Matilda is a sheep. We went on a wild “sheep” chase to find her. We followed a group of our African friends through the town of Roquetas, then through tons of green houses, down a really bumpy road, around and around a round about, back down the same bumpy road, until we came to a sort of warehouse/barn that was filled with sheep and goats. We bought two from a man from Mauritania. The kids decided to name them Crazy Ann and Matilda. The sheep were none to happy to be tied up and riding in the back of our “veggie vehicle.” We had prepared a pen for them at the home of some of our new African friends who live amongst the green houses located just behind Megan’s school. When we released the sheep into their new pen, the children thought they were so happy to be in their new home, but maybe they were just relieved to be untied and out of the “veggie-vehicle.” These sheep are a part of a new project to help to feed the immigrant families in our area. Megan, Cade and Dylan understand this concept as we once visited a family who had a sheep in their yard and later when we were eating some barbeque, Cade asked, “Where is the sheep that was here in the yard?” “You’re eating it.” No problem.
Kadi’s Bags
Kadi is from Senegal. She has two little boys. Mohammed is 3 and Papi is 2. She is expecting another little boy in September. She and her husband have lived in Spain for several years. He fell from a construction job site and seriously hurt his leg, so he is unable to work at this time. Kadi has been looking for work for as long as I have known her. She sells bags from Senegal and other trinkets on the beach to make ends meet. We decided to try to sell some of Kadi’s bags at the mission marketplace this summer in the United States. When the folks who are in charge of the marketplace saw the bags, they asked us to send more to sell at another market in November. When we arrived at the mission marketplace this summer we brought the extra bags. The next day as I turned the corner to visit the spot where the bags were being sold, I couldn’t believe it – they were nearly gone – even the ones for November! When I visited Kadi, I said to her, “Remember that we were praying that God would help you find work, He has answered our prayer. We need to buy all of the bags that you have left.” Kadi is going to call her mother in Senegal and request more bags as well.
Prayer Update:
Thank you for praying for our family during all of our surgeries. Everything went relatively well and we are glad to be back in Spain.
This month Megan will go back to school. She will have a new teacher. Please pray for Megan and her new teacher as they begin the school year.
We are involved in a couple of new projects. Please pray for the “mi casa es tu casa” project as we begin to find a location for ministry use. Please pray for our new sheep project as we are looking for culturally relevant ways to help feed the immigrant community here in southern Spain.
Please pray for the three new African babies that will be born this month. We (and their families) are anxiously awaiting their precious arrival.
Please pray for Maria del Mar, she was born 5 weeks early and is in the hospital in El Ejido. Please pray for her family as well. Her father is still looking for work and a good place for his family to live.
Thank you for “standing in the gap” through your prayers and giving. We really appreciate your involvement in ministering to these people who do not have a personal God who is their “refuge, strength, and ever present help in times of trouble.” (Check out the new posting, “standing in the gap,” at the “thoughts along the way” link above.)
These words of graffiti are written on the apartment building where some of our immigrant friends and families from Africa are living in a neighborhood near our home in southern Spain.These words mean, “Without God, or Home Country, or Love.”Many immigrants come to Spain from Africa in search of a better life, survival, peace, or just to find a way to feed their families.When they arrive in Europe they often find these dreams very hard to attain; and they become lonely, hungry, and sad.We hope to become friends with many immigrants in order to offer them friendship, hope, and a sense of “home.”We are hoping to start a center for immigrants called “mi casa es tu casa:” (my home is your home.)This center will serve immigrants from Africa and provide a place they can come to receive food, clothes, friendship, learn Spanish, share meals from their home countries together, and discuss spiritual questions in a home setting.(For the full project description see below, towards the end of this post.)
Please pray that we will be able to help our immigrant friends “experience God, a sense of their home country, and love” here in southern Spain.
African Experience in Yegua Verde
Yegua Verde (Spanish for “the Green Mare”) is a small community in the middle of many greenhouses.Many immigrants live here and work in the greenhouses.Recently we were invited to a new friend’s home in this area for a meal.It was an incredible day.We arrived with vegetables and drinks, and Tiffne began helping the women prepare the meal of cheb-o-gin (Wolof for “rice and fish.”)While the meal was cooking we watched a video and looked at pictures of a beautiful Senegalese wedding.The children also enjoyed seeing the sheep that was tied up in the yard.During the day there were about 15 people from Mali and Senegal visiting together.The men ate from one large platter, while the women and children ate from another large platter.In Africa, each person just eats a pie shaped portion in front of them.The platters are placed on a mat on the floor and everyone gathers around to enjoy the delicious meal.After lunch, which we ate about 3:30 p.m. we drank ataya – delicious, very strong African tea with mint leaves from their garden – while we watched the men cut up the sheep that they had killed, and Megan had her hair braided into cornrows.For the rest of the evening we visited outside while everyone cooked the sheep seasoned with salt, pepper, and magi (an African version of beef bullion) on the grill and enjoyed tasting the “barbeque.”
Prayer Update:
Please pray for Megan as she finishes first grade – her second year in school here in Spain.She will have a dance recital at the end of school also.Please begin to pray for her new teacher next year.
Please pray for us as we prepare to travel to the states this summer for medical stuff.It is possible that Cade, Dylan, and Tiffne might each need small surgeries.We will also all have various medical appointments and check ups.Please pray that our medical situations will be able to wait for care in the United States and not need sooner treatment here in Spain.Pray that the follow up after our surgeries will be straight forward and easy to accomplish.
Please pray for our friends from Africa, that during the lean months of summer they will have enough to eat and would also begin to understand the “Bread of Life” that will satisfy the hunger of their souls.
Being an immigrant, migrant worker, or refugee in a new land can be lonely, depressing, and often times just plain scary.Through our work in the AlmerÃa province of southern Spain we have seen hundreds of internationals live through this type of despair just hoping beyond hope that they can find a job, a friend, or a meal.This project “mi casa es tu casa” is aimed at providing a place of rest and help for those internationals struggling to find a way.We hope that this ‘casa’ will provide hope and a sense of ‘home’ to those that have left their homeland and families in Africa.We also hope that this ‘casa’ will be a place of rest and spiritual growth for missional church team groups who come to work alongside our ministry.It will be their ‘home away from home’ in a sense too.
Project Goals:
Provide a safe, immigrant friendly site for groups to meet, study, and fellowship together.
Create an easily accessible food and clothing distribution site that will allow us to track and follow-up with those that we minister.
Establish a place that would facilitate congregational mission involvement by providing a readily available place to house volunteer teams who will work in the ministries of this center and with our other projects through the missional church programs.
Project Involvement:
Pray…Pray for the peoples who make dangerous journeys along the migration routes from Africa to Southern Spain.
Give…Support the work of CBF field personnel by giving to the Offering for Global Missions or specifically to this project.Send donations to: Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, ResourceCenter, P.O. Box 450329, Atlanta, GA31145-0329.If giving specifically to this project, be certain to include this project’s account number in the memo line. (project # 89834)
Serve…Join this ministry by sharing it with others and by participating in mission service.
Through your prayers and support you are reaching out to people from Ghana, Mali, Cameroon, Romania, Guinea Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Senegal, the Gambia, Morocco, Western Sahara, Nigeria and Ecuador.Deuteronomy 10:18 and 19 “He gives justice to orphans and widows.He shows love to the foreigners living among you and gives them food and clothing.You, too, must show love to foreigners, for you yourselves were once foreigners in the land of Egypt.”Thank you.
Meeting New People, Making New Friends, The Ministry Grows
This past month we have been involved in a couple of different activities that have allowed us to meet new people.We attended a Senegalese Muslim conference and meet several new families that we now visit and deliver vegetables to their homes.One family is a Sereer family with four children.We enjoy watching Megan and their small girls greet each other in Sereer.
We have also started volunteering with the Red Cross immigrant center in Almeria, where we have the opportunity to give out food, clothes, and other services.We have met people from France, Bulgaria, Morocco, Ghana, Mali, and other countries as well.Last week, as I served food, I prayed silently that God would fill their hungry souls as well.
We also had the opportunity to visit an African church called Christ Movement Ministries.The church members are mostly from Nigeria and Ghana.During the service they prayed for our family and our ministry to African immigrants.We enjoyed the Sunday school; Joel specifically enjoyed the African rendition of “The Boy Who Cried Wolf,” told as “The Boy Who Cried Lion!”The sermon was inspiring as the pastor spoke about how many of them from Africa had experienced rejection from family and friends because of their belief in Christ.We have posted quotes from the sermon and a worship song on “Thoughts Along the Way.”(You can click on the link at the top of this blog page to read the devotional based on the sermon by Pastor Nathaneil Ikeh from Nigeria. – good stuff. Also there are two other new devotional entries.)
Finding Ami
About a year ago, when we first visited 200 Viviendas, we were hanging out at the plaza and I met a young girl named Ami.She was one of the first people that I met that spoke Sereer.I was so excited to learn that there were Sereer people living in Spain.She was a bit shy so I did not learn where she lived and was afraid that I would not get to see her again.Then recently, when we visited the new home of a family that we had met at the Senegalese conference, we were greeting the younger children in Sereer, and in walked Ami.She is their oldest daughter.Again I was reminded of the joy in “hiding and watching” God at work.Now we will be able to visit this family regularly.
Languages
One Friday we visited several new families and delivered pictures and vegetables.At the end of this day I realized that we had greeted or spoken to people in English, French, Spanish, Sereer, Wolof, and Mandinka.Please pray for us as we continue in our language learning that we would be able to keep our languages separate, and remember which is the most effective language with each person, and as we try to communicate in the best way possible in order to one day share with each of them about a personal relationship with Christ.
Nguy’s story
Recently while we were visiting the house in Mojonera, Nguy told us his story.He is the oldest male of his father’s family.His father passed away and left behind three wives and more than 14 children.As the oldest male, Nguy is now responsible for his father’s entire family as well as his own wife.He said that he began to feel the pressure that is felt by many African young men to make the journey to Europe to try to find work and send money home to their families.He told of how many villages put pressure on the young African men and boys to travel to Europe to fulfill their dreams.He spoke of how they would see on television the lives of people in Europe; people who had homes, cars, and plenty to eat; people who seemed to have no problems, and they believed that this was what life in Europe was like.When Nguy’s wife became pregnant, there was even more reason to make the dangerous journey to try to support his family.His family is from Dakar, Senegal, and even though he has a higher education there was no work to be had in Dakar for a long time.Thus he made the decision to go to Europe.He left on a colorful canoe-like boat filled with 98 other young men hoping to make the journey.The motor died out in the ocean.They ran out of food and water and the young men began to perish.Before it was over 25 men had died.Nguy said he lost friends and loved ones.They eventually made some sort of sail and the wind carried them to Mauritania.Nguy knew that he must try again if he wanted to feed the families that he was now responsible for.He got on another boat that traveled for 7 days at sea.He eventually was picked up by Spanish police and taken to a detention center where he was held for some time before being released and flown to Madrid with the instructions that he could remain in Spain and wait for about three years before he could receive his legal papers.Soon he traveled to Mojonera to the house where he lives with many other Senegalese guys who are basically on the same journey.He is sad to have found that the dream he saw on the television and that the members of his village hold is not the reality in Europe.He lives in a small rundown 4 bedroom house with as many as 20 other guys.He gets up every morning at 4 a.m. to try to find work.On the days that he is chosen, he gladly works 8 hours in the large, hot greenhouses.He pays the rent, buys very basic food supplies; rice, pasta, onions, sometimes chicken or fish, and sends the rest of the money back home to Africa, where his wife and year old baby boy, that he has never held, live.His dream is different now; he hopes to wait and work in Spain for two more years until he gets his legal papers and he can travel to Senegal to see his beautiful family.
(Read from the bottom up, if you want sequential order. The newest posts are always at the top.)
We wanted to say thank you for your support through prayers and giving. Here are some of the ministries that you have been a part of along the way…
• Making repairs and general upkeep for the “veggie” vehicle – we use this cargo type vehicle for delivering vegetables, furniture, rice, pasta, clothes, and blankets. • Purchasing rice and pasta for our African immigrant families. • Purchasing blankets for folks who don’t have one for the cold nights. • Purchasing a few inexpensive small presents (play dough) for the African immigrant children for Christmas or Three Kings Day. • Purchasing rice to send on the truck to the refugee camps in Algeria. Many women and children living in the tents in these camps will benefit greatly from your ministry. • Your prayers and support are reaching out to people from the Gambia, Senegal, Nigeria, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Ecuador, Romania, Argentina, Equatorial Guinea, and Cameroon.
Hide and Watch
Each week Joel goes with Dan to pick up free vegetables in our white project vehicle. They sometimes get enough vegetables to fill nearly 70 bags to give out to families and homes filled with young men from North and West Africa. Recently we were disappointed to hear that the warehouse that gives away their excess vegetables for this ministry would no longer be able do so. Just before we got this news, we were so happy to receive a donation to our Kilos of Care project that is set up to buy food for the hungry. We were already thinking that God was finding other ways to provide for these African immigrants who have so little. The following Wednesday, the regular day that we use to pick up the vegetables, we had made plans to do some other work, when Dan called to say that there was another warehouse that was going to give out the free excess vegetables. The new warehouse is in Mojonera – we were so excited to find this out because we had wanted to involve our guys from Senegal in this ministry. We had often thought in the past that it would be great if our guys who lived in Mojonera could be involved with picking up the vegetables and distributing them, but the previous warehouse was just too far away from them. The new warehouse is just two roundabouts down from their house in Mojonera. It is fun to watch God work. I often think we need to get out of His way and let Him do His will. We just need to “hide and watch!”
Please continue to pray that God will do His exact will in His ministry to the African immigrants here in southern Spain. Then, with us, hide and watch! (or maybe better said – pray and watch.)
Conversations with Momodou
Momodou (or Mohammed) is from Senegal. His father is Sereer. He went to school in the Gambia, so he speaks English, Wolof, French, Sereer, and some Spanish. He has been living in Spain for a year, but has been unable to find work. He lives in Mojonera in the house with 20 other guys from Senegal. We have had several conversations. He is an interesting and friendly young man. He has told me some of his story. His father is a Muslim; his mother is a Christian. He has chosen to be a Muslim. When I asked why he made this choice, he just shrugged his shoulders and said that when he was very young his father put him in a school to learn the Koran, so he simply continued on with what he had learned at such an early age. (When I lived in Senegal there was a little 3 year old boy named Usman who came to my kids club each day. He could already quote the Koran because he was already enrolled in the Koranic school in our neighborhood – thus emphasizing the need for children’s ministry to teach the Gospel as well.) In another conversation Momodou spoke about his belief in amulets. Amulets are from African Traditional Religion. They are usually made from leather and have some kind of stone or something attached. They can be worn around the neck, arm, wrist, waist, or even hung in the home. Many African people put them on their babies to keep them safe. Momodou was telling me that he believed that they really worked to keep people safe from all kinds of harm. He said that when his mother wore hers she was kept safe from accidents or other problems unlike when she did not wear it. In Africa, where many are simply trying to survive, there is a certain type of “layering” of religion. If a “witch doctor” of African Traditional Religion can solve a person’s problems, then that is what the person will cling to. Then, if the Imam (Muslim holy man) is able to help, the person will believe in Islam as well. Sometimes when a person is healed or maybe helped by a Christian, they will also follow the “Jesus Way;” therefore, part of the challenge is helping these people who are just trying to survive to understand about a personal relationship with Jesus, who says in John 14:6, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
Please continue to pray for our friends that the Holy Spirit might begin to help them come to know Jesus as the only way, that they might commit their lives to God through Him.
Prayer Update:
For three weeks now Nguy and Momodou have been helping us pick up, bag, and deliver the vegetables. This week as they were working in Dan’s garage to bag the vegetables, Joel and Dan showed them Bibles and the Jesus film in Wolof. As they seemed interested, Joel asked them if they would like to have one of each and they said yes. So please pray with us again, from Isaiah 55:11, “so is my word that goes out from my mouth; It will not return to me empty but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”
Thank you for praying in the past for Check, Maria Ellen, and baby Margarita. Margarita is doing well. She is growing and continues her doctor’s appointments each month here in Almeria. Maria Ellen is working on getting legal paperwork for Magarita. Check has gone to Madrid in search of work and legal papers, in order to support his family. Please pray for this family; that God’s will would be done in accordance with their legal paperwork, their future job, and life as a family.
Please pray for our coworkers as they deal with spiritual warfare in their ministry.
Please pray for our family as we live and minister cross culturally. Pray for us as we adapt to Megan’s school. Pray for us as we begin to look into schooling for the boys. Pray for us as we seek to find ways to follow up with speech and medical issues for the boys and our family.
Please pray for Joel’s cousin Scott, a young man in his late twenties. His cancer seems to be progressing.
Thank you for keeping up with us, and for praying for us. You can continue to e-mail us at twhitley@thefellowship.info .
December 8, was the Muslim holiday of Tabaski, in which each family who is financially able kills a lamb.Then the men spend much of the day cutting it up, and the women spend much of the day cooking the meat with onions and potatoes and spices of mustard, pepper, hot pepper, and Maggie cubes, then they eat off and on all day.They also find time to pray.The women cover their heads in respect, place their prayer mat on the floor, face towards Mekkah, Saudi Arabia, because that is where Mohammed the prophet was born.Then they begin to pray while kneeling and placing their head on the floor and then standing and then repeating the process several times during the prayer.This holiday is to commemorate the time of Abraham’s sacrifice.Our friend Kadi told me the Islamic version of this story one day before Tabaski.(I have written out the story that she related to me below.)
While we were celebrating Tabaski with Kadi and her family, Joel saw on the Spanish news that there had been rioting in La Mojonera.He actually saw the house of our friends who live there and Nguy was talking with the police on the news.The report went on to tell of the riots that had resulted from our friend’s neighbor who is from Mali being robbed and stabbed by a man from Morocco, he later died as a result of the stab wounds.In retaliation many sub-Saharan Africans proceeded to burn cars and trash containers, and break windows of various North African shops on the street next to Demba and Nguy’s house.After Joel saw the news and we had dinner and African tea with Kadi’s family, we left to go to Mojonera to check on our friends there.As we drove into the town of Mojonera, we noticed riot police and television crews on many corners.At the corner of Demba and Nguy’s house there were two riot police; one carrying a large gun.We talked with the guys and they said that everyone in their house, where about 20 guys from Senegal all live, were fine.They said that the tension seemed to be dying down and they thought all of the negative activities would stop.They were cutting up their lamb and preparing to eat the Tabaski dinner as well.We were relieved to find that they were all okay and that things seemed to be calming down.
Please pray for them and their neighbors from Mali, Equatorial Guinea, and Morocco. Pray that even through these violent times God might reveal Jesus to them.Pray that during the Christmas season they will have more opportunities to understand about Jesus.
Abraham, Ishmael, and Mohammed – told to me by Kadi
Abraham did not have any children and he really wanted children, so he asked God to give him children and he promised that in return he would sacrifice one of his children to God.God answered his prayer and gave him many children.After much time, Abraham had a dream in which God said to him, “You told me that if I would give you children you would sacrifice one of them to me.I have given you many children and you have not kept your promise.”Abraham decided to keep his promise.He talked with Ishmael’s mother and she said, “If God wants it, I want it.”He talked with his son, Ishmael, and Ishmael said, “If God wants it, I want it.”So Abraham and Ishmael went out to the country and Ishmael told his father to sharpen the knife, he told his father not to give his clothes to his mother after he was dead because she would weep.He told his father not to look at his face because then he would not be able to kill him, then he told his father that if God wanted this, then he must kill him.Abraham was weeping and placed the knife on his son’s neck, then an angel appeared with a ram and said, “Do not kill him,” because God knew that Abraham believed in only Him and had provided a ram for the sacrifice.Mohammed was Ishmael’s son (descendent?).(Mohammed is the prophet of Islam.)
Our Friends, His Future…
Acuzena and Jose are members of our church in Almeria .They are from Spain .On our first Sunday in Spain she gave me her phone number and said if I needed any help in finding Megan a school or just needed anything at all, I could call her.Thus began our friendship.They have also become involved in the ministry to African immigrants; therefore, I was very sad when they said they might be moving up the coast three hours away.On a night before their move we had them in our home for a going away dinner.That is when God reminded me that he had a plan. They were not just moving away; they were taking the ministry with them to share with others.God can use them to encourage the church in Alicante to begin a ministry to the African immigrants in their area.Please pray for Jose, Azucena, Rebekah, and Rut, as they move, and that God would continue to encourage them to reach out to the African immigrants around them. Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
“Mild He lays His glory by,
Born that man no more may die,
Born to raise the sons of earth,
Born to give them second birth,
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see,
Hail the incarnate Deity,
Pleased as man with men to dwell,
Jesus our Immanuel.”
(Words I remember from Hark the Herald Angles Sing, in English, this rearrangement is from Amy Grant’s rendition on her Christmas Album.I love how she has put parts of the last two verses together that totally focus on Deity coming to be with us.)
This Christmas season I am filled with thoughts of Jesus coming to earth as a human baby in order to be with us as Immanuel, “God with us.”The reason for this is that many of our friends are Muslims and they do not believe in Jesus’ deity.Mina Nevisa writes in her book, Miracle of Miracles, that before she became a Christian she found herself wishing that her Muslim religion was more of a “two-way relationship” with a God who could answer her prayers.
Please pray that our Muslim friends will begin to seek this two-way relationship with the God who can answer their prayers and who came as Immanuel.
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This year we delivered Christmas gifts to our friends from Africa. We gave very large bags of rice and African tea along with small toys for the children. Also we gave each group a printed copy of the Christmas story from Matthew and Luke in 5 different languages; English, French, Spanish, Wolof, and Sereer. Please pray along with us from Isaiah 55:11 "It is the same with my word. I send it out, and it always produces fruit. It will accomplish all I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I send it." Please pray that our friends might begin to take steps toward understanding about a personal relationship with God.
As I look at this view from our terrace, I often think of Psalm 125:2 “As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds his people both now and forevermore.”
The Gift at Christmastime
As we live in a place where we often encounter many different religions including African Traditional Religion, and Islam, I often find myself considering the difference between religion and relationship, and I am thankful that we have the awesome privilege of knowing God and having a personal relationship with Him through the precious gift of His Son our Savior.Christmastime is a wonderful time of year to be reminded of this gift and to be encouraged to strive each day to get to know Him better by spending time with Him.“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given.” Isaiah 9:6a.
In the book Keep a Quiet Heart, Elizabeth Elliot says, “For it is He --not His gifts, not His power, not what He can do for us, but He Himself --who comes and makes Himself know to us.” (p. 77)
Matthew 1:23; “’The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel’ –which means ‘God with us.’”
-Please pray that our friends will understand about a personal relationship with Jesus.
-Pray as Mina Nevisa instructs in her book, Miracle of Miracles, “Ask God the Father to reveal Jesus to [them] through the power of the Holy Spirit.” (p. 220)
-Please pray for our coworkers who are experiencing spiritual warfare.
-Please pray for Joel’s cousin, Scott, a young man who is battling cancer.
-Please pray for Joel’s parents as they travel to visit us here in Spain for the beginning of the new year and Three Kings Day.
-Please pray for Megan, Cade, and Dylan as they prepare to participate in Spanish in our Christmas program at our church in Almeria.
Megan is the angel and the boys are shepherds this year in the Christmas program.
(Read from the bottom up, if you want sequential order. The newest posts are always at the top.)
For this update we thought we would share some stories from the field, a new project, and “Thoughts along the Way” which is a new link with devotional entries for November and December.To visit “Thoughts along the Way” click here, whitleythoughts.blogspot.com
American Football in Mojonera…
For the First Time Ever!
Many of our friends from Africa have never seen an American football, let alone touched one, or played the game.Recently they got the chance to do all of this.A couple of guys from Americaand Joel, along with several of our African friends met on a Sunday afternoon.Within about 5-10 minutes, Joel had them playing a “pretty close to the real thing” game.They loved it and were laughing and joking about whether it was 3rd or 4th down.It was great fun and a good release for these guys who work very hard in the extremely hot green houses about 6 days a week.It was fun to watch them make touchdowns and have a great time – mostly it is just so great to see them smile – which they actually do almost all of the time even when life is really tough.
Please pray for the sports evangelism ministry.
Living Water and Pineapple Juice…
Texans in Almeria!
Recently SagemontBaptistChurch from Houston, Texas sent a mission team to our area.We enjoyed hanging out with them and enjoying some meals together.They did an evangelism conference at our SpanishBaptistChurch in Almeria.One part of this conference was called “Servant Evangelism” where the mission team and members of our church went into poorer areas of Almeria to hand out pineapple juice and sometimes a tract if the person was interested in learning why we were serving others at no cost.
This Texas team was such an encouragement to us.
Stealing from the Poor…
In a small three bedroom house in Mojonera, live 20 young men from Africa.When some of them are fortunate enough to find work, they buy food – usually rice, onions, and pasta and share with everyone in their house.They also send as much money as they possibly can back to feed their families in Africa.When we visit them to deliver vegetables, and sometimes clothes for them or their families in Africa they always invite us in for a meal.They often run to the store to buy juice or bottled water for us and our children to drink.They are poor, but they are always thinking of others and giving the little food they have away.Recently when we visited them, they told us of how their house was robbed.There was nothing of value in their home except the food; someone took all of the rice, onions, vegetables and chicken that they had.Please pray for these precious guys as they continue to meet the challenges that face immigrants from Africa, and pray for the people who robbed them – they must be in dire need as well.
Loaves and Fishes…
So many times we notice that the lives of our African friends are similar to stories in the Bible.In Africa, many of the small boys are shepherds, the women sift out the chafe in the millet after they pound it, and they walk to the well to get water for themselves and their animals.Here in southern Spain we are continually noticing and enjoying the multiplying of “loaves and fishes.”Each time we are invited to eat with our friends from Africa, they take what little they have and make a feast for many people.One evening, Joel ate with the guys in Mojonera.Twenty three young men ate a large platter of pasta, onions, and two pieces of chicken (that’s right - two pieces – not two chickens.)Recently, we had cheb-o-gin with our friends.This is a dish of rice, vegetables, and fish.Delicious!Thirty three people enjoyed this meal together.We got very full and there were just 4 fish for everyone to share.Good stuff.We are continually amazed at how these friends with so little always share and it becomes enough for all.
Please pray our new project that is directed at feeding those who are hungry.
1st Annual Kilos of Care Holiday Food Drive
This holiday season we are kicking off a new project titled, Kilos of Care.This project will be our annual food drive beginning in November and lasting through January.The idea behind this project is to provide a way for individuals, Sunday school classes, or churches to be directly involved in purchasing food for struggling immigrants in Southern Spain and for refugees living in camps in the Western Sahara.
You will buy and give many gifts this holiday season, please prayerfully consider how you might participate in this food drive and give the gift of food to those who may be struggling to feed themselves or their families.“…I was hungry and you gave me something to eat…” -Matthew 25: 31-46.
Kilos of Care Project details:
1st Annual Food Drive:November 1, 2008 through January 31, 2009.
Estimated cost of specific items:
22 kilo bag of rice: $37or(1 kilo - $1.68)
22 kilo bag of couscous: $39or(1 kilo - $1.77)
22 kilo sack of onions: $19or(1 kilo - .86)
5 kilo block of frozen chicken pieces: $14or(1 kilo - $2.80)
5 kilo sack of potatoes: $7or(1 kilo - $1.40)
1 kilo can of powdered baby formula: $14
How to give:
Make checks payable to: Cooperative Baptist Fellowship
Send gift to:Cooperative Baptist Fellowship
P.O. Box 450329
Atlanta, GA31145-0329
Special instructions:Write Kilos of Care #89833in the memo line
Also, please remember that your tithes and offerings to CBF’s Offering for Global Missions helps to support field personnel serving all over the world.For more information about this general offering please visit: http://thefellowship.info/OGM
During this Thanksgiving season we are very grateful for your prayers and support and wish you and your family a happy holiday season.
Merry Christmas from the Whitleys in southern Spain!
