News, March to May 2012

News from the Churches

Madrid City Mission news. Big concert in Madrid. Spain Prayer Day planned for June 9th. TV time change doubles audience. Evangelical Alliance supports government revision of abortion law. Follow up of thousands now on! My Hope TV outreach in follow-up to Christmas TV campaign.

Madrid City Mission, which recently celebrated its 25th anniversary, is getting a new director. For the past 26 years the director (and founder) has been Juan Simarro, who introduced the City Mission concept to Spain. Launched with the involvement of several local churches and supported by many more, the Mission has been able to attend tens of thousands of needy people over these years. In addition to basic needs, such as food and clothing, the Mission has helped many with their search for work and a special department attending to pregnant women and new mothers.
Now the Mission has appointed Bianca Lauran, a social worker born in Romania, as Juan's successor. She has the skills and spiritual gifts, together with the vision to lead the Mission into the next 25 years. Juan continues for the time being as president.
The crisis is hurting the poor most. In their latest news letter the Mission reports that government support has been cut by over 50%, but even more alarming, support from evangelicals has fallen by 36%. Pray for new donors and greater commitment from those who could do better.

A concert took place on 5th May. It was organised by Carol Celico, the wife of Real Madrid star Kaká, and included singers and groups such as Marcos Vidal and Hillsong London. Despite persistent rain, over 2,000 attended the concert and enjoyed the music offered by the various groups and singers.
It is understood that Kaká, with over 10 million followers, is the most popular sports personality in Twitter world-wide. Follow on @KAKA . It is expected that this summer he will be 'sold' by Real Madrid to another European club.

España Oramos Por Tí is the name of a national prayer initiative which has taken place every spring for the past four years. The main national event will take place on 9th June. They are inviting people to fast one meal over the preceding 3 weeks - now on!-, so as to allow time to pray for the country and the event. As you can see from the general news below, there is plenty of need in the country. Another first this year is the National Prayer Breakfast. National and regional leaders have been invited to this event, modelled on the US version. Other, local breakfasts will also precede the day's activities. Do join us, whether on 9th June or every day!

Since Easter, the weekly evangelical programme on state broadcaster TVE has had a new lease of life. The timing has been changed from 9.15 to 9.45 each Sunday morning (local time), allowing many who were too lazy to get up to see the programme before leaving for church! It lasts 15 minutes and the variable format includes Bible teaching, the testimonies of families, news of important events and so on, as well as frequently offering a few minutes of song.

Mi Esperanza (My Hope), a TV campaign, which took place on 15th to 17th December, 2012 has been reborn! Under the title Hay Esperanza (There is Hope), the materials prepared for the campaign continue to be available for the churches and will be used in continuing outreach in coming months and years.

The Spanish Evangelical Alliance has issued a communiqué in support of the proposed revision of the abortion law. The current law, which allows abortion on demand under the Health Service up to 14 weeks, was enacted by the previous Socialist government. The new government is led by the Partido Popular, which has always opposed such legislation. It now plans to make it more diffcult to have an abortion. The Evangelical Alliance has published a document (pdf - Spanish) supporting the new requirement that girls under 18 get parental permission for the abortion. This would be a first step in the overall revision of the law. Meanwhile, the Health department is considering withdrawing the Day After pill from over-the-counter sale, requiring a doctor's prescription.

Other news and events

The English language service of Protestante Digital has been closed during the relaunch of this news service of the Spanish Evangelical Alliance in Spanish. The new service will have a completely separate home page and the editor has been named. We expect the service to start during, 2012. A Portuguese language service came into use in the Autumn of 2011. The Catalan language service may take a bit longer.
Meanwhile, as of April 2012, there are now versions available for smartphones and tablets: PD report (Spanish)

Earlier news in bullets:

Over the bank holiday weekend 8th to 10th December Catalonia's evangelicals celebrated their third 'Protestant Congress'.
On Christmas Eve (24th December) Spain's evangelicals were again be able to enjoy a national TV broadcast, as TVE 2 put on the annual Christmas service.
Mi Esperanza (My Hope), a TV campaign, took place on 15th to 17th December. According to data released on 6th February, from 610 churches, some 5,000 had made a profession of faith in their activities. Over 2,500 made a re-commitment and over 10,000 want to know more. That is of the more than 21,000 who attended. More results are still expected, possibly 15-20% higher. Now we really need you to pray for the major follow-up work being undertaken by the church leaders and 'Matthews' (the hosts who opened their homes).
The campaign was backed with a major contribution from the Billy Graham Association. (First impressions report here and most results from BGEA.

For earlier news from the churches, click here!

Finally, more news from the churches is (usually) always available at:

1. Our Facebook page

2.The Protestante Digital site. You can also listen to some reports and comment.