Conversations with Spaniards: Questions...

Last week, as our friend E. climbed up the stairs to our apartment for her weekly English class, I (Rachel) prayed that God would guide our conversation so that it would be deeper than just about English grammar.  E. almost immediately told us about how the father of one of her student had died this week, and how this was adding to the anxiety and fear of death she normally lives with.  This turned into an hour long converstion about her faith, God's love for her, and the truth we can find in the Bible.

"I believe in my head but still feel doubt in my heart. The Catholic Church has taught me the basics about my faith, but I still have lots of questions," E said. "I have asked God to increase my faith and I feel like a bad Christian or like I'm doing something wrong because of this. What can I do?"

God answered my prayer, and I was able to clearly share the Gospel with E., explaining that salvation and faith are a gift of God that we receive through grace, not works, and that all she has to do is accept it. She explained that she believed in Jesus as being the Son of God but had doubts about His resurrection. I pointed her in the right direction, shared some Scripture with her about how those in Christ do not have to fear death, and gave her a Bible.  

After praying for her, I encouraged E to take some time each day to read the Bible to gain some of the answers she is looking for.  She stated, "I think the problem is that I just don't know enough about the Bible."  Please pray that E will grow in her understanding of and passion for Christ, and that she will take the jump from simply knowing about Jesus, to having a personal and life-giving relationship with Him!  May the conversation continue...

Seek God for the City

During Lent, as a church (in Onda, our mother church) and as a small group of believers here in Alcora, we're focusing on praying for Alcora in a more direct, intentional and intense way than we have before, using a material called "Seek God for the City" (Clama a Dios por la Ciudad).  It's a daily guide that presents fresh, Biblical prayers for us to use personally, as a group of believers and as a help for interceding for our town. Sorry I haven't mentioned this before to try to involve you, but we've been too busy coordinating things locally that we just haven't had a chance to update you on it yet. If you're interested in jumping into it with us, go to www.waymakers.org to check it out, or you can download a 99¢ app at the App Store (Mac) or Android Marketplace.

In conjunction with this focus of prayer during Lent, we're organizing a joint worship service of praise and prayer for Alcora with our sister congregations here in Castellón, which is something that's never been done here in Alcora before. It will be Saturday, March 24th, at 6 p.m., and we're praying that it will be a powerful time of united prayer and praise as we seek our Lord together on behalf of the 10,000 people here in Alcora who need to come to know Him. Please pray with us as we prepare for this exciting event!

A Visit from Cressona, PA!

Last weekend we had the joy of receiving a visit from a group from one of our supporting churches, Bethany E.C. Christian Fellowship in Cressona, PA.  They had come to Madrid to help Rachel's dad do some remodeling work in the ECMI center there, but since we're just a short(!) 5 hour drive away, they decided that they HAD to see us.  We only had about a day and a half with them, and since the last half a day was the Sunday morning worship service, we crammed everything into Saturday that we could.  So we gave them the tour of Alcora, complete with a visit to a local ceramics shop and a time of prayer in front of the Town Hall, as you can see in the photo below.  In the afternoon we packed our lunches and took them to Peñiscola, a town about an hour from us that has quite a scenic castle right on the Mediterranean.  Miriam had a blast with them, and we were incredibly encouraged by their interest in us and what we're doing and simply by their presence with us.  So let us know when YOU'RE coming for a visit!

Movie Night in Alcora

A few weeks ago our ministry team hosted a free movie night open to the town of Alcora.  We originally had intended to show The Nativity Story (being December and all), but since the movie distributor wanted 300€ ($400!) to do a public screening, we settled on a much more economical movie called The Climb that was put out by the Billy Graham Association some years back.  About 30 people showed up, between the support of our church in the neighboring town and people from our town, and the experience was quite informative for us.  Here are a few observations I have about the night:

• Relationships matter:  The people who came from Alcora were nearly all people we knew and had personally invited.  One random Alcorino saw one of the signs we had put out and came, and then when he asked who we were and why we were putting on a free movie night, thus finding out that we were an evangelical church group, he left and said he'd come back in a few minutes...we're still waiting for him to return.
• The "evangelical" stigma:  We just posted about this with one of our recent conversations, so I won't go into detail.  But people (especially people from a small, predominately Catholic community) still view the evangelical church as a cult...or at least as something very strange and foreign.  At times it even causes us to question how we should refer to ourselves, call our church group, and publicize events.
• People are busy with their own lives:  Thirty years ago, when Rachel's parents first arrived in Spain, doing big outdoor campaigns and showing the Jesus Film really worked because people weren't all that busy and a lot of them didn't have their own TV's.  But now everyone has their own LED TV sets to watch movies, and they're busier than ever, taxiing their kids to soccer, dance, piano and tae-kwon-do lessons after school.  Just finding an ideal day and time to put on a movie was challenging enough.
• We're still learning:  It could be easy to get discouraged with the fact that only 30 people showed up for a free movie, and, in fact, a few of our group did seem a bit down about it.  But a big part of what we're doing at this stage in ministry is testing the waters, experimenting with events and ministries, and seeing what kind of response we have.  This is an extremely important step in the process of evangelism and church planting, but it can be frustrating, as well, because having big numbers would be really nice...they make us feel good and look impressive in prayer letters.  So we could look at it from a very Eeyore-ish point of view and be disappointed about the numbers, or we can take it all in stride, learn from it, and actually have fun with the ministry and events that we do, even if no one outside of our small group shows up.
• God's at work:  Several of the non-Christians who did show up for the movie were quite moved by the plot and the themes presented, true love and sacrifice (especially God's love for us) being central.  Some even cried at the end.  Our neighbors who went continued to mention it (unsolicitedly) in conversations for days after, and we had the opportunity to share the Gospel with them at a deeper level than we ever have been as a result.  They remain interested and even accompanied us to our church's annual Christmas program.  They may not know it yet, but the Holy Spirit is softening their hearts, and the Lover of their souls is wooing them softly towards Himself.