MISSIONS BLOGS

Yesterday after VBS we had an afternoon of prayer walking. We started in the plaza of independence where the day before thousands gathered to protest against the Spanish government which is not recognizing Catalan independence. As we walked to the plaza it was raining, but as we started to pray the sun began to shine. I think the Lord was pleased to hear prayers for the Catalan people.  We prayed for walls of hostility to be torn down and reconciliation.  We also asked for the Catalan people to look to God for true freedom!!

Please join us in continual prayer for Catalonia!!

Today, our second day of VBS, the children remembered some eyewitness accounts of the things that Jesus did during his life. He healed people, he loved people, he fed people and he never sinned. Then they learned about the death of Jesus and heard from the witnesses that told what they saw that day.  

After learning about Jesus’ death we talked about WHY Jesus died. The children understood that we can never hit the target of being good every single day, but Jesus did hit the bullseye ?? his whole life!!  We learned our missing the mark is called sin. 

Finally, we read that Jesus was wounded for our sins, so we can be healed and made perfect!! Lift up these precious children as they come to understand Jesus as the Way, Truth and Life. 

We finished our day by visiting the suburb of Salt. This community is over 60% Muslim, immigrants from Morocco and North Africa. We spent a couple of hours walking around the town and praying for the Lord to break through with light into the darkness here. 

Again please pray!!

Today was a great day. We started VBS at our church plant in Girona and were relying on God to bring the kids that He already had planned for. Kids started to come at 9:15am and we had songs, games, crafts, snacks, and a Bible story. This week, the kids will be learning about Jesus life, death, and resurrection, and how that proves his deity. The kids were so interested in the stories from the Scriptures we were telling them that all I could do was thank God for a church that is willing to share with them about Him.

Hola from España!

Our team landed in Barcelona early this morning and took a beautiful hour long car ride to Girona, our home base for the week. We had some down time to get settled into our hotel and then we went over to the home of the Parnells, the missionary family we are partnering with this week. We were greeted by their four adorable and exuberant kiddos who made us feel at home instantaneously. It felt like a family reunion as we broke bread together and shared lunch. 

We had a little bit more down time this afternoon and some team members snuck in a little nap (#jetlag). We walked over to the new meeting space for the church plant called Fluid. Fluid will be a co-working, community space throughout the week and will also be where the church meets on Sundays. Our group had the incredible honor of being a part of the inaugural church service held there. This time of worship was one that I will remember forever. The pastor, Derek, stood up and shared his overwhelming gratitude to the Lord for His faithfulness in providing this space and strong Christian community for their family here. As his eyes filled up with tears, so did mine. I was struck afresh by God’s unwavering faithfulness to equip the saints for the ministry He calls us to do for the sake of His name. His Kingdom is at hand in Girona and this time worshipping together was a foretaste of Rev. 7:9-12. We worshipped the Lord through singing, both in Catalan (the local language) and English. Then we opened up John 12:12-19 and had some good dialogue about this passage, what we learn about God’s character and where we see this to be true around us. We got to learn more about the spiritual temperature here from our local brothers and sisters. 

A few things they shared that broke my heart: 1) Only 1% of Spaniards are Christ-followers 2) The Catalan people that we are ministering to are the 3rd largest unreached people group. 

They likened the hearts of the people to that of cement, demonstrating the hardness of heart that is rampant. They swiftly followed up this analogy with the promise of God’s ability to turn the heart of stone to a heart of flesh. We closed our worship service together in prayer. This was such a sweet time of drawing near to the throne of the Lord together as His kids, asking Him to do abundantly more than we can ask or imagine and praising Him for how He’s at work here. 

We wrapped up the night decorating the space for VBS to start tomorrow morning and sharing a yummy meal together. We don’t know how many kids will show up tomorrow. We don’t know how the Lord is going to work through our team. But we are confident that He is going before us and stirring up a hunger for the gospel in the hearts and lives of those we will meet this week. Pray for the Lord to supernaturally draw kids and parents to VBS tomorrow, giving a chance for kids to hear the gospel and parents to get connected to the Parnells and their church. All praise be to God alone for letting us get to join Him in what He’s doing here in Girona!