Easter in Alsace with Evodia

Strasbourg is in the Alsace region of France.  On Easter Sunday after church we went to Philipe and Evodia’s house for a lunch with many of the people from Trinity International Church.  The guests were from Egypt, Korea, Greece, France, America, Peru, Bulgaria and other places.  Philipe is a retired pastor from the Alsace region.  He speaks Alsacian, French, German, and Greek.  His wife, Evodia, is from Greece.  Over the past few weeks she has shared with me about the customs in Alsace and Greece during Easter.  She dyed some eggs to be the center piece of the table during our Easter lunch.  During the lunch people can choose an egg, then turn to the person sitting next to them and crack their eggs together, to see which person’s egg cracks first.  Evodia also has an Easter egg tree set up in her living room.  Many families in Alsace follow this tradition in their homes and even out in their yards.  It was such a blessing to share this holiday with Evodia and her family.

 

 

Prayer Requests

 Please pray for our family as we prepare to head back to Texas for our OFA (formerly known as furlough.)

 

As we spend some time in the states, the work here in Europe will continue.  We are thankful that God has sent workers to the harvest field (Matthew 9:37-38.)  Please pray for Scott, Irene, Marion, Kurt, and Karyn in Strasbourg, France. 

Please pray for Ruben, Miriam, Isabel, Norma, Betty, Mihaela, and Ruben in Spain.

 

Please continue to pray for Sylvie Saint-Alby and part of her family that live in Ivory Coast, Africa.

 

A Day in the Life of the Whitleys

Today the kids had a break from school and we needed to go to the prefecture to pick up their French residence cards and apply for my French driver’s license.  So we hopped on our bikes and headed off to the tram station where we locked up our bikes and got on the tram to ride downtown to the prefecture.  We spent some time in the prefecture taking care of all of the legal matters that go with living in a foreign country; then we walked along the river and found a place for lunch.  Along the way we watched the baby ducklings playing in the water.  After lunch we walked over to Place Kleber to go to the huge bookstore so that I could buy another French book for my French class.  On the way we had delicious ice cream cones.  Next it was time to take the tram back to near our home; where we once again hopped on our bikes and headed for home.  On the way home we saw beautiful swans floating on the river.  The next plan for our day was to hop in the car and drive across the river into Germany to shop for a dog crate for our dog Toby.  When we returned home we decided to go to the Orangerie Park for a little more fun.  The kids played and Toby ran around, until he rolled in stork poop and we had to go home and give him a bath!  The stork is the symbolic bird for the Alsace region of France: a beautiful white bird with black tipped feathers.

Please continue to pray for all of our paperwork for living in France to work out smoothly. 

 

The largest mosque in France is located in Strasbourg.  Please pray that God will open the hearts of people to the possibility of having a personal relationship with Him through Christ.

We are meeting many people from many countries and faith backgrounds; from Russia, Poland, Italy, Guinea, Senegal, Congo, Cameroon, Belgium, Japan, and Morocco.  Please pray for us as we build relationships and as we discuss our personal relationships with the Lord.

Please pray for Sylvie St. Alby.  Sylvie is from Guinea.  She and her ten year old daughter recently moved to Strasbourg.  Sylvie was in the hospital for complications related to her diabetes.

 We appreciate your prayers.

 

More Prayer Requests

• Please pray for Isabel Maria in Albacete, Spain.  

• Please pray for Ruben and Miriam near Cadiz, Spain.  

• Please pray for Fatu and her new baby in Roquetas de Mar, Spain.

• Please pray for Trinity International Church of Strasbourg, France.  Their building is set to be demolished and they are in the process of seeking God’s will for a new meeting place.  Also please pray for the pastor, Karl, who has been ill since arriving in France.

• Please pray for our family as we are getting French residence cards for the children, French drivers licenses for the adults, and getting or renewing French residence cards for the adults.  Please pray that all of these legal issues will work out smoothly.

Prayer Update

Psalms 96:3a - "Declare his glory among the nations..."

-Please pray for Trinity International Church of Strasbourg; one of the churches we are working with here in France as we seek to work together to reach out to the nations.

-Please pray for our language acquisition as we seek to communicate with immigrants from many different nations and unreached people groups.

-Please pray for the immigrant friends that we are meeting from many different countries; such as, Cameroon, Guinea, Senegal, Mauritania, Algeria, Ghana, and Libya.

We also want to include our past Christmas smile box link.  It was our December Banana Boat Update and many were not able to view it when we sent it out via email.  To view our smile box photo book update just click on the link you see here:

http://smilebox.com/play/4d7a6b774d5445774d444e384e7a6b324f4467344e6a593d0d0a&sb=1

Thank you so much for praying for us.

Love,
the Whitleys

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.

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.