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.