As we reached the point where we knew God had called us into overseas missionary service, that was where the real seeking began. We had to wait for God to present the place. We looked at Great Britain, Colombia, and Ireland, but the doors continued to close. God laid a burden on our heart for Spain, but, as we have learned, we have been burdened for the lost in other places as well, so we could not take this as confirmation, but as another avenue to seek an opening.
Through the next couple of months, we received confirming moments and began to set our hearts on this place. The confirmation that I truly needed came through a desire to read God's Word while I was at work on September 14, 2012. I was flipping through the Bible, not really sure what I was seeking, but just knowing that God had prepared something for me. In my turning, I stopped and began to read.
"But now that there is no more place for me to work in these regions, and since I have been longing for many years to visit you, I plan to do so when I go to Spain." Romans 15:23-24
There it was, simply laid before me. I have read through the Bible cover to cover several times, and generally a passage like this would be one I would read and move on. I know this little bit of Scripture doesn't seem like much, but it was to me. I have been involved in some form of ministry for a few years now (although as Christians, we are all in ministry). For a few years, I was a youth pastor. Since then, I have served as an Admissions Director for a Christian University, giving me more opportunities to reach out to people than I could have asked for.
I have loved the time I have served in ministry here, and I have met so many amazing people who have been of great encouragement in this calling pursuit. Now, God has called my wife and I to a new ministry - a ministry to a population that is starving for, while also resisting, the Gospel. Check out this article to see just how resistant Spain truly is. A population where most consider themselves Catholic, yet only 10% regularly attend a worship service. As I've mentioned before, 47 million people live in Spain, yet less than 1% claim to be evangelical Christians. Spain has some tough soil to plant on.
Anyways, back to the passage. While there is much work left to do here, God is revealing that this is not where He wants us to stay. So here we go, we're moving on to Spain.
Sadly, I know that we have not seen many of you who read this blog in some time. We hope to do that as we continue through the process. We want to visit you, we want to talk with you, we want your prayers and support, and we want to build our relationships here. I am learning, as I speak with veteran missionaries, that our relationships with you will be more and more important while we are on the field.
If you have not already, be sure to subscribe to our newsletter. We'll start sending out regular newsletters soon, and we want to make sure we are sending information to the right address and email. Also, our OMS profile page is now live, so check that out.
As always, thank you for your prayers and support. Mel and I are trying to open ourselves up as much as possible for God to use us freely. We'll both be finishing school a semester early, so that is requiring more work in a shorter amount of time. We'll be starting Spanish language training soon and scheduling appointments to develop partners for ministry. It's going to be a busy year as we hope to be on the field early fall 2013, but God is faithful.
I'll leave you with a couple of pictures of a small baptism service that just happened Tuesday where a lady named Veronika wanted to profess her faith through baptism after a Sunday morning invitation. This happened as a result of one of the house churches that were planted by the team in Spain. As Mel said in her last post, it is great knowing our assignment (Vision Sierra Oeste church planting team), and knowing that efforts already established are working.
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