Small Steps. Big Faith.

In March 2021, Pep y Silvia participated online along with 25 other couples in the S.O.M. (Seminario de Orientación al Matrimonio), our pre-marriage weekend conference offered to engaged couples and recently married couples throughout Spain. In April of 2022, although they had a previously scheduled commitment, they participated through video by sharing the benefits they received through their experience with the S.O.M. Because of their incredible communication abilities as well as their maturity and love for the Lord, we challenged them to consider giving one of the talks at the most recent S.O.M. What a great decision that was. There were 12 couples this year participating on-site in Barcelona AND simultaneously online. Pep and Silvia were amazing, not only in their talk about Marriage and Society in the 21st Century, but also in their servant hearts, connecting with couples and serving until the very end of the conference and then getting into their car to make the 3-hour drive back...

This spring has brought numerous opportunities to interact with our new staff. On this occasion, Donna Cannella (pictured front row, 2nd from right) and I invited 5 new staff, 2 interns and their trainers from a variety of Agape ministries to join us near Barcelona to cast vision for them about the value and purpose of ministry training. In our organization, Ágape prioritizes faith, growth and lasting fruit. The " Capacitación de nuevos coordinadores " (CNC) (or "New Staff Training" (NST)) exists to create a space to develop life change and ministry effectiveness. Our aim is to equip our staff not only in skills (hands), but also with knowledge (head) and attitude (heart).  At the CNC Orientation, we begin this 2-year training process by tackling together the first 3 of 39 topics. Another important component to the training includes an intentional relationship between the trainer (the director or some other senior staff) and trainee (new staff member). During the CN...

Over the last 2 years Agape has seen an encouraging rise in the number of new staff joining our ministry. I was in Málaga this month (Oct 8-10) to assist in our ministry support development training for new staff in Spain. In was a very encouraging time to get to know these young staff and to hear their stories, to remind them of God's faithfulness in raising up our ministry support team and to encourage them in all that God has called them to do. One of the staff I met is Pablo Gómez, or Pablín as he is often called. He has been volunteering for several years with Agape, but the end of 2012, he made the most important decision of his life, to not only dedicate part of his time serving God but rather to work full-time to build bridges in order to help change lives by introducing people to Jesus. Below he shares a bit of his story.... "My name is Pablo J. Gómez, but everyone calls me Pablín. It's a name that I identify with because, although I am tall, I recognize...

Recently the Agape accountant in the National Office, Mari Carmen, called to ask me a favor. "Everyone in the office will be out of town next week at a conference except for me. Since your work is portable, is there any chance you could come to the office, work from here, answer the phone when it rings and keep me company?" After several weeks of being holed up in my home office consumed by tiny details for our conference the invitation was quite inviting. So, I caught the train early each morning to Barcelona and then caught it back in the evenings. It was actually a needed lift to my "people person" spirit to be in the midst of a flurry of activity. Family Life, Student Venture, Campus Ministry, Jesus film, International Ministry....it all runs through the National Office. Since I'd spent significant time in 2006 in the office I was generally familiar with the protocol, etc. It's a balancing act sometimes to focus on one's own work (in this case the...