Barrett

The Celtic Adventure 1 & 2 July in Spain

Dear Friends who pray for Spain,

We are asked every year about details of activities into which young (and not so young) believers can involve themselves in order to help in the work and understand something more of Spain and its missionary needs. Please find below the programme of the two campaigns which Operation Mobilization in Spain will be carrying out this summer. At least hopes to be involved in the first of these, God willing. Please feel free to pass the information on to those who might be interested to sign up, and to church leadership teams who might consider motivating their young people to "look upon the fields that are ready for harvest".

With our greetings in the Lord,

Ken and Alison Barrett

THE CELTIC ADVENTURE 1 & 2

(“The Village Ride” & “El Camino”)

Option Details For the Celtic Adventure 1, “The Village Ride”

Arrival Date:30-Jun-2012

Departure Date:14-Jul-2012

Event Cost:250 EUR

Option Surcharge:0.00 EUR (This is a surcharge for this particular option)

Application Deadline:22-Jun-2012

Ministry Description

Campaign Purpose: To go to the villages of Narón with free literature and perform in public areas with a kid's program.

Brief Description: Narón is the 9th biggest city in the NW of Spain (Galicia). There's only one evangelical church. We will be combining outreach/adventures with tourism, making friends for Jesus and having fun.

Details of Ministry: Orientation & training
Free literature distribution
Puppets performance
Dances, Games and story telling
Friendship evangelism

Participants Profile: keen to have an adventure in Spain and keen to serve Jesus and make an impact in people's lives through friendships

Activities: Creative Ministries - Puppets & Games, Literature & Video Distribution, Friendship Evangelism Other

Notes: People can apply for the 2 options of the Celtic Adventure, and stay the whole month of July

Accommodation: House, Tents, Church premises

Food/Catering: All together at the team house

Travel Arrangements: Fly to Madrid Bus Alsa to Ferrol /or fly to Coruña

Health: Good health

Visa info: tourist visa if not from a Schengen country

Option Details – The Celtic Adventure 2, “El Camino”

Arrival Date:14-Jul-2012

Departure Date:28-Jul-2012

Event Cost:250 EUR

Application Deadline:22-Jun-2012

Ministry Description

Campaign Purpose:To share the faith with pilgrims doing the 120 km. hike to St James (Santiago de Compostela) and friendship evangelism with the local church

Brief Description:To do the 120 km. ride to Santiago for 6 days and then work with the local church in social work outreach and friendship evangelism with the English Café in the evening

Details of Ministry:Friendship evangelism, Social work Outreach English Conversation Participants Profile: All welcome with good health Activities: Creative Ministries - Other, Friendship Evangelism, Coffee Bars

Other

Notes: Bring good walking shoes, back pack and sleeping bag. Sleeping Accommodation: House, Tents, Church premises

Food/Catering: camp style eating (1st 6 days) All together for the rest of the time at the House

Travel Arrangements: Fly to Madrid Bus Alsa to Ferrol / or Fly to Coruña

Health: good health

Personal (Personnel)

OM España/OM Spain

manoli.allan@om.org

Prayer News from the Barretts, March 2015

Dear prayer partners for Spain and the Barrett family,

Bill Hybels once wrote a book with the title “The bumps are what you climb on”. This may be a somewhat overstated “positive thinking” way of how we, as Christ´s followers, are to focus on the difficulties encountered in His service but it should make us look in faith for outcomes that glorify the Lord.

Kofi Jaus, community outreach

We had planned a Youth Alpha course in the Kofi Jaus for late February. This came up against the spiritual wall among the young people in the gang. They were very closed after the death of the young man about a month ago and the subsequent discovery of his corpse. The official verdict was suicide/misadventure and there is considerable evidence of the use of alcohol and crystal meth. The lack of contact and the silence from the young people was a measure of their insecurity, being a group under suspicion. It could be used by Satan to block the little openness they have to the Gospel if we don´t turn to prayer.

So we have proceeded to hold “open houses" at the Kofi Jaus on Sunday afternoons to try and pick up the threads of contact with the young people handing around there. As our church no longer was willing to come to evening meetings regularly, we have started out again with films and games on some Sundays in the Kofi Jaus next door to the church. Please pray for breakthroughs because many of the young people´s ability to think clearly about anything is affected by the marijuana that they smoke elsewhere (not in the Kofi Jaus, we hasten to point out!)

With every attempted spiritual advance there is likely to be a counter attack. Within the district it may be clacking tongues and misinformation. The Monday dressmaking class has suddenly lost most of its participants and the reasons they give do not all appear to be sincere. Our volunteers need prudence and valour as to when to talk directly about the Gospel and when other approaches are needed. It can take a considerable time before we gain peoples´ confidence and even longer until they are spiritually receptive.

Positively, the Kofi Jaus awaits a couple of visits. One is from the group of believers from Villalba, on the other side of the Madrid region, who have decided to reach out using a model of Kofi Jaus, in part copied from the experience gained by interns who worked with us, Jonathan Josué y his wife Silvia. We expect a visit this week to talk through the progress in pursuing their “Kofi Jaus” project to serve the Lord.

The other is from the summer interns in May, young people with either time on a gap year or studying at Bible College who want to learn and serve the Lord through some of our projects. Please pray for all the preparations which need to be made.

SIFRA, crisis pregnancy counselling

Alison, together with our old friends Chris and Hilde Mathieson, and a Christian lady doctor are setting up this Christian organization to offer professional counselling to women in situations of crisis over their pregnancy. It is hoped to link the training offered by SIFRA with the Christian ministry team going into the Estremera prison which has many women prisoners, who need counselling about abortion. An added complication that the prison authorities angle their advice in favour of abortion in order to save the system money! The training session for the team is likely to take place in April, using the facilities at the Madrid Bible Teaching Centre. The prison team is led by a young man whose father is the elder in another of Madrid´s churches with a “Brethren” history. This chaplaincy team is facilitated by the agreements now administered by the regional Evangelical Councils. So please pray that this training offered to the Estremera team can eventually be passed on to other prison teams around Spain.

Rahab run, outreach/rescue for sex trade workers

This month Alison was able to spend part of the first specific donations which the ministry has received. She bought some small MP3 players, like the girls listen to for their phones and radio whilst they are on the street. These are then loaded with Christian messages and music so that they can be lent to specific contacts on the street. In the case of them being handed back then they are exchanged for new reloads! Don´t get the impression of a massive give way of MP3 players, but what these girls need is hope. So this is one thing that´s being tried out by the team at the moment.

We usually report that street contacts are not prepared to leave the street and go into a safe house. However last week on a bank holiday evening it seemed as if the Lord had led the team to a new girl recently trafficked from Africa and really scared by what she was being forced into and by the threats of the “business man” who put up the money for her to travel up through Morocco and come over on a small boat. Once through the Spanish detention centre, the “business man” turned loan shark putting the screws on family back home. These threats are backed by the fear of voodoo practices which exploit superstitious practices of a local Pentecostal group in contact with immigrants. The girl agreed to go with team members to a safe house the following morning but later returned to her “controllers” house. Nothing has been heard or seen of her since and all attempts to contact her have failed. Please pray for the girl (called”Peace”) and the Lord´s continued protection and guidance of the team.

Just showing the mercy of the Lord by offering to help gives some of these people a glimmer of hope in their misery. One lady and her family came to the church, which took considerable courage in itself. But behind the scenes Alison spends hours tramping the industrial estates with her leaving a CV in any likely place for employment. The lady is the only bread winner in her family and has not dared to tell them how she earns her money.

Alcala church

The news about the outstanding debt on the building extension is good. A substantial donation from the UK, together with other smaller helps has take the outstanding figure to below 8000 Euros. Another UK congregation, which mainly prayer supporters, is organizing their annual Thank Offering, part of which will come to Alcala this year. Any extra from the Lord´s provision will go towards some second hand seating.

There are one or two other extra costs after a blocked waste pipe caused us a problem recently; and we need to resize and resite noticeboards, the church sign over the door and all the regulatory emergency signs. Please continue to pray for the official planning/licencing inspection. It would be noteworthy if we had all the bills paid within 12 months of starting the purchase and extension process. Eliezer Martín, the person who led the extension project, is suffering arrhythmia and needs treatment. It´s the recurrence of a former condition, not related to the stress of dedicating his retirement to this project. Please pray for him.

The daily pastoral business for Ken at the moment has more to do with discipleship. People need to seek the Lord and to do so because they hear Him speak and recognise His voice through Scripture. Finding that time together, even when the person is spiritually thirsty, is a weekly battle. A who is from a Han Chinese IB background, make a step of commitment a fortnight ago because he was able to link up with Chinese speakers. Almost immediately his boss moved him away from the shop (apparently temporarily) where he was employed with his Christian wife. J, an ex-addict has declining health and so the only fellowship he has during times in hospital are the readings and prayers of Christian visitors like Ken. Another man O has a month at home before his next seasonal job takes him away from his family. Others fight resentments, depressions and students have changing study commitments (and overseas students always want to “see Spain” at the weekends). One of the constant Chinese students at the moment L is reading the Bible and listening to her Christian flat mate U. So please pray for the alphabet remembering these needs! Positively, last Sunday we had a new preacher, Michel, one of our own young men from the congregation – a noteworthy event as there are only three others on the preaching roster. Ken is the preacher on Easter Sunday this year.

We had our annual Church meeting on a Sunday during March, a legal requirement which gives an opportunity to present the accounts, our economic planning and reports from different aspects of the ministry. Please pray on for unity and the ability to focus beyond ourselves.

Madrid Bible Teaching Centre

Please pray for:

1. The annual General Meeting is on April 11th. Ken prepared three of the administrative reports as we review our work in the Centre, especially in publications. Please pray that these reports would serve to inform, inspire and unify the efforts of different brethren.

2. We are still waiting for a positive outcome as the revisor struggles with the translation of Charles Marsh´s “Too Hard for God?” Please pray that this project´s progress would prove that the answer is “No!”

3. Generational renewal of those prepared to learn in the different areas of our ministry with the national magazine, publications and teaching, as well as the library/Archive.

4. Our next course teacher for October, Samuel Escobar, who has recently been bereaved.

5. Ken´s next presentations of the CEFB New Testament Bible Commentary on the weekend of the 11th - 12th April in Seville.

6. Our publications partners in the Dominican Republic, Prensa Bíblica, as they plan a co-edition of “Rules of Bible Interpretation” for the Bible Schools that the Templos Biblicos hold this year. Your gifts has made it possible to part finance such essential Christian books.

Personally

Some problems can just make a day wearying. For instance an attempted robbery of our car over the weekend damaged the master door lock and made the vehicle vulnerable to the return of the thieves. Between the police station, the insurance company and the concessionary who has to order the new lock, a whole working day has so far been lost.

The other time waster are plans which don´t come to fruition, such as placements in the Kofi Jaus, visitors who send several emails about possible dates and then can´t come and the student/discipleship meetings which don´t materialise. That´s not to say that seeking the Lord´s will doesn´t mean trying out plans, but we realize that we´re running a tight time budget, which some folks forget. May these people be for us, as George Verwer so humourously terms them, “grace growers”!

It is the moment of annual reports and accounts which have to be presented in a number of the legal bodies and teams to which we belong. Alison is treasurer of the Association behind the Kofi Jaus; and does most of the accounting for the Madrid Bible Training Centre. That means preparing the billing for our book distributors each year and the mysteries of VAT are still just that!

We won´t see Esther at Easter but she is coming for another weekend instead in April.A trip out to Australia, God willing, is planned for the 15th December and we return on the 6th January 2016. From a ticket price point of view it was cheaper to return to Europe and then for Ken to go on to Peru a few days later rather than making a circuit of the globe.

With our love and thanks in the Lord for your prayers,

Ken and Alison Barrett

Alcala de Henares,

Spain

PS. You can follow more of our weekly and daily activities for prayer by becoming a friend of “Ken Barrett” on Facebook or asking echoes@echoes.org.uk to send you their weekly update for prayer which includes our requests.

Support via: Echoes of Service, 124 Wells Road, BATH, BA2 3AH. Tel: 01225 310893 /480635

From the Plain in Spain, prayer news from the Barretts, April 2015

Alcalá de Henares, 24th April 2015

Dear partners in prayer with us for Spain,

Please find our prayer news in full in the letter following these bullets.

Here is a brief summary of some of the prayer points :

1. Publications. Ken has visited churches to promote the Madrid Bible Teaching Centre´s books and to emphasize that reading is one means of assured Christian growth. Meanwhile back in Madrid the Centre´s AGM has reviewed the book and Ken has been reading proofs. Another commentary is at the printers. Please also to continue to pray for a trustworthy outlet for book sales among the Hispanic churches in America.

2. Kofi Jaus continues to see the Lord´s provision and to try and reach out to the unchurched young people of the district. Please pray for the extra stimulus of our interns in the month of May, Lydia and Rebecca.

3. Give thanks for A. who has been reading His Bible intensively and extensively. Pray for increasing maturity in the congregation as they learn to relate to a plural leadership team.

4. Give thanks for encouragements to preach in the open air. Pray for Ken´s voice temporarily affected by a spring allergy.

5. Pray for safety on the road in the UK in June and part of July, for churches and friends to be encouraged in mission and their stand for the Truth.

6. Gratitude for a visit from Esther and a visit from Tim (and girlfriend) in May.

7. May and June are the tax months for declaring and paying. Please pray for our patience in paperwork and the Lord´s provision.

8. Elections in Spain. Please pray that the Lord would raise up honest, effective and wise (ie God fearing) leaders and politicians.

• -+-*

Dear Partners in prayer for Spain,

Thank you for holding our arms up to pray for people who are precious to God in the Spanish speaking world. Your company in prayer strengthens us when we are so often inclined to discouragement or frustration, when spiritual battles lengthen or don´t seem to go the way we think they ought!

Publications April is a month often associated with the publication of books in Spain. In part it´s because the 23rd April is associated with the deaths of both Cervantes and Shakespeare. It´s also when the prestigious Cervantes prize for literature is awarded a recognized writer or poet from Spain or Latin America. Ken travelled to Seville for the weekend of the 11th – 12th and part of that was to present the books of the Madrid Bible Teaching Centre to two congregations there. The book presentation part of such visits is perhaps the less satisfying. Many evangelical believers are increasingly immured to growing spiritually by reading. However the time was redeemed by teaching another church group about preaching and painting, and going out to the city centre on Saturday evening to practice. The following weekend on the 19th, our former church in Vallecas, Madrid, had Ken to preach about spiritual growth and reading as well. Meanwhile Alison attended the annual general meeting of the Bible Teaching Centre in Madrid on the 12th despite being temporarily deaf. Please pray for the Lord´s blessing on the outcomes of the visits and the plans discussed in the AGM.

In the last fortnight Ken has finished proof reading a reprint of a book on Wisdom literature in the Old Testament and the book of Job which should come from the printer next week. Please pray for Alison as she thinks through a reform of who does the administration of the national magazine Edificación Cristiana. She has run the office for the last 25 years and needs to pass on some of it. It´s not easy to pass on responsibilities on. In the case of the column about international Christian news, Alison only had five years respite with help from another writer and then the task was handed back. It´s good to know when one is considered a “safe pair of hands” but it´s not exactly training up the next generation.

Kofi Jaus April also saw the annual meeting of the Associations committee and associates. The work continues to hold its own with the Lord´s provision coming from UK supporters and the contributions mainly made by grateful users of some of the projects. However our continuing Achilles heel in the work is the lack of suitable volunteers, with the weekly programme held together by four or five helpers. In May we have the help of two interns, Lydia Evans and Rebecca Guevara. We pray that the two or three weeks that they´ll be learning with us, will help in doing something more than the routine opening times for the projects. Please remember to pray for our Sunday evening occasional openings for contacts with the “unchurched” (“unchurchable”?) young people who hang around the area. Several of these are on the fringe of small time crime, doing drugs.

Currently we have not yet got any offers of team visits from outsiders to help in Alcalá from September 2015 onwards. Please pray for the right offers to come in on time. We have had to sympathize with a missionary couple who were put on the spot because one of their sending church suddenly told them they were sending them a team in July. The notice was too short, the team had nothing to offer and the dates were not appropriate to organise useful projects. All this put a young missionary family under a lot of extra pressure during what should be their language learning period. With a little more thought, prayer and prior consultation this could have been avoided. In our own case we are grateful for those offers of help we have received in the past which have helped move the Lord´s work forward.

Pastoral Remember we told you in March that A., who had just made a profession of faith, was moved across the province by his boss. Well, A. found that there was no television in the lodgings where he was, so he set himself to read more of the Bible in his few free hours, separated from his wife. A month later this young Christian had almost read through the entire Scriptures once! How´s your Bible reading going?! We´ve almost come to the end of the international Bible studies because our students have their nose to the grind stone as the end of the academic year looms. Please pray for one last study programmed for the 22nd May, so that as this group disperses, the Holy Spirit may impress on them that His living Word goes with them.

As few of our present congregation come from a traditional Brethren background, not everyone appreciates following the New Testament pattern of having a plural leadership, mutually responsible. So we are again teaching the congregation that they can´t expect to approach the particular member of the leadership team who they think is most favourable to their point of view! Please also pray for us in finding honest ways to encourage those long term unemployed among us who face a tough challenge. Another learning point in a local church who believes that many have something to share from the Word in worship is to help people discern chaff from wheat. Please pray for God´s work in our hearts so that worship doesn´t degenerate into “wordship”.

Preaching in the open air Recently a visitor to the Madrid city centre team came up to encourage. He said, “I liked the way you said it and what you said”. Coming from a Christian, Ken values that kind of comment because that is what we pray that the Holy Spirit will use as we preach the Cross of Christ, thus seeking to draw people to Him. An allergy to one of the kinds of spring blossom has left Ken with a husky voice and running eyes. We are grateful that we aren´t as affected by allergies as some people can be, but suppose that so many years living in polluted air wears down one´s defences.

UK Travel in June and July For six weeks we´re “on the road” in order to visit churches, friends and supporters. For a number of reasons we don´t publish all the details, but if you´ve not been contacted by us during the planning stage (- and we or Ken didn´t see you in January- ) and you would be interested to know if we´re in your area, please drop us a line. We never cover all the ground we want to and yet feel indebted to many in the Gospel. But the Lord in his merciful wisdom only put 24 hours into a day!

We enjoyed a visit from Esther last weekend and we hope she can get some time off work in July to join us as we return to Spain through France. Tim (and girlfriend) have said that they will drop by around the 22nd May on a lightning visit from Australia as they “do Europe”. Please pray that it´s a time of love and communication of things that matter.

Pray for Spain. In May there are municipal and regional elections in the midst of a corruption meltdown with few real options for political change. A revived evangelical church would be key to infusing real hope.

Thanks for giving. Amongst the provisions of the Lord was an anonymous gift of 500 pounds through Echoes at Bath on the 17th March for which we are also grateful. The month of May is when both our Spanish income tax has to be assessed and paid, together with local property taxes. Please pray for our patience in the present atmosphere of increased official vigilance - and paperwork. We rejoice in having seen the Lord´s provision over many years in similar exercises.

With our love and thanks in the Lord,

Ken and Alison Barrett

P.S. You can follow more of our weekly and daily activities for prayer by becoming a friend of “Ken Barrett” on Facebook or asking echoes@echoes.org.uk to send you their weekly update for prayer which includes our requests. Ken is also an editor of the Pray4Spain Facebook page.
“Kofi Jaus Friends” on Facebook and Twitter. UK Representative, Miss Frankie Hildick – Smith, kofijaus@gmail.com

Interview with Ken Barrett 1st October 2011

... carried out by Jacqueline Alencar on behalf of P & D Imagen, a column within the Spanish Evangelical Alliance News Service.

Qu. How did you arrive in Spain, with a situation so totally different from that of England?

Ans. We got here in November 1985. We were prepared for change because our original target destination was South America. On finding ourselves in Madrid the most obvious shocks came from not knowing the language, on finding an urban culture which was arid and strange to us and on engaging in the struggle with public officialdom who´d never heard of the idea of being there to serve the public. They thought it was the other way round!

Qu. Even having a missionary calling, I understand that it´s not easy to change context. Why do you think that so many go home because they don´t adapt to new situations?

Ans. Suffice it to say that a person with a missionary calling has to adapt within a double context. There´s both the general culture of living and also their religious context. Many go home because they don´t adapt, for the same reasons as many in an immigrant population in general – discouragement, a sense of uselessness and isolation etc. Speaking plainly some of the agencies involved in preparing (missionaries) elsewhere share part of the blame because they haven´t assessed their language learning aptitude or their psychological profile, when confronted with the tough reality of a society in fast reverse gear from God and churches on the ground not very prepared for them.

Qu. Do we really feel responsible for the 377 cities and towns of more than 5000 inhabitants in Spain which have no evangelical testimony?

Ans. Show me the evidence that national brethren are acting responsibly about the parts of Spain still without the true Gospel. I´m the first to rejoice that today there are well grounded advances which have arisen out of a necessary symbiosis of strong outside impulses, not well adapted to Spanish territory and a handful of Spanish people who have taken on a real burden as far as the spiritual necessities of our country. But there are also other paper projects which we fear we must call purely “speculative”, either to bring in money or justify the viability of denominational or para-church institutions.

Qu. Do the methods of evangelism need renewal? Or is it that we have lost the passion? When we do evangelize, have we lost sight of the wholeness of the person?

Ans. It´s true that many of our evangelistic methods have come about through a particular vision of how to approach the needs of the human race and they have got stuck in unhelpful and outdated stereotypes of what is social and spiritual need. On choosing how to evangelize we need to seek from God the creativity, the freshness and the perception which His missionary Spirit gives in abundance to those who ask it. Our vision of the wholeness of the people we want to reach comes from the compassion of Christ which flows from people transformed by him. It is neither an intellectual equation, nor is it produced by working up an atmosphere in interminable sessions of entertainment/praise which has replaced agonized prayer. Fear of God comes from what He says, and we evangelize because we are persuaded that the tough love of Christ that there is no alternative. We do it from a heart which only desires His glory. If God´s word has that focus, do you understand why our so-called “passion” looks a trifle “wet”?

Qu. Are young people a priority in evangelization? After all they do represent 40% of the Spanish population.

Ans. It´s very orthodox to say “But of course!” They tell us that not only are they an important part of the population but that most testimonies of conversion come from those of under 25 years old. But to affirm such a priority should not make us childish in the message we preach, because we are doing young people a disservice when they have to live out the Gospel as “salt” in a complicated world and not slink off to a religious ghetto.

Qu. For a missionary is it important to be sensitive to context, to culture and to change...?

Ans. It´s part of his work, always as long as other believers understand that, as they are part of the same enterprise, they also need to practice sensitivity. It doesn´t come automatically to anyone, because today in a plural society each one of us has to wake up to the microcosms alongside. Sometimes in an urban context with so many cultures jostling along together, we choose to ignore what´s not so easy to cope with, when our obedience in love to Christ should make us sensitive to the voice of the Spirit who still speaks, as he did to Phillip in Acts 8. 29 “Catch up and stay close to that chariot”. Of course it might involve a little more running than some are used to...?

Qu. Can we talk about “Kilometre Zero/on the Red Box”, this way of evangelizing in which you also take part to proclaim the message of salvation in the middle of the Puerta del Sol in Madrid? Some would consider it an outmoded way of going about things...

Ans. Everyone´s entitled to their opinion, although we listen more to those critics who speak from a practical involvement with evangelism. The public proclamation of the Gospel on the streets, when it is well done, is one of the glories, not only of the evangelicals, but of any society which says that it recognises religious liberty. It´s imaginative use speaks volumes about the spiritual temperature of the church of the Lord – and many times the reactions of our hearers are a barometer also of the public´s. I wouldn´t wish to place an absolute value on any series of evangelistic practices which, as I happen to believe, still reflect the priorities and contents of the proclamation of the message of Jesus Christ; but in the midst of the gathering spiritual night which I see both in the “Christian” church as well as society, I will not put it aside whilst the Lord gives me strength.

Qu. For some while now you´ve been “Atlantic hopping” to visit countries like Peru, Brazil, and the Dominican Rep. What is the purpose of your presence there?

Ans. Solidarity and fellowship in those things related to the Cross of Jesus Christ which have made us joyfully together heirs of the Father. I hope and prepare myself to preach and to teach most of the days of these visits. But it is also my privilege to stand amazed at how God, through different instruments and rhythms, has raised up local churches with faithfulness to His word and the same desire to extend the Good News.

Qu. What importance does the promotion of the Brethren Historical Archive hold for the Spanish evangelical world? Who forms part of this team?

Ans. In Spain, partly because of the special circumstances which shut evangelicals out from society and civil life repeatedly in modern times, there has come down to us a very good resource in photos and documents. We have not just one archive in Madrid, but in several points around Spain. These points coincide with centres of activity still linked to Brethren history, in which different groups have taken on themselves the task of cherishing their history. Having different teams of people from the local churches, instead of putting everything under the control of qualified “historians”, watches over the patrimony better and multiplies the viewpoints and questions with which this block of historical material is to be approached. To hear the voices of men and women who were faithful in their generation is a way of extending our own experience and it makes us more humble when faced with their sacrifice and what they got right; and more dependent on God when seeing their failures and what was left undone.

Qu. You´ve spent several years behind projects of the George Borrow Society in Spain, through publications, meetings, travels... Does this Society follow the trail blazed by the English Bible seller?

Ans. I entered the field of George Borrow studies a long time after other more distinguished Spaniards, attracted or provoked by that man that Miguel Unamuno described as someone who knew the Spanish well. Really the Society reflects a secular interest, both in the history of Borrow as well as his literature ¡and a lot more details that bore all but the most dedicated! In my own case it puts me in touch with people from many different walks of life who don´t necessarily share my faith in Jesus. Borrow would have loved all the interest that he continues to provoke because he himself dramatized his own role in Spain. As far as the practice of selling Bibles, times have changed, although I still see the need of distribution as equally valid, alongside the living witness of those who follow Christ. But I would focus the true significance of Borrow in Spain in the close identification by his public of his person with the free access to a version of the Holy Scripture, not controlled by any religious power structure. No doubt it was a passing identification, and quite likely the perception was more absolute in Borrow´s mind that in that of the public, but it held within it the hope of real change in Spain. Such change has been the dream of many, but it was Borrow who hit the nail on the head by insisting that it would only come by knowing the Saviour just as he revealed himself in the Scriptures. The George Borrow Society does not follow that trail...but do we?