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.

December Update

Camping in the hills of southern Spain

This summer we had the opportunity to attend the Spanish Baptist Children’s camp in southern Spain. It was a great experience; sleeping in tents or cabins with bunk beds, worshipping together outdoors, swimming, seeing wild hogs and other animals in the hills. It was a great opportunity to be at a church camp where half of the children came from un-churched homes. One evening our pastor asked me to talk with the group about how I first became “friends with Christ” as a child at a church camp in the states. Please pray for the children who come from un-churched homes; that they will continue to have opportunities to hear the gospel.

Babies, Babies, Babies!

This summer we have had lots of new babies arriving in Roquetas. Ndeye’s daughter, Fatu, traveled from Tenerife, to bring her new baby daughter to see her grandmother. The baby’s name is Ndeye! Beatrice had a beautiful baby boy named Michele. Maimouna had twin babies and named them Adam and Awa. Rougi now has a new baby girl named Maimouna. Umi’s baby should be arriving soon. We have had a great time delivering beds, strollers, food, milk, diapers, and baby clothes. We have been able to attend two baby naming ceremonies, where the daddy whispers the baby’s name into his/her ear on the 8^th day after their birth and then they shave the baby’s head. Then for the rest of the day the women cook African food, which we all enjoy eating together. The most fun has been holding these precious little ones! Please pray for baby Ndeye; that her hips will grow correctly, so that she will not have to continue wearing a brace and that she will be able to walk correctly in the years to come.

A Little Bit of Heaven

One of our greatest joys in our work over the years has been having the opportunity to experience a little bit of what we believe heaven will be like in worshipping with people from different cultures in different languages. In San Francisco, we worshipped with the Church of the Nations Christmas service in which the Bible was read in 10 different languages. In Marseille, France we attended a choir concert where choirs worshipped together from Romania, Madagascar, Philippines, and Isreal. In Roquetas we attend the immigrant prayer meetings where folks from Africa, Spain, Romania, North and South America worship and pray together. During our August and September kids club, we sang “God is so Good” in English, Spanish, French, Romanian, Mandinka, Wolof, and Sereer! The kids also enjoyed eating cinnamon toast for the first time.

Daniel 7:14a: “He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him.”

Please pray for us as we work with people from many different countries and languages that they might see Jesus in us.

Backpacks and Birthday parties!

In August we gave backpacks to the children of families from our ladies class that meets every Friday. We filled the backpacks with pens, pencils, erasers, notebooks, folders, crayons, glue, sharpeners, markers, colored pencils, and a few other school supplies. After we gave out the back packs we had a birthday party for Sidou. We had a cake and sang happy birthday and then gave her a gift with clothes and a small toy. Sidou is ten years old. When she opened her gift her face was glowing with the smile and she gave us a big hug and said thank you many times. On the way home I was talking to Megan and saying that I thought the best part of the day was Sidou’s face when she opened her present. Megan said, “Mommy she had to ask me how to open it.” Sidou had never received a wrapped gift before, yet she is a happy child because she is well fed and has clothes to wear each day to attend school. We learn many things about contentment from our precious African friends. Please pray for the children in our community, that they would take advantage of the many opportunities that they are given and not be drawn in by negative peer pressure.

Association of Sereer in Spain

Years ago I served in Senegal with the Sereer people group. I lived in a small village called Fissel and learned the language and customs of this people group. I grew to love the people. I was sad to leave Senegal and hoped that someday soon I would be able to work with the Sereer people again. Several years later when we arrived in southern Spain to work with African immigrants, I was so excited and a bit surprised to meet Sereer people living in Roquetas. Now, once again, I am greeting folks in the Sereer language and enjoying their customs of baby naming ceremonies, African wrestling, and lots of fellowship together while eating poulet yassa, thieb o gin, mafe, and drinking attaya. Recently, Joel and I were able to join the Sereer Association here in southern Spain. After we officially joined this group of Sereer people, one of their officials said to us, “You are now a part of the Sereer family for always.”

Please pray for our Sereer family.

To read an inspirational story about the recent earthquake in Lorca, Spain, please click on “Thoughts Along the Way.”

Thank you for your continued support through prayer and giving.

Blessings,

Joel, Tiffne, Megan, Cade, & Dylan.

We're back!

We have not updated our blog in “forever” because the banana boat has been in the water and on the move again. We spent 6 months in Texas for our off field assignment (used to be known as furlough.) We enjoyed being back in the states. We enjoyed Mexican food, and chocolate chip cookies! We enjoyed seeing our families for the holidays for the first time in several years. We also enjoyed riding horses, going to the rodeo and riding wave runners! Also during the summer we had the opportunity to do the missions camp in Lueders, TX. This is the same camp where Tiffne went as a child and asked Jesus into her heart – so it was a real joy to get to be at this camp as the camp missionaries.

We enjoyed visiting churches and talking about the work that God is doing around the world to reach the people who have not heard about him. We visited our church in San Francisco, California. It was so great to be back in this really cool city and to reconnect with our good friends there. We had the opportunity to visit the homeless soup kitchen. Megan, Cade, and Dylan helped prepare the silver ware and napkins while Tiffne stirred the huge pot of soup. Every year 19^th Ave. Baptist Church has a “church of the nations” picnic where each of the different language congregations get together to share food and fun. It is such a great experience to try foods from China, Vietnam, Mongolia, and Japan, along with hamburgers and hotdogs. This year the biggest attraction was the Mongolian wrestling!! Wow!

After off field assignment, the banana boat headed back to Spain! And we hit the ground running. Our church in Almeria, Spain did a great job ministering to the African immigrants in our absence and their work continues… be sure to click on “Thoughts Along the Way” to read about Norma’s story and ministry.

Orange Hands

One Sunday this month was the Senegalese festival of Touba. It is a Muslim religious festival. We went over to Ndeye’s house that morning to help with the cooking. The ladies were making cheb o gin, rice with fish. I peeled so many carrots that my hands turned orange. Then later when we were eating this delicious dish, I ate with my hand, just like all of the Senegalese women around me, and again my hands were orange from the yummy sauce. Then the ladies began cooking the next dish in huge pots over the fire in Ndeye’s garage. It was an amazing day, helping them cook, taking the huge dishes of food to the festival, listening to the men sing, visiting with the women while we cooked, speaking to folks in 6 different languages. I just know the greetings in most of them, but I enjoy seeing their faces light up when they are greeted in their home language.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I recently read a book about a missionary who took “pineapple chutney” and the gospel to Japan. This gave me the idea – for my favorite thing – to “bring” chocolate chip cookies and the gospel to our friends here in Spain. So we have served chocolate chip cookies at “ladies class” and “kids’ club” as well as shared them with Ndeye and her family. It is fun to tell our immigrant friends from Africa of the customs that we have in America in my family. When my family gets together we almost always have chocolate chip cookies as a part of the celebration. So we have enjoyed sharing that with our friends here in Southern Spain who are also away from their families. In the past I have had to have chocolate chips mailed to me because they didn’t have them here in Spain – but just recently I found some – that are very similar to the ones we use in Texas – not exactly the same but they will do in a pinch. The flour here is also a little different – so sometimes I use my flour that I brought from the states. The girls from kid’s club and the women from “ladies class” want to learn how to make “chocolate chip cookies” from America. J

The Pancake Gang

Recently we had a great team come from Blue Springs, MO. God did amazing things through this team. One door that God blasted open was the door to Megan, Cade, and Dylan’s school. We have wanted to do something in their school for 4 years and God opened the door for us to serve American pancakes while this team was in Spain. We served pancakes to about 250 students; including entertainment, with “the pancake song,” flipping pancakes across the room and catching them on a plate! This team helped fit the ladies from the “ladies class” and a few others with reading glasses. They also provided hair cuts and manicures for the “ladies in waiting.” We also shared the gospel and gave out MP3 players in Romanian. During “ladies class” and “kids club” the ladies taught each group how to make American chocolate chip cookies, with chocolate chips and flour from the states. The children at “kids club” also enjoyed the Easter story, along with Easter crafts, dying Easter eggs, and an Easter egg hunt. This team also had the opportunity to assist Segunda in paying a house tax. Segunda also prayed and asked Jesus into her heart during this time.

Banana Boat Prayer Requests

· Please continue to pray that the people who received glasses will have open eyes and hearts to the truth of a personal God.

· Pray for the ladies from the ladies class who received glasses and heard the gospel. Pray for Beatrice and her husband as we hope to begin discipleship with them.

· Please pray for the “ladies in waiting” who heard the gospel and who received the Bible in Romanian on MP3 players. Pray that they would want to have a personal relationship with Jesus. Pray for Laura, Victoria, and Miheala. Pray for Janette as she returns to Romania; that she might find a different type of work. Pray for Maria who is interested in Bible study. Pray for Miheala (from our church) who will lead a Bible study.

· Please pray for the children who heard the Easter story at kids club. Pray that they would understand about a living Savior.

· Pray for the young men in Mojonera. Pray for Nguy that he would understand more about who Jesus really is and how to know him personally. Pray for Ruben as he visits the guys in Mojonera.

· Please continue to pray for Ndeye and her family. Pray for her younger son. Pray that the Holy Spirit would call her to a personal relationship with God.

· Thank you for praying for Segunda: she prayed to receive Christ as her Savior! Please continue to pray for her as we follow up with discipleship.

Celebrating Woman’s Day with the Senegalese

We attended a Woman’s Day celebration at the Senegalese Association in Yegua Verda, Spain. Yegua Verde is a small town in the middle of many green houses about ten minutes from where we live. Yegua Verde means “green mare,” and there is a statue of the green mare made out of metal parts in the middle of the round about in the town. We went to the Senegalese Association’s center to deliver some clothes and attend the Woman’s Day celebration. We enjoyed eating delicious poulet yassa, a spicy African dish made with chicken and onions. This time it was served on tiny pasta instead of rice. Nernah Todop! (Wolof for “very good.”) We also enjoyed listening to the introductions, especially the one from a funny lady from Senegal. She was thanking the Spanish lady officials for coming. She said, “Thank you for coming.” And a few other pleasantries, and then she said, “We need work! We have homes we are renting and children we are feeding, and we need work!” Everyone laughed, but they also knew the seriousness behind her words. Then she danced and other ladies joined in to dance the Senegalese type of dance.

Maria’s Journey

Several years ago Maria came from her home country of Romania to southern Spain. She was looking for work and a better way of life. While in Spain she had a beautiful baby girl and named her Rosa Maria. We met Maria through our “ladies in waiting” ministry. Now she and her baby girl and her husband are traveling back to Romania and then on to Germany to again look for work and a better way of life. Please pray for Maria and her husband as they look for work in Germany. Pray that the Lord will lead them to another line of work and to a personal relationship with Jesus.

The Women’s Class

Norma is from Ecuador and is a member of our Spanish church in Almeria. Every Friday she takes the bus from Almeria to “mi casa” in Roquetas to teach a women’s class. She is teaching ladies from Senegal, the Gambia, Mali, and Mauritania to read, write, speak Spanish, and sew. Norma also loves to talk with her new friends about many things including what she calls “the Word of the Lord.” We are thankful for Norman and her great ministry to these ladies from Africa. Please pray for the women’s class as they meet on Friday mornings.

International Easter Egg Hunt

The Saturday before Easter we had an Easter party with our kids club at “mi casa.” We started with baking a cake in the shape of a bunny and the children decorated the cake with frosting, candy, and sprinkles. The children learned the American traditions of dying Easter eggs and an Easter egg hunt. The children loved the Easter egg hunt – once they got the hang of it. Our friend, Michiela, from Romania helped the children paint wooden Easter eggs based on a tradition from Romania. Then our pastor talked with the children about different Easter customs in Spain and asked the children about the religious experiences from their home countries, then went on to tell the Easter story which some of them were hearing for the first time. Please continue to pray for our Spanish Baptist Church as they continue to reach out to these children from Africa.

Surprise, Surprise, Surprise!

We were about ready to kill Clara, the sheep, to feed her to our African friends, but as we took a close look at her, I said, “I think she might be pregnant.” So we waited and in about a week we had a beautiful brown lamb, named Clarita. So we decided to kill Randa instead. So today Joel and John came over to Malle’s house early in the morning to kill and cut up the sheep. After the guys chopped it all up in the kitchen we delivered meat to four different African households. Now we are having a bar-b-que at the first house. We are cooking the meat out on a grill near the sheep pen, while the children are picking grass and flowers from the pasture to feed to the sheep in the pen: an interesting African day. Cade just walked by and said, “I want to eat some sheep!”

Banana Boat Prayer Update:

• Please continue to pray for Segunda and her 5 children ages 7,6,4,2, and 4 months. They are from Guinea Bissau.
• Please pray for Christians in the country south of us that are being persecuted. Please pray for the orphans who have been again left without caretakers whom they know and love.
• Thank you for praying for Maria. She is in Germany and is finding work there. Please continue to pray that God would lead her to a better line of work and to a personal relationship with Him.
• Please pray for the African young men in our area as they look for work. Also pray for John as he spends time with them and seeks to be the presence of Christ in their lives. Pray that these young men might begin to understand about a personal relationship with God.
• Please pray for us as we begin to prepare for our time of off-field assignment in the United States. Pray for our Spanish church and other folks who will be carrying on with the ministries while we are not here. Pray that God would use them in a special way and that He would encourage them in this ministry to African immigrants in southern Spain. Please continue to pray for our children’s education adjustments as they study in the states and then return to school in Spain.
• Please pray for Anna. She will be coming to Spain at the end of May to work with us through CBF’s student.go program. She will be working with the African churches to help them begin some children’s ministries. She will also be visiting the African young ladies. Please pray for her as she seeks to be the presence of Christ in their lives

Prayer Request

Please pray for us as we begin the process to enroll the boys in school here in Spain. We are hoping that they will be able to start kindergarden here next year (and not be put into first grade.) Please pray for the administrators here in Spain as we speak with them about placing the boys in school. We are also hoping that Megan and the boys can go to the school that Megan has been attending. Please pray that God's will will be done.