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!

October 16-22

        Things were very busy this week, as all of my classes have now started. I had good Bible institute classes on Monday and Wednesday. The students are excited and asking good questions. Our Thursday prayer meeting was back down to normal attendance, but we had a very good service. On Saturday we met with Lorenzo and Ana María for our weekly Bible study again. They continue to respond well to the teaching. Yesterday was a very interesting day. We drove up to Elda, the city right next to Petrer where we plan to begin a new work in January, and we took Israel, one of my students from the Bible institute who feels called to the ministry and who will be helping us start the work in Petrer. The purpose of the trip was to visit the only non-charismatic church in the area. It was a good opportunity to clarify our goals. Please pray for us as we continue to take steps towards this goal.
        I preached in the evening from 1 Thes. 4 in the last of my series about not being ignorant. Here Paul instructs us about the resurrection. The difference between us and those who are without Christ is our hope. Those who died in Christ will return with him and we will see Him together with them. The emphasis on Christ is beautiful. Heaven is not a time just to be reunited with loved ones; rather it is a time to be with our Savior. This makes the joy and comfort even greater. After the message we had the Lord's supper. It was the first time that Viviana had ever experienced this celebration. She was very touched by it and is looking forward to being baptized soon!

October 9-15

        This past week was a rather strange week because we had two holidays (Monday and Thursday), so there were many special activities instead of our normal routine. On Monday we were able to spend the day with Lorenzo and Ana María, and we visited several families in the church. On Thursday we spent the day with Juan and Cristina and then had our couples' study with Lorenzo and Ana María in the afternoon before church. Since Thursday was a holiday, we had an extra large attendance at church for prayer meeting.
        But the biggest activity of the week was our men's retreat on Friday and Saturday. Pablo Portugal came down from Barcelona to be the speaker, and we had a total of 25 men. The topic was prayer, and the studies were very practical. The Lord was so good to us in many ways. Emilio was a great help to me for the last retreat, taking care of all of the food and other organizational matters, but he went to the hospital last Monday morning with yet another heart attack. When I visited him, he told me that he wasn't going to be able to be at the retreat. But he got out of the hospital on Wednesday and was there helping out and entertaining at the retreat as if nothing had ever happened to him. On Friday morning I checked the weather report and noticed to my horror that they were calling for rain Friday night and thunderstorms during the day on Saturday! I could just imagine all of our tents getting washed off the camp site. But the Lord overruled, and we had perfect weather all week end. Praise the Lord for answering our prayers about this retreat.
        Yesterday I preached from 2 Corinthians 1.8-9 about another of Paul's "ignorant" passages. In this case he warns us not to be ignorant that even the strongest trials can be used by God to teach us to trust in Him.

Bell Nouvelles 9.4

October, 2006
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Bell Nouvelles in short:
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Praises
- a good start to the Bible Institute (10 students)
- a good trip to Austria (a great encouragement to us)
- Viviana, new contact at church
- we found a good house in Petrer
Requests
- the sale of our current flat!!
- Men's retreat next weekend
- evangelization in Petrer
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Dear friends,

I'm trying a new format. I have started writing a weekly summary which I am posting on my blog for those who would like to follow our ministry in more detail. In my email, I am mainly going to focus on our prayer requests. The weekly summaries are included down below for those of you who cannot make it onto the blog.

Thank you so much for your prayers!

David Bell
davidbbell@bluebottle.com

October 2-8

The Lord gave us a good week. We were able to make a down payment on the house in Petrer that we have been looking at for over a month now. We also put our present flat up for sale. Now we pray that the Lord would help us sell it soon so that we can move. My Bible institute class is going well. I have ten students this semester for the New Testament Introduction class. We have been covering some general topics like the canon and the historical background of the NT. Our study with Lorenza and Ana María continues to go well. They continue to be very open and interested in the topics we are covering about marriage. Dr. Garlock spoke this morning about Joseph's God-centered view that made the difference in his life. This evening I preached my second sermon in my series about not being ignorant. I spoke from 1 Cor. 12 about spiritual gifts. This week we will be getting ready for the men's retreat next weekend. I'm really looking forward to that time.

September 25 - October 1

This last week was the start of academic life once again. My classes at the university began on Monday as well as the classes that Maribel is taking. The kids went back to school after our time in Austria, and I began my class for the Bible Institute. I have a nice group of about 10 students for my New Testament Introduction class. We began by talking about the canon of the New Testament. I feel that is especially an important issue in the wake of the DaVinci Code and other such material. Viviana has been a special blessing this week. She started coming to church a few weeks ago through a contact with a lady in our church. She is in a motorized wheelchair and through that situation came to know the Lord through a local charismatic group. Since she started coming, she has been very faithful and seems to really be drinking in the teaching. She especially thanked me for the study before our Thursday prayer meeting. On Saturday morning we had our monthly men's prayer breakfast. Dr. Garlock was visiting and spoke. I found his challenge very direct, and it was a real blessing. He has been preaching on the family in Elche all weekend. Today at church I preached about one of the things that Paul warns believers not to be ignorant about: past blessings do not guarantee future success (1 Cor. 10.1-5). We had two visitors last night. After the service I spoke with them and found out that they are strong Catholics. They enjoyed the service and especially the preaching, but do not think that they should read the Bible. Reading and understanding the Bible, in their opinion, should be left to people who are trained to do so. They were just content to listen to the "exerts". I praise the Lord for the opportunity to preach to them, but I encouraged them to read for themselves. May God touch their hearts (they did promise me that they would attempt to read) and bring them to a personal relationship with Christ! After the service we had a time of fellowship to say good bye to Claudia who will be returning to Argentina this week.

September 18-24

We returned from Austria on Friday. We had a great week with the Sheltons. On Monday we spent the day in Vienna with a girl from the church. Then in the afternoon, the Hudsons came over. On Tuesday afternoon, Kai Soltau came over and we were able to spend some good time together. On Wednesday and Thursday we were able to see some more of the city. I am very thankful for the time that we were in Austria. Besides being able to relax some and see some of this beautiful country, we were able to spend time with others who are in the ministry and learn from them. Back in Spain, we hit the ground running with an evangelistic film for children on Saturday morning. We were very pleased that our neighbor came with her two daughters. She was very moved by the film and once again thanked us for inviting her (she made several good comments when we showed Treasures in the Snow). Yesterday we had a good day at church. I preached on God's grace as opposed to human merits from Romans 11.5-6. If we understand correctly what God's grace is, we will realize that we are in no place to bargain with God. He deserves our all!

September 11-17

This week we have been in Austria. The scenery was beautiful in Salzburg, and we were able to spend a little time visiting the city. I was able to spend time with a missionary church planter here and ask a lot of questions. It was a blessing to be able to learn from this ministry and get ideas that we may be able to put into practice as we begin a new work in Petrer. On Sunday we were in Vienna with Stan and Grace Shelton. They have just begun a new work here, so it was very nice to meet with a little group of believers in a living room and see how the Lord is building His church here. We are looking forward to more times of fellowship over the next few days with the Sheltons and other Christians in the area.

September 4-10

I want to try something new here. I used to write an update every month here and then send it out by email as well. Lately it has been more and more difficult for me to get around to writing, and so I have dropped to every two months. My new idea is to write a short update every week for the BLog and then edit them together once a month with the most important information. In this way, if someone wants more information from us, it is available from the BLog. And when it comes around to the monthly letter, I'll just have to put the information together from the weekly summaries.

This week I don't have too much to write because I published the monthly letter just three days ago. I'll simply comment on the weekend. I did the youth meeting in Elche on Saturday. We had a Clemson student come from Alicante who will be studying here this year. We showed _The_World_at_War_ from the _Left_Behind_ series. There were good comments from the young people. Sunday morning I preached from Romans 15.1 about how we all have an obligation to bear the infirmities of the weak. The verse implies a beautiful contrast. Our obligation is to be involved in the problems of others (to help); but we have no obligation to please ourselves. This "others" mindedness should characterize our church and pervade all of the conversations and activities. I really feel like the people received the message.

David

parati semper en MMVI dare omni rationem de ea quae en me est spe

Bell Nouvelles 9.3

http://bellnouvelles.blogspot.com/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidbbell/

September, 2006

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Bell Nouvelles in short:

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Praises

- blessings from  BJU students

- good summer activities (camps)

- first contacts in Petrer!

- Lord's working in the Romanian couple

Requests

- new Bible Institute class

- evangelization in Petrer

- a place for us to live in Petrer

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Dear friends and family,

I have so much to tell! These have truly been exciting months for us in the ministry. The months of Man and June were very busy for us, but they were full of blessings. In May we hosted the BJU mission team. Besides their ministry in the church which was a great blessing, we were also able to take them up to Petrer, our new target town where we will be starting a new ministry soon, Lord willing. The group of 16 students and the Casillas did a fantastic job getting literature out and talking to people on the streets and in a park. This was our first official effort in this town, but the Lord allowed us to even see some initial response. I almost felt like it would have been too much to ask, but I told the Lord that it would certainly be encouraging if we heard something back from the tracts. And when I went to check the mail that week, it was with a sense of awe and wonder that I opened a letter from a person responding to the tract and asking for a Bible and a video.

In June we hosted a group of 12 students from Bob Jones who came to study Spanish for a month. Through contacts at the University here, I was able to set up a program for them to study at the University of Miguel Hernández in Elche for one month. We were able to bring in some Christian graduates from our church here to teach the students, and we were able to place the students in families from the church. Along with the studies in Spanish and culture, we were able to include a daily Bible study for the students in Spanish, as well as encouraging them to use their Spanish to witness and get involved in the youth group at the church. How I praise the Lord for the wonderful opportunity to work with these students this summer. I know that they made a big impact on the families here, and I trust that the Lord planted a seed in their hearts that they will never forget!

In July I was able to take David Jonathan up to Guadalajara for the anual children's camp and participate myself in some of the activities there. Then I began my final preparations for a family camp in August up in Barcelona where I would be giving a series of 13 studies going all the way through the book of Revelation. The Lord, however, had one more activities to keep us busy in July. Back in March, the Lord brought a Romanian couple and their small daughter to our church after the mission in Oliva (a town about an hour north of us) closed down. But as it turned out, they had started living together before they got saved, and they desperately wanted to get married and do what was right before the Lord. They came before the church and told the congregation why they wanted to get married. Their testimony was so special. He told the church that he did not want to be a stumbling block for anyone, especially the young people. He told them that what they had done was wrong and was in no way a pattern for others to follow. We asked them to live apart until the wedding, which we were able to plan for the following week. We had never planned a wedding in such short time, but it was a simple yet beautiful ceremony that the whole church participated in. I truly believe that the Lord was glorified in this family. Praise the Lord for their tender heart and their desire to do what is right. Since then we have seen them grow as a couple and as a family. We are having weekly studies with them right now and it is a blessing to see their hunger for the word.

As soon as that wedding was over, we loaded up the car and headed north for Barcelona. We were able to see our dear friends in that area and worship with them on Sunday, and then we headed up to Girona for the family camp with Dr. Martin Valcarcel. Preaching through the book of Revelation two studies a day for just over a week was a real challenge, but it was also a wonderful blessing to my heart. The believers who were there were very kind and paid excellent attention and asked good questions. When we returned from Barcelona, we finally had some time to be able to spend extra time with the people from our church. It was great to have them over and do special activities with them that we do not normally get to do. We were also able to head up to Petrer and do a little more canvassing and start the process of looking for a place to live. Last weekend I took the young people from our church and the church in Elche up to Petrer again to do some more work with tracts. We were able to cover another section of the city with tracts. After we had finished, Maribel commented on how nice it would be if we just had a contact that was a believer who could help out. On Sunday night the phone rang! It was a man named Pedro from Petrer who is involved in a church which does not do a lot of evangelizing. He is excited to help out in whatever way he can as we seek to pass out tracts and share the gospel with others. We drove up again yesterday so that I could meet with Pedro and find out a little more about him. We had a truly blessed time together as he shared with me his testimony and his burden to share Christ with others. While I was talking to him, Maribel met a lady who is a believer; she is looking for a place to live in Petrer to move there from a city about an hour away. She was so encouraged because as of yet, she had not made contact with any church or believers in the city. We are praising the Lord for the way He seems to be opening doors for us in this new city. Please pray for us as we seek to find a place to live and continue evangelizing. Pray that the Lord would give us more contacts and open doors of ministry.

Just a few more matters for prayer from previous updates. I am still looking at the possibility of teaching a Bible class here at the University. I have turned in a proposal to the head of the Greek department and will be meeting with her soon. Please pray that we can get the approval that we need to go ahead with the course. It may not, however, come through for this year. I am leaving it in the Lord's hands. Also, I would appreciate your prayers for the Bible Institute. Our Greek class last semester went great. Lord willing this month I will be beginning an Introduction to the New Testament. Please pray that the Lord will bless in that class. Finally, our family will be taking a little trip up to Austria next week for 10 days. We found some very good tickets last year and decided it would be a nice break for the family and a good opportunity to see the ministry in another part of Europe. Lord willing, we will be able to spend some time with other missionaries, including some friends from college, Stan and Grace Shelton.

I'm sorry that this message is so long. I will try to get back into the swing of writing messages more frequently so that they do not get so long! Thank you again for your prayers. 

In Christ,

David & Maribel

davidbbell@bluebottle.com

parati semper en MMVI dare omni rationem de ea quae en me est spe