Week 1 Recap, 3 more to Go!
Today starts week 2, of this trip to Spain. Throughout the week we had amazing opportunities and got to meet some very great people. We got the opportunity to attend 4 different churches, with all different backgrounds and beliefs. As I have met with some of the pastors and met some of the people learning how I can help serve the church and the community has been my desire. When Paul went into the different places two things followed him. People were added to the church with salvations, and the second was that the churches were strengthened.
So coming into this week we have a few opportunities to do just that. On Sunday morning I attended Immanuel Baptist Church, the service was very powerful throughout the praise and worship everyone in the congregation were singing and hands were lifted praising the Lord. This church is currently operating with their associate pastor because the lead pastor is in Texas for a while, so I got the opportunity to get plugged in with Pastor Dave. This week I will go and attend their VBS and then get to sit down more deeply with the pastor and get to explain the heart behind the Spain trip, which is seeing souls saved and churches built up. And then on Saturday I will get the opportunity to go out on the streets with them and see how they are evangelizing.
The second church I had the privilege to visit was International Church of Madrid, it is the same church that on Wednesday night I wept through worship. On Sunday’s they met in a local movie theater, so each week they set up and tear down. I was honored to be able to help them with the tear down of the service. While tearing down the service I met some amazing people, a couple others from the United States and then some from other countries around Spain. I also got invited to their young adult service on tuesday. After tearing down the service, me and one of the guys went to grab lunch which was a blessing because he spoke english and was from Germany so I got to hear about his story and what brought him to Spain. Throughout lunch we had conversations which included our upbringing, what brought us to Spain, history of wars and the rising and falling of nations, also had the opportunity to speak to him and show him the gospel soul winning script which this weekend we are going to go out and I’ll demonstrate with him and help him begin to win souls. Neither one of us speak Spanish so we will both be using the translation app on our phones but as I assured him that I have already seen people saved using the translation app and it isn’t that difficult using. Was able to share testimonies of some of the things we have done as a ministry. We ate kebab which is originally from Turkey and has made its way into Germany as a very famous food. Also got coffee and manolito’s which is a dessert I believe originally from France but in Spain they adjusted it a bit and made it unique. The best way to describe it is a croissant filled and topped with a filling like chocolate or something like that. I am very thankful for this friend that I have met. We are going to hangout a few times before the trip is over.
The third church I had attended on Sunday was Golden Harvest Fellowship. I showed up that evening and as I began to look around I discovered that I was the only white person in the entire service. It seemed like a normal service. They were singing in English and I could feel the presence of the Lord very strongly. And then as I was praying I had thought they began to sing in Tongues, but after about 10 seconds I had discovered it was their native language. At this moment it all began to make sense the reason why I was the only white person in the church was because it was a Filipino church. After worship I sat down and about 2 seconds later I felt a tap on my shoulder and it was someone who became my own personal interrupter doing the message. The message was very powerful. The Pastor was out of town so the man speaking was actually his son. It was very amazing to sit and hear the message, not only was it very powerful but at the same time the young man preaching would be speaking in English and then half way through his sentence he began to speak in Tagalog (Filipino). The church was very kind and the people welcomed me with open arms.
This week as we begin to gain traction with churches I want to thank you for praying and believing with me. I have a few prayer points I would love if you join in with me.
Pray that doors come open to train and equip people to win souls
Pray that doors come open to invest in youth and young adult groups
Pray that these pastors we meet will be a relationship partnering and not a temporary thing.