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.

Watch the Video or read about it below.

WATCH THE DVD PRESENTATION BELOW
Watch the Gospel on DVD (Spanish)	Don't know Spanish?  Watch it in English

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.

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

The theme verse for our ministry is found in 1 Samuel 17:46, “…That all the earth may know that there is a God…” 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.  We want to be reminded every day of what our main responsibility is in Spain. The central theme of Scripture is “that thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations (Psalm 67:2). Whether we read the Old or New Testament the message is the same: the redemption of mankind through Jesus Christ.  In the Old Testament God had chosen the nation of Israel to be a light to the nations (Isaiah 42:6). In the New Testament God has chosen the church to carry out His master plan. You may be wondering when I am going to mention church-planting and discipleship. I will discuss both of these topics in great length but I believe it is important for us to keep our focus on the ultimate goal. We are commanded and taught in Scripture that we are to establish churches (“baptizing them in the name of the father, and of the son, and of the Holy Ghost” Matthew 28:19b) and disciple the converts (“teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded” Matthew 28:20a) but the objective is to evangelize the world. Discipleship and Church-planting are the method and vehicle that God has chosen to accomplish the task.

We have recently started a church in Parla, Madrid and our focus is to get the gospel to every person in the city. We didn’t want to have a Field of Dreams philosophy from the onset (if you build it, they will come) but a biblical approach, “…Go out into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in…” (Luke 14:23b). We cannot expect people to take the initiative and search after God or our church. Romans 3:11 clearly states, “…there is none that seeketh after God.” We have to aggressively and proactively find a way to reach every single household and individual with the gospel message. We will personally go soul-winning (house to house, in the parks, in the streets). We will try to build relationships with people in order to break down barriers and share the gospel with them. One of the things that we are interested in starting, in the near future, is English classes. We think that this is going to be a fantastic way to make friends and meet potential converts. We will systematically get the gospel, in one way or another, into every home. Because of this goal we have started the gospel DVD project. Spain has certain unique challenges that we don’t find in the U.S. (especially in urban areas). Most people (especially in the main cities) live in apartment complexes. The population of Parla is approximately 150,000. It would take us several years to knock on every door in the city and present the gospel to every person (we are certainly going to try to personally knock on every door). Even if we gained entrance into every apartment building (that isn’t always possible) most likely not everyone would be home or even interested in listening to us. That is why the gospel DVD project is such a useful tool for us. One thing that you can do in Spain, which is illegal in many other countries, is personally place material in their mailboxes. All of the businesses in Spain are able to advertise their products in that way. All you have to do is ring any doorbell from the apartment building and when they ask, “Quien es?” (who is it?) You simply reply, “Correo informativo” (informative mail) and they will let you in, no questions asked. Once you are inside the building you have access to every single mailbox. The DVD’s that we have produced have a three minute story that catches their attention and a five minute clear gospel presentation. Through these DVD’s we can gain access to many more homes in a much shorter period of time. Because the average household in Spain is comprised of three people we have made 50,000 copies of the DVD. If you multiply 50,000 by 3 the total is 150,000 which is the population of the city. At the end of the DVD we invite them to visit our website, estudialabiblia.com (studythebible.com). This website has all sorts of resources for them to study. Through the website they can learn about our ministry as well as request a free Bible or a personal Bible study. We want to distribute these DVD’s into every household at least once every year and we hope to make new DVD’s in the future. You may be thinking, “What about the people that don’t own a DVD player?” Although the vast majority of people in Spain have the necessary technology in their homes, we don’t want to exclude anyone. Because of that fact we plan to distribute, in addition to the DVD’s, New Testaments, invitations to the church, gospel tracts, gospel CD’s (the gospel message on CD) and much more. We have already placed one billboard about our church in the entrance of the city and would like to put up more. We would also like to advertise the church through the local newspaper. I hope to make it as clear as possible that we will not rest until every person has the opportunity to make a decision about Christ. We must use every tool at our disposal. I know that in the future we will try new things that we haven’t even thought of now. But regardless of the means, the message and our purpose will never change. I have much more to write on this subject. I would like to talk about discipleship and church-planting. Please continue reading.

My husband and I will celebrate our 30th year as missionaries this coming December.
We have served in Spain and Venezuela.  In these two countries we have been able to participate in the start of 3 Baptist churches.  I remember each one of these churches and the excitement we felt as people began attending services, making professions of faith in Jesus Christ and growing in the Lord.  We look back at how these churches are still preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ, how people are still getting saved and how young men are being called into the ministry from these churches.  There is something very exciting and awesome about beginning a new church!

We are now in the process of beginning again!  A little over one year ago we arrived in Spain once more and moved to the city of Parla.  During this year we have, along with the other members of our team, studied the city, strategized as to how we can reach the city for Christ, rented a building and made the necessary repairs to use it for services.  We have also done a lot of praying, planning and preparing.  In April we finally opened the doors to our building to begin having Sunday morning services.  At that point we had one lady who came faithfully every Sunday.  She has been a real blessing in our church as every week she witnesses to people she meets and invites them to our services.  She is very excited about seeing the work grow.  Right now we are laying the groundwork for the ministry.  We are evangelizing the city, trying to share the Gospel with every person in the city of Parla.    As with past experiences in starting churches, we know that if we do what God has told us to do, then He will bring the increase.

We are excited, just like we were 30 years ago when we first began our missionary endeavors.  We don’t know how fast the work will grow, who will get saved, who will remain in the church serving God, who will be called into the ministry, but we know that God is going to do His work here.  We are just vessels to be used by God to do His work of planting the seed of the Word of God.  Then God will give the harvest. 
How exciting it was when two months ago a man entered the church to find out who we are.  That man has since, come faithfully every Sunday, brought his wife and son and three weeks ago, trusted Christ as His Savior.  Two weeks ago, a middle aged lady came to know Christ as her Savior in her home while we were visiting with her.  These are the firstfruits of the work in Parla.  How exciting!  Already we can see some new contacts whom we are working with and who seem interested in knowing more about God.  We are using all the means we can to get the Gospel into homes, through DVD’s, tracts, billboards, webpages, newspapers, etc.  We are beginning to see fruit and it is the most exciting experience that a servant of God can feel.  This is just the beginning of what God is going to do.  We have the same promise that God gave to the apostle Paul in Acts 18:9-10, “..Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace: For I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee: for I have much people in this city.” 

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.

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.

Psalm 103:2, “Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:” Most of the time when we think of benefits or blessings, we think of all the good things that happen to us. When something good happens or when times are good we say how much the Lord has blessed us. Does that mean that during times of crisis and hardship and when things aren’t as good, that the Lord is not blessing us or is even punishing us? Is our perspective of blessing and benefit the same as God’s perspective? Psalm 103 gives great perspective of what God’s blessings and benefits really are. Notice a few verses: “Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies;” His forgiveness, healing power, redeeming power, lovingkindness and tender mercies are examples of his benefits and blessings to us. Because he has saved us, redeemed us and shown us loving kindness and mercy, we are blessed beyond measure. Even in the midst of crisis and heartache, we can remember the benefits that he gives to us.

I briefly want to mention 4 things in our life and ministry.

1. The Building

For the most part, the building is done. Because there are several things I want to mention in this letter, I will save the pictures for the next letter. Also, check out our blog at: www.thatallmayknow.net as I will be posting pictures of the building soon. We will open the building to the public very soon.

2. New Ministry Website

I wanted to mention a new website that I have created. This website has articles about the Bible, family, salvation, etc. so that unbelievers can learn more about the Bible. There are also Bible studies that they can download and do on their own. I have also put up a form where they can request a Bible and a personal one on one Bible study. My original goal for this website was to use it as a tool in helping to build a contact base as we plant our church. My vision was to one day see it reaching other Spanish Speaking countries. Since the inception of the website (about 2 1/2 months ago) I have received several requests per week from about 10 or 11 different Spanish Speaking countries outside of Spain. I am amazed at how the Lord is using this site. Here is the website: http://estudialabiblia.com/

3. Baptism

On Feb 7th, I was able to administer my first ever baptism. Not only was I able to do my first baptism, but one of the people being baptized was my own son. It was a great joy to baptize my son as he demonstrated his obedience to the Lord through baptism. He understood that baptism is not part of salvation, but a step of obedience toward our Lord that represents His death, burial, and resurrection. You can view the baptism here: http://www.thatallmayknow.net/blog/My-First-Baptism-Feb.-07-2010.html

4. Adoption

Our adoption process has been moving along. The Lord has taken us down a winding road and we are now in the process of a domestic adoption. We had to come back to the States for a few weeks to do a Home Study. We have basically been approved and our now in the waiting stage. Please continue to pray for the Lord’s direction upon each step of this process. You can stay up to date with what is happening by going here: http://www.thespiritofadoption.org/