February Banana Boat update

(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 .

The Tabaski Holiday Arrives after Mayhem in Mohonera

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.

--------------------------

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.

The Gift at Christmastime

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.

Merry Christmas, Love,

the Whitleys

Kilos of Care...

(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 America and 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 3^rd or 4^th 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 Sagemont Baptist Church 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 Spanish Baptist Church 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:

• Estimated cost of specific items:

22 kilo bag of rice: $37 or (1 kilo - $1.68)

22 kilo bag of couscous: $39 or (1 kilo - $1.77)

22 kilo sack of onions: $19 or (1 kilo - .86)

5 kilo block of frozen chicken pieces: $14 or (1 kilo - $2.80)

5 kilo sack of potatoes: $7 or (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 101699

Atlanta, GA 30392

Special instructions: Write Kilos of Care #89833 in 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!

Ministry among many...

(Read from the bottom up, if you want sequential order. The newest posts are always at the top.)

Over the past few months our family has been busy serving those immigrants here in Southern Spain for whom we are called. Your prayers and support continue to allow us to meet the physical and spiritual needs of those around us. Since our last update we have continued to meet more people, hear more stories, and see once again how our presence is of great need. For example, we have participated in a United Nations human rights conference in Paris, France, in which we learned of many needs of marginalized people. In one session, a woman from Senegal said, “What can mothers do about their children dying on clandestine boats headed for Spain.” We have also visited the ministry site of a co-worker, shared our ministry and vision with CBF constituents, and continued to work to develop ties with local NGOs. There is much more we would like to share and even more to be accomplished but for now, we would like to highlight three stories…

Our family in Paris during the UN conference.

Demba’s Story:

We have known Demba for about 5 months. He is always smiling, laughing, and joking. When we met him, he was also dancing. Today he told me (Tiffne) part of his story. He came to Spain two years ago from Senegal. He said that his parents are elderly and that they had not had work in Senegal for many years. He has a sister with children. He has a wife, and a four year old son. When he left Senegal his wife was pregnant with their second child, so now he also has a one year and 4 month old baby whom he has never seen. He came to Spain to find work so that he could send money home to provide for his extended family because there was no work in Senegal. As Demba told me about his family back home and his baby boy that he had never seen, for the first time in the five months that I have known him the smile disappeared from his face and the light went out of his eyes. Demba was sad, and I felt a tiny bit of the suffering of these precious people.

Demba took our children to the store and with his hard earned money bought each of them a bag of cookies. It was hard for me to let him do it, but he insisted. Now I wonder if maybe he was buying my children a bag of cookies, because he couldn’t do so with his own children who live in Africa.

Here is Cade sitting with Demba the first time we met him.

Riots in Roquetas:

This past month proved to be a difficult month for our friends living in “200 viviendas”. What started as a small fight being broken up by a friend; ended up in a full-scale riot that lasted for a couple nights complete with riot police, helicopter support, burning dumpsters and apartments, flying bottles and rocks, and many disrupted lives including one Senegalese man being fatally stabbed. A few days after the incident, we had the opportunity to visit the area where there still was a strong police presence and a feeling of uncertainty even though much had returned to normal. Since then we have had numerous opportunities to minister in this area where we already knew various families and young men, including a Nigerian Independence Day party, and delivering vegetables to our friends who live in an apartment above one that was burned.

This is one of the apartment units that was set ablaze during the rioting.

One of our newest contacts in the area is a family with a newborn premature baby. Fortunately the baby was still in the hospital at the time of the incident but the father said he was still concerned to bring his baby home even a week after. The place where this family is staying it a mere 30 yards from one of the burned out apartment buildings. Tiffne has sent previous prayer updates about this family and their new baby and we are thankful for all the prayers. Many churches and individuals have come together to provide formula, clothing, and blankets for the new baby and we were able to provide them with one of our boys pack-n-plays as a crib.

Proud father, Check from Cameroon, holding his daughter (Margarita) at home just a week after the riots.

VBS at FBC Roquetas de Mar:

FBC Roquetas de Mar is a Nigerian church near where we live. In August we had a VBS for the children of their church. Our VBS “team” was made up of wonderful volunteers from two Mennonite churches from the United States, missionary volunteers from various Baptist backgrounds, another volunteer from a Methodist background, and volunteers from our Spanish Baptist Church. Along with our friends from Nigerian, we had many different cultures working together, and we had a wonderful time and a great VBS. One highlight of the first day was the Mennonite song, “Apple Red Happiness” that the children learned in music class.

“Apple Red Happiness,

Popcorn Cheerfulness,

Cinnamon singing inside,

Peppermint energy,

Gumdrop holiday,

When you give Christ your life!”

Then we served red apples and popcorn for snack along with lemonade! What fun!

Here is one VBS class at the Nigerian Church in Roquetas de Mar.

Craft time during VBS.

Thank you….

Thank you for your continued support and prayer for our family, ministries, and for those whom we serve.

Please continue to pray for Megan’s new teacher. For the first week of school she didn’t have a teacher and things became disorganized. Now she has a teacher. He is right out of Institute (college.) Megan says he is nice.

Please continue to pray diligently for our Muslim friends here, that they would become more and more open to a personal relationship with Christ.

Love,

the Whitleys

Banana Boat Blog Update

We are continually amazed at how God is leading us to meet those in need around us here in southern Spain. Over the past few months we have met many West Africans from Senegal and The Gambia and in short order have become friends. Each time we visit taking only a small bag of vegetables, they invite us in, offer us African tea, cook a meal, buy juice or water and won’t let us leave until we have partaken of all they offer. One day while at the home of some of our Gambian friends, Tiffne was helping cook a traditional African meal when Dabou shared this piece of African philosophy about why Africans eat together all out of one very large plate. He explained that “when everyone eats together we are all the same. If a man with money is eating with a man who has no money and they eat from the same bowl, no one knows which man has the money. We all share together and then we are the same.”

We have a lot to learn from our African friends. In fact, Dabou has been very instrumental in my understanding of why so many sub-Saharan Africans are making the dangerous trip from their country to Europe by sharing his story with us.

The story of Dabou:

Dabou is from a small fishing village in The Gambia. His father was a fisherman and all the boys in his family fished to support the family. Dabou is the second born son in his family and when his father died his oldest brother was obligated to provide for the entire family as is the culture in Africa. Over the years the ocean around the The Gambia has suffered a decline in fish production due to over-fishing, and Dabou’s family was barely scrapping by, going hungry more days than not each month. As head of his late father’s family, about twenty-five mouths to feed, Dabou’s oldest brother told Dabou that he would have to make the journey to Europe, find work and send money back to his family so that they could survive.

The journey for Dabou began in 2004. He left The Gambia heading north-east through Senegal to Mali. Over the next few months Dabou traveled through Mali to Niger then turned west and crossed Algeria and the Sahara desert to enter Morocco. From Morocco he and twenty something other sub-Saharan Africans boarded a small boat powered by a Yamaha 25 horsepower outboard motor to make the trip to the Canary Islands, which is a Spanish providence and thus Europe. Leaving the banks of Morocco under the cover of darkness at around 11 pm the boat began the dangerous open water ocean crossing. At about 8 am the second day their boat made landfall on the Canary Islands. After about 33 hours on the boat Dabou and the others were met on the beaches by the Spanish police and taken directly to a refugee camp holding area. Dabou lived in this camp for about four months. During his time there he was able to obtain documents that allowed him to remain in Spain. Dabou says that this time was very scary for him, “many are sent back to their own countries, but I was one of the lucky ones, I got my papers.”

Today finds Dabou living in southern Spain and when he can find work, working in the greenhouses that cover the landscape around his town. He says, “[the] greenhouse work is very, very hard for little money.” However, in spite of his struggle to find steady work, he is still able to make enough money to live on and send some back to his brother in The Gambia so that his family can live.

As we sit and talk with our friends, we are hearing their stories and discovering their needs. We are able to, in some instances either meet a critical need or help them to meet their needs themselves. One of the really neat conversations that have been developing is the conversation about what we do. It is exciting to tell these young men and families that we are here doing what we do because there are churches in the United States that care about them. On many occasions they have expressed their gratitude for what we do and have asked that we thank those churches with whom we work.

One team that has recently worked with us was the Cole family from First Baptist Church of Abilene, TX. Below is part of a longer email they sent to their supporters describing their experience:

“[As we] reach out to those who are the most neglected and marginalized people on the planet, let me explain who these people are and how they got to Spain… The largest groups of people… come from West Africa. The people… are to the point that they are absolutely dependent on someone from their family clan (usually the best and brightest) to make it to an industrialized country alive. If you look on a map you will see that there are two ways to get from West Africa to the nearest industrialized country, Spain. They can make the journey two ways. Both see what is approximated to be at least a 25% death rate for those who attempt the migration. They can attempt to travel over a thousand miles by sea hoping to reach the Spanish Canary Islands. Or they can go 2,500 miles overland through Mali, which is the beginning of the Sahara Desert, through Algeria to Morocco. If these folks who have spent their whole lives never much more than a few miles from home in a rainy equatorial climate make it through 2,000 miles of desert they bump into Morocco. In Morocco they are considered a pariah to Moorish society and can essentially be killed for going over or under the fences. If they make it to the coast of Morocco they still have to figure out how to get across 100 miles of the Mediterranean Sea. Oddly enough, due to the vessels we would not even call boats; it seems to be the last 100 miles that sees the most fatalities. Thousands attempt this journey every year. While many make it, many either perish due to dehydration, exposure, or drowning, or they are forced to turn around and attempt to make it back home. Once in Spanish territorial waters, or upon reaching the Spanish shore they are taken by the authorities to a holding camp to be processed, tested for diseases, given acute medical attention, and questioned about who they are and where they come from. They are typically held for up to three months and then literally turned loose to find their own way into Spanish society. They usually gravitate to their countrymen in public housing blocks where they are embraced by the group with a bond that we can probably never truly understand. They are released by the authorities stuck between the proverbial rock and a hard place. They can't work because they have no papers, but they can't get papers because they can't prove that they have the possibility to work. The small percentage who have gotten papers and work literally support a 3 to 4 room household with up to 15 or 20 people. Once here long enough many get jobs working in the massive vegetable industry where they can earn money to simply survive while sending the majority of the coveted euros they earn back home where it literally provides opportunity for their cherished family members to survive another month.

Their stories of unbelievably difficult journeys, struggles to navigate in and amalgamate into a completely foreign culture, and the sacrifices they make to make their family's lives better are inspiring. But it is something else that will strike deeply and profoundly. Joy prevails! Though they have been through horrific experiences, have very little, and have no real promise of a different future, they are the most joyful people we have ever seen. When you meet them the first thing you will notice is a smile that never seems to loose its beam. They embrace and invite you right into their living rooms where ten more will pour the same warmth all over you.”

Windows of Joy

Each summer refugee children come to Spain to visit for about 2 months. These children were born and raised in a refugee camp in the Sahara Desert. They live in tents and do not have running water. All of there basic needs are brought in to these camps to them. They attend school in these camps. Their lives are difficult. During their time here in Spain we want to work together with others to provide a window of joy in their lives. This summer we are planning to have an art camp for these children, and we are looking forward to seeing them smile.

We are also planning a Vacation Bible School with a Nigeria church here in southern Spain. These two activities are the kinds of mini-projects that you support through your prayers and giving to the Migration Crisis and Relief Project. Thank you for your ministry to these precious people from Africa.

To support the work of CBF field personnel around the world; you can give to the Offering for Global Missions at: Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, Resource Center, P.O. Box 101699, Atlanta, GA 30392. Also, if you would like to give directly to our project, please send donations to the above address and be certain to include this project’s account number in the memo line. (project # 89832)

Prayer Update

Thank you so much for praying for our ministry here. God is really answering your prayers and we are having lots of opportunities to reach out.

• Please continue to pray for God to lead us to those he wants us to minister to.
• Pray that He will grow His church here in southern Spain.
• Pray for our preparation and the team of volunteers who will be helping with the art camp and the VBS this August.
• Pray for us as we travel to team meetings this summer. Pray that we will have good meetings and that travel will go smoothly.

Thank you for praying for our family. Our kids seem to be doing great and adjusting well. The boys are growing and are as wild as three year old boys can be. Megan has had a great kindergarten year, her Spanish is good, she learned to read in English at home, and she will have a dance recital with a ballet dance in a tutu and a flamenco dance as well!

• Please begin to pray now for Megan’s new teacher next year. Her teacher this year was wonderful and that helped with her adjustment so much.

Thank you for keeping up with us, and for praying for us.

You can continue to e-mail us at twhitley@thefellowship.info .