| Dear Pastors and Praying Friends, Greetings in the name that is above every name, Jesus Christ. We arrived back in the states on December 30th and have been staying with my dad in Tennessee, and visiting other family members. Our hearts were saddened to leave behind all that we own and the people that we were ministering to and with. Between our time serving in the U.S. Navy and the years we were allowed to serve there as missionaries, we have lived in Spain seven of the last 15 years. The country and people of Spain have become as much a part of our lives as anything else and it is with much sadness and apprehension that we make this transition. We praise the Lord for safe travel and are now seeking His will for us. We first received notice in May of 2005 that we were being asked to leave the country because our Spanish Residence renewal had been denied. As you may remember, at that time they stamped our passports and told us that we had 15 days to be out of the country. We fought this decision through the legal system from that point until December when they told us that the appeal process was “at and end” and we would have to leave or face deportation and as a worst case not be allowed to return to all of Europe for five to ten years. We are not the only missionaries in Spain facing this problem. Another family living in the same region as us has given up their legal battle and left Spain last month. Things in the European Union are changing quickly and not all for the better. During this seven month legal battle we, along with many other prayer warriors all over the world have prayed for the Lord’s will to be done in this situation. We thought that surely the Lord wanted us to remain in Spain, the door to the European Union, but every time a decision was handed down the answer was always the same, “NO!” We didn’t want to run from the Devil, but at the same time didn’t want to try to kick down a door that the Lord was trying to close in our lives. At any stage of this battle the Lord could have overturned the decision but He did not. We are diligently searching for the Lord’s will for our lives and ministry in all of this and greatly appreciate your prayers on our behalf. I was recently able to travel to Juarez, Mexico with our Mexican Field Director, Fred Kindhart, to visit the Harper family. The city of Juarez is growing rapidly and approaching a population of two million. We had the privilege of staying in the home of veteran missionary John Ridings. He was a tremendous blessing to us. We helped Bro. Harper dedicate a building to the Lord to use for church services in a colony called San Francisco. It was a blessing to see three precious souls make professions of faith in Christ as their personal Savior. One of these, was a lady named Asusana. She had donated property in front of her home to Bro. Harper to use for the church building. At first she did it because she thought she could please God and earn favor with Him. She finally saw that no matter what she tried to do, it wasn‘t able to get her to Heaven. She placed her faith in Christ and now knows that the Lord is the only way. It will be wonderful to see how the Lord is going to use her. While we wait on His clear guidance we will be living near our sending Church, Canaan Baptist Church in Covington, GA., and working closely with our pastor, Dr. Scott Caudill. We should be moving there within the next couple of weeks. |