Small Steps. Big Faith.

Since November 2010 I have been serving as a translator/interpreter between our GAiN Spain office and the head office of GAiN in Germany. (No, I don´t speak German, but most Germans speak English, which our Spanish team doesn´t do very often.) In April, our national director, Ruben Rivera (seated front row, right), attended meetings of all the national directors of GAiN throughout Europe and around the world. During the gathering, each national director was asked to present an update on its team and office and share about projects that the other GAiN offices could get involved with. Later in the week, several countries, including Spain, were added to the official list of GAiN offices around the world.  While I wasn´t able to accompany him as an interpreter, I did have the opportunity to translate Ruben´s GAiN Spain presentation. It was a great talk. (If you´d like to read it you can click  here. ) All the directors said so. Ruben was kind to congratulate me, but the truth...

  4 I always thank my God as I remember you in my prayers, 5 because I hear about your love for all his holy people and your faith in the Lord Jesus. 6 I pray that your partnership with us in the faith may be effective in deepening your understanding of every good thing we share for the sake of Christ. 7 Your love has given me great joy and encouragement, because you, brother, have refreshed the hearts of the Lord’s people. ( Philemon 1:4-7 , New International Version ) Pictured above is Marian Bootello, whom I have mentioned several times in the last few years. Marian is a Spanish woman from Málaga who joined the staff of Agape 9 years ago to work with adolescents. We first met in the south when I worked in Granada and she was a student at the University of Málaga; and started collaborating together when she joined the Campus staff of Agape in Sevilla in 2002. Because we share a common background of the Campus ministry and because we are both new to the staff team in T...

So, we´re starting a new work and we want people to know about it. Who ya gonna call? Facebook  of course. While I´m no expert, I do use Facebook and I have internet access and time to access when Aaron sleeps. So, supervised by our communications director, I am GAiN Spain´s Facebook administrator. Our hope is that as we share thoughts, events, images and new ideas, others will be motivated to join with us in being the hands and feet of Jesus. Please pray that this light will rise in the darkness and that He´ll use this FB page to catch people´s attention, involve them in projects and even capture their hearts for Him. Pray that God would be pleased to use this work as His hands and feet to meet the physcial, emotional and spiritual needs of people around the world. Although the page is in Spanish, come check it out:  GAiN España  on Facebook. Many of the internet browsers automatically translate foreign languages into your own language. And if you like what you see...

"  14  What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them?  15  Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food.  16  If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?  17  In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.  18  But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”    Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds.  19  You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.   20  You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless [ a ] ?  21  Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar?  22  You see that his faith and his actions were wor...

As of now, you can follow what God is doing in and through Agape Spain on our new website, in both Spanish and English: www.agape.org  You´ll find descriptions of our ministry, introductions to our staff, access to ministry materials and a blog roll for our staff of ongoing events around the country. My 2-cents-worth contribution has been to assist with some of the translation to English of some of the different pages and to provide ongoing translation for the staff blog, which is available for anyone and everyone to read. Our hope is that this additional communication tool will help to encourage financial investors as they give by faith and help to inspire potential new laborers to join with us in taking the gospel to the 46 million people living in Spain.( Spain Demographics ) Please pray that God would use this new web page to help us become more effective in reaching Spain with the gospel.

After months of searching, praying and negotiating, the Lord has opened the door for "Obra Social Agape" to move in to a new locale at Avinguda Jaume (James Avenue), number 1. Just before Christmas Eve our team gathered on the 2nd floor to give thanks and praise to God and celebrate this big step. As 2011 is just getting started please pray... Please pray for the upcoming semester.... *Spanish classes for Moroccan women *after-school tutoring for at-risk kids *international projects and the launching of GAiN (Global Aid Network) Spain *other possible new works? Pray that the Lord would use us as His hands and feet. Pray that He would open a door for our message, the gospel message of Christ, of hope and reconciliation found in Jesus. Pray that many would be drawn to Him. Pray for our team....that we would grow closer together this spring as we work together.

Over the last 3 years, slowly and what seems to be coincidentally, staff members, one after the other, have been moving to the Barcelona area, specifically to the city of Terrassa, including Ruben and me. In all there are four married couples (and 7 children!) who make up this team. We have all come to this city for different reasons, but each one has been led by the Lord in some way or another. We all definitely have a desire to share the gospel, but the exact purpose of this loosely connected team was a bit fuzzy at the beginning. Mariangeles Bootello has been involved with evangelism and discipleship in the Campus ministry since 2002. She moved here from Sevilla three years ago, just before marrying a young man from Barcelona. She works with Existe Más Mundo (More World Exists), a social work outreach of the Campus Ministry in Spain that serves the hungry and the homeless. She´s also been working with troubled teens, many of whom are children of Moroccan immigrants. Two of th...