UPDATES FROM BARCELONA
Hey everyone! We’re so grateful for the prayers and support from our church family back in Austin. We’ve been in Barcelona for three years now planting simple house churches and have had the honor of watching The Lord move in and through people. We’ve witnessed lives transformed by the gospel and it has not only impacted the people, but our lives as well.
We wanted to share a quick-ish update of what The Lord has done this past month so we can praise Him and rejoice together! :)
Brother in Christ from S. Asia gets baptized: This past weekend our brother decided to get baptized. During a hang out with the church guys, he went up to John and told him he brought extra clothes and was ready to get baptized. So two guys from the church (a Spanish guy and his friend from S. Asia) baptized him! Please pray for him as he continues to grow in walk with The Lord!
Connections with the church body: God has provided new friendships and ministry partnerships who desire to see the nations be reached with the gospel, read & study the Word of God together, serve alongside one another and care for each other. This has been a huge answer to prayer and we are so happy to have more laborers alongside us to see the nations reached!
Church is growing: As we meet more people through going out and praying for people and a variety of other different ways (like social media, workout classes, etc), God has been growing His church. It’s been a blessing to learn more about God with the people He’s placed in our lives and to see their hearts be softened.
Seeing God move during weekly evangelism: During the time out sharing we have witnessed many people be moved by the Spirit when they hear the gospel, some of them for the first time. We have witnessed people giving their lives to Christ, people being impacted by asking them "how can we pray for you?" and responding with tears in their eyes asking us "how did you know to come to me?" We've also met people who are interested in coming to church and studying scripture together. One woman one of our teammates met gave her life to Jesus last month after studying the Bible with other people in the church. The Spirit is moving and stirring in people's hearts and it's an honor and a joy to witness the fruit that comes from it.
People in church taking leadership: We've seen more and more exercising of gifts. Please pray that that would continue to grow, whether that be service, leading, evangelism or prayer. Pray that The Spirit would move in each believer.
Believers Gather in Madrid: Joe and John organized a gathering of different missionaries from all over the world who are also laboring with the purpose of creating connections and unity with the different workers in Spain. Everyone shared what God has called each person here to do, how things are going, our praises, our hardships, and what we've learned along the way. The Lord taught us during that time to press even deeper into prayer and we were encouraged to try new tactics for creating gospel encounters. It was a great blessing and encouragement for everyone involved and plan to do it again in the future. Please be praying for all the ministries that were there and that God would bless them with abundant fruit!
People in church sharing with family members who don't know Jesus: There is an older woman in our church, Emili, who was brought by one of her daughters and started to follow Jesus a year ago. The Spirit has really convicted her to share with her family who is far from God. Please pray for Emili, that she would continue to be bold in sharing truth and that she would be able to see one of her family members come to faith! Her endurance and willingness to stand firm in Jesus, despite how her family reacts, has really been an encouragement to us and many others in the church.
We share these stories to share God's goodness and what He’s doing in the lives of the people we’ve met during our time here. We hope that these stories would be an encouragement to the body of Christ to walk in obedience to the Lord with where He has you and where He’s called you to minister and share the gospel with the lost. May our hearts be aligned with His in our passion to see the lost be found, the blind to see, and the dead to be raised.
“The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” - 2 Peter 3:9
- Julia Mann
