News from the Barretts, March 2010

Dear friends who pray for Spain and the Barretts,

Prayer is part of what sustains us spiritually. In May we had the opportunity to celebrate the 51 years of service of our colleagues the Wickhams. The Wickhams were just reaching the stage Alison and I are now at when we arrived in Spain 25 years ago. Great is the Lord´s faithfulness! According to the Echoes of Service list we are still among the “young ones” on the field! That´s to say it is not easy to see the Lord raising up labourers for the harvest from other countries to serve with a long term vision for Spain, both as a country and a vital Mediterranean missions platform.

We “showcase” Spain, especially over the summer, by being involved in a number of ways with younger people from other countries, some of whom could be called back to longer term service here or in the Spanish speaking world.

1. At Kilometro 0 in Madrid city centre Ken works as a team leader on one of the evenings of the week. There are many summer teams who visit for a few day´s experience, - many of them from the US. May the Lord give them all a heart to serve and to fit in and to go away positively motivated about outgoing evangelism. Pray for mental and spiritual freshness especially as the summer heat hits.

2. In June (15th - 20th) we have two OM trainees with us, Hailey and Lydia for an intensive five day orientation period. We are also preparing the Alcalá church to work with an OM team at the end of July (24th - 31st), before travelling on with them for another week of campaign in early August in Galicia.

3. Also in July we have two former students accompanying us over a period of weeks They have felt called to come back to help us and learn more of the Lord in Spain.

But it´s not just those from outside Spain that we are involved in training.

Other areas of discipleship are:

1. Last Saturday Ken did two mini- seminars for teachers training to impart the Evangelical Religious Education classes in state schools. He still has a pile of scripts to mark and then there is more to give in the Summer School in Madrid on Friday, 9th July.

2. Alison´s "last term" as a helper in the work among University students has kept her busy. The last film dialogue that we held attracted 15 people - a reasonable attendance by previous standards. She is cooking for a student retreat on the 25th – 27th June. We are grateful for the help that Hannah from Liverpool has given throughout the year and the input from Robert, Sharon and family from Dublin over this last quarter. Apparently there is still no decision about a volunteer successor for Alison. Please pray for GBU, Spain to overcome its´ slow internal decision making and not lose the evangelistic initiative in Alcalá again.

3. This Saturday (5th June) sees the next training course put on by the Madrid Bible Training Centre with which we both work. The course is entitled ”How do the Scriptures speak to us today?”

By extension the work we do at the Centre reaches and teaches. Alison´s administration of the magazine "Edificación Cristiana" continues as the magazine is behind its publishing schedule so she has to organize a dispatch in less than a month in order to catch up; then there is library cataloguing work over the summer.

The publishing projects at the Madrid Bible Training Centre have been stalled for a while whilst priorities were reset. The next couple of books due out have to do with the history of the work in Spain. Ken and other "Archive keepers" are still working on the history conference in late October. When funding is low, it is difficult to persuade people of the importance of not throwing away their history.

4. We also welcome on the 3rd July the opportunity to take part in a Missions conference in Soria, where we will be doing a workshop on cross cultural adaptation.

In the Alcalá church there are bright moments and battles:

1. An extremely acrid divorce case continues to leave us feeling drained at times. This originally came to a head over a year ago. It can only be termed a "war of attrition" ever since we helped a sister face down an abusive husband. The clumsy Spanish court and family policing system has meant that the sister in question has lost her work, partly though so many demands for court appearances.

2. Please continue to pray for “M”. She has been a believer for some two years having been converted through family members in Poland. She conscientiously writes out her prayers and readings to make a contribution but she continues to struggle to give up smoking. Her husband, like many contractors in Spain´s recession, has been left with much of his work unpaid and this makes her desperate about finance at times.

3. “M´s” son, “P” is the youngest of the three potential baptism candidates due to be baptized on the 20th June.

4. We also have two wedding at which to officiate in the Alcalá church (one in September this year and then another in March 2010). One of these weddings is of two people on our potential leadership team. This together with the unemployment of another leader presents us with new questions about how to recognize new leadership in Alcalá.

5. In evangelism, the childrens´ park outreach on Fridays continues with the team members putting into practice new ideas learnt over the winter.

6. There has been enthusiasm about being involved in “Letting the Sunshine in” – an “evangelistic demonstration” by evangelical believers dressed in yellow on the 19th June in Alcala´ s main Cervantes square. This has been notified to the central authorities. Although more cumbersome as a procedure this route for notifications offers more guarantees, especially after another negative experience of the City Council playing “cat and mouse” with the churches over a requested permission for meeting in the open air on Pentecost Sunday. The local police intervened to stop the meeting (in favour of a nearby procession which has never been routed through the area before). But with a change in our plan some form of meeting between six churches went forward without electricity. We are hoping for some 300 participants in the 19th June event and to be able to post a film on “Youtube” so that other groups of churches can copy the idea.

7. The building work for the "Coffee House" in Alcalá is due to start in July. Please continue to pray for the Lord´s provision for the building funds.

Family

We have seen our son Tim in June as he passes through Spain to and from a friend´s wedding in Marakesh. Esther is into the final stretch of her Master´s degree at Geneva University with exams and the handing in of her thesis demanding much study. Please pray for her to be led of the Lord in where to live from this summer onwards as she sets up as a free lance translator. Finding enough paying work is part of the question to do with future location.

Thanks for remembering and praying for some of these things and passing them on to others, as the Lord leads,

Ken and Ali Barrett

PS. You can follow more of our weekly and daily activities for prayer by becoming a friend of Ken Barrett on Facebook or asking echoes@echoes.org.uk to send you their weekly update for prayer which includes our requests.