Arise, May 2005

Let us walk as by day”

Bulletin nº20 (May 2005)

The Bulletin of the Prayer Network for the Evangelisation of Spain

“The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armour of light.” (Rom 13:12)

Are we living a moment of opportunity?

“The night is nearly over; the day is almost here.” These words, referred to by Juan Sánchez Araujo in the bulletin of his church in Seville, are of inspiration to us in our prayer this month. Our brother refers to the spiritual darkness in which our Spanish society is living at the moment. This darkness is clear as we see the approval by Congress of laws such as the quick divorce law or homosexual marriage. These legal decisions mean the institutionalisation of evil in our society. We have come to call good bad and bad good.. Yet in the midst of this deterioration and of the changes we are living, we can discern that we are living an historic moment in Spain. In these events we see the opportunity to bring in a great harvest of souls. We just need to clothe ourselves with the weapons of light and walk as children of light. With this in mind, let us join together in prayer for the following topics:

Praise, Prayer, Participation

§ “Harmony with God” ("Armonía con Díos") is an on-going evangelistic ministry in Córdoba. We join in the rejoicing of the organisers of this beautiful initiative of evangelism and unity. They inform us: “At last, this Wednesday, 27th April, our baby was born. 45 of us from different churches met to give birth to this new ministry. They are part of those who will change the history of Córdoba. 35 members of churches from the capital and province of Córdoba currently form the long-term team. We don’t doubt that many more will join us each Wednesday at 8.30 p.m. to announce to Córdoba the virtues of Him who calls us from darkness to His wonderful light”

§ Operation Transit: “Now to Him who is powerful to do all things much more abundantly than we ask or understand, according to the power that is at work within us; to Him be glory!” The Lord has worked in answer to the prayers in a much more abundant way than anything we asked or expected. To Him be the glory! One request was that God should prepare hearts to receive the Word and that the tragic events of the tsunami would not distance the north Africans from God, but rather bring them closer to Him. Over the past years we have been distributing ever smaller numbers of gospel packets, but during our training period we noticed good receptivity. The first Sunday we found that the 200 packets we had prepared we insufficient for the demand, so we had to go back for more. In all, we gave out 960 over the week. God used the tragic events to arouse greater receptivity. There are many testimonies of God’s intervention in the distribution.

Prayer requests:
1. Continue praying that receptivity remain high; and for the participants this summer, that they would experience enthusiasm in the distribution.
2. For the recruitment for this summer - we still need hundreds of workers and leaders for the three months that the port distribution project lasts; also for long-term workers. Are you one of those workers? Is the Lord calling your youth group to take part this summer?
3. Pray for the Arabic speaking evangelists, for their visas and finances for the journey.
4. For the over 50,000 DVDs of the Jesus film, for finances, for the translation and dubbing into a new, more colloquial version of the film.
5. For the follow-up. The harvest is ready and overflowing! Also for coordinator Pedro Reyes.

§ Monthly day of prayer and fasting for Spain This is to be our new project, the last Friday of each month. Our brother Juan Sánchez Araujo invites us to join together in this monthly day of prayer and fasting. “Those who wish to take part, please let me know by email, so that I can remind you of the dates. Te idea is nothing complicated: I, like most, have little time to organise anything big. It’s enough that people pray and fast that day and that we keep in touch through the Internet.” Juan Sánchez Araujo juaniere@teleline.es

§ Missionary Evangelistic teams, 24-7 Miriam Rodríguez writes from Barcelona: “It’s already five years since 24-7 went to Ibiza, St. Petersburg and New Delhi. It has been incredibly exciting to see all the wonders which have happened over this time, people healed and saved, churches encouraged! Ibiza now has a family establishing a community on the island. The summer teams have ben the key, starting churches in some of the hardest places of Europe. We feel that 2005 will be a year with a new level in missions. We want you to be involved! Teams: we are planning 19 teams all over Europe, including Ibiza, Ayia napa and Tenerife. There will also be teams in the Balcans: Croatia, Macedonia and Serbia; mobile teams in Spain and Portugal, central Europe, the Balcans, Scotland, Scandinavia and the Baltics, Edinburgh festival... We have to leave our ‘safe places’, allow God to change our lives! ... It’s time to sign up right now!” Let’s pray for the young people to sign up and change Europe!

§ “Homosexual Marriage” bill

Praise God that despite the horror of the new laws, a number of different evangelical associations, pastors’ fraternals and so on have got together to campaign against this bill. Half a million signatures were collected against the bill and handed in the day before the Congress vote. But the bill was still carried at this stage. Now it faces the Senate, where the is a much greater possibility of the bill being rejected or substantially amended . There are emails going round inviting believers to write to their deputies and senators asking them to reject the bill.

§ FESTIMADRID (24 & 25 June): http://www.festimadrid.org

This is a major street party and evangelistic outreach with Luís Palau. One of the leaders of the Prayer Commission for Festimadrid shares the following: “The difficulty in getting the permissions we have requested is being the opportunity that the Lord wanted to get the organisers to meet with some top political and administrative leaders, to share the gospel with them and to be a witness. It is also serving to get the churches on their knees. We are learning through this spiritual battle to pray for Madrid. We are grateful for all the support in prayer that we are getting from around the country and internationally. We believe festimadrid will be a great impact, both on the city and on the rest of Spain. Thank you for continuing in prayer for the permissions for the City Centre, for operation Andrew contacts, for testimony with the authorities, for the unity of the churches and for a great harvest of souls.”

Pray for:

§ Pocket Testament League, Esther Rodriguez reports: “In May there are two retreats in which I have to speak. Pray that god will give me His wisdom to communicate His Word. Also, on 14th may we have the 7th ‘Evangelical Olympics’ in Madrid. Pray for that, too.”

§ The El Salvador Baptist church in Valencia has a number of open air outreaches. They will be held monthly on Sunday mornings, starting on the 15th.

§ Outreach in Castilleja de la Cuesta (Seville), in May Resources and training

§ Alpha Regional Day for Catalonia, 28th May in Barcelona

§ “Answers to the Da Vinci Code” A 45 minute message in Spanish by theologian and apologist José de Segovia is available from the web of http://www.Delirante.org It is a recording of a message given in Madrid in March. There are now also several books out on the subject.

Thank you for joining us in prayer for all these topics and for Spain in general! Pass on this url, or print it out, so that others can also pray.

Thank you once again for praying for Spain! If you have any queries or contributions, don't hesitate to get in touch! http://www.prayforspain.com/home/index14.html