Update, Spring 2008

Dear friends,

Welcome to another update!

Winter has almost turned to summer here in Mallorca. We can look back on an early Easter outreach in Azuqueca, near Madrid, as well as several months of regular web activity and preparations for the future. The major events coming up are the OACI 4-yearly International Council meeting in Toronto and outreach at the Zaragoza Expo.

Easter

We joined Ken and Alison Barrett again for an outreach, this time with the daughter church in Azuqueca, just over the provincial boundary in Guadalajara. Sorry about those mouthfuls! The outreach, aiming to build up the small congregation in the growing town, had three focuses: literature distribution, children and special evening activities. In the mornings, a large number of gospels was distributed door to door not only in Azuqueca, but also in two nearby villages. At mid-day we had a classic OAC program for kids in a play ground close to the church building and in the afternoon the kids returned to the church door for 'activities', including ping-pong, hand craft and so on, accompanied by bags full of popcorn. Then we all went off to a disused 'bar' which the church had rented for special evening events, including concerts, a lecture, a film and a special international evening. The British team from GLO worked well with local believers to deliver this varied programme. See the photos here!

At home web ministry continues. The planned blogs didn't work except for posting Ken and Alison's Peru blog in January an February. We will have to make another 'campaign' to get English-speaking workers around Spain interested in contributing! In addition to this, Chris has been working on preparations for the OACI conference and other longer-distance activities. He has also joined the regional pastors' fellowship, which is getting itself legally established as a regional Churches' Council. Hilde has looked into and helped with a number of different activities in our church and elsewhere. Chris has spoken in mid-week Bible studies and we help with a local cell group and monthly open air meetings in Palma.

Canada

On 16th May we leave for Canada. After a weekend stopover in Geneva, we will fly to Montreal on Victoria Day (or is it Louis Day there?) Thence we go to Ottawa to visit a friend of Hilde's and on to Toronto for the 10 day conference. Finally we have a few more days to rest before returning on 6th June. Pray for the meetings and decisions to be taken. This time around there is nothing of particular importance, but we will rejoice to see each other after 4 years (one year for the Europeans) and hope it will be a time of mutual encouragement and recommitment to the task. It will be the first time Hilde goes more than 100 miles beyond European shores.

Zaragoza Expo.

The evangelicals have been given a 'National' pavilion for this world event. The theme is Water, most appropriate in a year in which the river Ebro which flows through the city is suffering a major drought. Between six and eight million visitors are expected, about 3/4 from Spain. The evangelical pavilion is titled 'Agua Viva' (Living Water) and is part of a larger outreach being organised by the churches of the region.

During the 3 months of the Expo (mid June to mid September) there will be 5 concurrent outreaches in different parts of the city. Most of Spain's big evangelistic groups will be helping for some of the time and we will be there, too. Ken Barrett is going at the beginning and end of the period and we will be there for two weeks in the middle, to train and encourage local preachers as well as actually do the evangelism.

Thanks once again for your support and prayer,

Chris & Hilde