I wanted to share some wonderful news with all of you!  The Lord has answered our prayers. I got a call from the Spanish Consulate today and the lady told me that they have approved my residency visa. I have until December 30^th to leave the country (we are planning to leave much sooner than that). Believe me, I’m ready to go! Don’t get me wrong I have enjoyed deputation but everything has a time and a season and right now I am in Spain mode. I have 32 wonderful churches to visit from now till then and we have complete faith in God that we will have all of our support raised by our departure date. As a matter of fact we are currently at 86% of our needed support. They haven’t approved everybody’s visas yet but the lady told me that they should be ready in about two more weeks. I am so amazed at how God has opened every door for us. During the end of March of this year we really felt the Lord leading us to step out by faith and set a departure date. At that point we were at 66% of our support. In just 5 months our support has increased by 20%. Also, we have been praying that the Lord would supply the money that we need for our Setup Fund. Just in these past two days we have had 2 churches and 1 individual give towards our Setup Fund. The amount that they have generously given is exactly what we need to purchase our tickets. We are seriously considering leaving for the field November 29^th, 2010. That is 2 days earlier than we had originally planned. You can’t imagine how excited we are. I would ask that you pray for the rest of the visas to be approved shortly. We really feel great peace in our hearts because we know that right now we are in the center of God’s will. Amen. 

Dear Co-laborers in Christ,
What a blessing it is to serve our Lord Jesus Christ!  Since our last newsletter we have had many answers to prayer in our personal lives and also in the ministry.  Both of us have been able to renew our resident visas for another two years.  Amen!  My leg has also healed completely and I am able to walk well and do the ministry.

We asked prayer for Stefan to come to know Christ as His personal Savior, and about 6 weeks ago he came into church on Sunday morning and said he had some exciting news for us.  He then proceeded to tell us how on that previous Monday he had repented of his sins and trusted in Christ alone to save him.  Amen!    Since that time we have begun weekly discipleship classes with him, have visited him in his home and have seen his wife and two sons visit the church.  Please pray for all of his family as Stefan desires for them to be saved!   
Update on our DVD project!

We have now distributed 23,000 DVDs.  This means that potentially  69,000 people have had the opportunity to hear a clear presentation of the Gospel.  We have been duplicating more DVD’s over the past few weeks and by the middle of September we will be ready to continue distributing DVDs to the rest of the homes in Parla. Pray for the funds necessary to finish this project.  We have received love offerings from 2 of our churches these past two months and we are truly appreciative.  Click here to see the video update on our DVD project.

We have also placed a very large billboard at the entrance of our city with a message about the DVD, asking people if they have seen it and advertising our website.  We will change this billboard approximately every three months with something thought-provoking for those seeking for the truth.   We have  recently purchased space in our city’s monthly newspaper.  We will have one-fourth of a page to write whatever we want every month.  This paper is distributed free of charge to 30,000 people in our city.  Pray for new contacts through this outreach.  We want to continue sowing the seed of the Word of God in every home in Parla.  Recently a young man contacted us, requesting a free Bible.  His name is Eduardo and he had seen our website and was interested in what he had read.  We were able to visit him in his home and even though he lives one hour away from our city, he came to the service last Sunday.  Praise the Lord he trusted  Christ as his personal Savior this week!  He is so excited about growing in the Lord. We will begin discipleship classes with him next week.    Last Sunday we had a very special service in our church with an emphasis on the Family.  We sent invitations to all the contacts we have made recently.  We were so thrilled Sunday morning when 41 people attended the service.  We were filled to capacity.  Amen!  Now, we understand that people will come to special services and  maybe not come again, but we now have more people to pray for, visit, and encourage to find out the truth from God’s Word.  The seed has been planted, we are watering and we know that in God’s time, there will be a harvest of souls. 
Continue praying for David and Favianna as they have submitted their papers for obtaining visas to come to Spain and are waiting for approval.  They are still planning on coming here on the 1st of December.  We are excited about having all the team here in Spain to serve our Lord together.  Thank you again for your faithful prayers and financial support.  You also are part of the team for reaching souls for Christ here in Spain.

In His Service, 
Julio and Andrea Velasquez

Dear praying friends, family, and churches:

Greetings from the Andrews Family in Spain.  Much has happened since our last Prayer Letter so I will get started right away.  In the last prayer letter I asked everyone to pray for Stefan.  He is the man who was walking by the church building and saw the Escaparate (window with information) and came in to join us for a service.  My father-in-law and I talked with him and spent time with him any chance we got.  After about 8 weeks, Stefan came to my father-in-law and I and said he was reading the Bible that week and he came upon a verse where the Lord said, “... come to Me...”.  He told us that he gave his life to the Lord. We praise the Lord for this.  We have been able to have discipleship classes with him and he has been growing each week.  We are scheduled to baptize him sometime in October.  It is amazing because we have seen such a change in his life. 

Each week the Lord brings new people to the church.  It is exciting to see people walk through the door that we have never met, nor had contact with.  We have worked hard at getting the Gospel out, making contacts, and letting people know who we are.  However, many of the people that have come are not a result of any of the “things” that we have been doing.  To me, this is great.  Many might say that God sees our faithfulness in obeying Him and blesses accordingly.  I can agree with this to a certain extent, but for me, it is a reminder that it is God who is working in this ministry.  It is His ministry; not ours. It is not my ability to make contacts, setup a website, produce a DVD, preach a good sermon that brings people and keeps people.  It is God working in this ministry and in the hearts of the people that brings them and keeps them.  Does that mean we sit back and do nothing because God will do all the work?  Of course not.  We work hard in obeying what God has commanded us to do, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”

We have so many different aspects of our ministry and things we are trying to do to get the Gospel to the people here that I can only focus on one or two in any given prayer letter.  I want to praise the Lord for how he has used our media ministry, specifically the internet.  We set up a website several months ago called www.estudialabiblia.com (Study the Bible) for the purpose of giving the people, who watch the DVD that we are giving out, a place to go and get more answers.  On the website there are articles and information that can help them learn more about God, the Bible, Salvation through Christ, etc.  We also have a place where they can request a Bible and when they do, we will personally deliver it to them.  The website took off much more then I ever imagined.  Spanish speaking people from all over the world have found the website, read the information, watched the video, and even requested Bibles. 

Eduardo found our website because he was searching for God and the truth.  He typed into the google search engine, “What is the true religion?”  After typing that in, the first website to pop up was ours.  He read the info, watched the video, and requested a Bible.  I got the request and realized that where he lived was about an hour away from where we live.  It seemed a little far but I thought to myself at least we can get him a Bible and share the Gospel with him even if we never see him again.  So my father-in-law and I made the journey and had a great visit.  To make a long story short, he ended up driving an hour one-way to come to a special service we had 2 weeks later and at the end of the service he raised his hand when the question was asked, “Who would like to give their lives to the Lord?”  We praise the Lord for how he works through every means possible.  I would love to write more, but I am running out of space.  :)  Please subscribe to our blog if you haven't already www.thatallmayknow.net/subscribe so you can read all the details of how God is working in our ministry and in our lives.

I wanted to remind everyone of some good Christian Music.  My wife, (Deanna) Brother-in-law, (David Velasquez) and Sister-in-law (Deborah Velasquez) have recorded 2 CD's, one in English and one in Spanish.  They did a great job and the music is just beautiful.  Most of all, the message of the songs are uplifting and glorifying to the Lord.  If you haven't purchased your copy, please head over to their website and make your purchase.  They are still offering a special if you buy 2 or 3 CD's.  They also offer discounts for missionaries, churches or book store who want to buy in bulk (10 or more).  So check out the site, listen to samples, read their testimonies and indulge yourself with Christ-honor, uplifting, Christian music!

www.alltheglory.org

Written by: Scott Newton

#2: Spain has been without a major Gospel preaching movement for at least 1600 years.

AD 33-70: Christianity came very early to the Peninsula. According to some ancient writers such as Clement Of Rome & Eusebius, St. Paul visited Spain (see Romans 15).

AD 70-711When the Visigoths, whose leaders professed Arianism (the denial of the divinity of Christ), invaded the peninsula, Christianity had been fairly firmly established for around 240 years, and had held its own councils and used a liturgy different from that of Rome, known later as the Hispanic Rite.

There were more than likely many true believers in this church, however, they had from AD 70 been corrupted through following the teachings of the Didache, supposedly a summation of the Apostles teaching.

The majority of this document was a paraphrase of biblical text, but here is the hook at the end:

16:2 “But be ye gathered together frequently, seeking what is suitable for your souls; for the whole time of your faith shall profit you not, unless ye be found perfect in the last time.”

Early writings confirm that this movement clearly taught a grace+works salvation. Not Gospel.

AD 711-1478 With the invasion by the Moors at the beginning of the 8th century, Christians suffered greatly. The Catholics who lived under the Moorish domination became known as Mozarabic Christians. By the end of the 15th century when the Reconquest of the peninsula from the Muslims was completed, the Mozarabic Christians had been subjected to the Roman liturgy and strict papal jurisdiction.

THE REFORMATION 16TH CENTURY SPAIN

However, it was not until the 16th Century that some people, interested in the writings of Luther, started to share a different Christianity among the Spaniards.

At the beginning, Spanish protestantism was accepted among the noble and high classes, due to their interest in reading the Bible. There were important reformers in Spain, such as Juan de Valdés, Francisco de Enzinas and three ex-monks, Casiodoro de Reina, Cipriano de Valera y Antonio del Corro. Reina & Valera were the first ones to translate the Bible into Spanish, with the support of Oxford university. (AD 1569)

However, soon after the entry of the reformation movements from Europe, the Inquisition made sure they would not succeed. The majority of Spanish protestants went into hiding, died, or left the country.

PROTESTANTS LIVE AS OUTCASTS DURING 17TH AND 18TH CENTURIES

During the following two centuries (17th and 18th) any attempt to reformation within Spain and the catholic church was stopped, or had to go underground. Yet, from some historical records from the Inquisition itself, we do know that protestants continued translating the Bible into Spanish and Basque and made it available to people. Others, who were exiled, continued translating Christian literature; while others who remained in Spain died in the hands of the inquisitors. There were 3499 court cases against Lutherans in Spain and Italy during that time, which is 7,1 % of all the inquisition cases recorded.

During the 18th and beginning of 19th Centuries, economic and military relations with England eased off the pressure over the foreign protestants in the country, allowing them to have freedom of conscience, though not freedom of practice.

The Second Republic (1931-1936)

During 1931 and 1936, under the auspice of the second republic, there was freedom of religion once more in the country which allowed growth. These 5 years, added to the 6 years of the first republic, made a total of 11 years of religious freedom in the whole history of Spain.

First stage of intolerance (1939-1966)

The civil war and the regimen afterwards, were devastating against the protestant churches, even though protestants had not taken positions in the war. At the end of the war, there were only 7000 protestants left. Most churches had been raided, along with schools and cemeteries. Some others were burned down or closed by the authorities.

It is estimated that over 80% of the churches were closed down.

THE CONSTITUTION OF 1978

After the death of Franco, Spain moved on to monarchy and democracy, reaching a crucial moment in 1978, when the country adopted a new constitution. King Juan Carlos I was in favor of democracy and religious freedom.

MODERN DAY SPAIN

Spain now enjoys religious freedom, and God is starting to move in big ways. Pray that the Lord of the Harvest will send forth more laborers, Spain is white unto harvest!

We are church-planting missionaries. We understand the command in Matthew 28:18-20 to evangelize, baptize those that are saved, and teach them to be like Christ (discipleship), but these demands can only be fully obeyed within the context of the local church. The first century Christians comprehended that they would be unable to reach the world (“…Jerusalem…Judea…Samaria, and…the uttermost part of the earth.” Acts 1:8) without establishing churches in every corner of the earth. That is why they naturally were involved in church-planting. They understood it to be the obvious and practical conclusion of our Savior’s command. We have a mission and God has chosen the church to carry out that mission. If a “church” is not obeying the Great Commission then it cannot biblically be defined as such. We understand the church to be a group of baptized believers gathered together to carry out the Great Commission. We are pioneer missionaries (we are starting a new work from scratch) that have moved to Parla, Madrid and have begun to proclaim the gospel to every individual in that city for the purpose of establishing a church that will obey and fulfill its mission. We are not in the business of constructing church edifices, but of organizing (directly or indirectly) visible groups of believers (starting churches) in every city to shake up Spain for Christ. As we start more churches our reach will be greater and we will be able to effectively evangelize more places than just Parla. We will reach Madrid as well as the other provinces in Spain, Southwest Europe and the world. In other words, we must start churches in order to reproduce what we are already doing in Parla, Madrid in other places around the world. Our desire is to establish churches that will fulfill our three basic and essential ministry goals.

1. Evangelize the lost: Every single individual within the reach of the church must have the opportunity at least one time in their lifetime to accept or reject Jesus Christ. The church must find every way possible to accomplish that task.

2. Enable others: This means that we are to follow our Master’s example in training faithful men who will reproduce themselves in other Christians. This is not an option, but our solemn duty.

3. Establish Churches: We must start churches that will perform the first two goals in other places. The ideal would be a church for at least every 50,000 people.

 We could go to Spain for a short period of time and carry out massive evangelistic campaigns and distribute millions of bibles and gospel tracts. Although through these efforts many would hear the gospel and some would be saved the effects of this style of evangelization are short-lived. The only way to make a lasting impact for Christ in this world is by establishing churches. A bible-believing, gospel preaching church will faithfully and continually evangelize until everyone within the reach of the church has heard the gospel. But then the church will disciple and train the converts and involve them in the work of the ministry and the cycle will be never-ending.

 It is clear that there are more ways than one to establish a church. Some churches are started by a solitary pioneer who goes someplace where the gospel has never been preached. Some are started by a group of pioneers (a team). Both of these methods are perfectly acceptable but we have opted for the latter. We believe that we can accomplish more in less time for the honor and glory of God as we work together towards a common goal. Team missions is not a new or modern idea but it goes all the way back to Jesus and the Apostle Paul. God has given each of us different gifts and abilities that we can use for the furtherance of the gospel. One clear example for us is the technology aspect of our ministry. If it was up to me or my parents we would have no evangelistic website, no gospel DVD project, and you wouldn’t be reading this article because we wouldn’t have a blog or team website. Of course we would still be able to preach the gospel but with these tools our reach is even greater. Thankfully one of the members of our team is gifted in that area. All of us are commanded to evangelize but some people seem to have a greater God-given ability to make friends and start conversations with people. My father is that kind of person. He has never met a stranger. I remember going on door to door visitation with him in Venezuela and seeing how he would somehow convince a grumpy, unfriendly person to allow us in their home. Before the conversation was over he would have them laughing and attentively listening to the gospel message. Without getting into all of our team’s strengths and weaknesses it is sufficient to say that “two are better than one…” (Ecclesiastes 4:9).

 Once the church that we have started in Parla begins to grow and leaders are trained we will practice a third method of church-planting. While some churches are started by pioneers (one missionary or a team of missionaries) others are the product of churches producing churches. We could work diligently as a team to start a church and leave it with a pastor as soon as possible. Let’s say we were able to start one church every five years (It’s not impossible but we have never witnessed this in Spain). In a fifteen year period we would have started three churches. We could certainly attempt such an ambitious goal, but what if we invested ourselves in training men for the same period of time? What if we allowed the church in Parla to naturally produce more churches? Every pastor trained would equal a new church and members from the “mother church” would go and help those pastors start the new works. We want every pastor to enjoy the blessings of working as a team whether they start a church nearby or in a distant place. Please continue reading. Next week I will post the sixth and final part of our ministry philosophy.

     How important is one solitary soul to God?  Is God interested in reaching out to a handful of people living in a remote village in darkest Africa or in the jungles of South America?  Is God interested in the single person that a missionary in Europe has been able to reach during his first four years on the field?  Does God truly want us to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature, or does He just want us to go where we can reach the most people in the shortest amount of time?   We see in many places in Scripture where God was interested in individuals.  He sent Phillip to the backside of the desert because there was one man who was searching for God and needed the help of a Christian to show him the way.  Jesus himself had to go through Samaria because there was a woman at the well that needed to know that she was a sinner and in need of salvation.  Many times Jesus preached to multitudes of people, but He was always interested in each and every individual soul in need of Christ.

       As missionaries we do not pick the place where we desire to serve God.  It would be easy and advantageous for us to peruse through world atlases and travel catalogs and find the most beautiful places to be a missionary.  We could find places where the weather is always nice, the food is delicious, the people are all friendly and desirous to be saved and where there are good doctors and great roads.  But that is not the way God works.  He speaks to us with His still small voice and puts such a burden in our hearts for a place to serve Him.  it doesn't make sense to root up a family with small children, pack them into a mini-van, take them over 200,000 miles of interstates to visit over 300 churches over several years, then have that family move to a god forsaken country where living conditions are not very good and where good doctors are hard to come by.  Worse yet is the family that goes to a country where the people are not interested in hearing the Gospel or where the law prohibits a person from sharing his faith with others.  In our own understanding these things don't make sense.  But we cannot lean on our own understanding.  God is interested in every person on this earth hearing the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Some missionaries go to countries where the people are very receptive to the Gospel and in a matter of 4 short years, they are able to establish a good church, train leaders and have those leaders prepared to begin more works.  Many of these missionaries are able to start 30 or 40 churches in their years on the mission field and lead thousands of people to Christ.  Others spend 30 or 40 years in one church and lead only a handful of people to Christ.  Is this a waste of time and money?  Of course not.   

      Having been brought up on the mission field as a young child, I have spent almost all my life working in missions.  We have served in Latin America as well as in Europe.  We have seen the difference between working in a third world country and working in a modern developed country.  We have worked with poor people and have also worked with middle/upper class people.  There are so many contrasts and differences, but God has been interested in each person we have been able to reach for Him.  In 1992 while serving in Spain, we were able to see a young couple come to Christ in our church.  Their names are Alberto and Paqui Puente.  After discipling them and helping them grow in their Christian faith, they went to our Bible Institute and desired to serve the Lord full time.  A few years later, they moved to the States where Alberto pastored a Hispanic church in Alabama.  The church has grown and out of that church many have been called into the ministry.  They are sending missionaries around the world now, including two of their sons who will be returning to Spain as missionaries within the year. Even though many others trusted Christ as their Savior, if Alberto and Paqui had been the only ones  who had gotten saved during our first 14 years in Spain, it would have been worth it.  God loves every single person and He died for every single person in this world.  Our job is to obey God and share the Gospel with every person that God puts in our path.  Whether you live in a metropolitan area in New York or in a small rural town in Wyoming or in a mega city like Mexico City or in a jungle village in the Amazon, whether you can reach thousands with the Gospel or only a handful in your lifetime, we are to keep on obeying God and reaching  souls ,one by one, for whom Christ died.  

Spaniards have been the victims of a self-serving and greedy religion that offers no hope and no relationship with God for centuries, and they are increasingly distrustful of church. Here is an interesting article by Gallup on church attendance…

The scope of the influence of religion and the church on Spaniards’ lives remains difficult to characterize. While most Spaniards identify themselves as Roman Catholic, only 43% say religion is an important part of their daily lives, and less than a third tell Gallup they have attended a place of worship in the last seven days.

Blog post taken from Project Southwest Europe - Scott Newton

Ron Maggard is a fellow missionary and a good friend of mine.  The Lord used him to play a significant role in my christian growth while I was at Beacon Baptist Church.  He wrote an article that goes along with our Ministry Philosophy that we have been posting.  Enjoy!

I wanted to ask everyone to pray for the Sedgwick Family.  They are friends of mine from Beacon Baptist Church.  I trusted Christ as my Savior at Beacon and like so many of the wonderful families in the church, the Sedgwick family was a great example to me as a new babe in Christ.

Their son, Jacob who is stationed in Afghanistan, was shot in the chest this morning.  He is being flown to a hospital in Germany and is in Stable condition.  Please pray for him and his family as they go through this difficult time.