News from the Barretts, July 2010

Dear prayer partners for us and Spain,

The Urban Mosaic Culture Association

The first work to fit out the inside of the premises for the “Coffee House” project got under way at the beginning of July. Our builder is Mircea Mateiciuc with whom Ken visited Siret in Rumania in the past. Due to the 19 months of delays in obtaining the planning permission, the overall estimate of the cost of the project has risen to around 25,000 Euros for which we are still looking to the Lord (and normally through the interest of his people). We also continue to pray for a “frontier youth worker” who will serve as a “centre manager” once we have the building in operation. Both in terms of the way “social” and “cultural” ministry is being done in Spain, this is a pioneer project. Please pray for the Associations´ committee, a group of believers from our church with whom Alison cooperates, as they seek opportunities to explain our vision.

Employing Mircea is not just because he is good at building. The Siret church in Rumania is very missionary orientated, and some of Mircea´s cousins are missionaries in Malawi. He himself was saving up for a missions trip into Moldavia and the Ukraine this September when a disastrous flood left several relatives in Siret destitute. So by contributing to the building fund at the moment you will be benefitting the work both in Spain, Rumania and Moldavia. Mircea is also the manufacturer of our folding metal sketch-boards for preaching. This is a sideline which he has speeded up as he looks for sources of finance. We have had to come up with the cash until we succeed in selling them on to open air preachers. Since January 2010 we have sold or given 8 sketch-boards in Perú, Brasil and Spain. Most of them are being used on a regular basis.

Anniversaries and Presidency

Our 31st wedding anniversary was on the 23rd June. Although Ken was coming down with a feverish cold, we walked by the Henares riverside and heard the nightingale and the Golden Oriol thrilling with song to their Maker. We can remember with gratitude our marriage starting in the UK and we have had the privilege of being called to serve Him in Spain together for some 25 years. We also remember that there are among you those among you who have laboured alongside us in fellowship and prayer in much of what the Lord has done over these years. In a fragile world, such steadfast love is sustenance to our soul.

Alison is the president of the administration of our block of flats from now until June 2011. This is obligatory and is passed on each year. It involves bringing in the contributions of each flat owner for the costs of heating, cleaning etc. And this year also involves overseeing compulsory building repairs to the outside of the block. May it also give positive opportunities to meet more of our neighbours.

Student and civic ministries

The last weekend of June marked Alison´s final voluntary duty after more than 10 years of student ministry in Alcalá. She went off to a houseparty which the GBU run for leaders in Madrid to assess the past year and plan for the future. She is only invited to do the cooking, no mean feat as she has to cater for almost 40 from a small family house kitchen. On midsummer´s night we met up with some of this year´s and other former students for an evening picnic in the University grounds. The Lord has answered prayer for successors in the ministry. We rejoice that Francisco Sánchez, his wife Mari Ángeles and two other couples have offered to form a team to help the student ministry in Alcalá from now on. This answer to prayer may mean that students do not find their way to our own church quite as often in the future but that is not as important as the discipleship through the Word which happens within the resistant University.

On Saturday 19th we had the “Let the Sunshine In” event in the Cervantes Plaza in the heart of Alcalá de Henares. It was a gathering of 250 people who were arranged to arrive at a certain point in the square at 8pm and then to peel their coats off to reveal a bright yellow tee-shirt. They were armed with evangelistic literature and were able to respond to public interest by explaining what the Gospel was. This whole event was also filmed by a camera team for another Youtube presentation to give other believers ideas of pacific means of open air witness. Sociologically, we believe that such events are known as “flashmobs”. Whilst we can understand critics of the method, we were pleased to be involved because: firstly this idea and initiative had come from local Spanish leadership; secondly, as other churches in the area did not come on board with the idea, it proved that there were at least 250 people prepared to be identified as evangelical Christians in the city (something more than 300 shirts had been sold actually); thirdly in Spain this is a new idea and potentially non- confrontational – although nothing is guaranteed these days with aggressive secular and religious groups on the prowl.

Ken did the paperwork with the civil authorities for the event because under Spanish law this organized spontaneity is considered a “demonstration”. But it was his last administrative act after 12 years in Alcalá of handling the legal representation of the group of churches that works together. It ´s not that there are no more battles to fight to guarantee civic witness and equality for evangelicals in Alcalá; but the guidelines and options are now clear and there has arisen a new “generation” of leadership in a wider circle of churches who appear keen to try new approaches to promote the cultural and evangelical witness of the churches. We are grateful to the Lord for his upholding grace and the occasional encouragers who have helped us persevere in “fighting our corner”.

Baptisms

On Sunday 20th, we celebrated an open air baptism service for those from the Alcalá and Azuqueca congregations. It was at a reservoir close to Sacedón, some 70 kms from Alcalá in the province of Guadalajara. From our congregation two young people were baptised and from Azuqueca came another six. This was followed by an open air picnic and a few farewells as some students were returning and others will not be with our congregations over the summer period.

Our two internees on the OM short term experience programme stayed with us over five days and one, who is presently studying at Moody Bible College, confessed that she had never seen a baptism held at a lakeside. During their days with us Ken saw them integrated into visits to the Madrid City Mission, accompanying one of our school teachers into a state secondary institute, working with the Kilometre Cero team, spending time with an outreach centre in a Muslim dominated part of Madrid City Centre, taking part in the childrens´ park programme as well as the other activities over the weekend. Our next summer “helper” will be Frankie Hildick – Smith, an auxiliary teacher from Dean Close School, Cheltenham, arriving on July 10th and staying until the end of the month. Please also pray for the details of the planning for the OM team of 10 people to whom we play host as a church from the 24th July for a week.

Other summer activities

On Saturday 3rd Ken gave a workshop on cross cultural adaptation at the Soria Missionary conferences. Missionary conferences among our churches in Spain are not quite as “de passé” as they seem to be regarded in the UK. Indeed when other organizational events caused plans for a similar event to be cancelled in Madrid earlier this year, the brethren at Soria acted with faith to propose an alternative with an interesting input of international and national input. There were missionaries from Africa and Asia present and we pray that the vision of the Soria brethren will be richly rewarded. Their burgeoning group of young people and the church has begun its own NGO with particular reference to Madagascar, which originally had some spark from a group of overseas students we sent on a day trip to Soria at least 10 years ago...!!

Ken has a responsibility for overseeing the theological contents in the curriculum of the National School of Evangelical Religious Teachers. This involves him in a “summer school” in Madrid tomorrow the 9th July. His seminar is on “The Biblical Basis of Ethics – Contemporary Issues”. He has to put in quite a few hours of marking student papers at the end of the course. Please pray that more of those who will be representing the Gospel in the classroom would root themselves in Scripture authority and marshal arguments which persuade others to value what God has said. May the students be encouraged by more personal contact with their teachers at that seminar.

UK Visit in early October

We only plan a fortnight´s visit this year. It was stimulated by an invitation to speak at the Cardiff Missionary meetings and by concern for Ken´s Mum, as she will be recovering from an operation. Promoting the work in Spain to the maximum among UK Christians is not easy because of the few “platforms” open which give time to ministry of the word and to cross cultural mission in Europe. After ten days together in the Bristol area Ken goes to Scotland for consultative meetings with GLO in Motherwell and then back south via Harrogate where his Mum lives. Alison will make her own “loop” south in order to see family in the London area and get back to Spain a few days earlier to prepare our Historians Conference.

Madrid Bible Teaching Centre

The continued interest in the re-launch of the short teaching courses saw an attendance of about 50 in early June on “How to Hear God speak through the Bible”. A new departure for our courses and the Centre is the Historians conference we plan for the 22nd- 24th October. Tim Grass, an associate tutor in Church History at Spurgeon´s is putting together “Generations - The contribution of the British assemblies to the extension of the Brethren movement in Spain 1860 – 1975”. This coincides with our publications programme at the centre which has a couple of books which look at the history of pioneer work. Even in this more academic pursuit please pray for unity and love for the Lord, as lately the field of evangelical research has been threatened by rivalries and undue competition.

Family

It was good to see Tim recently. Esther has finished her exams successfully in Geneva and is keeping her job there through the summer until she finishes her thesis in September. Then we hope to see her for a while. Please pray for wisdom as she hunts for jobs as a translator.

With our love and thanks in the Lord,

Ken and Ali Barrett

More news!

13th July

I had an extra evening out in the Puerta del Sol with American and English visiting teams. The triumphal procession route occasionally disgorged crowds down into Sol, with a certain amount of disruption to the daily business of evangelization.
Some of this was filmed and will be up on the Red Box website in a few weeks time.

14th July

Dear friends who pray for Spain and the Lord´s work we´re involved in,

We forward a number of photos taken yesterday of the initial stages of the building of the inside of the premises for the Urban Mosaic Cultural Association. This is part of the "coffee house" project about which we have prayed and planned in the Alcalá church since acquiring the premises in May 2007. Thanks for praying through the different stages and the long battle of attrition with the Alcalá city planners who did an extra slow job on granting the building permissions necessary. Please continue to pray for three things:

1. The committee of the Association in their coordination of the building work and their promotion and planning of the use of this building.

2. Fund raising, because the building work which must now go on needs to cover some 30,000 Euros to reach the final fitting out. If you do feel God´s calling to contribute economically we can pass on details.

3. A frontier youth worker called and equipped to work alongside both the church outreach and the Cultural Association here.

With our love and thanks for your prayers,

Ken and Ali Barrett

Ken in the news

For Spanish speakers, here is a report on Ken's summer plans, published by Protestante Digital. We will give you the report in English if it is translated in the coming days.