I wanted to share some wonderful news with all of you!  The Lord has answered our prayers. I got a call from the Spanish Consulate today and the lady told me that they have approved my residency visa. I have until December 30^th to leave the country (we are planning to leave much sooner than that). Believe me, I’m ready to go! Don’t get me wrong I have enjoyed deputation but everything has a time and a season and right now I am in Spain mode. I have 32 wonderful churches to visit from now till then and we have complete faith in God that we will have all of our support raised by our departure date. As a matter of fact we are currently at 86% of our needed support. They haven’t approved everybody’s visas yet but the lady told me that they should be ready in about two more weeks. I am so amazed at how God has opened every door for us. During the end of March of this year we really felt the Lord leading us to step out by faith and set a departure date. At that point we were at 66% of our support. In just 5 months our support has increased by 20%. Also, we have been praying that the Lord would supply the money that we need for our Setup Fund. Just in these past two days we have had 2 churches and 1 individual give towards our Setup Fund. The amount that they have generously given is exactly what we need to purchase our tickets. We are seriously considering leaving for the field November 29^th, 2010. That is 2 days earlier than we had originally planned. You can’t imagine how excited we are. I would ask that you pray for the rest of the visas to be approved shortly. We really feel great peace in our hearts because we know that right now we are in the center of God’s will. Amen. 

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

I read this article on Dave Ramsey's Website and thought I would share it.

"No matter what your budget is this Christmas, remember to be thankful. Take a deep breath in the middle of all this craziness.

You might have a lot. You might have a little. If you are driving a beater, be thankful for that beater. You would rather drive that than walk, wouldn't you? There is always something to be thankful for.

That's what contentment is all about. When you understand and really grasp contentment, it becomes easier to save money and invest. Stress slowly disappears. Budgeting is easier. Relationships improve.

Be happy with what you have. More than three billion people, almost half the world, live on $2.50 a day. Sometimes we need a little perspective to become content with our current situation.

Without contentment, it's easy to be bitter and apathetic. Happiness is sold to us, especially during this time of year. We think if we can just get one more piece of stuff that "true" happiness will be right around the corner.

We say things like, "I'll be happy when I get that house!" or "I'll be happy when I get that new car!" But happiness cannot be bought. Sure fun—in the form of a house, a car, a new LCD television—can be bought, but fun is temporary. True happiness, or contentment, is lasting.

You can get out of debt, save money, and get on a budget, but until you realize that stuff doesn’t bring contentment, you will always feel stressed and unhappy. Contentment brings peace. And isn’t this time of year about bringing "peace on earth and good will toward men"?

Remember what this deal is all about. It's not about trees, lights, gifts, baked hams, and shopping malls. It’s about a little child who was born in a manger and grew up to die on a cross. It’s about peace on earth and good will toward men.

So if the Christmas frenzy is wearing you out, you've missed the point of Christmas. Make a plan with your money, and make a plan to get back in touch with the true meaning of this special day.

You are invited to Dave's Give Like No One Else Christmas at DaveRamsey.com. Daily giveaways and great articles will make you want to check back every day to see what's new."

THE VIDEO IS NOW IN ENGLISH!

I have made the video in english so those of you who don't know spanish can understand what is being said.

We are exciting about this project.  Many people have already given so that they can have a part in getting the gospel on DVD to someone here in Spain.  You can learn more about this project, watch videos, and even donate  monetarily by clicking on the link below.

http://www.thatallmayknow.net/the-gospel-on-dvd-project.html

 

With all the buzz about Cash for Clunkers, it’s easy to think that it was a great way for people to get a better set of wheels. But was it really? No way! Cash for Clunkers was simply a way for broke people to buy cars that they really couldn't afford. It was a bad idea on multiple levels. But before digging into that, let’s take a little history lesson.

About a decade ago, a fair housing program was started, called a sub-prime lending market. The idea behind it was that everyone “needed” to own a home—including broke people. The government decided to start a program to reinvest in communities, which allowed pretty much anyone to borrow money to buy a house. Lending companies charged high interest rates, causing already struggling families to go even further into debt.

Basically, this was a program designed to encourage broke people to buy houses. Most people didn’t even know it existed until it unraveled and became the number-one cause of our recent recession. The government took those stupid loans back and securitized them, which created the financial mess last fall. Helping broke people buy houses didn’t turn out to be a great government program. Guess what? Helping broke people buy brand-new cars—and now home appliances—will turn out just as bad.

The Cash for Clunkers program was designed exactly for people who should not take advantage of the program. You trade your $2,000 clunker in for a brand-new, shiny $20,000 car, and the only way you can afford it is with a high-interest payment. That just means you really couldn’t afford it to begin with. Doesn’t this sound like the sub-prime mortgage problem all over again?

When you drive that new car off the lot, you’re immediately going to lose $4,500. The worst car accidents happen on the showroom floor. New cars go down in value like a rock. The government thinks it’s going to save the American auto industry by putting broke people into cars they can’t pay for. It’s going to come back to bite them—and the rest of us—in the form of taxes galore.

Another bad thing about this program is that we, the taxpayers, are paying for the new cars! It’s morally wrong of the government to take money away from us—against our will—in the form of taxes and give that money to someone else to buy a stupid car they can’t afford in the first place! This is theft, plain and simple.

Cash for Clunkers is a program that redistributes wealth in the name of the environment, and it’s going to be a curse on the car dealer and the manufacturer that carries the paper. It’s going to hurt the broke person who bought a car he couldn’t afford. And it’s already a problem for our country, because it’s adding dollars to the national debt.

There’s always a twist with government programs like this. They try to think of creative ways to help people, but the situation usually ends up worse than it did before they “helped.” In the end, I should decide what to do with my own money. If I want to buy you a car, I will! And if you can’t buy a car without actually paying for the whole thing, then you’re better off keeping your “clunker.”

So good riddance to a really bad program that has done more damage than good.