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News, December 2009News from the ChurchesChristmas TV Service on Christmas Eve seen by 275,000. 4880 shoeboxes sent to children in Sahara. 'Spain, we're praying for you' repeats event in March. 500 attend GBU Forum. Red box preachers ran successful marathon day. 450th anniversary of first Spanish evangelical martyrdom. This and more... Read on! For the 5th time there was an evangelical Christmas Service televised on TVE2. It was broadcast on Christmas Eve at 18.30. 275,000 are believed to have watched the service. Now the broadcast is available on eMision. Operation Christmas Child has come to Spain. For the first time churches in Madrid and Barcelona have collected 4880 shoe boxes to be sent to children in Western Sahara with small Christmas presents and literature telling the Christmas story. Decision has coordinated the collection, which concluded on December 13th. Now all the parcels are on their way to the Tindouf refugee camps, in western Algeria. The fate of the western Saharan people has recently been highlighted by the long fast by Aminatou Haidar in the Canaries in demand of permission to return to her home in what is now Morocco. Protestante Digital is to get a major overhaul and update. The news service of the Spanish Evangelical Alliance expects to have had over 2 million visits in 2009 and from February '10 will become a daily updated medium. We wish them well. (To read the latest from PD scroll down.) Forum 2009, a gathering of people involved in IFES related GBU and daughter organisations, took place over the long weekend of December 5th to 8th. Students and their parents, graduates, professionals and many others involved in university and intellectual life gathered to consider the call of Christ on their lives. Over 500 met at El Escorial, close to Madrid. For the first time two tracks were held for those over and under 25. Many seminars were on offer, in addition to plenary sessions, the Bible studies led by Chris Wright. Spain, we're praying for you' is an annual prayer rally held in Madrid since 2008 and will again take place in 2010 - on 6th March between 7 and 9 p.m. This time it is hoped to hold the rally simultaneously in each region. It is hoped the Evangelical Churches' Councils will coordinate the event, which will gather people from across each region and denomination to pray for Spain. December 9th is Evangelical Social Action day. Among the organisations given an award is Betel, the ministry born out of WEC which began as a drug rehabilitation ministry and has spread both objectives and locations to cover 19 countries, helping more than 120,000 people over the past 25+ years. The 'red box' team from Kilómetro Cero in Madrid's Puerta del Sol and other central points held a preachathon day on November 7th. Ken Barrett writes: "About 200 believers maintained preaching and personal evangelism around 7 red boxes throughout the day. There was no problem with the police and it was a good day to encourage the standing team before the long haul of the winter and to engage new churches in imaginative outgoing evangelism. It was an opportunity also to have some helpers there who cannot usually join us through the week. Ken even found himself translating for an escape artist from Southampton, who worked in his testimony of new life in Jesus Christ as he prepared to escape from a strait-jacket." LEARNING TO TRUST GOD AT THE FIRST MINI-CAMP – (from OM Spain) On 23rd November the evangelical Independent Civic Observatory published its annual report, concentrating on 'white slavery' in Spain, the exploitation of women in the sex trade. The Madrid Evangelical Council put on an exhibition over the week of Reformation Day (31st October) to commemorate the 450th anniversary of Philip II's Autos de Fe, when early Spanish evangelicals were burnt at the stake by the Spanish Inquisition. 4 trials were held between 1559 and 1560 extinguishing the first Spanish Reformation. Recently Spanish novelist Miguel Delibes published a best-seller entitled The Heretic which describes one of these events. The open air 'Red Box' outreach team Kilómetro Cero from Madrid was interviewed - and preached- on the Canal Sur chat show Ratones Coloraos in mid-October. Download the message here, or the entire programme here! Clame '09, Building Bridges In November a major congress took place in Malaga to gather Latins working among manily immigrants from a particular religious group in Europe. The congress was run under the auspices of COMIBAM (Latin missions association) and the Spanish and European Evangelical Alliances. The report in Protestante Digital (see below) shows that it was indeed a worthwhile and effective event. Future events
Earlier news in bullets:
For earlier news from the churches, click here! Finally, more news from the churches is always available at the Protestante Digital site.You can also listen to some reports and comment. This week on Protestante Digital: (29th December)A glimpse of a totally renewed «Protestante Digital», is available for viewing. (18th) (11th): (4th) |