Mother’s Day

In West Africa, there is not a day to celebrate Mothers.  In Spain, Mother’s Day is often celebrated the week before we celebrate this day in the United States.  This year, our friends from West African have celebrated Mother’s day, some of them for the first time.  The ladies in ladies class celebrated Mother’s Day.  At our “mi casa” house church, Norma talked about the story of Naomi and Ruth.  During kid’s club, the children made flower cards for their mothers to celebrate all of the things that our mother’s mean to each of us.  We had over 30 children at kids club on this day and we finished off the day with hot dogs and chocolate chip cookies for everyone!  Please pray for ladies class, kids club, and house church.  Please pray that our friends from African will continue to understand more about a personal relationship with Christ.

Ladies in Waiting

Recently we attended a conference in Barcelona on human trafficking to learn better ways to help our ladies in waiting that are possibly victims of human trafficking.  We met people from many countries that are working together to prevent human trafficking, to help the victims, and to help pass laws to stop the traffic.  Through some of these contacts, we have been able to connect our lady friends with Christians in Romania who can help them when they return home.  Please pray for our friends that even as they return home to visit their children and families that these Christians from their home country will be able to help them find different jobs, or just be a friend to them and show them the love of Christ.  Please pray for Maria, Anna, Victoria, Vali, Rodica, Flora, Laura, and Teresa.

Please pray for Cristina and her Christian friends in Romania as they reach out to our friends who have been working in southern Spain as they travel to Romania to visit their families.

We also had the opportunity to talk with several of these “lady in waiting” friends about a personal relationship with Christ.  We gave them an MP3 player with 18 Bible stories in the Romanian Gypsy language.  Please pray that they will desire a personal relationship with Christ.  Pray for Norma and Betty as they continue to reach out to these ladies.  Pray for the safe house in a nearby town and the association in Almeria as they also continue to work with us and our friends. 

At the human trafficking conference in Barcelona, we heard the story of “Cabeza de Cerdo” (Pig Head.)  He was the head of a trafficking ring.  He was arrested and while serving his time in jail, someone told him about salvation.  He became a Christian thus ending this trafficking ring.  As I heard this story, I thought of our own ladies in waiting, one of whom’s husband was in jail for trafficking, and I realized that we could pray for him as well and it could change the lives of our ladies in waiting in southern Spain.  Please pray for “the bread man.”

The Banana Boat

Well, the banana boat is on the move again. For some time now, our church in Almeria has been taking over all of the ministries in Roquetas with our African friends.  Please pray that our Spanish friends will be sensitive to African culture, that they will have courage, peace, joy, and encouragement as they continue this work.

Please continue to pray for these unreached people groups who have immigrated to southern Spain…

The Jahanka people from Senegal and Ginea

The Sereer people from Senegal

The Mandinka people from Senegal, Mali, and Ginea

The Wolof people from Senegal

The Fula people from Senegal

The Bambara people from Mali

The Susu Baga people from Ginea

The Susu people from Ginea

The Soninke people from Mauritania

Our family will be moving to Strasbourg, France to continue working with immigrants from unreached countries.  Please pray for us as we make this transition to a new home, school, and church. Please pray specifically for Megan, Cade, and Dylan as they transition into the European School in Strasbourg.

Faulty Trunk

We went to visit our friends in the church in Albacete, Spain.  We visited immigrant neighborhoods and encouraged the church in Albacete to reach out to immigrants in their area.  On our last day in town, Isabel and her husband took us to see an abandoned warehouse where they had heard that some immigrant men were living.  As we drove by, we saw some men from African helping a Spanish man unload some firewood from a trailer.  I said to Joel, “We need to stop and talk to them, but they will be thinking ‘why are those people stopping here’.”  Right at that time – the trunk of the car just popped open!  Therefore, we had to stop the car to close the trunk.  We started visiting with the men and they invited us to come into the abandoned warehouse (their home) to visit.  As we were talking, Isabel asked if they would like to have some classes to learn Spanish, and to learn to read and write.  They were very interested.  Since that time, the church has begun to offer Spanish classes to these Bambara men from Mali with a dinner following the class each time.  It is amazing how God can use a faulty trunk opening to open many doors for ministry.

Please pray for the churches in Spain as they begin new ministries to immigrants in their areas.

 Pray for…

 Matt and Michelle near Barcelona

 Isabel and Marta and their team in Albacete

Jose and Azucena in Alicante

Lucas and Mari Carmen in Murcia

 Ruben and Miriam in Cadiz

 Ziza and Marcelo in Lorca

Eduardo and Mary in Madrid

Mariana in Denia

Daniel in Gran Canaries

Ruben, Mihaela, Norma and Betty in Almeria

Pray for them as they encourage their churches to be a friend to the unreached people in their neighborhoods.