Thursday, December 6, 2012

December 2012


This past summer we enjoyed our time in the United States for our Off-field assignment (formally known as furlough.)  We had a great time in Texas; visiting our families, churches, and attending the CBF general assembly in Fort Worth.  It was great to get back to our roots of cowboy hats and boots!  We even had time to stop by the world’s largest amateur rodeo in Tiffne’s hometown of Stamford, Texas.  During our time in the states, we traveled through seven different states to visit and speak in churches.  Megan, Cade, and Dylan were able to participate in a VBS and music camp at Oakland Baptist Church in Rock Hill, South Carolina.

Then we headed back to Spain to begin a new school year.  We quickly got back in the swing of things with kids club, ladies class, and house church at “mi casa.”  Throughout this holiday season we wanted to stop and take a moment to say thank you to y’all for your prayers and support and give you a small update on how things are going…

We have been encouraged by the level of participation and sense of ownership that our host church, Iglesia Evangelica Bauptista de Almería, has provided during our time away from Spain.  This church has been very instrumental in carrying on the ministry to immigrants in Southern Spain in our absence and is a true blessing because they will always be here to minister regardless of where we may roam.

 Your support (churches and individuals stateside) has been instrumental in all that we are doing.  Your prayers and funding have allowed us to model a culturally appropriate ministry to Muslim immigrants as well as make those ministries happen.  Year after year with your support we have watched ladies class, kids club and now the house church blossom into events that have and continue to change people’s lives by providing friendship, hope for a future, and spiritual understanding about having a personal relationship with a living God.  Your gifts are also touching the lives of individuals and families.  It doesn’t take much, but for many of our friends they are faced with choices like: having  to choose between food for your family and buying eyeglasses for your children.  When you are at this point, the glasses just don’t seem so important.  One example that I can share is a family with two grade school children who needed glasses and have for years, but could not afford them.  Over time and through the deepening relationship with this family, Tiffne was able to hear of the mother’s struggle and meet this quality of life need that has gone unmet for so many years.  Maybe now, these children can see their schoolwork and the family might be able to see the love of God through this ministry.





Lately, we have been able to do some research to learn that through ladies class and kids club, we are working with several different unreached people groups; including a few that might even be unengaged.  This means that our friends from Africa often have no Bible in their language and very few if any Christians among their people group.  Thus, with your partnership, we are having the unique opportunity of being involved in groundbreaking work.  Some of our friends are showing an interest for the first time in the Gospel.  Please pray for the children in kids club who are interested in knowing more about a personal relationship with Jesus.  Please pray for the adults who come to the house church and hear Bible studies in their language.  As a member of our Spanish church leads the Bible study in Spanish, often one of our friends from Africa translates the study into an African language so that more may understand. 

Thank you for working with us to reach the unreached.

Love,
Joel, Tiffne, Megan, Cade, and Dylan Whitley






1 comment:

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