Personal News, Autumn 05

In Zermatt

Dear friends,

The snow melted! (That was where we left off the last letter!) And the past six months have seen us busy in Switzerland, Spain, Austria and elsewhere. We thank you for all your support over the months and trust that you have kept up to date with some of our movements as posted in different places on the web site. We take this opportunity once again to write a brief letter, but please do make use of any internet access you may have to fill out this report.

Campaigning

This year we have been involved in 3 campaigns, starting in Baeza, at Easter. A seasoned team of five, Ken Barrett and the Gines family from Madrid, joined with even more seasoned missionaries in Baeza, Jodar and their home village of Villargordo, reaching out to the crowds assembled to celebrate Easter as only the Spaniards can. A good number of conversations followed each meeting and we trust that the Lord has continued his work in many lives.

The summer's campaigning got off to a big start with Reach The City in Vienna. Both Hilde and I were able to be there, supporting and involved in the training of new preachers. I then travelled to Arenas de San Pedro, west of Madrid, for an outreach organised by OM and involving a church team from Leicestershire. Finally, we both took part in the Pocket Testament League children's festival outreach in Palamos, Costa Brava, where OM offshoot Alturas is planting a church. More info with lots of photos: Baeza, Arenas , Palamós and Vienna

Web ministry

As the above links show, I've been busy posting reports of our campaigns on the web, but although my three web sites are now well and truly up and running, there is always plenty to do to keep them up to date. The OACI site is now undergoing an update as we begin to post all the exciting opportunities for you to be directly involved in outreach next year... or even over the New Year! www.confevan.org is the Spanish language site, with a monthly prayer letter it's main updated feature. This prayer letter of the Spanish Evangelists' Conference is also posted on PrayforSpain (P4S) in both Spanish and English... when I get round to translating it. P4S also has news which is updated as regularly as possible, often even several times a day, as news which you can turn into prayer requests comes in. We are happy that terrorism has dropped off the top of the agenda, while illegal immigration has become a wave of sub-Saharans crossing the Straits of Gibraltar or the fences of the Spanish enclaves in Melilla and Ceuta, hoping for a better life in Europe. The severe drought has been another major theme, causing us to pray also for spiritual rain over the Spanish plain. As time allows, there are more in-depth comments on numerous issues, plus background of all sorts.

Hilde

Hilde's main activity this year has been a course on Psycho-Social Health Promotion. An emphasis in health care over recent years has been to try to stop worrying about dealing with illness, by promoting health and prevention of illness. Of my few visits to hospital I can surely agree with the argument: keep away if you can! She's finishing off the course with a short dissertation on cross-cultural issues. It's very interesting to think about all these things and attempt to bring in much of our own experience over the years. We hope it will be of use as we move back to Spain.

OACI

In addition to the web ministry, Chris was elected for a further 2 year term to be European chairman. I don't know how, but what was meant to be a sinecure turns out to generate as much work as other time allows. Thankfully, most of this is of an administrative nature, preparation of the annual conference in Brussels, coordination of joint publicity and promotion projects, etc..

Mallorca

In January, while at the Evangelists' Conference in Madrid, we took the decision to return to Spain in 2006. But where should we relocate? One issue which has been growing in concern to me is the health of my parents. My father is now 86, but in much better health than he should be! How much longer? Since they live half the year on Mallorca, this would seem to be a good reason to relocate there. Besides, it's a wonderful place to live, as thousands of northern European ex-pats, not to mention the native islanders, will assure you.

Mallorca is obviously a favourite holiday destination, but it also home to 800,000 people, of whom only 15% are foreigners and among these there are actually more Moroccans and also more Ecuadorians than British! Palma itself has more than 350,000 residents and is humming with activity of all sorts. It is also the hub for the churches, which have found it hard to make inroads into the villages of inner Mallorca. Most evangelical church members (or their parents) are from other parts of Spain, if not from abroad. In recent years an in-rush of Latin Americans has increased attendance, but it is taking time to integrate them into a very different church culture. How will we fit in? Still hard to tell. But this we know: Chris's web activity can carry on there as anywhere, while the big church in Palma also has a regular open air ministry and surely with its international flavour room for us both to get involved. But at first we are in no rush to get involved locally. We await developments and look forward to seeing how and where we really do fit into the puzzle.

We will spend Christmas in Mallorca and look for suitable accommodation to rent or buy. With prices very high, but the market mature, renting might be best for the short- term. We hope to move in February, if all goes according to plan, so please pray with us that we find our dream villa (or more likely a back-street apartment) fairly quickly.

Support

We are very grateful for all of you who read this letter and pray for us, whether or not you actually support us financially. Prayer is the key to effectiveness! Should you be interested in getting a paper copy of this, don't hesitate to send us an email. If you would like to (or prefer to) get our one screen email alerts of personal web postings, we will happily place you on the email list. For these or any other reasons, we look forward to hearing from you. Write either to us or the Europe Now office.

Much love from both of us and early wishes for a very Happy Christmas!

P.S.

We found a flat! Here are the photos!