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

It has been a while since I have commented on the situation between the Dollar and Euro.  Since I have been in Spain, we have seen a range from 1.24 to 1.60 against the Euro.  So what does all this mean and how does this affect the missionaries in Europe.   

Every missionary who works outside of the US in a country that doesn’t use the Dollar has to exchange their money into the countries currency.  Each country has an exchange rate of how many dollars it takes to exchange into the currency of that country.  There are places where you will get more currency for the dollar and there are places where you get less currency for the dollar.   

In our case, we exchange dollars into Euros.  As I write this post, the exchange is 1 Euro to 1.30 dollars.  So what does that mean?  Also, one of the main factors when looking at currency exchange is also the purchasing power of the currency and how it compares to the your domestic currency.  For example, how does the cost of milk here in Spain compare to the cost of milk in the States.  If we were to make the currency even 1 Euro for 1 Dollar, then we would see that it is more expensive to buy milk here then it is in the States.  Basically, things cost more here then they do in the States.  So when we add an exchange to that, the expense is even greater.  So what does it mean to have an exchange of 1 Euro to 1.30 Dollars?  

The easiest way I can think of how to explain it is like this:

When I pull out 100 Euros, it cost me $130.  Imagine that you were going to pull out $100 out of an ATM.  It would be like the ATM charging you a $30 fee, just to pull out $100.  So for every $100 you pull out, you get charged a $30 fee; you loose $30 and only get $100 to spend.  So multiply that by 10.  If you were to pull out 1000 Euro, it would cost you $1,300.  So you would be charged $300 as a fee to pull out $1,000.  That adds up each month.  

To be honest, it has been a relief to only have to exchange at 1.30.  We were here at it’s all time high of 1.60.  So for every 100 that we pulled out, we were basically charged a $60 fee.  Pretty wild.  

In recent months, we have seen a strong comeback posed by the dollar.  Many analysts believe the dollar will continue to strengthen and even come even with the Euro.  As always, we will trust in the Lord and not in the dollar and we will pray that God will sustain us and keep us on the field to do a work for Him!