News, September 2008

News from the Churches

The Agua Viva Gospel Choir (FEREDE)

New church planting cooperation group established. Palace announces first ever royal presence at a protestant event. (Protestante Digital celebrates 5th birthday. Anglican Bishop Carlos Lopez represented the FEREDE at the (Catholic) state funeral for the Spanair disaster. Hundreds of believers, plus authorities, attended evangelical funeral for Ruben Hernandez, victim of the tragic Spanair disaster. Zaragoza water Expo is now in its last week. The Evangelical pavilion is among the attractions - and had received over 300,000 visitors by 9th September. Many thousands attempted to attend the Juan Luís Guerra concert, so many that the Expo's doors were closed early for the first time. 30th August was the Agua Viva pavilion's 'special day' and the Expo had a record 121,000 visitors. Pentecostal Europe Convention is coming to Madrid in October, with various preparatory events already. This and more... Read on!

On 30th September the second meeting of PECOM will take place. This is a coordinating group under the auspices of FEREDE, the evangelical federation, with the aim of encouraging church planting. The groups brings together denominations, ministries and missions involved or interested in church planting. At a first meeting, last June, the group were able to congratulate themselves that despite the anarchy of the past 40 years of religious tolerance and then freedom, during which Judges 21:25 has ruled decisions, the number of churches has grown from 300 to over 2600. Yet there remain on the one hand 44 million people outside the evangelical churches, but mostly within walking distance of them and on the other 7200 municipalities with no church, leaving at least 3 million many miles (in some cases 60 miles) from the closest point of contact. The good news is that, with the large number of churches and organisations now around, some can concentrate on reaching the cities more effectively, while others reach out to untouched areas. Yet any attempt to plan and coordinate this at a human level is resisted by a majority from across the doctrinal spectrum, considering that it would interfere with the groups' autonomy as well as with the work of the Holy Spirit. The feeling is that a 'grand plan' will never work, but consensus on some basic values of collaboration could be reached.

The Royal family has never attended an event organised by protestants in Spain, much to the resentment of evangelical leaders. In particular, all invitations to attend the maximum meetings of evangelicals, the Evangelical Congresses, have been turned down. The 7th Congress took place in December, 2007. Now the palace has accepted an invitation for Prince Felipe and his wife, Letizia to attend the opening of the first International Congress on the Protestant reformation and Freedom in Europe. This will take place next March. In so doing, the royal family will put right what is considered an offence against the Reformation and Spanish protestants since Charles V (1st of Spain) rejected Luther and Philip II set the Inquisition against them.

Early this month the Spanish Evangelical Alliance's Press agency ACPress and its web service Protestante Digital celebrated their 5th birthday. The agancy was born after the demise of an earlier attempt with the Evangelical federation (FEREDE) to run a united evangelical agency called ICPress. Now PD receives up to 200,000 visits monthly. 100 people contribute to the news and opinion articles and videos on the site. More here. We are delighted to have been able to keep you in touch with evangelical events around Spain partly through this channel.

On 11th September, the state funeral for the 154 victims of the Spanair plane crash (20th August) was the first occasion in which a representative of the protestant federation FEREDE was invited to speak at such an event. Carlos Lopez, Anglican Bishop of Spain spoke of the hope of heaven that is to be found in Jesus for all who trust in him in this life, while the Catholic Archbishop prayed for the dead. Lopez also said a prayer at the end of the service. Although the only protestant victim of the accident was a baptist and while the FEREDE would have preferred a civil ceremony of 'multi-confessional' service, it was happy that this first step was made to involve other faiths at such a time.

On 4th September Madrid's First Baptist church ('General Lacy'), was full to overflowing as many gathered to commemorate the life and service of Rubén Hernández, a key lay outreach leader of the Baptist churches in Madrid, who died in the tragic air accident on 20th August.
The Justice minister and the vice-president's top adjutant were present to calm evangelical concerns that national leaders cared little for the faith of those Spaniards who are not Catholics. (The official state funeral will be a Catholic one.) Other national and local government representatives were also present, while letters from the Royal family and the President were also read. This is the first time that government has taken the evangelicals so seriously at such a time.
The sermon, given by pastor Juan Manuel Quero, was entitled 'From Madrid to heaven', using a familiar saying. Quero himself had recently lost a son. Ruben's widow, MariCarmen, was happy in her grief, knowing they would meet again, but concerned for the families of other victims who do not have that peace. prayer was offered for all those who had lost close ones in the accident.
Rubén had been a member of the Tres Cantos baptist church in a suburb north of the city, after it had been ceded from mother church 'Good Shepherd' in Madrid. Recently, together with his wife, he had led outreach work to the towns in the mountains further north, where no churches so far exist.

One of the most important outreaches of the past years is now on in Zaragoza. Coinciding with and very involved in the World Water Expo, the region's churches have a pavilion in the Expo, highlighting evangelical development around the world. In addition, four district outreaches are running (on and off) for the 3 months of the Expo this summer.
Open Air evangelism: at the end of May, evangelist Ken Barrett gave a weekend training seminar for sketchboard preachers. Unfortunately, the practical sessions had to be cancelled due to too much water... rain! Since then, Ken has been back and was able to hold some meetings, Chris & Hilde Mathieson and Ramón Rendon have also taken part in open airs at various times with the local church teams and Ken and Ramón plan to be back, a veritable marathonian relay of local and national participation. Meanwhile, the local churches have not stopped taking every opportunity to get out into local parks with the gospel.

Agua Viva and Aragon pavilions

At the last moment and despite giving plenty of warning, the city authorities turned down requests for permission for various activities which were planned by the churches' council and visiting groups. The stated reason was that they want nothing to distract people from the Expo! But in the end the police have not intervened in the activities, some slightly lower-key than originally planned, but including concerts and distribution as well as preaching the gospel in numerous ways. Pray that the objective -presenting Christ as the Living Water in a spiritually parched city- continue unhindered, perhaps even aided by this hiccup.

Inside - the NGO area

There was also a 320 voice Gospel choir performing on 5th July, with composer Richard Smallwood, famous for 'I love the Lord' sung by Whitney Houston in the film 'The Preacher's Wife'. An estimated 15,000 heard the gospel through the concert, according to FEREDE. 7,000 were seated in the auditorium, another 1,000 standing in front of the stage, plus thousands more on bridges and walkways in the area.

Roping in the visitors!

Then on 30th August, coinciding with the Agua Viva pavilion's 'Day of Honour', there was a concert given by Juan Luís Guerra, an evangelical and winner of numerous 'Latin Grammys'. The gates of the Expo had to be closed early that evening, as thousands queued to see the concert. Already 3 hours before it began (at 23.30), the auditorium was full. Again, thousands more crowded the concourse and walkways close to the auditorium. The day was also -despite closing early- the Expo's most visited day, with over 121,000 entering. The Operations Director said it would not have been honest to continue selling tickets when we knew most were coming for a particular show and the late-comers would have no chance of getting close to it, since it was already full.

The video presentation can be downloaded

Among the attractions at Agua Viva during the month of July was the Brazilian band Lovanza ('Praise').
A fascinating addition to the show at the Agua Viva pavilion is Alfonso Cruz, an evangelical from Terrassa, Barcelona, who is one of only two painters who works under water, making paintings of wrecks, reefs and sea life. Videos of him at work, together with several of his paintings are on show in the pavilion. Cruz, himself, was on hand to explain his work to delegates on the pavilion's 'day of honour' on 30th August.

A gospel or Jesus film to take away

Up to 9th September (12 weeks), the pavilion has seen over 301,000 visitors, of whom over 217,000 viewed the 'espejismos' (mirages/ illusions) video presentation. See the Video here! So almost 6% of the (so far 5.1 million) total Expo visitors are making it to Agua Viva. In the first ten days 3,000 of these left contact details asking for more information. 1,500 contacts are local people from Zaragoza. Many have also taken a John's Gospel, Jesus film video, or other material. The pavilion is now expecting some 310,000 visitors over the 3 months. This compares with over one million at the Post pavilion and half a million at the province of Zaragoza pavilion, both in the same area of the Expo.

Kids programme outside

A number of evangelistic organisations and teams are supporting the outreach. During the first half of July Decision has a team, during the first half of August it was the turn of Pocket Testament League, while a Brazilian church team prepared in various types of presentation, such as mime, was there the whole month of July. Local church members are showing signs of tiring at the half way point. Pray for them!
6 to 8 million were expected to visit the Expo, including at least 4.5 million Spaniards. By 8th September, 5.15 million had visited.

Pentecostal Europe Convention (PEC) is coming to Madrid with a European prayer day on 6th September. David Wilkerson will be a keynote speaker, along with Carlos Anacondia and several Spanish leaders. The convention itself is 24th to 25th October. We believe Paul Yonggi Cho is speaking.

Operation Transit is on again this summer, with teams spread across the country, this year including the Expo, aiming to share Jesus with migrants returning home to North Africa for their holidays, handing them gospel packets.
In their 10th August report OT asked prayer for additional workers in Ceuta up to the middle of September. In addition they ask for prayer for the leaders, the relationship with the authorities in the different areas where they are working, the distribution of the gospel packets and their use by the recipients and also for the harvest and follow-up. They give thanks for those who have been saved. One north African worker met someone who received a gospel packet 5 years ago and knew the material well, but still did not understand how to become a Christian. The worker was able to help him with this step! OT publishes other similar stories.

50 days for Palencia has been a prayer effort for this city in northern Spain. Churches in other parts of the world have joined in a prayer and fasting chain for the needy city.

Other summer outreaches have been going on elsewhere. Pocket testament League was in Azuqueca de Henares (Castilla La Mancha) during July. On the first day some 400 attended their 'Treasure Island' programme for children. Subsequently the programme continued, also involving family film evenings after treasure island. They were also able to distribute hundreds of John's gospels. Several new people visited the church service during the outreach. In August LTB has been in Zaragoza.
MEM, the Baptist mission group, had a campaign in Villarrobledo (Castilla La Mancha) in July and some 50 were interested in knowing more and meeting from 27th July in a new church being planted there. Since then, MEM has been in Gijón (Asturias) and Zaragoza.
After their outreach in Zaragoza during July, Decision was in Palma del Río (Andalusia) during August.
The Kings Kids (YWAM) were in Barakaldo (Bilbao) during July and are in Sarajevo during late August.
FIEIDE, the free baptist denomination, had an outreach in Albania and Kosova during July.
Pray for the results of all these outreaches.

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: (26th September)

Whose funeral was it, anyway?
Evangelical Alliance complain to Catholic Bishops over funeral
Protestant participation in State funeral causes controversy
Religious power must be controlled
Five years on, and what have we learned?
A quarter of all children spend all afternoon in front of the telly
Christian girl defends Christian values on television
Leading Baptist figure dies

(22nd)

ACPress is five years old and going from strength to strength
Police arrest murderer of 11-year-old Evangelical girl
Two more books from the pen of Vidal
Evangelical Alliance decides not to complain to Europe
Theologians accuse government of being Catholic Church´s hostage
10,000 Spaniards have become Muslims in the last five years
Government wants to push through easier abortion law
Youth with a mission heart

(15th)
Plane crash victim´s widow asks Cardinal not to include her husband in Catholic ritual
Moving memorial service held for Rubén Santana
Struck by the post-holiday blues
6 per cent of population visit prostitutes regularly
There´s more to water than meets the eye
Internet advertising threatens conventional outlets
Two million children die each year for lack of drinking water
Three sisters remembered who helped Jews escape to Portugal

(5th)
Evangelical parents win home-schooling case
Nelson to publish Vidal novel
Judge says Catholic R.E. classes are not harmful
Diving to disaster
Numbers of out-of-control children is out of control
Evangelical Alliance to complain to EU about Catholic ´State funeral´ for air crash victims