Alcora Prayer Update: the Economy

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because He has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor...(Luke 4:18)

As we mentioned in last month’s prayer update, the economy of Alcora is built on the ceramic tile industry, which has been hit hard by the economic crisis the Spain is still in.  Let me give you a clearer picture of what this looks like. 

The ceramic tile factories extend for miles around Alcora.

There are about 150 ceramic tile factories in and around Alcora, and about 5 years ago during the economic boom with all of the construction going on in Spain and around the world, there would be as many as 50,000 people working in Alcora (a town of 11,000) during the day.  Not only this, but the factories were working around the clock producing tiles and shipping them to all parts of the world.  People were moving here from all over Spain and even Europe to find work because there was plenty of it.  One of our acquaintances explained to us that there were so many jobs in the factories that if you didn’t like working in one, you simply went to another one without any trouble, and you would almost never think about working for lower wages in the supermarket.

Now almost anyone would love to work in the supermarket.  A neighbor upstairs who has been a director in one of the factories around here for quite some time told me that many factories that before had 1,000 or more employees are now down to 40 or 50, simply because there is little demand for the tiles right now.  There are literally thousands of palettes of tiles sitting in storage waiting for a buyer.  Our downstairs neighbor who’s been laid off for more than half a year told me that he’s put his resume in at about 60 factories in the area and has yet to hear anything back.  The latest statistics that I’ve found show that over 25% of the workforce in Alcora is unemployed, and 42% of those under 35 are unemployed.  The outlook is pessimistic as the economic forecasters say they don’t expect to see Spain begin to recover until 2012 or 2013.  Most people around here agree that the ceramic tile industry will never return to what it was just a few years ago.

One of the many factories with tiles stockpiled, waiting for a buyer.

In the midst of this gloomy economic situation, here are some points for prayer:

• That God will use this time of financial crisis for His glory, causing people here to look beyond themselves and materialism for provision, significance and true life. 
• That God will provide for the needs of Alcorinos. 
• That God will guide us in discerning how we can be a part of the previous point:  whether it’s delivering groceries for families in need, opening up a food pantry or a secondhand clothing center.

Thanks for praying with us for Alcora!

Christmas Cookies...

"Wise men still seek Him..."

Well, this post is a bit late, now that we're past the Christmas season, but we thought it was worth mentioning.  Given that we had been living in our apartment in Alcora for about 7 months around Christmas time and had yet to meet all of our neighbors, and since Christmas is a great time to mention Christ (though this is getting less and less common all over the Western world), we decided to make Christmas cookies and cards for our neighbors.  The responses were quite positive:

• Many neighbors were very surprised and appreciative:  surprised because it's not common to do thing in Spain (in fact, it never happens) and appreciative because, hey, who doesn't like cookies?
• A couple neighbors went from skeptical (who are you and why are you at my door?) to confused (you want to give me cookies?) to appreciative (I guess this is all right and, by the way, thanks for the cookies).
• One neighbor was clearly high from smoking marijuana...He was quite happy and appreciative (wreaking of pot).  We figured he and his buddies would be appreciative for something to cure the munchies.
• The neighbor directly below us said, "(Expletive!!!) I can't believe that you're doing this.  I mean, I've seen that Americans do this sort of thing in the movies, but I never expected that someone would actually come to my doors to give me cookies and a card!  Thanks so much...Wow, I just can't believe someone would think of others like this!"  Then he and his wife invited us in for coffee, and we spent half an hour or so getting to know them while the wife played with little Miriam.

So apart from giving the Christmas card with a brief but clearly Christ-centered message on it, we didn't "share the Gospel" directly with anyone.  But our neighbors now know who we are, we've formally met, and we can talk with them a little more comfortably when we pass in the hallways or on the elevator.  And this is the foundation for building deeper relationships with them in the future so that we can talk about the deeper things of life and faith.  And, by the way, they probably already know we're the strange evangelical Christian foreigners.

Alcora Prayer Update

Chapel 'El Calvario' that overlooks Alcora

As we start the Alcora Prayer Campaign, we want to give you a basic sketch of the pueblo and why we’re here.  Located just northwest of Castellón de la Plana, the capital city of the province of Castellón, Alcora has a population of about 11,000 (click here for a map).  The driving force of the economy here is the ceramic tile industry, but the industry is going nowhere at the moment due to the economic crisis that Spain continues to face.  We’ll hopefully give you a more detailed look at the economic problems of the area in a future update.

Religious Influences 

Spiritually, Alcora is known as a very traditional Catholic pueblo.  There are three main Catholic churches here, with some smaller chapels and hermitage sites scattered around the nearby countryside.  Even though there seems to be a deep-rooted Catholicism here, the vast majority of Alcorinos are very nominally Catholic, participating in the religious festivals once a year and going to church only to marry and to bury.  We have yet to meet the three priests here, so we can’t say if they know the Lord personally or not.  I went to mass once in December, and the priest’s homily was actually quite Christ-centered.

Aside from the Catholic Church, there is a Kingdom Hall of the Jehovah’s Witnesses and a Pentecostal Romanian church, whose obvious mission is to reach the 500 or so Romanians who live around here (and Spaniards, if they’re interested in learning Romanian).  The Assemblies of God in Castellón city had Alcora as a mission point until the end of 2010 but decided not to continue here for various reasons.  And, of course, we are here as an extension of Església Bona Nova (the Good News Church) in the neighboring town of Onda.  They’ve had Alcora on their hearts since 2008 or so, and we are working together with them to share Christ with Alcorinos, hopefully resulting in some sort of church plant.  What does that mean?  What will this church plant look like? 

That’s exactly what we’re asking you to pray with us about.  We don’t have it all figured out when it comes to sharing the Good News with Alcorinos or planting a church in this context.  We want God’s direction as we begin ministry here.  We know that only God can touch and change people’s hearts and that He has invited us to be a part of that here in Alcora.

A Few Brief Prayer Points:

• That God will give us guidance as we seek to expand His Kingdom here in Alcora.
• That God will protect us from the enemy as we live and minister here.
• That Alcorinos’ hearts will be softened to Jesus’ Good News.
• That we will have ears to hear and eyes to see the people He’s already working in.

Prayer Campaign for Alcora

As new missionaries working in a new town, the biggest question is, "Where do we start?"  Yes, we have a regular Bible study in Alcora, and we are slowly developing relationships with people here, but how do we move forward?  Time and time again there Lord has laid on our hearts the need to begin with prayer, seeking Him and His guidance for this new ministry, asking Him to move in the hearts of Alcorinos, and being sensitive to His leading.  So beginning in this month we're beginning a focused, intentional campaign of prayer for Alcora to do just this.  You can be a part of this movement in a few different ways:

1. Facebook:  if you're on Facebook, click HERE to join the group "Prayer for Alcora."  You'll receive a regular email to know how to pray specifically for Alcora.
2. Email:  if you're not on Facebook, email us at bj.whitaker@ecmi.org to receive the same prayer updates we'll send out on Facebook.
3. Skype:  if you're on Skype, let us know via email or Skype message (to bjwhit14) if you'd like to set up a time to pray with us personally for Alcora (or just to chat!).

In addition to having friends around the globe praying for Alcora, the church we're working with in this church plant vision, Església Bona Nova in Onda (a neighboring town), will be sending groups here twice a month to walk the streets and pray with us for the pueblo, one of the groups being the youth group, which is exciting for us.  So this is really a glocal effort to see lives changed by the Good News of Jesus.