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: