Tuesday, October 05, 2004

Bell Nouvelles 7.5

October, 2004
Bell Nouvelles in short:

Praises:
-good evangelistic activities
-a good start to our weekly children's meetings
-good meetings about Creationism
Prayer Requests:
-a good testimony at the university
-the children's testimony at school
-several families struggling with problems

Dear praying friends,


The month of September began with the special blessing of my aunt's visit. She spent two weeks with us and was a great encouragement and blessing. Last month was a very important one since David just began first grade and Andrea started 4-year-old kindergarden. It was a bit of a rough time for her, but having aunty Christine here made things a little bit easier. Andrea has done very well at adapting to her school. We are thankful for the new opportunities for contacts and trust that the Lord will open up new doors for witnessing. Maribel was able to talk to David's religion teacher a few weeks ago, which gave her the opportunity to share with him exactly what we believe. Please pray for further opportunities there.


September was also a big month for the church. We were able to start our new year of children's meetings under the direction of one of the deacons in the church. But before we started, we wanted to have a special push for evangelism specifically aimed at children. For the last four years we have carried out a special children's evening in a local park where we have organized games, crafts, stories, etc. and been able to give out hundreds of tracts and even make a few contacts with families. This year, however, we ran into problem after problem when we asked for permission from the city government to do the same activity. At first they did not want to give us permission to run the activity for two nights. Then they required a special insurance in case of any accidents. In the end, we decided to modify the activity and do something on a little smaller scale which was less interactive. We took the young people and several children from the church out to the park and drew a crowd around with some juggling. Then Maribel and one of the young people presented a puppet story. Following the puppets we gave out coloring pages with a Bible verse and the information about the children's club. We have not yet had any visitors from those efforts, but we continue to make contacts. Many of David and Andrea's classmates from school were there in the park, and we are thankful for the new opportunities to witness.


The final weekend of the month we organized a special conference on "the Bible and Science." On the Friday night, a good number of people from church got together, and we went to different areas of our neighborhood and passed out invitations to the meetings. I was very glad to see the good participation of the people in this "hard" activity. The response of most was rather indifferent. But for several the topic seemed to catch their attention. I trust that the Lord will work in their hearts even though they did not come to the meetings. The first night of the conference, we had a crowd of about 80 people (many were from our sister-church in Elche) present to hear Santiago Escain, a chemist/Bible lecturer from Catalunya (north of Barcelona). We had good attendance as well for both services on Sunday. The lectures were very interesting and served to remind us of how great our Creator God is and that His Word is inspired and infallible.


Daniel is now home by himself in the mornings (without his brother and sister, that is) now that school has started. He continues to add to his bilingual vocabulary every day. And when David and Andrea get home from school, he's waiting for them, and the three have a great time together.

Thank you for your prayers,

David and Maribel
davidbbell@ono.com

Friday, September 03, 2004

Bell Nouvelles 7.4

September, 2004
Bell Nouvelles in short:

Praises:
-good Summer youth camps
-some good progress on my dissertation
Prayer Requests:
-evangelistic activity with children
-beginning of weekly children's club
-special meetings about Creationism
-several couples struggling with marital problems

Dear praying friends,

I'm sure that this letter finds you busy with all of the usual activities of September. Here schools will be getting started in a few weeks and this year Andrea will be accompanying David! I'm sure it will be a learning experience for her.

Since our last letter we have enjoyed some good activities with the church. It was wonderful in July to have a nice church picnic one Saturday afternoon. We had a good turnout and enjoyed some good games together and then some time to sing, share blessings and listen to a challenge. We are looking forward to doing more of this type of activity and encouraging all to invite unsaved friends so that they can have contact with the Gospel this way.


The beginning of August found me at young people's camp in Guadalajara. We had a good week based on the theme: "Risk it!" It was a good challenge to step out for the cause of Christ and take some Biblical "risks." This year we had six young people from the church attend camp. Just three weeks later, our family and eleven others from our congregation returned to camp for a family retreat. It was a real blessing to have the church families involved in the camp this year.


This month we have several special activities that I would like to request prayer for. First of all, we are trying to organize an activity in the park again this year to witness to the families of our community. This will be the fifth year that we have done this activity. However, we seem to be having problems this year with getting permission from the town hall. Please pray that we will be able to turn in all that we need to turn in to get the required permission.

Following that activity, we will begin our Saturday morning children's classes once again. Last year we had a number of contacts with families through the children, and we trust that the Lord will continue to bless again this year.

This month will also mark the start of the new year in the Bible Institute. We trust that God will give us another good year. Last year, we had over 15 active students, and we trust that we'll have a similar number this year.

Finally, at the end of September, we have some special meetings scheduled on the subject of Creationism. We would like to stress the reliability of the Bible right from its beginning, and we trust that these meetings will encourage the church in that area.

One final prayer request that we would like to give you involves several couples who are friends of ours. All of them seem to having real struggles right now in their marriages. We are praying hard for them that they will be able to get the victory over these struggles and not end up in divorce.

On the family front, the kids are all doing well. As I mentioned before, David and Andrea will be in school soon, Andrea for the first time. Daniel is 21 months now and has turned into a real clown.


Thank you for your prayers,

David and Maribel
davidbbell@ono.com

Sunday, August 15, 2004

Bell Nouvelles

For some time now I have wanted to begin a BLOG site to facilitate my monthly (or what has at some times been a monthly) prayer letter. Today, I decided to being my site. I hope to begin posting messages with a greater frequency for friends and families who are interested in following details of our ministry here in Spain.