Monday, July 28, 2008

July 22-28

The Lord gave David and Jamie a good week at camp. They left early Monday morning and spent the week up in Guadalajara. We are very proud of David for winning a prize for verse memorization. Jamie did a good job working in the kitchen once again. Here at home things were a little quieter with just two children, but we had a good week too! I was able to finish up some of my preparation for the youth camp next week. I prepared all of the morning devotionals for the cabins, and I will be speaking every day on a verse from Proverbs as well as giving some classes to the boys in the afternoons about topics like materialism and relationships. We are excited about camp and asking the Lord for His blessings.

Our morning service yesterday was slightly smaller than usual. Maria Eugenia has a job taking care of an elderly man, and she had to work at 12.30. She felt that she wouldn't have time to come to the service and make it to work. She was with us for our evening service, though. In the morning I preached about Moses' problems with his family (Nu. 12) when God defended him before Miriam and Aaron as being completely faithful. In the evening we met at Lorenzo and Ana Maria's house and we talked about the Biblical doctrine of salvation compared to what the Jehovah's Witnesses believe about salvation.

Monday, July 21, 2008

July 15-21

Jamie, the student from BJU who is doing her missions internship with us this summer, has been meeting people here in town to exchange conversation in English for conversation in Spanish. This week she brought Juani to house so that we could meet her. It turns out that Juani grew up as a Jehovah's Witness. Maribel and Jamie were able to clearly share the gospel with her. We praise the Lord for this new contact! On Saturday evening the couples from Elche came up and passed out tracts. We went to several local parks to talk to people. We were pleased to see the response of some people to the tracts. Afterwards we had a good time of fellowship at our home. I shared a challenge with them from Colossians 3.12-14.

Yesterday we had no visitors in our service, but all of us were present except Sergio who is out of town visiting his mother. I spoke in the morning about the problems at Mt. Sinai. The people thought they could modify God's plan for them and ended up worshiping the golden calf. But we can never replace God's will with our own. God can, however, replace our will with His own (Phil. 2.13). In the evening we met at Maria Eugenia's house for our study. We were pleased that Pedro came. He is a believer we made contact with when we were distributing tracts. In our study we looked at what the Jehovah's Witnesses believe about Hell compared to what we find in the Bible.

This week David and Jamie are up at camp. We trust that the Lord will richly bless them this week.

Monday, July 14, 2008

July 08-14

Andrea and Jamie spent last week at camp. Jamie, the intern from BJU who is spending the summer here in Spain, worked in the kitchen and Andrea was a camper. They both had a good week. We were very proud of Andrea because she won a trophy for memorizing verses. On Wednesday last week, Maribel and Ana MarĂ­a drove down to Torrevieja, about an hour away, with Maria Eugenia to visit her son. He and his wife just had a baby, so the women prepared a special gift for them and made a visit. It was a good opportunity to show the love of Christ to a couple who have heard much about Christ from Maria Eugenia but are not saved. We also said goodbye to Sergio this week. He will be visiting his biological mother for a month. We had hoped that he would be able to go to camp this summer, but Social Services had already scheduled this visit with his family.
The Lord gave us good services yesterday. In the morning I preached about Moses' problems in the desert, as the people complained about what the Lord had given them, about what the Lord had (supposedly) taken away from them, and about what the Lord had not given them. In the evening we met at Lorenzo and Ana Maria's house to continue our study about what we believe (compared to the Jehovah's Witnesses). We talked this week about the Holy Spirit.

Monday, July 07, 2008

June 24-July 07

Last week I never got to writing. I had my last day of official work at the university on Monday and then a camping trip on Monday afternoon. David turned 10, so I and another adult took seven of David's friends on a camping trip. We had a great time on the mountain and had good opportunity for spiritual challenges. David said that it was an unforgettable birthday party. But it seemed that after that, I was running the rest of the week to catch up. And all that led into a very full weekend. On Saturday morning we finally met to work on our trombone quartet. We are trying to prepare music to be able to present in a church after the summer is over. We had a good rehearsal and all are excited about it. On Saturday afternoon we had the young people up from Elche and Alicante to pass out tracts. We covered several areas, putting tracts in the mailboxes (which is legal here) and a different flyer on windshields. There was a good spirit among the young people, and we are praying that the Lord will use this effort to reach people with the Gospel message.

Yesterday we had record attendance in our services with some friends visiting from Alicante and Elche. These visit always do a lot to encourage the three families living here. Our morning started off with our celebration of the Lord's table. Then in the service we looked at Exodus 14 and the "Moses' Problems at the Red Sea". When a problem comes, you either look inward and let yourself worry or you can look upward and let God work. In the afternoon we looked at what the Jehovah's witnesses believe about the person of Christ and compared it to the Biblical doctrine of Christ. There was good participation by all present. Jamie, our intern from BJU has been doing a great job. She has been taking all the children to do classes with them during the adults' study. Tomorrow, Andrea and Jamie will be headed up near Madrid for a week of camp. Maribel will be driving them up and coming back the same day.

June 17-23

The kids finished up their school year this past week. That means that summer is finally here for them! We are making plans for children's camp. I had hoped that perhaps Maria Eugenia's granddaughter would be able to go to camp, but it does not look like it will be possible. Sergio is supposed to leave for the summer, but we are praying that he will be able to go to young people's camp first.
Jamie, the missions student from Bob Jones doing her internship with us, went down to Alicante on Saturday evening for the youth meeting there. Here at home we had our normal group for the service. But just as we were starting we were surprised by a visit from some friends of ours who used to live in Elche. It was a blessing to have them with us in our service as I preached about Moses and his problems with the leaders of the people. He was the right man doing the right job in the right way, but things just did not seem to go "right". Pharaoh ended up making the work load heavier and the people cursed Moses. My phrase for this message was "God never asked us to understand Him; just to know Him." Moses once again had to trust the Lord that he was on the right path and that all would work out. In the evening we began a new topic. Several commented that they wanted to study what other religions believe, so we will be taking several weeks to dig into doctrine and compare what we believe with the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Adventists and the Mormons.