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 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

I wanted to remind everyone of some good Christian Music.  My wife, (Deanna) Brother-in-law, (David Velasquez) and Sister-in-law (Deborah Velasquez) have recorded 2 CD's, one in English and one in Spanish.  They did a great job and the music is just beautiful.  Most of all, the message of the songs are uplifting and glorifying to the Lord.  If you haven't purchased your copy, please head over to their website and make your purchase.  They are still offering a special if you buy 2 or 3 CD's.  They also offer discounts for missionaries, churches or book store who want to buy in bulk (10 or more).  So check out the site, listen to samples, read their testimonies and indulge yourself with Christ-honor, uplifting, Christian music!

www.alltheglory.org

We are church-planting missionaries. We understand the command in Matthew 28:18-20 to evangelize, baptize those that are saved, and teach them to be like Christ (discipleship), but these demands can only be fully obeyed within the context of the local church. The first century Christians comprehended that they would be unable to reach the world (“…Jerusalem…Judea…Samaria, and…the uttermost part of the earth.” Acts 1:8) without establishing churches in every corner of the earth. That is why they naturally were involved in church-planting. They understood it to be the obvious and practical conclusion of our Savior’s command. We have a mission and God has chosen the church to carry out that mission. If a “church” is not obeying the Great Commission then it cannot biblically be defined as such. We understand the church to be a group of baptized believers gathered together to carry out the Great Commission. We are pioneer missionaries (we are starting a new work from scratch) that have moved to Parla, Madrid and have begun to proclaim the gospel to every individual in that city for the purpose of establishing a church that will obey and fulfill its mission. We are not in the business of constructing church edifices, but of organizing (directly or indirectly) visible groups of believers (starting churches) in every city to shake up Spain for Christ. As we start more churches our reach will be greater and we will be able to effectively evangelize more places than just Parla. We will reach Madrid as well as the other provinces in Spain, Southwest Europe and the world. In other words, we must start churches in order to reproduce what we are already doing in Parla, Madrid in other places around the world. Our desire is to establish churches that will fulfill our three basic and essential ministry goals.

1. Evangelize the lost: Every single individual within the reach of the church must have the opportunity at least one time in their lifetime to accept or reject Jesus Christ. The church must find every way possible to accomplish that task.

2. Enable others: This means that we are to follow our Master’s example in training faithful men who will reproduce themselves in other Christians. This is not an option, but our solemn duty.

3. Establish Churches: We must start churches that will perform the first two goals in other places. The ideal would be a church for at least every 50,000 people.

 We could go to Spain for a short period of time and carry out massive evangelistic campaigns and distribute millions of bibles and gospel tracts. Although through these efforts many would hear the gospel and some would be saved the effects of this style of evangelization are short-lived. The only way to make a lasting impact for Christ in this world is by establishing churches. A bible-believing, gospel preaching church will faithfully and continually evangelize until everyone within the reach of the church has heard the gospel. But then the church will disciple and train the converts and involve them in the work of the ministry and the cycle will be never-ending.

 It is clear that there are more ways than one to establish a church. Some churches are started by a solitary pioneer who goes someplace where the gospel has never been preached. Some are started by a group of pioneers (a team). Both of these methods are perfectly acceptable but we have opted for the latter. We believe that we can accomplish more in less time for the honor and glory of God as we work together towards a common goal. Team missions is not a new or modern idea but it goes all the way back to Jesus and the Apostle Paul. God has given each of us different gifts and abilities that we can use for the furtherance of the gospel. One clear example for us is the technology aspect of our ministry. If it was up to me or my parents we would have no evangelistic website, no gospel DVD project, and you wouldn’t be reading this article because we wouldn’t have a blog or team website. Of course we would still be able to preach the gospel but with these tools our reach is even greater. Thankfully one of the members of our team is gifted in that area. All of us are commanded to evangelize but some people seem to have a greater God-given ability to make friends and start conversations with people. My father is that kind of person. He has never met a stranger. I remember going on door to door visitation with him in Venezuela and seeing how he would somehow convince a grumpy, unfriendly person to allow us in their home. Before the conversation was over he would have them laughing and attentively listening to the gospel message. Without getting into all of our team’s strengths and weaknesses it is sufficient to say that “two are better than one…” (Ecclesiastes 4:9).

 Once the church that we have started in Parla begins to grow and leaders are trained we will practice a third method of church-planting. While some churches are started by pioneers (one missionary or a team of missionaries) others are the product of churches producing churches. We could work diligently as a team to start a church and leave it with a pastor as soon as possible. Let’s say we were able to start one church every five years (It’s not impossible but we have never witnessed this in Spain). In a fifteen year period we would have started three churches. We could certainly attempt such an ambitious goal, but what if we invested ourselves in training men for the same period of time? What if we allowed the church in Parla to naturally produce more churches? Every pastor trained would equal a new church and members from the “mother church” would go and help those pastors start the new works. We want every pastor to enjoy the blessings of working as a team whether they start a church nearby or in a distant place. Please continue reading. Next week I will post the sixth and final part of our ministry philosophy.

     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.  

Spaniards have been the victims of a self-serving and greedy religion that offers no hope and no relationship with God for centuries, and they are increasingly distrustful of church. Here is an interesting article by Gallup on church attendance…

The scope of the influence of religion and the church on Spaniards’ lives remains difficult to characterize. While most Spaniards identify themselves as Roman Catholic, only 43% say religion is an important part of their daily lives, and less than a third tell Gallup they have attended a place of worship in the last seven days.

Blog post taken from Project Southwest Europe - Scott Newton

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!

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.

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?

Watch the Video or read about it below.

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.