the lives and the souls that make up that number.  The ones who were able to catch a glimpse of God’s awesome love through the preaching and teaching of His word.  Many of those precious souls remind me of myself at age 19 when I first walked into Beacon Baptist Church and heard a clear message from God’s Word.  May the Lord work in their hearts as he did mine and may they return time and time again to hear the life changing message that we can only find in God’s Holy Word.

Thank you for praying.  God answered all my prayers and much more.

Aug 20
2010

Help us Pray!

Posted by Jeffrey Andrews in Velasquez Family , Spain , Salvation , Prayer Requests , Missionaries , Ministry , Julio and Andrea Velasquez , Christians , Bible , Andrews Family

This coming Sunday we are having a special day.  The theme will be on the Family.  We haven’t done a huge campaign, just simply made invitations for all of our current contacts.  If they all decide to come, this will be more then we can handle in our present location.

I was at the church on Thursday making up some packets of information to give to the first time visitors that will come on Sunday.  While I was waiting for the envelopes to finish printing, I decided to go and pray for the people who might come.  I remembered the verse in 1 John that says if we ask anything according to His will, He will hear us.  I was not asking for numbers.  I was not asking for Him to make it an exciting day.  I didn’t ask Him to fulfill our desires.  Not that these things can't be according to His will at times, but I wanted to ask Him for what I know for sure is His will according to the Word of God.  Here is what I asked for:

  1. That the people who come would hear the Gospel and be taught the things of God. - Matthew 28:19 - 20
  2. That the Christians would hear the Word and apply it to their lives - James 1:22
  3. That Christ would be glorified and those that don’t know him would see that He is Worthy - Revelation 4:11; Revelation 5:9; Revelation 5:12
  4. That people would be saved - 2 Peter 3:9
  5. That the Word of God would do it's work in the hearts and lives of whoever hears the Word.  - 2 Tim. 3:16


Would you help us pray for this special day?

Aug 20
2010

Gospel DVD update #2

Posted by Jeffrey Andrews in website , Velasquez Family , Spain , Salvation , Prayer Requests , Missions , Missionaries , Ministry , Julio and Andrea Velasquez , DVD Project , Bible , Andrews Family

Watch the Video or read about it below.

WATCH THE DVD PRESENTATION BELOW

spanish

english

Watch the Gospel on DVD (Spanish) Don't know Spanish?  Watch it in English

dvd

I wanted to give you an update on how God is working through this DVD Project. We have been able to give out 23,329 Gospel DVD's.  If we calculate that there are 3 people per household that means we have given 69,987 people a chance to hear a clear presentation of the Gospel.  Our goal is to saturate our city with this DVD.  The DVD has a gospel presentation, clearly given for those who have never heard it.

So far we have had over 2,000 pageviews per month on the website that we have created.  This means that many who have received the DVD have watched the whole presentation until the end where the website is displayed and then accessed the website for more information.  It is every church's desire that in the lifespan of their ministry every person in their area or city will come through the church doors at least one time so they can hear a clear Gospel presentation.  However, we all realize that in the life of our ministry, only a small percentage of the people in our town or city will ever walk through those doors.  So what we have done is given the people of our city a chance to have the preacher come to them.  In the comfort of their own home, they can watch and hear a sound biblical message on salvation.

Please pray with us as we endeavor to finish getting DVD's to the rest of our city.  Also help us pray about our next project, " a Bible in every home."  Just as the title suggests, we want to get a Bible in every home in our city.  Thank you for your prayers and support.

Aug 19
2010

Our Ministry Philosophy (Part 4)

Posted by David and Favi Velasquez in Velasquez Family , Spain , Salvation , Religion , Missionaries , Ministry Philosophy , Ministry , Julio and Andrea Velasquez , Christians , Bible , Baptism , Andrews Family

As we clearly saw in Part 3 of our ministry philosophy, Jesus did not spend equal amounts of time with all of those that followed Him (this would include the multitudes that followed him, the 70, the 12 and even the 3). How can we expect to do more than our Master? Jesus is our supreme example on how to make disciples and so we must be careful to follow in His steps. We really will have two general goals for the discipleship ministry in our churches (I say churches because our desire is to establish multiple churches throughout Spain and the regions beyond). On the one hand, we share the same desire as the apostle Paul in Colossians 1:28, “that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.” The only problem with that, of course, is that not every Christian in our church is going to cooperate with us in that process. We want every born again believer to love God and be actively involved in carrying out the Great Commission, but we know that unfortunately many “Christians” will remain spectators (from the outside looking in) of what God is doing in and through the rest of the church. This will not impede us from trying to present perfect (complete, mature) in Christ Jesus as many as possible. On the other hand we find Paul writing to his disciple Timothy in 2 Tim. 2:2 and he says, “And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.” Here we are commanded to train faithful men who will become disciple makers themselves. In other words, these men will become the future leaders and pastors of our churches. As we have heard many times, “The cream always rises to the top.” This group of people will receive more one on one time with us because they are faithful, proven men that are hungry for more involvement and responsibilities in the church. It may seem like we are playing favorites but that is far from the truth. As soon as someone is saved in one of our churches we will immediately seek to involve them in the discipleship process. Already in this phase we will have people that will refuse to receive even basic discipleship lessons. But many others will begin learning the basics of the Christian life and start growing and maturing. They will start learning how to read and study God’s Word, how to pray, how to give biblically to the work of God etc…. But once they reach a certain level of growth many will refuse to take that extra step into service and teaching others. Only a select group will want to go further and become disciple-makers. This group is not content with sitting  on the sidelines while others get the work done. They want to be like Christ in every way possible. Not all of these believers will become pastors and missionaries but they will all have a very important part in the ministry in Spain. It is only natural that we will spend more personal one on one time with them.  It would be a mistake for us to beg and plead the others to move forward for Christ (we can’t force people to serve) when the faithful men (and women) are willing and desiring to take the next step. What’s amazing is that the more mature and faithful  Christians will begin to impact and influence the rest of the congregation so that some will venture out of their comfort zone and begin to do more for Christ.

I do want to be very clear that although Christ is our model to follow in discipleship, we are only humans and as such we have many limitations. We will be very careful to not make disciples of ourselves, but of Christ. It is very easy to center our ministries on ourselves and forget that our goal is to “present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.” When a new convert enters into a student-teacher relationship with one of us, he is going to naturally want to imitate everything that we do. While this is inevitable, we must remember that our ultimate goal is to point them to Christ and not us. The apostle Paul writes in 1 Cor. 11:1, “Be ye followers of me, even as I am also of Christ.” It would be easy to say that this verse proves that people are supposed to follow us, but I believe that the emphasis of the verse is, “Even as I am also of Christ.” We want those that we are discipling to imitate those areas in our lives that are Christ-like, but certainly not every facet of our being. If that’s the case then our children in the faith would possess our strengths as well as our weaknesses. When we begin to disciple someone we want them to understand that we are not perfect and that we will make mistakes. If we point them to the Bible and ask them to judge all things through the light of the Scriptures then they will learn what areas of our lives are truly worth imitating. I am very thankful that God gave me an earthly father that was not a dictator. Although I was expected to obey him in everything that he commanded, he made it very clear to me that he was not perfect. Many times I remember my father coming into my room and apologizing because he had not been a good example in a particular matter.  I learned that although my father was appointed by God to direct and mold my life, he was only a vessel intended to lead me into a personal relationship with my heavenly father, who is perfect in all things. He taught me that God’s word (not his own) is my ultimate authority.  Because my father pointed me to Christ I have an anchor that will keep me safe in the fiercest storms. Ministries that are centered on men will never survive after the death of their earthly leader. We want the men that are trained under our ministry to depend on Christ and not on us. Please continue reading. We will get into church-planting in the next article.  

Aug 17
2010

David Velasquez Prayer Letter - August 2010

Posted by David and Favi Velasquez in website , Velasquez Family , Spain , Salvation , Prayer Requests , Prayer Letters , News , Money , Missionaries , Ministry Philosophy , Ministry , Julio and Andrea Velasquez , Bible , Baptism

Dear Pastor, Congregation and Friends,

“For from you sounded out the word of the Lord...so that we need not to speak anything.” (1 Thessalonians 1:8) Most of you have noticed that our website is www.thatallmayknow.net. We have named our ministry in Spain thatallmayknow ministries. The reason that we have chosen this theme is because we believe that this is ultimately God’s heartbeat. Our team members have recently started a church in Parla, Madrid with the vision to aggressively and proactively find a way to reach every single household and individual in the city with the gospel message. Like the church at Thessalonica we want to make a profound impact for the honor and glory of God.

Although the church has not been officially inaugurated, many exciting things have   already taken place! Our team members have been unable to obtain the permit which allows them to place a church sign on the building. This has made it difficult to pass out invitations for the church and no official service has been held to jump-start the church. In spite of all of these setbacks we are thrilled to announce that the team in Spain has been able to personally present the gospel to several individuals and two souls have already been saved. Praise the Lord! Not only that, several people have visited the church and many have shown an interest to visit in the future. 23,329 gospel DVD's have been distributed making the gospel available to 69,987 people. Over 2,000 people every month have visited our evangelistic website and many have requested free Bibles. One person has already been baptized and very soon another will follow. We are thrilled about those that have been saved and baptized, but it is wonderful seeing those same people faithfully attend church services and begin the process of discipleship.

Since our last prayerletter we have had 7 new churches partner with us and we are currently at 85% of our needed support. Based on our average support we only need 18 more churches to take us on for support for us to reach our goal. We have already turned in our passports to the Spanish consulate. As soon as they return our passports with the stamped visas (this should take one more month) we will have 3 months maximum to leave the U.S. for Spain. We are still on track to leave for Spain December 1st. Since we already speak the    language fluently and we have a team in place on the field, as soon as we arrive in Spain we will be busy with what God has called us to do. Thank you for your faithful prayers and support.

As we mentioned in our last prayerletter we will be keeping you updated about our Setup Fund. We have great news! We received two special gifts towards the fund for $500.00 and $100.00. So what we still need to raise is as follows:

 

Container: $5,900.00 ($100.00 already raised. Praise the Lord!)

 

3 Airplane Tickets: $2,400.00

 

1 month of rent: $1,200.00 (We have found a home to rent and have put 2 months down already but we still need to pay one more month in advance when we arrive in Spain)

 

Vehicle: $9,500.00 ($500.00 already raised. Praise the Lord!)

 

If you would like to be a part of helping us with our Setup Fund please send all gifts to:

 

David Velasquez

c/o M.W.B.M

P.O. Box 519

Braselton, GA 30517

Designated to:

006 Shipping/Travel

Aug 16
2010

Our Ministry Philosophy (Part 3)

Posted by David and Favi Velasquez in Velasquez Family , Spain , Salvation , Missionaries , Ministry Philosophy , Ministry , Julio and Andrea Velasquez , Culture , Bible , Baptism

While the evangelization of Spain is our ultimate objective (really our vision is for the whole world but we will be starting in Spain), the biblical method to accomplish that goal is discipleship and church-planting. I would like to discuss discipleship first and then get into the matter of establishing churches. It really doesn’t matter which subject we discuss first. It’s like saying, “Which came first the chicken or the egg?” What matters is that we obey God in both of these areas. In Matthew 28:18-20, which is probably the fullest expression of the Great Commission in the Bible, we find our Lord’s command to evangelize (this is implied because we cannot make disciples if we don’t evangelize), establish churches (although we don’t find a clear command in the Bible that says, “go start churches;” obedience to the great commission necessitates the establishment of churches), and disciple the converts (“teaching them…” Verse 20). It really doesn’t matter what our opinions are regarding world evangelization because God has already chosen the method for His mission to be carried out.  We are not going to attempt to reinvent the wheel (that is what we are doing when we ignore Christ’s instructions) because we have the biblical model and it works! It may appear the obvious choice, but how many times are these commands completely ignored in our churches today because some “new” method has been discovered. We are in trouble! Bill Hull quotes George Orwell in his book The Disciple-Making Pastor and leaves us with an eye-opening declaration, “We have now sunk to a depth at which the restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men.” In other words, the obvious has become revolutionary. We are not discussing something new, but simply restating what has already been clearly delineated in Scripture. Faced with these truths we can either ignore them or obey them. As a missionary team we have chosen to obey and trust God for the results.

Much has been written about the Pauline method, but why not go directly to the Master (Jesus Christ) and discover His method for evangelizing the world. Jesus did many things while he was here on this earth. He preached several sermons, He rebuked the Pharisees, He healed the sick etc…, but if we carefully read the gospels it is plain to see that Jesus spent the majority of His ministry investing His life in twelve men. Although many others followed Him, His earthly work was centered on the twelve. If we viewed His ministry through the prism of the majority of today’s church-growth experts, we would have to conclude that the time that our Lord invested training the twelve was in vain. Yet every single Christian today is a result of those twelve men. The early church went from 120 members in Acts 1:15 to 3,000 in Acts 2:41 to 5,000 men in Acts 4:4 to the point that they “turned the world upside down.” (Acts 17:6) So what is the difference between the first century church and the 21st century church? That the first Christians actually believed and obeyed our Lord’s command to make disciples and they evangelized the world (Colossians 1:5, 6, 23). We must go back to the Bible if we will ever accomplish such a feat in our generation. We believe strongly in working as a team. We will be working in Spain with my parents Julio and Andrea Velasquez and with my sister and brother-in-law Jeffrey and Deanna Andrews. Our desire is to see more families join us. We know that God has given us different gifts and abilities that we will be able to use for the furtherance of the gospel. Although God has blessed us with a team that will work together to obey the great commission we cannot evangelize Spain alone. We can only do so much before the task becomes insurmountable. We plan to disciple and train those that are saved so that they can join us in the mission. We must reproduce ourselves in other people so that our labors can be multiplied. If all we do as a team is personally add new converts then our reach will be limited. But if we make disciples of men (and women) that are able to disciple others who will reproduce themselves into others etc…then we could begin to multiply and train an army that will turn Spain and the world upside down. Our goal in discipleship is “that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” (2 Timothy 3:17). The true measure of success in discipleship is not the number of people attending the church services each week, but the quality of their love for God and dedication to His cause (World Evangelization). We cannot expect the preaching from the pulpit or the Sunday school lessons alone to get the job done. We must follow Christ’s example and invest our lives in people in order to produce fruit that will remain and produce more fruit. This form of discipleship goes beyond written discipleship lessons (we certainly will use discipleship materials to start the process) and into what has been called, “life-on-life” discipleship. Our Lord Jesus Christ lived with the twelve, He ate with them, spent countless hours teaching and preparing them for the awesome responsibilities that would come. You may be asking yourself, “How will they personally spend one on one time with every Christian in their church?” The answer is simple, we can’t. Jesus had great multitudes that followed him; He had the 70 that were a little closer to him and of course the twelve that spent the majority of their time with Him. Even more specifically he had 3 disciples that formed His most intimate circle. Please continue reading next week as we continue on the subject of discipleship. We will get into church-planting as well. 

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Our Sending Church

Pleasant Hill Baptist Church
Pastor Lamar Rackely
2433 Brownsville Road
Powder Springs, GA 30127
770-942-8126
www.pleasanthillbc.info

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Mission Statement

Our mission is to see people worldwide trust Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.  Through the efforts of our ministry, we strive to lead people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ and to be used of God to help strengthen their walk with the Lord and knowledge of the Holy Scriptures.
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