February - March
2002
Dear Pastor and Praying Friends,
Greetings, from Spain, in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ! We hope that this letter finds you busy for the King of
Kings and Lord of Lords. These past two months have been
wonderful. Bro. Cooper had his first weeklong conference at the
church here. Brother Tomas Gomez, a missionary from Madrid,
preached each service and we had four people make professions of faith,
two of them being young boys in the church here.
I have had the opportunity to help lead five people in making
professions of faith here recently. We are very happy that one of
those is our youngest
son, Christopher. We have been praying that he would accept
Christ
at an early age. I was leading a woman to Christ at the new
church
we have started in El Cuervo, and after I was through he came to me and
asked
me to show him how to be saved. He has been talking about getting
saved
for almost a year now and we have always told him what he would need to
do.
"…Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not:
for
of such is the kingdom of God." Luke 18:16. The names of the
other
people are Amparro, Teodoro, Nerea, and Delores. Please pray for
these
people that God will strengthen them and give them the desire to serve
Him.
When people come to Christ here in Spain, their families aren't very
receptive
and can cause much turmoil. Delores is a good example of
this.
Her son is a member of the church here in Lebrija and after she made
her
profession of faith, her other grown children (who are Catholics)
forbade
her to come back to church. The good news is that she hasn't
returned
to the Catholic Church. She strongly confirms that she asked
Christ
into her heart to save her, but she can't continue to fight against her
other
children. Pray very hard for her and her children. He can
change
their hearts also.
As stated above, we (the church in Lebrija) have started a new church
in a nearby city called El Cuervo (The Raven). We have rented a
storefront there after working the streets for several months.
Joni has placed a John and Romans booklet in every home there. I
helped him finish up this past month. Your prayers are greatly
needed for this new church. Please ask God to not only bring the
people in but also save them.
Joni and I have begun to pass out John and Romans in another nearby
city called Las Cabezas de San Juan (The heads of Saint John).
There are nearly 15,000 souls in Las Cabezas, who desperately need the
Gospel. We hope to cover the whole city by this summer. It
is easy to go house to house in the smaller cities, due to the fact
that most people live in houses
and not apartment complexes. The larger cities are more difficult
due
to so many apartment buildings that don't allow entry without knowing
someone
or having a key. We know that God will open doors and hearts.
Semana Santa (Holy Week) took place this past week and what a saddening
event it was. The people carry huge images of Mary and Jesus
through
the streets of their cities thinking that this will pay for their
sins. The images depict the suffering and even the death of
Christ, but not one shows the resurrection. How sad to think that
these people know Christ died on the cross and how much he suffered for
them, yet they don't have the
victory because they don't celebrate His victory over the tomb.
Please
pray that God will open their blinded eyes.
Thank you for your continued prayers and support. May God richly
bless you.