August - September
2002
Dear Pastor and Praying Friends,
Greetings from Rota, Spain in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ!
The Lord is doing a wonderful work here with people making professions
of
faith, getting baptized and joining the church. As we stated in
the
last prayer letter we are filling in for Bro. Chris Parker while he
raises
support to return as Pastor of Bethel Baptist Church in Rota,
Spain.
We have been here since August 1st and are tremendously busy in the
Lords
work. We now have between 20 and 30 people that are attending the
church
on a regular basis. Glory be to God!
Soon after we arrived here a young couple from Florida, Whitney and
Holli
Chastain, joined the church. Whitney has only been saved for a
short
time, but really has a burden to do whatever the Lord wants in his
life.
He and Holli both have been witnessing faithfully on the base to
friends
and co-workers. They have been a great blessing and help in the
work
here. We recently began Discipleship classes on Tuesday nights
and
are teaching basic fundamental doctrines of the Bible in order to help
the
people understand what we believe and WHY. In one of these
classes,
a young lady, Alejandra (Alex) Campos, realized her need of
salvation.
She had told us earlier that she was saved, but that night admitted
that
she never really knew the truth about Salvation and thus had never had
any
assurance. Patsy showed her how to be saved through the Bible and
she
asked Jesus Christ to forgive her sins and save her soul. I
baptized
her the following Sunday in the Atlantic Ocean. Ever since then,
she
has been witnessing to all of her friends and even her
babysitter.
Alex and her husband Adam are of Mexican descent and speak fluent
Spanish.
We trust that their family will be a tremendous help in the
ministry.
Ronnie and Agnes Ramos are a family from the Philippines. Ronnie
just
recently joined the church, but his wife didn't. I asked Agnes
after
services this past Sunday night about her church membership. She
replied
by saying, "I am not saved and can't join the church." We already
had
an idea that she wasn't saved, but it wasn't going to do any good until
she
realized it. I was able to lead her to the Lord and will be
baptizing
her this coming Sunday. She testified the following Wednesday
night
that she had known for ten years that she needed to be saved, but was
too
shy and afraid to go forward. She said that she had been praying
that
I would come to her directly. Following Agnes' profession of
faith,
both of their children asked Christ to be their Savior also!!
We ask you to pray for a lady named Semih (Sammy). She is from
Turkey
and was brought to our services by a Spanish lady named Ima.
Semih
made a profession of faith but the following week she told Ima that she
didn't
want anything to do with her, her Jesus, her Bible or her
religion.
We aren't sure what has happened, but believe she met opposition from
her
husband. May God break through to her and her husband before it
is
everlasting too late.
The Lord is allowing us to be able to spread the Gospel internationally
right
here from Spain. Since arriving on the mission field we have been
able
to share the Gospel with people from Mexico, the Philippines, Turkey,
Italy,
Rwanda, Morocco, Germany, the United States and of course Spain.
The
possibilities represented by the Gospel being spread to these countries
are
endless. We continue to be amazed at the way the Lord works and
humbled
that He would be willing to use us.
Our whole family is well and very excited with what the Lord is doing
here.
The three older boys are back in another year of home-school and the
baby
is an absolute joy to us all. Garrett is now able to play the
piano
some in church services and all the children enjoy doing their part
passing
out tracts and inviting people to church. Please pray that the
Lord
will continue to use us to win many more souls to Him and train up
faithful
men and women for His service.