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

Summer update

Norma’s prayer

Norma has been teaching our ladies class for about three years now.  She is from Ecuador and is a member of our Spanish church.  She has lived in Spain for 9 years and feels called to missions.  She recently started having ladies class twice a week.  On Wednesdays she teaches sewing and on Fridays she teaches reading, writing, math, and Spanish.  On one of the first Wednesdays, four of the African ladies noticed that Norma was at “mi casa” early so they dropped by early to talk.  They were telling Norma of the struggles that their families were having in finding work.  Norma asked if she could pray for them and they said yes.  So she prayed that they would find work.  Norma is very open with these Muslim women about her own faith, so she prayed in Jesus name.  For the next two weeks only one of these ladies showed up for class and Norma began to be afraid that she had offended the other ladies, but she didn’t ask any questions.  Then one Friday morning, Fatu, said, “Norma, do you know where the other ladies are?”  And Norma said no that she did not.  Fatu said, “They each got work the day after you prayed for them!”  So that was the reason that they were unable to come to class – they had temporary work.  Once they were able to return to class, they rejoiced with Norma for the answer to their prayer.

Each of these ladies comes from the Jahanka people group.  This is an unreached people group with no Bible in their language and no known Christians among them.  What an incredible thing to watch God work among them!

Ladies Class to Church

Our Spanish church meets in Almeria, about 40 minutes from “mi casa” in Roquetas.  Mary Angeles, a Spanish lady from our church went to Roquetas once a week to teach sewing class to the ladies from Africa.  After teaching for about a year, she became very ill and passed away.  She was 68 years old and each of the African ladies respectfully referred to her as “Grandmother.”  After she passed away, Norma asked the African ladies if they would like to visit our church and present a thank you plaque to the family of Mary Angeles.  Even though many of these ladies come from a Muslim background of several different unreached people groups, they were very willing to visit our church to say thank you to the church, Norma, and Mary Angeles’ family for their love and support over these few years.  So one Sunday morning we loaded about 22 African ladies and their children into 6 different cars and off we went to the Baptist church in Almeria, where the ladies read thank you speeches and presented the plaque to the family.  It was amazing to hear Maisatta and Maiamma read in public, knowing that they had just learned to read in the last year.  It was also amazing to look around our church and see so many people from different countries and to realize that for many of them and their people groups this could be the first time that any of them had ever been in a Christian church.  God is opening some huge doors!

Diapers, Milk, and baby lotion

Diapers, diapers, diapers and more diapers along with milk and baby lotion…

We have more than twenty ladies in ladies class now from over 6 different African countries and many more people groups.  Several of these ladies have babies, babies, and more babies:   Mariamma has twin babies; others have a baby and a toddler at home.  Thus, ladies class is usually crowded with precious little faces as well as their mother’s.  These past few months, as many of the immigrants do not have work, they were running low on many things for their children.  We decided to provide diapers and milk; and then added the baby lotion.  We ended up providing these things for about 20 little cuties!  When the African ladies tell us thank you, we often explain that these gifts come from you all in the churches in America.  We also tell them that it is our pleasure to help – and what a precious group to have the privilege to help – all those babies!

Sunday “Mi Casa” Worship

The work in Roquetas continues to grow.  From ladies class, kids club, giving out vegetables, and visiting African immigrants in their homes, we and our church in Almeria began to see the need for a Bible study and type of house church at “mi casa.”  The first few times that we met we had to translate the Bible study from Spanish to French and English.  After the Bible study we often have fellowship and twice we have been able to celebrate an African child’s birthday with cake and all the trimmings!  Please pray for the folks that are coming to this Bible study/house church.  There are families that come from Catholic backgrounds, Protestant backgrounds, and Muslim backgrounds.  This past month we were happy to have several of our friends with Muslim backgrounds who come from unreached people groups with little or no access to the gospel in their home countries.

Holidays in Spain

This year we spent the holidays in Spain and had a great time sharing the holidays with our African friends. For thanksgiving we had a thanksgiving luncheon for the ladies class; complete with turkey pieces, (it is hard to find a whole turkey in Spain) dressing balls, mashed potatoes, corn, rolls, gravy, pumpkin cake, and fudge.

For Christmas, we enjoyed having a Christmas luncheon with Ndeye and her family. They said it was “afella lol.” (Sereer for “very good.”) We also enjoyed giving out veggies, rice, and fudge to many of our African friends for a Christmas gift that they could really use – well, maybe not the fudge.

Here in Spain they also celebrate “Three Kings Day.” This is the day that the Spanish folks give out most of their gifts. It celebrates Jesus’ birth and when the three wise men gave gifts to him. The night before Three Kings Day there is a parade in each town. Before the parade this year we had friends over to eat some good ‘ole tex-mex tacos and then we all went to the parade together. As we were watching the horses and floats with the three kings go by, I realized that our group of friends was made up of folks from all around the world; America, Britain, Zimbabwe, Portugal, Brazil, Spain, Russia, and Chile. After the parade we went out for the local favorite – tapas, a little Spanish snack.

The day after Three Kings Day we had a three kings party for the African children. We served a cake made with fudge frosting. Megan, Cade, and Dylan acted out the Christmas story while our pastor read it from the Bible. They dressed up as Mary, Joseph, shepherds, angels, and the three kings. Mihaela did a craft with the children and then we had a big toy exchange where each child was able to choose several toys to take home.

The holidays are a great opportunity for us to talk with our friends about our beliefs because many of them do not celebrate Christmas. We have spent many Muslim holidays with them, so this is a natural way for us to tell them about our holidays and what we believe about God coming to be with his people.

Now that the holidays are over, things are getting back to normal. Please pray with us that even though the holidays are through, our African friends will continue to be open to understanding about Emmanuel, God with us.