April 11, 2006
Dear family and friends,
After a couple of months of silence we are finally getting around to writing another update. We trust that you are all doing well and enjoying God’s many blessings!
Family:
We are also getting over a bout with chicken-pox. These have been some tough weeks for mom as there have been many days when she hasn't been able to get out much. Thankfully we are now over it and life is back to normal.
It is interesting to see our children learn the three languages they’re exposed to. We try to speak English at home, but it is becoming more and more of a challenge as the children are now becoming more fluent in Catalan. Because Sebastian and Stephen are immersed in Catalan five hours a day, it is becoming their dominant language. They speak Catalan with virtually everyone they know and they now speak Catalan to one another. So about the only English they hear is from mom and dad. Fortunately, we have a pretty good collection of books in English which helps expand their vocabulary.
It is also quite interesting to see little Naíme in her acquisition of the different languages. She has very little exposure to Catalan at this point because she is still at home. But we have found that she is picking it up quickly from her brothers. It is fun to hear her mix the languages up in an attempt to make herself understood.
Church:
One item for prayer would be our worship services on Sundays. We have noticed a general lack of enthusiasm especially in our time to sing songs. There are probably a number of different reasons for this and it is a complex issue. Our church here faces a lot of similar issues that most churches face in trying to find the right kind of worship style for its members. But we also have the unique challenge of trying to find a good balance between songs sung in Catalan and songs sung in Spanish. Without going into more analysis of the possible factors, we would simply like to ask you to pray that God would visit us with His presence and quicken our hearts so that we might offer up to Him a worship in both spirit and truth. One good thing that I believe is emerging from this situation is that folks are becoming aware of the mediocrity and are desirous to see the Lord intervene and change things.
As I believe I’ve shared in a previous update, we are still working on getting some deacons recognized. This has proven to be a more lengthy and delicate process than we expected. I honestly thought we would have deacons recognized and functioning by now, but it is not the case. We are still in a process of interviewing people and are trusting that the Lord will guide the process so that the right people and the right mix of people will soon be serving the Lord and this congregations as deacons.
We are still working toward planting a church in Barcelona. David Barceló is labouring diligently toward that end. My family and I had the chance to attend their service last Sunday morning and their meeting place was quite full. This is a pretty critical time in terms of taking steps to recognize this group as a church plant and not just a growing small group. In the coming weeks David Barceló, Matt and I will be meeting with those who attend the meetings in Barcelona regularly in order to find out their level of commitment to this project. We see a lot of very promising signs that this group might become a “daughter church” in the next few months. Among other things, this would give them the green light to start meeting every Sunday and even to start mid-week meetings if they like. We would ask you to pray that they might find a suitable meeting place. Right now they meet in an apartment, but it is inadequate for their needs.
Christian School:
In my last prayer letter I explained a bit about our desire to start a Christian school. Since then I have had the opportunity to attend a conference called “Evangelicals and Education” near Toledo. Originally Naíme and I were planning on both going to this conference. We had arranged to have our children stay with Núria’s mother and it was going to be a little get-away for us, but all three children came down with chicken-pox. So in the end I had to go alone.
It was a very interesting couple of days. I was able to meeting folks from different parts of Spain and find out what families and churches are doing regarding the education of their children. I maximized my time there to talk with many different people and I got a lot of good information.
During my train ride back to Barcelona I spent time praying and weighing the pros and cons of starting a Christian school. By the time I reached Barcelona I came to the conviction that given the present circumstances and needs of our church a school is probably not the most reasonable option for us. It is not that I have lost faith in God’s omnipotence. Nothing is too big for Him. But starting a private school in Spain is a very big undertaking. I spoke with two different people at the conferences who had been involved in three different attempts to start private Christians schools (two of which were attempted near Barcelona) and all three failed. One of the biggest factors in coming to this decision is that a number of people would really have to be 100% behind the project and be willing to invest a tremendous amount of time, energy and finances in it. Although I believe that the project is viable, I also realize that my primary calling is the pastorate.
We are now considering a number of other possibilities and we will be sharing more about these in future prayer letters. I can say that the conference in Toledo opened my eyes as to some options that I had not previously considered. I also came away with a bigger burden than ever for the need for Spanish Christians to invest their lives in their children. While there are notable exceptions, I simply don’t think that parents are taking the ministry of the family as seriously as they should. I know that this sounds like the kind of generic statement that could be made in any context, but it seems to me that parental involvement in the lives of children is simply rapidly declining here due to a wide variety of factors. I trust that the Lord would give us wisdom to know how we might approach this issue both as a family and as a church that would best all things considered.
Recent Visitors
We thank the Lord for sending some of you out this way once in a while. We were privileged to have the Newheiser’s and the Thornburg’s out our way. Visits like these are a real blessing to us and help us feel more closely connected to you all in between furloughs.
We miss you all very much. Thanks for your prayers!
Love in Christ, Steve
Dear family and friends,
After a couple of months of silence we are finally getting around to writing another update. We trust that you are all doing well and enjoying God’s many blessings!
Family:
We are also getting over a bout with chicken-pox. These have been some tough weeks for mom as there have been many days when she hasn't been able to get out much. Thankfully we are now over it and life is back to normal.
It is interesting to see our children learn the three languages they’re exposed to. We try to speak English at home, but it is becoming more and more of a challenge as the children are now becoming more fluent in Catalan. Because Sebastian and Stephen are immersed in Catalan five hours a day, it is becoming their dominant language. They speak Catalan with virtually everyone they know and they now speak Catalan to one another. So about the only English they hear is from mom and dad. Fortunately, we have a pretty good collection of books in English which helps expand their vocabulary.
It is also quite interesting to see little Naíme in her acquisition of the different languages. She has very little exposure to Catalan at this point because she is still at home. But we have found that she is picking it up quickly from her brothers. It is fun to hear her mix the languages up in an attempt to make herself understood.
Church:
One item for prayer would be our worship services on Sundays. We have noticed a general lack of enthusiasm especially in our time to sing songs. There are probably a number of different reasons for this and it is a complex issue. Our church here faces a lot of similar issues that most churches face in trying to find the right kind of worship style for its members. But we also have the unique challenge of trying to find a good balance between songs sung in Catalan and songs sung in Spanish. Without going into more analysis of the possible factors, we would simply like to ask you to pray that God would visit us with His presence and quicken our hearts so that we might offer up to Him a worship in both spirit and truth. One good thing that I believe is emerging from this situation is that folks are becoming aware of the mediocrity and are desirous to see the Lord intervene and change things.
As I believe I’ve shared in a previous update, we are still working on getting some deacons recognized. This has proven to be a more lengthy and delicate process than we expected. I honestly thought we would have deacons recognized and functioning by now, but it is not the case. We are still in a process of interviewing people and are trusting that the Lord will guide the process so that the right people and the right mix of people will soon be serving the Lord and this congregations as deacons.
We are still working toward planting a church in Barcelona. David Barceló is labouring diligently toward that end. My family and I had the chance to attend their service last Sunday morning and their meeting place was quite full. This is a pretty critical time in terms of taking steps to recognize this group as a church plant and not just a growing small group. In the coming weeks David Barceló, Matt and I will be meeting with those who attend the meetings in Barcelona regularly in order to find out their level of commitment to this project. We see a lot of very promising signs that this group might become a “daughter church” in the next few months. Among other things, this would give them the green light to start meeting every Sunday and even to start mid-week meetings if they like. We would ask you to pray that they might find a suitable meeting place. Right now they meet in an apartment, but it is inadequate for their needs.
Christian School:
In my last prayer letter I explained a bit about our desire to start a Christian school. Since then I have had the opportunity to attend a conference called “Evangelicals and Education” near Toledo. Originally Naíme and I were planning on both going to this conference. We had arranged to have our children stay with Núria’s mother and it was going to be a little get-away for us, but all three children came down with chicken-pox. So in the end I had to go alone.
It was a very interesting couple of days. I was able to meeting folks from different parts of Spain and find out what families and churches are doing regarding the education of their children. I maximized my time there to talk with many different people and I got a lot of good information.
During my train ride back to Barcelona I spent time praying and weighing the pros and cons of starting a Christian school. By the time I reached Barcelona I came to the conviction that given the present circumstances and needs of our church a school is probably not the most reasonable option for us. It is not that I have lost faith in God’s omnipotence. Nothing is too big for Him. But starting a private school in Spain is a very big undertaking. I spoke with two different people at the conferences who had been involved in three different attempts to start private Christians schools (two of which were attempted near Barcelona) and all three failed. One of the biggest factors in coming to this decision is that a number of people would really have to be 100% behind the project and be willing to invest a tremendous amount of time, energy and finances in it. Although I believe that the project is viable, I also realize that my primary calling is the pastorate.
We are now considering a number of other possibilities and we will be sharing more about these in future prayer letters. I can say that the conference in Toledo opened my eyes as to some options that I had not previously considered. I also came away with a bigger burden than ever for the need for Spanish Christians to invest their lives in their children. While there are notable exceptions, I simply don’t think that parents are taking the ministry of the family as seriously as they should. I know that this sounds like the kind of generic statement that could be made in any context, but it seems to me that parental involvement in the lives of children is simply rapidly declining here due to a wide variety of factors. I trust that the Lord would give us wisdom to know how we might approach this issue both as a family and as a church that would best all things considered.
Recent Visitors
We thank the Lord for sending some of you out this way once in a while. We were privileged to have the Newheiser’s and the Thornburg’s out our way. Visits like these are a real blessing to us and help us feel more closely connected to you all in between furloughs.
We miss you all very much. Thanks for your prayers!
Love in Christ, Steve
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