Spain: Day 3-4

Day 3 - After a morning devotion time at the local church, we traveled to another city (Ripollet) to visit with a partner church. It was great to spend time with Pastor Marcos and to hear the vision to reach Spain for Christ. There are over 2,000 cities and towns in Spain without an evangelical church!

In The evening, Pastor Vernig presented discipleship training at Inglesia Evangelista Mon Bui, the local church. We were greatly pleased as there were 26 people who came out for the training! It was wonderful to see how the members of this growing church plant were soaking in every word that was being shared by Pastor Vernig.

We believe this small, but growing, new congregation has the opportunity to impact their community in a powerful way for The Lord Jesus!

Day 4 - Again, after morning devotions, we travelled to the city of Terrassa. Here there are two evangelical churches that are doing a wonderful job of reaching the diversity found in this state: the nationalistic Catalonians, the Spanish, the Latin Americans who have moved here, as well as a sizable Muslim population from North Africa.

The President of the Spanish Baptist Convention, Andreu Garcia, serves as pastor of Inglesia Evangelista De Terrassa. We had a wonderful meeting, hearing from the convention perspective, what is believed necessary to reach the people of Spain. Pastor Garcia and this church are doing amazing things to reach the diverse populations in this city and we wanted to see first-hand what has been proven successful in this context.

We also visited an outreach center where a ministry to Muslim women was proving to be very successful as well.  Walls were being broken down so the Good News could be shared and hearts were softening to hearing about Jesus. 

In the evening, Pastor Vernig led the second night of discipleship training. Again there was a group who had braved the rain and cold to be a part of this critical training. There were 24 who joined us for the evening!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spain: Day 1-2

Day 1 -We arrived in the early morning on Tuesday, March 17th, and then traveled about an hour north of Barcelona to Margarita Santa Montbui. This is the town where Inglesia Evangelista La Cruz is located and were we would serve with Pastor Joel.

After coffee and orientation, we were able to get about three hours of rest before time to leave for the evening worship service. It was a wonderful time of celebrating our Lord with brothers and sisters in Christ!

Day 2 - our day started with a time of devotion at the church with the team from the church and our American team. Pastor Joel led a very encouraging lesson on the Prodigal Son with a view on the older brother's perspective.

We then went into the neighborhoods passing out invitations to the church services. One street encounter led to a home visit where four family members made a re-dedication to The Lord! It was certainly a divine appointment as the family was struggling with the father's battle with cancer. Many tears were shed as hearts were broken before God.
 

This family joined us in the evening for the service! For the second night in a row, the church was full. Thankfully they have rented the adjoining space which will allow the church to have a larger sanctuary as the church continues to grow.

Another visit resulted in a woman making a decision to follow Christ for the first time! She had been very angry at God because her husband had died from a heart attack four years earlier. The Holy Spirit moved through the reading of scriptures by the team and she finally agreed to lay her brokenness at the feet of Jesus and surrender her life to the Father.

But God was not through. During the evening service, a young woman came forward to give her life to The Lord! What a joy it was to see this young church plant embrace a new believer and our team was excited to be part of God's plans for this community!