How much time do we have?

To our dear praying friends,

Some years ago, we took in a single mother who had come to our town to look for work. She eventually moved elsewhere and got a job. Last week she and her 2 daughters came back for a visit. They are 15 and 13. You can imagine the change over an absence of something like 2 years. Then they wanted to see our animals. Now they wanted to go to the disco and dance. This was a reminder to me that we must be very proactive in our outreach to children. A major need is for committed helpers. PLEASE PRAY FOR YOUNG PEOPLE TO HELP.

We have shared with you about the neighborhood where we have open air activities for Spanish and Moroccan children in the town of Jaraíz. The family who formed a team with us are no longer here, and the young people who came for the summer campaign are also gone. Last Sunday, preaching at a church near here that we helped start some years ago, I mentioned the need for help with children. Afterwards 2 ladies said they would like to come and help. PRAY THAT WE WILL SEE A COMMITTED TEAM INCLUDING YOUNG PEOPLE FROM THIS CHURCH.

One result of the OM Summer Transform Campaign (12 people from 11 countries) has been an opening in another town. I believe it is time to follow through on our contacts in Candeleda. Same plan, begin with a team of committed Christians (full-time or part-time) who will have activities for children and recruit local youth to help. These local young people will have the opportunity to really get to know the gospel through close contact with our team. PRAY FOR THE 2 YOUNG MEN WHO HAVE SIGNED UP FOR THE AIM PROGRAM, (SEPTEMBER) THAT GOD WILL GREATLY USE THEM TO REACH OUT TO OTHER YOUNG PEOPLE AFTER THEY BECOME MORE FLUENT IN SPANISH. (One from Switzerland and another from the U.S.)

Why start with children? My summarized answer would be, 50 years of experience. A more complete explanation is given by Luis Bush in his promotion of the 4/14 window. Here are a few links that say it better than I can - 3minute video about the need to reach children; 6 minute video on makingchildren a priority; 6minute video about discipling Christian children.

You can see that short-term campaigns can make a great impact but the real work does not get done unless there is Continuity. We are here for the long haul to see the formation of vibrant groups of believers who can serve all Christians in their local area. Do you know of someone who may have a call to participate in this harvest? PRAY THEM INTO ACTION.

God bless you in your field of labor,

David

Is the harvest getting away because of a lack of workers?

A guy in his mid-70s who talks kinda slow and is not all that interesting should not be trying to interview young people on the street, right? I’m more of a thinker and don’t have great social skills. But I have a vision. Or a dream, as Peter reminds us in Acts 2:17, “your old men shall dream dreams”. I have this dream of children and young people and then their parents in the towns all around us praising the name of Jesus for his great salvation. As I share in the AIM video the first step after bathing the area with prayer is to search for young people willing to serve. If they join in a project of helping with children, then as we work together they themselves can be challenged to get to know Christ personally. One way to look for them is by interviews or surveys.

Here’s one thing I tried. I came to the conclusion that even though we had no one working with us to form a team I was going to go out on the streets and try to contact young people as an initial experiment. Then it occurred to me to call Aurora, a lady in Madrid (2 hours away) who was converted in a church plant that we pioneered years ago. She and her two grown sons, whom we have known since they were tiny, came out to help. The 4 of us put together some survey questions and went out to the town of Jaraíz that we are targeting. As we were having coffee I reminded them that it would be rather unusual to find teenagers who are actually interested in serving others. This town is known for its wild weekends, in which many or most of them participate.

Then Aurora and I went out with our questionnaires and the two brothers formed the other team. I especially remember our first interview, 3 young men whom we met on the sidewalk. Turns out they did not fit the pattern that I had warned the team about. These 3 did not participate in the “botellón”, where everyone brings a liter of beer or whatever. They were serious guys. Interestingly, one said he was an atheist, the other an agnostic and the third a “creyente” (believer, meaning active catholic). Interesting conversation. They gave us their phone numbers to send them a whatsapp message when we had some activity they could participate in. The other team also had good conversations with some girls who were already involved in some kind of volunteer work with an NGO. I shared with Aurora and José and Ángel that it looked like the Lord was showing us that we were moving in the right direction. The plan called for getting to know as many of these kids as possible and giving them opportunities to help in open air events for children as well as small groups in homes. Over the years we have found these 2 activities to be quite fruitful in bringing whole families under the sound of the gospel. When we made these contacts last March we should have struck while the iron was hot and followed through.

This was quite a few months ago, and we haven’t been in touch with any of the people we contacted. The reason? All of those who helped in making the contacts were here only briefly and are busy elsewhere. My error I guess, hoping we would get recruits sooner. Eventually Ángel did come to stay with us and was here for a few months. But now he plans to get married next year and has gone back to Madrid. An O.M. team that was here for a while went to a high school in the same town with the same survey, and they contacted about 30 kids and got about 15 phone numbers with the valuable help of our granddaughter Elie. Whenever a team comes through here we hope someone will hear God’s call to make a long-term commitment, with town after town not having a gospel testimony. Various possible recruits have contacted us. One young man is hoping to come from California early next year even if he’s the only one on the team. Some seem to be asking “What’s in it for me?” I wish they could understand that what’s in it for them is an eternal reward and the opportunity to share the gospel. 

To read or watch more about the importance of reaching youth and children, look up the 4-14 window, for example, Empowering the next generation

More information on AIM

Apprenticeship In Mission

Activities starting in January 2016: in-depth survey of youth in a town where we are planning to begin precision harvesting. Write us for more info at davidjuanesau@gmail.com.



A view of the town

Should we AIM lower than what God wants?

AIM stands for Apprenticeship In Mission. As Sharon and I begin to head up this program in Spain under Operation Mobilization we want to operate as closely as possible to how Jesus operated. We will take a limited number of apprentices (starting around October 2015) and share life together as we share the gospel in the towns around us. Jesus, with his 6 teams of 2, took the Gospel of the Kingdom to the 200 Jewish towns of Galilee in about a year’s time. I don’t have quite that many towns on my list. But we have a big job here between the mountains and the river.

How do we go about this? Not by doing anything new. From our earliest days in Spain we have worked with children, engaging young people as helpers and leaders. We have learned to let people offer their homes, and gather small groups of children who participate in activities based on the video teaching that they receive. We connect with parents so they know what their children are learning. We also have included picnics and camps.

Who do we work with? I guess there is a new factor here. In the past all our volunteers have been from our church. Now we want to give the opportunity to anyone who wants to help in a Christian venture. If they are not clear about the faith they will begin to understand as we have retreats together to show them how to minister to children.

One thing we need to learn from Jesus is to go to the synagogues (Matthew 4:23 and 9:35). The reason for this, of course, is that this is where the godly Jews met. And also, outside of Israel, the Gentile seekers, which was why Paul visited synagogues. What represents the synagogues in Spain? It’s Catholic parishes. That’s where people look for God. We want to be more direct than in the past, and offer the gospel in a very straightforward way.

Of course, Jesus warned that the synagogues would be a source of persecution. Paul discovered this also. But we want to give it a try.

What part will the apprentices play? One of the first things we must do when they arrive is to see where each one is: their level of Spanish, their experience and their gifts. Then we want to find the exact place where they fit in. They will also be doing studies in discipleship and missions, perhaps linking up with some of the missionaries around here who work with Muslim immigrants. Some key areas of need would be to work with the logistics of our outreach, preparation of new videos and being friends with people their age.

This is not a new idea. Over 20 years ago I started writing out the Galilee Plan. With God’s leading it can catch on like a brush fire. We are ready to commit ourselves to the apprentices. If you know of someone who might fit, put them in touch with us.

Video on AIM in Spain

Remembering

46 years ago today we woke up to our first morning in Spain, with no jet-lag. That's the advantage of travelling by boat. Actually, there were planes in those days but on the boat we could take all our stuff. We realized later that we had brought too much. We were in a country where we could get everything we needed, even if not everything we were used to. Also on the boat you get all your meals served in the dining room. But that was a disappointment because even though the food was great, Sharon got seasick the first day and didn't get over it till we were back on land. So for 9 days I had to eat alone and fill up the 2 baby bottles with milk. You can see the ship we came on in Wikipedia>

I read a book about that time, The Thirty Thousand, referring to the Evangelicals in Spain. Statistics indicate that that number has multiplied by about 15, to 450,000 during the last 50 years. The stats also show that a high percentage, in some churches a majority, of these believers are Latin American immigrants. You can see some of this in Operation World.

During all these years God has supplied our financial needs through faithful churches and individual supporters. Some of these are still helping us. We are deeply grateful. This is now supplemented by retirement income. Now it's so neat that our sense of duty coincides with what we enjoy, sharing the gospel with the Spanish people. It's also cool that 2 of our 4 daughters are in Spain, although on the other side. Tomorrow we begin our annual trek, visiting both their homes. We have the privilege of not only having served the Lord in starting new churches, but of having descendants who are doing the same, as missionaries or bi-vocationally.

Let me say again what I've said so many times: I'm convinced that many Spanish people would accept the gospel if they saw it practiced by believers totally committed to Jesus. We hope that our AIM program will bring together a small committed group that will see a harvest of souls like we haven't seen yet.

Go tell it on the mountain

When we debriefed a bit with the Operation Mobilization Transit Team that recently spent 10 days with us, one response was that they wished they could have been here at the beginning of their 5-month trip rather than at the end. The orientation that they got from the people we had invited to share was an eye-opener into why Europe appears to be the only continent where Christianity is decreasing. Our Basque Buddhist friend with a PhD in religious history had prepared a power point with his research on why people are fed up with "The Church", which to Spaniards means Catholicism. I felt kind of sorry for the priest who was with us, to tell us what the Catholic Church's "New Evangelism" is. He actually spent more time rebutting what our Basque friend was quoting, and didn't seem to have much to say about evangelism. The time with the 7 member team (US, Switzerland, Uruguay, Ireland) was so helpful, doing work on our property and sharing their testimonies, even surveying people using prepared literature, since only one speaks Spanish.

The new snow from these mountains is going to find its way down to the Tagus river. We want to follow it with the gospel, covering the same territory, especially to children and youth. The next step is to continue praying. We don't quite see how just the 2 of us, in our 70's, can initiate what needs to be done. So we ask your continued prayer for the southern slope of the Gredos range. Think of Spain whenever you see mountains. We were encouraged by the personal responses from a number of you to our recent communication. Let's keep up the 2-way interchange to strengthen the bonds of prayer. As a response to those prayers I think the Lord has placed in our thoughts the AIM program (Apprenticeship In Mission, the idea of which goes back years, even before joining OM), a 2-year training program to be totally integrated with an outreach program based on things that have proved effective over the years.

May the Lord open the eyes of the blind

    A couple of nights ago a lady drove down our dirt road to have a long talk with Sharon about her spiritual need. Yesterday morning we had breakfast with a Muslim couple. He began energetically trying to show me the superiority of Islam over other religions. When I shared with him from the story of the Green Prince, who became a Christian after reading what Jesus said about loving our enemies he said that this man could also have learned about loving enemies from reading the Quran (???). I regularly have conversations with another man who did doctoral studies in religion, and eventually turned from Catholicism to Buddhism. This afternoon Sharon and I will be meeting with a couple who follow a religion from Brazil which uses hallucinogenic plants to develop their spiritual insight.

    Why do I say these things to you over and over again? Because we do not want you to forget to bring us to God in prayer over and over again claiming that we will speak with the power of the Holy Spirit in these situations.

    All these people whom I have mentioned are not foreigners but Spaniards who have given up on Christianity because of what they have seen in Catholicism but they are still searching for spiritual reality.

    If I’ve said it once I’ve said it a hundred times, that if searching people could see real Christianity lived out by Christians who love one another they would turn to Christ.

    Are there some here in formerly Catholic Spain who still hope to find answers in Christ? Here’s an example: yesterday evening I attended a prayer meeting of Catholic charismatics. It didn’t seem all that “charismatic”, just an old-fashioned prayer meeting, gospel choruses interspersed with praise and prayer.

    These people are closer to gospel truth than our new age friends. One thing that the Lord is using is the Alpha courses. Just as God used the monk Martin Luther and the priest Menno Simons centuries ago he could use people from within the Roman Catholic church to bring their own people into a new relationship with Christ. We feel increasingly called to search for these people and help them understand what God is offering them. At the same time we will stick with our old friends. Launch us by your prayers into over 100 towns around us in search of seekers. Sample prayer: