August 19

We have been living here in Petrer for a month and a half. There have been so many things to do to get settled and to prepare for the ministry that the Lord has called us to. We have had services here at the house during this time, and we praise the Lord for the wonderful times of worship and fellowship. Lorenzo and Ana María have come up every week from Alicante and are hoping to be able to move here sometime before the end of the year. We have had several other visitors from the Alicante church that have encouraged us greatly by their visit. We continue to work with María Eugenia, a lady we met here. Her situation, however, has gone through a rather drastic change. She and her unsaved husband came over last month and spent the morning with us. Everything looked very encouraging. That evening, however, he informed her that he wants a divorce. She has been to several of our Sunday services and come by the house a number of times to talk. But if the situation continues as it is, she will probably end up moving away from Petrer. We continue to pray for her and trust that the Lord will work His will out.

At the end of July, I went up to Guadalajara to speak in a youth camp. The Lord gave me to opportunity to share with the teens some messages from the book of Ecclesiastes. I felt a special freedom as I spoke, and the Lord moved hearts. It was truly a special opportunity to see the Lord work. This coming week we will be headed back up to camp for a week of family camp. Then, Lord willing, we will be headed up north to visit a former neighbor of ours. Felisa came to services in Alicante on several occasions, so we trust that this visit will give new opportunities for witness.

We have been preparing several projects for this new ministry in Petrer. One is the legal organization of an association through which we will be able to organize various aspects of the ministry such as open bank accounts, rent buildings, print literature, etc. We are also working to prepare an evangelistic website to back all of the tracts that we will be handing out.

Finally, preparation is on for an Intensive Bible Institute in the Basque region of Spain. Lord willing, the second week of September we will be headed up that way to give a series of lectures on the book of Ezekiel. We trust that the Lord will use these messages to touch hearts and encourage believers.

July 10

After so long, it is hard to know where to start. My life was abruptly interrupted in March with the news of heart surgery. Just when I seemed to be over the worst of it, a new phase began that I had never imagined. It seems that I managed to catch a virus during the operation that threatened the new new valve. I went back into the hospital and wasn't able to come back home for almost two months. The Lord was very good to us in answering our prayer and in the end a second operation was not necessary, even though it seemed immanent. While in the hospital I was able to read a lot and do some thinking. I was also able to witness to quite a few people. It was even a profitable time to minster to church people. Many of the ones who came to visit me really opened up about problems.

When I finally did get out of the hospital, the group of students from BJU was here already and waiting for me. We had a good month of classes with them. I did some of the teaching along with Maribel, and I gave the majority of the daily challenges from the Bible. This year was special because we took a longer trip with the group up to Toledo and Madrid. We were able to spend Sunday in Madrid, and we all participated in the services. We sang as a group, and a good number of the students gave testimonies. It was a blessing to get to know these students, and many of them had a very strong impact on the Spanish families they stayed with.

Just two days after we finished classes with the students, the Musical Mission Team from BJU came to visit us. The highlight of the visit for us was a concert here in Petrer. This was the first public evangelistic activity we have had here. We have distributed tracts and done some witnessing on the streets, but this was our first opportunity to share the gospel to a group of people. The town hall allowed us to use a very nice auditorium (and even printed posters of the group) and there was a good turn out from the town (along with many believers from both Elche and Alicante). We are so thankful for the seed sown in people's lives through the music and testimonies. The group also participated in the services in both Elche and Alicante on Sunday and were a blessing to church people and visitors there as well.

The day the choir left, Maribel left for camp with David and Andrea. I ended up staying at home with Daniel. The Lord gave them a good week at camp and helped us out at home as we tried to survive on our own! The Sunday after camp was a very special one for us because we held our first service here in Petrer. We will be meeting in our house at the moment. Lorenzo and Ana Maria, the couple who is taking steps to move to this city to help us with the planting of this church, came up along with two other families from the church in Alicante. We had a very simple but nice service. We are excited to see how the Lord has been working to build His church. We have several contacts that we pray the Lord will touch, and we plan to continue our work with evangelism, trusting that the Lord will give us more fruit. Please pray for us as we labor here!

The months I was in the hospital were very hard on Maribel and the kids. I praise the Lord that He helped them through those months. Since I got out of the hospital, things have been kind of wild for all of us. The kids finished school, we taught the BJU students, we took 14 college students on a five day trip, we organized a concert for the BJU choir team, we moved from Alicante to Petrer and we held our first service! It has been a busy month, but one that has been full of blessing! Thank you so much for your prayers for us.

First Service

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Originally uploaded by David_B_Bell

This is our first service. We are meeting in our garage right now. There were several families from Alicante who came up to be with us this Sunday.

BJU Musical Mission Team

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Originally uploaded by David_B_Bell

Here is the BJU Musical Mission Team singing in Petrer. We had good attendance for this first public evangelistic outreach in our new city.

El Cid

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Originally uploaded by David_B_Bell

This is the view from our front door. Here the clouds are coming up from behind and flowing over the top of the mountain.

February 27-March 5

        On Tuesday, Feb. 27 we signed on the house in Petrer. We rejoiced as we considered all that the Lord has done to try our faith and strengthen us through this situation. It truly has been a miracle. On Saturday we had the young people from Elche and Alicante over to the house for their weekly meeting. It was a blessing to be able to meet with them and challenge them in this new house. We want it to be a place that God continually uses to gather believers and encourage them in their walk with Him. We have a beautiful view of a local mountain out the front door, so I spoke to the young people from Zachariah 4.7-8 about God's ability to move mountains. But in order to move mountains, first there must be a mountain, and many times we see that God allows a mountain in our life to teach us many lessons.

        On Sunday I preached in the evening in Alicante. I spoke from Matthew 15 about the gentile lady who came to ask Jesus to heal her daughter. It seemed as if Jesus ignored her at first. Then his answer was very direct and could even have been interpreted as insulting. But all this seems to have been a test of her faith which caused her to exercise that faith even more. Many times the Lord does not give us what we ask for immediately, but it is not because He ignores us. Rather He brings us to the point of exercising our faith so as to increase our faith. As I mention this, I continue to think about the sale of our apartment here in Alicante. I have prayed fervently about this matter and am continuing to trust in the Lord that He will give us the buyer that we need.

February 12-26

        I think I just realized on Friday that I had not written the update last week. It was kind of a crazy week with lots of ups and downs. We thought everything was settled about the loan, but then they gave us a new option that is better than the previous one. There were some tense moments there as it seemed that the real estate agent was not cooperating with the bank, but, praise the Lord, it is all coming together. Lord willing, we will sign on the house Tuesday morning. This Saturday, the young people from Elche and Alicante will come up and we'll have our first official church activity in the house!

        Last week I preached in Alicante from 1 John. It was also a special week because the man from Mexico who was here last year working on his doctorate came back for three weeks for a short course and is staying at our house. It has been a blessing to be in contact with him and now to have him in our house. Their family was a real blessing during the year they were living in Alicante. And it has been neat to see how the Lord has really worked in them. On Saturday I had a Bible study with Lorenzo and Ana María to talk about baptism. They have been saved for several years now, but have never been baptized. Lord willing, when the weather gets a bit warmer, they want to be baptized. It is exciting to see the progress in their lives.

February 6-11

        The Lord has been working and we finally have a favorable response from the bank about our loan. This week we should be finalizing details, and we should be signing for the new house sometime in the next two weeks. We are looking forward to making the move and starting to make more contacts as we live there and get to know more people. This weekend we were able to take the young people from Elche and Alicante up to Petrer to pass out tracts. We are trying to systematically cover the city with tracts, and these young people have helped us once again with that effort. We trust that the Lord will continue to give us contacts in this way.
        Yesterday I preached in a church down in Murcia for a missionary who is back in the States now. We had good services both in the morning and the evening. It was a special blessing to spend time with one of Maribel's friends who got saved in Elche but now lives in Murcia. We were able to spend the afternoon with her and her two girls. In the morning I preached on two passages from 1 John that describe how we can call God a liar with our actions (1.10 and 5.10). Then in the evening I preached about when God calls us a liar because our actions do not match our confession (1.6, 2.4, 4.20).

January 30-February 5

        We still have no movement on our . . . [the phone just rang and it was someone asking about our apartment]. We are still waiting on the Lord and trusting Him. This weekend I preached in the church in Elche on Sunday morning. They had asked me to come and share a little about how things are going with our plans to move. I preached from Isaiah 28.16: he that believes shall not make haste. It was a passage that the Lord has been using in my own heart to calm me and keep me trusting in Him as we wait. But the Lord used it to touch other hearts too! In the evening I preached in Alicante on walking by faith, not by sight. After the service, the church had planned a special gathering to recognize the eight years that I have served as pastor in this church. We had a very good crowd and many people shared parts of our ministry that had touched their lives. It was a blessing to hear how God has used us here in Alicante and a challenge to remain faithful to the Lord and allow him to continue to use us in this new ministry.
        One interesting thing of the weekend was a wedding we attended on Saturday. The daughter of my parents-in-law's best friends got married, so we went to the wedding. After the ceremony we went to the banquet, but the mother of the bride came to me and told me that we didn't fit at the table with my parents-in-law and that she wasn't sure where to put us. So she put us at the table with the two catholic priests because she thought that we would fit in ok there. One of the priests asked me what I did for a living, so I told him that my profession was teaching but my vocation was preaching the gospel. He wasn't interesting in going too much further, but the other priest's mother was sitting right next to me, and we had much more opportunity to talk.

January 23-29

        We waited all week to see what the Lord would do with the sale of our apartment. But in the end, it looks like the Lord has a different plan. The couple that wanted to negotiate a price was not in the position to do so yet, so we are going to have to begin to move our other options with the bank that will allow us to buy the house in Petrer and then sell the apartment in Alicante. It is a good option, but it is a little bit more expensive in the long run. But we are trusting in the Lord.
        This week I finished up the Bible study with the young couple about raising children. But they are excited to continue! So we are going to talk some about Bible study and other topics they have questions about. They have also expressed interest in moving to Petrer with us. We are waiting on the Lord to do that. I want to make sure that it is really His moving in their lives.

January 16-22

        This week we were able to get back to our Bible study with Lorenzo and Ana María. They continue to grow spiritually and ask good questions. It was also an encouraging week for us about our house. As we have mentioned before, we are waiting on the Lord to sell our house so that we can make this move and begin to have a presence in Petrer (and continue the work, of course). On Friday I was a bit down because it seemed that there was no movement. I asked the Lord for something, and not two hours later, the phone rang. It was a lady who wanted to come see the house. She came on Saturday and really liked it. She will return this next Saturday to sit down and negotiate a price with us. We are praying that all will go well.
        On Sunday I preached here in Alicante. I spoke from Philippians 2 about the humble attitude of Christ which can bring unity in the church. But the fleshly attitudes that are native in us will ruin that unity. Paul tells the believers that nothing in the church is to be done with strife or vain glory. These are diametrically opposed to humility and to unity.

January 8-15

        Much of our activity this last week revolved around an intensive Bible institute class up in the Madrid area. A missionary there asked me to come up and teach on the book of Ezekiel. This book has been a very special book to me, so I was excited to work on it again and take of the challenge of trying to give an overview of the book in a one day class. We traveled up to Móstoles on Friday afternoon. Saturday was an extremely full day. Breakfast was served at the church at 8:00. The class started at 9:00 and we did not finish until 5:00. We had a few breaks of course during the day, including about an hour and half for a wonderful lunch. But the group listened careful and asked good questions. I focused my study of the book on the concept of glory. It begins with a vision of God's glory and a call to the prophet to minister so that people will know that God's prophet was among them. As he preaches, we see that the people reject God's glory, but that there is a constant theme running underneath all of the judgement that God will one day restore his people for his own glory. And finally the last section gives Ezekiel a vision of a new and glorious temple.
        On Sunday I preached in the church in Móstoles on Ezekiel 24: God took away the delight of Ezekiel's eyes, his wife, as a sign to the nation, and yet the death of his wife did not embitter him or cause him to sink into depression [as the fall of Jerusalem did to the exiles in captivity], for obviously the prophet had a greater "delight." He had seen God, and nothing could move him. This passage is a challenge to all of us to place our eyes on the Lord and run the race with patience.

January 1-7

        My parents left on Thursday so we have been working to get back into our routine after the holidays. Last Sunday was my last official day as pastor in the church in Alicante which was very emotional for me. But now I can focus my efforts on starting the new work in Petrer. The first big step, however, is for us to move. Once we are living there, we will be much more effective making contacts and we will have a place to meet with those contacts.
        I had a meeting with the real estate agents on Thursday, and we are going to extend the contract for two months so that we can sell our apartment. This is a major matter of prayer for us! As soon as we have a buyer, we can start setting up the move. The Lord encouraged us because while I was in the meeting with the real estate agent, someone called about our apartment. We are trusting in the Lord that He will sell our apartment.
        Much of my study this week has been devoted to Ezekiel. I will be teaching an intensive Bible institute in the Madrid area this Saturday on the book. When that is over, I need to return to my studies on the Church which are preparing us for the work that we are going to begin in Petrer.

December 18-31

        With my parents here and all of the special activities, I got away from writing my Monday reports. So once again I find myself trying to catch up! We had a great visit with my parents and enjoyed our time together as a family. We also had a good end to the year. The Sunday before Christmas we had a very special day with a church lunch after the morning service. We had good attendance and then we followed it up with a mid-afternoon service. Different members read portions from the Christmas story in Luke and we sung appropriate hymns between readings. It was a very nice time to spend together as a church family. Last Sunday, my father was asked to preach in Elche for the morning service, so we all went and I translated for him. In the evening we finished out our year with a celebration of the Lord's supper. It was a very special celebration for me because it was my last official service as pastor here in Alicante. I have communicated to the church my desire to withdraw from Alicante so that I can focus my efforts on starting a new work in Petrer, about 30 minutes away from Alicante. As we celebrated the Lord's new covenant through the symbolism of that special meal, we recalled all of His blessings to us and the ways in which we all desired to be more faithful in the coming year. It was a beautiful way to finish out a year.
        For our prayer services this month I have been speaking on the prayers/psalms that we find in the first chapters of Luke. It has been a blessing to study Zechariah's, Mary's and Simeon's prayers to see what Christ's birth meant to them. I have also been continuing on with our Bible studies with Lorenzo and Ana María. We are constantly encouraged by their desire to learn and do what is right. They have even expressed the desire to move with us to Petrer to help out with the new ministry. We are praying that the Lord would do His will in giving us the people that He wants us to have.

December 4-17

        I just realized that last Monday I did not write an update. We've had two very busy but good weeks. Last week we had our children's program at church. The kids did a great job with their drama. They all worked very hard to memorize it and act it out. We had a lot of visitors at church for the program, so we praise the Lord for the seed sown in hearts. This week we presented our Christmas cantata. Once again, we were thrilled with the good number of visitors. Our choir joined together with the choir from the Elche church to present "The Greatest Gift." The Lord really blessed, and the message came through very clearly. We pray that the Lord will use this in people's lives to bring them to himself. On Saturday night, my parents arrived, so we are enjoying the time with them. Praise the Lord, they are doing well with the jet lag so far. This week I am praying especially about the sale of our house. We need to Lord to do his will about the sale of our house. We would really appreciate your prayers for us.

November 27-December 3

        It is hard to believe that another month has gone by! It is even harder to believe that we are in December all ready. The unusually warm weather for this time of year has made it even harder to believe. Last week was my last week of classes for the Bible institute. We dealt with the introduction to Acts and talked about several themes, including tongues in the New Testament. The students are now preparing for their final exam today. We are continuing on with our Bible study with Lorenzo and Ana María. We are dealing with what the Bible says about raising children. How I praise the Lord for their desire to learn! Our choir continues to work on the Christmas cantata we are preparing with the choir from Elche. Things are going well. Our son David is playing the xylophone in the orchestra, and both he and Andrea are singing in the children's choir. They are also preparing a Christmas drama with the other children to be presented next Sunday. The cantata will be the following Sunday.
        Yesterday we had a very special day. In the morning service we had a baby dedication for the couple that I married a year ago. The Lord has blessed them with a little boy, and they wanted to publicly show their desire to raise him for the Lord. They invited unsaved family members for the special service. In the evening I preached on a topic that at least one family in the church was struggling with. They did not understand why we did not let the women preach. I spoke to them yesterday morning to let them know that I was going to be preaching on that topic but that I was not trying to single them out. Rather I wanted to explain why we do what we do from the Bible. I tied the whole message together with the idea of submission: are we, as the bride of Christ, willing to submit to the pattern for His Church that He has set up? After I preached, I spoke with the husband again and mentioned to him that we could get together to discuss the issue more or to answer any questions, but he told me that it was not necessary because he now holds to the same conviction that we have! All he needed was to hear the topic presented from the Bible! Praise the Lord.

November 20-26

        Our week revolved around our special meetings at church this weekend. On Thursday, however, before the meetings started, we were able to celebrate Thanksgiving with an American family who lives close to us and some other believers. We had a good time recalling God's blessing and abundant provision for us. For our special meetings this weekend, my co-worker invited a missionary from the Madrid area to come down to challenge the church about missions. We had a very full weekend, but the Lord definitely was working in hearts. On Friday night we had a film about William Carey. Then on Saturday morning, a small group of us went up to Petrer to witness on the street. We had some wonderful opportunities as we took a survey about people's knowledge of the Bible. This simple survey allowed us to start good conversations with people and share the gospel with them. On Saturday evening, Sunday morning and Sunday evening, Bill Williams preached about evangelization.
        Our choir continues to prepare for our Christmas cantata that we will be presenting together with the choir in Elche. We trust that the Lord will really use this presentation of the Gospel to touch people's lives. Please pray for this effort. We also would appreciate your prayers for us as we sell our flat. We are trusting the Lord for a buyer so that we can make our move to Petrer to begin this new work.

November 13-19

        This week got off to a rough start! The trip to Madrid last week made the start of the week very difficult, but the kids did well getting back into the swing of things. One special event this week was Maribel's birthday. We had a nice day on Thursday, and then on Friday she invited all the ladies from church over to our house. Saturday was a very busy day. While the kids were at church for their weekly children's club, I went up to Petrer with Israel to pass out tracts. Lord willing, we will be taking up a group next Saturday to do a survey with people on the street. The survey consists of five questions that ask about people's knowledge of the Bible. That opens up the door nicely to leave them with a tract and perhaps witness further. Israel and I had some good conversations, and I am excited about going back next week with more people. Saturday evening was a bit more difficult. I had to visit a family from our church that has decided to leave and start attending a large charismatic congregation. Those kinds of visits are never fun. Yesterday we had good services with very good attendance. We are getting ready for special meetings next week with a missions emphasis. I preached in the morning on baptism as a testimony of new life. It was especially pertinent in my mind because I had attended a going away party at another evangelical church in town this week. What I saw there in the young people amazed me. It was as if there was no difference whatsoever between them and the young people in the world. If we have been baptized in Christ, we are giving testimony to the fact that we now walk in newness of life! May that newness always be evident to all!

November 6-12

        The big event this week was a trip to Madrid. On Friday at noon we picked up the kids from school, jumped in the car and headed out for Madrid (four hours away). On Friday night, Saturday night, and for both of the services on Sunday I spoke at a church pastored by Jack Loveday. It was an evangelistic conference, and the people had really done a good job inviting the unsaved. In each meeting there were at least three or four unsaved people. It was also a very nice weekend personally with the Lovedays. They really made it special for our kids as well. After the evening service on Sunday, we travelled back to Alicante and made it home by 1.00 a.m. That made Monday especially hard, but the Lord gave strength, and we survived! We thank the Lord for His protection as we travelled and His blessing in the meetings. It was a special blessing to talk to unsaved people who were very open about their need of Christ and asked for prayer. The believers were also very tender to the Word and appreciated the messages.

October 30-November 5

        We had a holiday (November 1st was saints day) this week so that made for a nice little break mid week. We got together with Lorenzo and Ana María for our weekly study and also had some time to work on music for the Christmas cantata. We continue to progress in Bible institute. We finished our survey/introduction of Mark and will continue on to Luke this week.
        The children have started work on a play for the Christmas program. David and Andrea are learning their parts and are very excited about the production. They will play the part of a elderly couple! The church people are very excited about the opportunity and are getting involved. We continue to work on the music with the cantata with the choir, and little by little we are making good progress.
        Today I preached from 2 Timothy 3 about all of the characteristics of the last days which are things that people do not have (lack of love, lack of gratitude, lack of obedience, etc.). But how interesting it is to notice that Jesus had all of these characteristics in Him. And he desires to transform our character too!