For quite some time I have wanted to write on this subject. As today is the culmination of July I thought it would be appropriate to review this amazing month in sports for Spain. As those who know me can testify, I am a huge sports fan. I was born in Spain and I didn't grow up around football (American football as I call it) or baseball, but my passion was soccer (better known in the rest of the world as fútbol). Unless you were in a cave this month I'm sure you realized that the World Cup of soccer was going on in South Africa. You may not have seen a single game but you knew it was taking place. If you've ever had the opportunity to live in another country you would know just how big an event the World Cup is in reality.  I am sure you also heard that Spain won the World Cup for the first time in all of their history. It was amazing to see the millions of people lining the streets to celebrate this historic event. For just an instant the divisions between the different provinces, especially the Basque region and Cataluña, seemed to dissipate as the whole country united under one flag and sang in unison, ♫ - Yo soy Español, Español, Español - ♫ ♫ - I am a Spaniard, a Spaniard, a Spaniard - ♫. 

Add to that the amazing victory once again of Rafael Nadal in Wimbledon, which makes a historic 8 grand slam titles for the 24 year old (to put it into perspective he already has the same amount of grand slam titles as Andre Agassi and he is far from being at the end of his career). We would have to talk about the recent Tour de France victory for Alberto Contador (his third title) and Pau Gasol winning his second championship ring with the L.A. Lakers (of coarse I understand this is a team trophy and he is the only Spaniard on the team, but this man is huge in Spain). Spaniards are seeping with national pride (as you can expect) because they can say that they are on the top of the sports world looking down at the rest of the mere mortals that dare challenge them. I want to mention, however, that although I am thrilled for my countries achievements I realize that none of these accomplishments can fill the void and guilt in their hearts caused by sin. Fame only lasts for a season and eventually all that you are is a side note on some sports history book. Our desire is to make the gospel of hope and peace available to every Spaniard so that they can experience true forgiveness of sins and a sense of purpose and fulfillment that will never go away. As the Bible says in 1 Timothy 4:8 "...bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and that which is to come." Pray that Spain will go from soaring atop the sports world to understanding and knowing the maker of heaven and earth and living for the one who promises to bless them on this earth and elevate them to the heavenlies to live with Christ for all eternity.

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. 

We are very excited about our upcoming adoption.  We are in the very beginning stages (literally just filled out the intial application) and are trusting in the Lord each step along the way.  My wife and I have started a new blog about our adoption process.  Our desire for this blog is that Christians will keep up with it and pray for us.  Prayer is a very powerful weapon in the Christian's arsenal and we will need lots of it during this process.  Even in the beginning stages we have been asking for much wisdom from the Lord about the decisions that we have already had to make.  Our new blog can be accessed at www.thespiritofadoption.org.

There are several ways that you can follow our blog.

1. You can simply access the web address www.thespiritofadoption.org from time to time to see our lastest blog posts.
2. You can subscribe via RSS feed.  You can subscribe to the RSS feed and follow our blog through google reader or your favorite RSS feed reader.  You can access the RSS feed here.
3. The easiest way to follow the blog is to sign up for the Email subscription.  By signing up for this, you will receive each blog post directly into your inbox everytime we update the blog.  Click here to sign up via email subscription.

Check it out and let us know what you think.  We appreciate your prayers.

 

I saw this a week or so ago and have been meaning to post in on our blog. This is great. If you haven't seen it, you don't want to miss it.

HAYDEN MIKAELA VELASQUEZ

November 5th, 2009 David and Favianna delivered a little baby girl weighing 8.5 lbs and 20in. long. She is precious. Her name is Hayden Mikaela Velasquez. The baby was born via C-Section so pray for Favianna during her recovery.

Please pray

Please pray for Hayden as she has been admitted back into the hospital. The doctors have found a small hole in her heart and her heart is beating fast. The doctors are reassuring that everything should be ok, but please pray as they are running tests and may have to do surgery. Pray for David and favi as they are both very tired. Pray for their Son Ian as he adjusts to having a new member of the family.

If you would like to personally contact David, you can do so at 404-285-2113.

Thank you for your prayers.

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.

While at youth camp, the main speaker in the mornings told of how when he was first starting off in the ministry that he asked an older preacher for some advice, any advice for the ministry.  The preacher said I will tell it to you in a poem. 

The first stanza is:

 

This post came from my wife's personal blog and I wanted to share it with you.

 

While at camp last week, I gave each of the girls in my cabin an assignment. The first day, they were to look in the Bible for something about God that they did not already know. The next day, they had to find something about what the Bible says that we are. We named it the Who Is He? and Who Am I? challenge. The girls did a great job and each found something different about both subjects. We arrived at this conclusion: My worth is not in who I am, but in who He is. When we understand who He is and how much He loves us, it is only then that we can understand what it means for our worth to be in Him. This is much greater than any worth that we can think we have apart from Him. Our goal therefore, should be to find out who He is. He promises to be a rewarder to all that diligently seek HIM! (Hebrews 11:6). If my goal in seeking God is only to help me, then I will not find Him. If I seek Him alone, then He will be my reward and then "...all these things shall be added unto you." (Matt. 6:33)

I apologize for not writing in a few weeks.  I have been away. 

I wanted to blog about the current situation in Honduras.  I am not going to write my own opinion, I am simply going paste in a letter from a missionary in Honduras about the situation.  Be praying for this situation.  

 

One of our missionaries reports of the new developments in Honduras; “Please read the article below written by Kent Burns, a businessman in Nicaragua. We agree with verything that he has said and we are very concerned over the situation. Honduras has been a true and loyal friend to the United States; they opened up their country to the United States during the Contra and Sandinista war back in the 80's. They are now being shut off from the world because they are standing up against communism. The border save been closed so there can be no trade and CNN has reported that the button has been pushed by the American Government to cut off all aid. Honduras is not an independent country - it cannot exist for very long with borders being closed and no aid from the United States. President Obama, along with other third world countries with leftist leaders, want to bring Honduras to their knees through hunger and suffering. Believe you me, they will go hungry. This sounds unreal to me. Why would our Government cut them off, and why would our Government say that they will recognize no Government except the ex-President, who has sided with Chavez, Ortega, Castro and all the other Leftists of Central and South American? Please write your congressmen and let them know the truth. Tell your friends to write their Congressman. At least let our voices be heard. I am very, very burdened over this situation. I know that God is in control but I don’t think it would hurt to let people know that this was not a military coup. It was legal action taken by a Government who did not want their country to go communist. I have to be careful about mentioning my name or involving our ministry for reasons that all of you understand but my heart aches inside me and I want to do something to help the people of Honduras…

‘There has NOT been a coup in Honduras, The country is NOT in crisis. This all started over a year ago when our president Mel Zelaya with the help of Hugo Chavez and Daniel Ortega began shredding the Honduran Constitution and setting the stage for him to become dictator of Honduras. As we neared the November elections that would seat a new president Mel Zelaya became more ruthless. Zelaya was informed more than once that his actions were outside the bounds of the Honduran Constitution. Zelaya earlier this year denounced democracy and announced he would seed an Venezuelan style of government, he then began receiving large sums of cash from Hugo Chavez…

This last week tensions mounted as the National Congress after a ruling from the Honduran SUPREME COURT that Mel Zelaya has committed
crimes against the Constitution. As Chavez and Ortega offered Military assistance the National Congress of Honduras, The people of Honduras and the Courts of Honduras did not flinch, They stood beside their Constitution and detained by order of the National Congress Mel Zelaya for crimes against the Constitution…

President Zelaya and a small portion of the population tried to highjack the country and destroy democracy in favor of a Chavez-style government. Zelaya was shredding the constitution he swore to protect in order to stay in power past constitutional limits and firmly align Honduras with Venezuela… President Zelaya was clearly, and more than once, informed officially that his actions were outside of the constitution and law. Given his obedience to Hugo Chavez and Chavez's money, Zelaya was a traitor to this country in the truest sense of the word. I am writing to you as an American investor living in Honduras to express my admiration and respect for this country and how its government handled this crisis. They were faced with a difficult situation that was only growing worse. This was NOT a coup, but a criminal arrest… Hondurans should be applauded for how they handled this! They used their Constitution and stood firmly in the face of Chavez, Orgega, Morales, and Castro and said no to this form of Government.

You would think the US would be applauding the situation. The US will if not
careful give Chavez and Ortega the fuel they need to invade Honduras and remove our democratic form of Government. We cannot believe the news reports and the statements by our representatives. We need your help. All Americans and Hondurans are franticly emailing and sending information to the US. We need you to forward this email to your local news station, CNN, contacts that you may have at any level of government. Email your senator, congressman. Please pass this along. If the US ushers Zelaya back into power they are condemning this country to a communist regime…

Has a deal been struck between the US and Chavez for Honduras??????’ –
Written by Kent Burns”