News, Summer 2012

News from the Churches

NATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER 9th June. Madrid City Mission news. Another big concert in Madrid. 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.

The National Day of Prayer, 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 is taking place on 9th June. People have been invited to fast one meal over the preceding 3 weeks, 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, especially this weekend! 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!

On 30th June the Santiago Bernabeu (Real Madrid) stadium in Madrid will be the venue for a second big evangelical concert in 2 months. This time Juan Luís Guerra will be the key singer.
On 5th May an earlier concert 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.

Madrid City Mission, which recently celebrated its 25th anniversary, now has 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.

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.

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:

• 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. You can read the document (pdf - Spanish) supporting the new requirement that girls under 18 get parental permission for the abortion.

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.