2 Timothy 2:2, "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."

Starting a church is very hard work and takes much patience and prayer.  However, there is nothing more amazing then when someone realizes their need for a Savior and accepts Jesus Christ as Lord though repentance and faith.  But not only that, being able to teach them the Word of God and watching them grow and understand the principles of the Bible is one of the greatest joys of the Christian life. 

We have had the privilege of seeing 2 people saved in the last 2 weeks and also being able to begin teaching 3 people the Word of God on a personal, one-on-one basis. 

In the photo above, Isabel, who trusted Christ last year at a family camp and Estefan, the man who was saved 2 weeks ago, have begun learning the basics of the Word of God.  We praise the Lord for His goodness. 

 

God has done another amazing thing in our ministry.  Last week, I mentioned that Estefan, a man who has been coming for several weeks, was born again by the Spirit of God.  We are excited about being able to disciple him and teach him through our lives and the Word of God. 

Yet again, God did a great work.  A young couple, Robertson and Laura, came to our Bible Studies two weeks in a row.  The last time they visited, they mentioned that they were going to return the next week and bring their Aunt.  They didn't make it back after that so we decided that someone needed to visit them.  On Saturday, our team members, Julio and Andrea Velasquez, went to visit them.  The aunt was there and everyone was very happy to see them.  They said that they chatted for a little bit and then Robertson went to the back, grabbed several Bibles, came back and handed one to each person and they sat there staring at the Velasquez ready to hear and learn whatever they had to say.  Julio and Andrea began to share the Word of God with them.  They showed them scriptures and explained the sin that we all posses, but also God's remedy and forgiveness for our sin.  The Aunt (Sonia) bombarded them with her own questions.   At the end of the conversation, Julio asked Sonia if she would like to accept the gift that God has given us for Salvation.  Without hesitation, she emphatically said yes.  As she prayed, Andrea mentioned that she was really broken and truly seeking forgiveness for her sin against our Holy, Almighty God.  We praise the Lord for saving another soul. 

God is truly amazing and is working here and all over the world.  God works in so many different ways.  We continue to work hard at getting the Gospel to our city, not just a few here and there, but to our entire city.  We are reminded of what Paul said: "I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase."  We (as well as so many before us and with us) are planting and watering, planting and watering, however, it is God who gives the increase. God is the only one who can forgive a Soul and save it from impending judgment. 

We praise the Lord for what He is doing in us and in our ministry.   

What a day it was on Sunday.  As most of you know, Spain won the World Cup.  It was indeed a historical moment as they did what they had never done before.  Spain had never gotten past the quarter finals in the World Cup...ever.  Everyone was excited, the players, the coaches, the fans, and the country. 

As exciting as that was, I am not referring to that when I say, "What a day it was on Sunday."  For the first time in our ministry, we had someone come to Christ as a direct result of our ministry.  We are still in the very beginning stages of our Church Planting ministry, but God has blessed us with Estefan, a man who has been coming for the last 7 or 8 weeks.  If you remember, he is the man who I have asked everyone to pray for.  He passed by the building one Sunday morning and saw the "escaparate" (window with information). Isabel, one of the ladies who faithfully comes to our bible studies walked up and said, "Do you like what you see?"  They began talking, she invited him to stay, and sure enough, he did.  He came to every service since that time except for one.  Before and after each service, my father-in-law and I would talk to him extensively together and separately about the Lord, sin, salvation, repentance, the Bible, etc.  Every service he heard sound biblical preaching and teaching on salvation.  We took him out for coffee and went over to his house.  We have prayed for him ever since the first day we meet him. 

This past Sunday, he came into the church and said he had a surprise.  He said he was reading his Bible and he read a verse where Jesus said, "Come to me."  He told us that that day he accepted Christ as his Savior.  We were excited.  Today, he came out with us for the first time to deliver the Gospel on DVD into people's homes. 

It is always exciting when someone comes to Christ, but this one is special, being our first.  Lording willing we will be baptizing him soon.  Continue to pray for him as he grows in the Lord. 

The DVD project is going well. We have gotten out over 16,000 DVD’s into 16,000 homes in Parla, Spain. This means that if there is an average of 3 people per home, 48,000 people have had the chance to hear and watch a clear presentation of the Gospel. We are excited about what God is doing through the DVD project. I will update more on that later.

For this post, I wanted to concentrate on our friend Estefan. Estefan has come 3 Sunday’s in a row. It is always nice to have visitors but when they come back it is even more exciting. Estefan came because he was out for a Sunday morning stroll and he passed by the building and saw the posters and books we had in the escaparate (window). He joined us for the service and has come back every Sunday since then. The amazing thing to me is that we haven’t even officially opened the doors of the church yet. The escaparate had only been up and visible for one week when he passed by. Up until about 3 or 4 weeks ago, the metal door that protects the window had been closed and it looked like the building wasn’t open. We haven’t made a big announcement, passed out flyers, etc. letting the community know that we are starting a church. We are still a little ways from being able to do that. We don’t even have a sign up yet. People don’t yet know what we are. You see, our purpose is two-fold. Not only are we starting a church, but we are trying to evangelize our city, our entire city in a systematic, organized fashion. What does that mean? That doesn’t mean that we are going to win every single person to Christ, however that would be nice. What it does mean is that we are going to give every person in our city a chance to hear the Gospel at least once, but if the Lord allows and we fulfill all that we have planned, we will give every person a chance to hear the Gospel over and over and over again in a very systematic fashion. I am not talking about standing in a populated area passing out tracts or randomly witnessing to people on the street. There is nothing wrong with that and we will do that, however, there is no way to measure that. But what I mean is getting the Gospel into every home by means of various ways in an organized fashion, so everyone has the chance to hear the Gospel. Our first attempt at this is being accomplished through the DVD project. We have done a lot, but much more needs to be done. So all that to say, so far we have been concentrating on seeding our entire city before we actually have our grand opening. We are also dealing with paperwork (which is a process in and of itself) and waiting for our last member of the team to arrive before we open officially. In the meantime, as we saturate the city, we have been systematically thinking through how we can make our building as appealing and informative as possible so people will be curious and stop in. We are offering free Bibles via our website www.estudialabiblia.com, Facebook.com and will soon be offering them via our escaparate (window) and possibly by way of Billboard or advertisement. Much groundwork is being laid so it amazes me that God is already bringing people.

That leads me back to Estefan. I ask that you pray for him. As I said before, he has been to 3 of our Sunday Morning Bible Studies in a row. My father-in-law and I had the privilege of taking him out for coffee yesterday and just simply “shooting the breeze.” We have “laid on pretty thick” the salvation message in our conversations before and after the Bible Studies so we decided just to go out and do a little “relationship building” with him. He, like so many others, is struggling in this economy without work. He tries to be a “good” person and even thanks “God” for many things, but he still lacks the repentance and faith that brings us into a true relationship with God. So please pray for him. Pray that God will draw him to Himself. Pray that Estefan will have a tender heart to the Lord’s conviction and that we will be able to be used of the Lord to help meet his need.

Dear Co-laborers in Christ,

The months of April and May have been exciting for us as we have had the privilege of distributing 12,900 Gospel DVDʼs to homes here in the city of Parla. Every Tuesday and Thursday morning we meet at the church and then head out to a different area of the city and begin the process of putting these DVDʼs in the mailboxes in houses and apartments. Six of us have been participating in this endeavor and it is truly an exciting project. We have received a few requests for Bibles and we trust that we will have some solid contacts in the days and weeks ahead. We pray that as the people watch this DVD, their hearts will be touched by the message, they will see themselves as sinners and in need of a Savior. We still have over 35,000 DVDʼs that we will need to distribute in order to reach every home. We have duplicated over 5000 more and are in the process of doing another 5000. After that we will need more money in order to continue duplicating more DVDʼs. Remember that each DVD costs us .50 cents. If an individual or Sunday School class or church would like to send a love offering to help us duplicate more DVDʼs, please send to us at BIMI and designate for DVD project. For the past two Sundays we have had a man visit our services. He is of Romanian and Greek descent and has shown an interest in hearing the Gospel. Pray that Esteban will come to know Christ as his personal Savior. Also pray for our neighbors who are Colombian. I have had the opportunity to visit them several times and just recently gave them a Bible. Pray that they will come to the church and also come to know the Lord. We know that the process of sowing is necessary and it takes time and we pray that God will bring in the harvest in His time.

The second week of April I was on my way to Madrid to renew my resident visa, when my leg went down hard on the first step of the escalator at the train station. That simple motion caused me to tear the ligaments in the calf of my left leg. After two weeks of complete rest, several doctorʼs visits and 20 sessions of rehab I am beginning to be able to walk without crutches. The healing process is long and tedious, but praise the Lord that I am getting better. I have been able to witness to several doctors at rehab and that has been a real blessing. Last week when I visited the main doctor, he found that I have also developed an inguinal hernia. This was probably due to the stress from my accident the month before. I will have to have surgery to repair the hernia sometime before the end of the year. Please pray that all will go well.

Please pray for our son David and his family as they have set the date for their arrival in Spain for December 1. They have 80% of their support and are trusting the Lord to bring in the remaining 20% by that time. Pray that they will be able to obtain their resident visas without any complications. Also pray for Jeff and Deanna as they have been approved for adoption of a baby and are now waiting for the agency to call them about an available child. We want to thank each of you for your faithful support for our ministry and for your prayers. We need you to pray specifically that we will have boldness to share the Gospel with the lost around us. Spaniards are usually very closed when talking about spiritual matters, but we pray that God will open hearts that only He can open. May the Lord richly bless each of you as you serve our Lord in your area.

In His Service,

Julio and Andrea Velasquez

Dear Praying Friends, Family, and Churches,

It is such a joy to serve the Lord.  The more I am able to do so, the more I realize how much of a privilege it is to serve Him.  We are excited about what the Lord is doing and is going to do in our ministry.

THE MINISTRY

We have been working on fixing up the building that the Lord has given us.  We are in a great location.  There are so many people that walk by the building each day.  I mentioned over the past few prayer letters that I would provide pictures of the building.  You can see below the before and after pictures.  There are still a few little things left to do i.e. decorating, etc. but the majority of it is done.

Click to Enlarge

Click to Enlarge

In Spain, most businesses have what is called an “escaparate” which is basically a window where they display products, sales, etc. so the people can see what they offer.  It is a pretty big thing here and many people take note of the “escaparate.”  The bottom right picture is our “escaparate.”  We have posters promoting a couple websites we have and displaying the time of our Bible Studies.  It also has several Christian books and literature displayed, as well as Bibles.  The “escaparate” has been on display for less then a week and it is amazing the amount of people who stop in front of the window to read and look at what is posted.

THE DVD PROJECT

The DVD project is in full swing.  We have been able to get the Gospel on DVD into 7,528 households.  This is very exciting because thousands of people now have the chance to watch and hear a very clear presentation of the Gospel.  At the end of the presentation, it directs them to a website.  We have had many people visit the site and several people have even requested a Bible.  The power of this project is not in the technology, the DVDs or the missionaries, it is in the Gospel of Christ.  “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth;...”

It is great to be back!!!  You may have noticed that our website was down for a few days.  We quickly put up a temp page and worked on getting the site back online.  Unfortunately, our site was compromised and flagged for sending out malicious spam mail.  We were able to figure out the problem and here we are again.  Sorry for the interruption and inconvenience.  We will be blogging over the next several weeks about our ministry, how things are going with the DVD project, our team members, etc.

We are so excited about the DVD project.  Up until now, we have been able to deliver 3,165 Gospel DVD’s to 3,165 households.  If the average household has 3 people per household, we have essentially been able to give 9,485 people a chance to hear a very clear and concise message of the Gospel.  You see, I have learned that you have to use every means available of getting the Gospel message to the people.  It thrills me to know that there are people who I would never meet in my lifetime who will have the chance to watch this DVD presentation of the Gospel and hear that Jesus Christ died for them.  Our goal is to get this Gospel DVD presentation into EVERY household in our city.  Please help us pray for this.

What about the results?

Yes, we are hoping and praying that the Lord will use this so we can see people saved and it can help build our church, however, our primary goal for this project is to give everyone in our city the chance to hear the Gospel.  The results are now in God’s hands.  Not only do they hear a clear presentation of the Gospel, but they also have the opportunity to visit our website www.estudialabiblia.com which has articles about the Bible, a thorough in-depth Bible study, and also gives them a chance to request a Bible and personal one on one Bible Study.  I am able to monitor the website and see who accesses it and where they are from.  So far we have had several people from the area where we have been delivering the DVD’s, access the website.  We are so excited about this.  What that tells me is that they watched the entire DVD.  In order for them to be able to access the website, they have to watch the DVD until the end where the website information is displayed.  It also tells me that they are hearing a clear presentation of the Gospel.  Not only that, but that they are interested enough to take the next step and go to the website.  God is using this in a mighty way and we give Him all the Glory!  We have also had someone watch the DVD, go to the website at the end and then request a Bible.  The address they gave was the exact area where we delivered the DVD.  It is thrilling to see what God is doing.

It is always good to have goals and plans, but you shouldn’t let those goals and plans run your life or ministry just because you wrote them on a piece of paper.  You need to be flexible, learn how the people are in your area and then conform your goals and plans to the culture, area, and life of the country you are working in.  We are still learning.  Each day we learn how to better reach the people.  One of the things I have come to realize about our city and Spain in general is that it needs much “seeding.”  What do I mean by that?  It means that the people need to hear the Gospel over and over and over again.  It is an illustration used in the Bible over and over.  The idea is that of a farmer who is planting crops for the harvest.  He seeds over and over so that there will be plenty of crops for the harvest.  In the areas where there is not much seed, there will be few crops.  However, in the area where there is a lot of seed, there will be many crops for the harvest.  Spain is a country where there has been little seed throughout the years.  Therefore there has been little crops for the harvest.  God has laid on my heart the need to seed and seed and seed over again here in Spain.

We officially started delivering the Gospel DVD's today. If you are not familiar with our DVD project, let me explain it quickly for you. We have produced a DVD with a very clear and concise Gospel message. At the end of the video there is contact information if they want to contact us and a website where they can go and learn more about the Bible. Our goal is to duplicate 50,000 DVD's which will essentially get the Gospel to every person in our city.  Learn more about the project here.

It was a joy to place these DVD's in each mailbox. We are giving the people a chance to hear the Gospel. We delivered 1,179 Gospel DVD's today.  By estimating that there is an average of 2 to 3 people per household, we were able to give 2,358 to 3,537 people the chance to hear a clear presentation of the Gospel.  May the Lord bless every DVD. Please continue to pray for us as we will continue until we have completely saturated the city with the Gospel DVD's.

Tonight was a memorable night, one I will never forget. The Lord allowed 2 great blessings in my life. I was able to administer my first ever baptism and I was also able to baptize my own son. On top of that, it was our first baptism in our infant ministry.  There will be many more baptisms in our ministry but I will never forget this one.

We thank Missionary Marvin Robertson who allowed us to use his baptistery. My father-in law preached and gave a clear message on Salvation and Baptism, explaining that Baptism is not a requirement for salvation but instead, a step of obedience in following the Lord. Later, I had the privilege of baptizing Isabel and my son Aaron.

You can watch the video of the Baptism below.