February 4, 2006
Greetings from Barcelona! We praise the Lord for His great mercies to us! He is continuing to provide for all of our needs and daily gives us the encouragement we need in order to press on in the work.
Our family
The boys are doing fairly well in school and their Catalan is becoming quite good. It is fascinating to see how children pick up languages. The boys and I are continuing to swim on Tuesdays and Thursdays. This is good bonding time for us and great exercise for all three of us. While we are gone from home, mother and daughter have their own special time together.
My wife is always very busy. She is involved in our children’s Sunday school program and enjoying it thoroughly. She has also been helping me out by teaching from time to time in the ladies’ Bible study. Whenever she teaches it is a blessing to the ladies (I think they would rather have her be their regular teacher than her husband J). Naíme is also taking a survey of the Old Testament this year that is being taught by Matt Leighton in our church one Saturday a month. I am quite sure that she is among his most diligent students. And apart from that, she finds time to practice regular hospitality. She’s quite a gal!
Recently we traveled to the Basque country to visit one of our members who is residing there temporarily for work purposes. That was a fun trip for us. The Basque people are very well known for their food and we can now confirm that their reputation is well deserved. It was interesting to go to another region of Spain and not understand one word of what people said while speaking Basque. The other thing that is striking is the open support in some sectors for the Basque terrorist group. While walking down one street we saw posters with the names and faces of mainly young and middle-aged people. When we inquired as to who they were our suspicions were confirmed: members of ETA serving time in prison for their link to terrorism, and yet, here in this quarter of town they were hailed as heroes for the cause.
Spiritual Indifference
The spiritual atmosphere is very challenging at times. There just seems to be a general hardness toward Christianity in general. Folks don’t tend to be rude or belligerent when you talk to them about your faith, but their hearts seem so impenetrable. Everything is true; nothing is true. If your faith works for you, that’s fine. What a joy it is to know that it is in God’s hands to open unbelieving hearts. Ours is but to lovingly preach His Gospel.
This generation is paying a high price for its unbelief. Divorce and broken homes is becoming the status quo. For all the ills of a Catholic dictatorship there was a stability in Spanish society that is giving way to a disoriented narcissism. And yet, with all the despair, ruined lives and discontent there is a prideful resistance to recognizing that they might be in the wrong, that there might be a God who can give them the quality of life that somewhere in the recesses of their souls they truly long for.
A Christian School?
In thinking about how we might build bridges with the society around us, I have often thought that a Christian school of academic excellence and a healthy emphasis on moral standards, could be a good be such a bridge. Schools here, even from the perspective of unbelieving educators, are going downhill fast.
As many of you know, we have been thinking and praying about this issue virtually ever since we arrived over 5 years ago. This project is now officially beyond the dreaming stage as we are beginning to take specific steps to see if the Lord would open the necessary doors for our dreams to become reality. This is both a prayer request as well as a praise because the Lord has been giving us at least a bit of confirmation and encouragement to press on with this project. Just yesterday I had the opportunity to discuss the project with the mayor and another town official. They were very interested in the project and it was a positive step toward spreading a vision for a private Christian school here in Vilassar.
There is still much groundwork that needs to done before we can start “operations”. Fortunately, I have been able to do some networking that is proving very valuable. No reason to re-invent the wheel. The Spanish Ministry of Education has very stringent rules regarding private schools. When I first received a copy of all their building requirements alone I almost gave up on the project. The whole process has been an exercise in faith and perhaps our greatest confidence is the fact that God doesn’t keep His children praying in the same direction for extended periods of time for nothing. So we continue to commit these matters to Him. He is our mountain-moving God.
Another request regarding the school is for an upcoming meeting we will have with our church members. At this meeting, among other matters, we will be addressing the idea of starting a Christian school in the hope of beginning to spread the vision to our church as a whole. We have been able to talk with individual members about this desire, but have never addressed in a church-wide meeting. Matthew Leighton is busy preparing an outline on why Christian education is important. We expect to have a question and answer time and hope that this will go a long way toward gaining the support of our church family here in Vilassar. This meeting will be held on the 10th of this month.
Elders and Deacons
As some of you will no doubt remember, in our last general assembly the church approved a motion to recognize Matthew Leighton as an elder/pastor. This was a historic step in the life of our church as it represents the transition from a single-pastor model of church government to a plurality of elders model. In God’s grace we will celebrating an ordination service for Matt on the 19th of this month and expect a good turn out for this blessed occasion. We especially look forward to having Jim and Caroline here for this special service.
But there remains the task of recognizing deacons. This is one of our priorities now. We have started trying to spread a biblical vision for deaconal ministry here and are hoping that in a month or two we will be able to recognize several deacons. We plan on dedicating the first part of our church meeting on the 10th to addressing this issue of deacons as well. Because of the diversity of backgrounds we are realizing that there are many different views regarding the qualifications for and nature of the office of deacon. By God’s grace we hope to clarify these issues in our meeting on the 10th and from there we would initiate a process of recognizing those whom the Lord has been preparing for this vital ministry.
Thank you all again for praying for us and supporting us in our ministry here. We have sensed the Lord’s help in so many specific key moments in the life of our church here and there is no doubt that the Lord answers prayers.
Yours in Christ,
The Phillips’
Greetings from Barcelona! We praise the Lord for His great mercies to us! He is continuing to provide for all of our needs and daily gives us the encouragement we need in order to press on in the work.
Our family
The boys are doing fairly well in school and their Catalan is becoming quite good. It is fascinating to see how children pick up languages. The boys and I are continuing to swim on Tuesdays and Thursdays. This is good bonding time for us and great exercise for all three of us. While we are gone from home, mother and daughter have their own special time together.
My wife is always very busy. She is involved in our children’s Sunday school program and enjoying it thoroughly. She has also been helping me out by teaching from time to time in the ladies’ Bible study. Whenever she teaches it is a blessing to the ladies (I think they would rather have her be their regular teacher than her husband J). Naíme is also taking a survey of the Old Testament this year that is being taught by Matt Leighton in our church one Saturday a month. I am quite sure that she is among his most diligent students. And apart from that, she finds time to practice regular hospitality. She’s quite a gal!
Recently we traveled to the Basque country to visit one of our members who is residing there temporarily for work purposes. That was a fun trip for us. The Basque people are very well known for their food and we can now confirm that their reputation is well deserved. It was interesting to go to another region of Spain and not understand one word of what people said while speaking Basque. The other thing that is striking is the open support in some sectors for the Basque terrorist group. While walking down one street we saw posters with the names and faces of mainly young and middle-aged people. When we inquired as to who they were our suspicions were confirmed: members of ETA serving time in prison for their link to terrorism, and yet, here in this quarter of town they were hailed as heroes for the cause.
Spiritual Indifference
The spiritual atmosphere is very challenging at times. There just seems to be a general hardness toward Christianity in general. Folks don’t tend to be rude or belligerent when you talk to them about your faith, but their hearts seem so impenetrable. Everything is true; nothing is true. If your faith works for you, that’s fine. What a joy it is to know that it is in God’s hands to open unbelieving hearts. Ours is but to lovingly preach His Gospel.
This generation is paying a high price for its unbelief. Divorce and broken homes is becoming the status quo. For all the ills of a Catholic dictatorship there was a stability in Spanish society that is giving way to a disoriented narcissism. And yet, with all the despair, ruined lives and discontent there is a prideful resistance to recognizing that they might be in the wrong, that there might be a God who can give them the quality of life that somewhere in the recesses of their souls they truly long for.
A Christian School?
In thinking about how we might build bridges with the society around us, I have often thought that a Christian school of academic excellence and a healthy emphasis on moral standards, could be a good be such a bridge. Schools here, even from the perspective of unbelieving educators, are going downhill fast.
As many of you know, we have been thinking and praying about this issue virtually ever since we arrived over 5 years ago. This project is now officially beyond the dreaming stage as we are beginning to take specific steps to see if the Lord would open the necessary doors for our dreams to become reality. This is both a prayer request as well as a praise because the Lord has been giving us at least a bit of confirmation and encouragement to press on with this project. Just yesterday I had the opportunity to discuss the project with the mayor and another town official. They were very interested in the project and it was a positive step toward spreading a vision for a private Christian school here in Vilassar.
There is still much groundwork that needs to done before we can start “operations”. Fortunately, I have been able to do some networking that is proving very valuable. No reason to re-invent the wheel. The Spanish Ministry of Education has very stringent rules regarding private schools. When I first received a copy of all their building requirements alone I almost gave up on the project. The whole process has been an exercise in faith and perhaps our greatest confidence is the fact that God doesn’t keep His children praying in the same direction for extended periods of time for nothing. So we continue to commit these matters to Him. He is our mountain-moving God.
Another request regarding the school is for an upcoming meeting we will have with our church members. At this meeting, among other matters, we will be addressing the idea of starting a Christian school in the hope of beginning to spread the vision to our church as a whole. We have been able to talk with individual members about this desire, but have never addressed in a church-wide meeting. Matthew Leighton is busy preparing an outline on why Christian education is important. We expect to have a question and answer time and hope that this will go a long way toward gaining the support of our church family here in Vilassar. This meeting will be held on the 10th of this month.
Elders and Deacons
As some of you will no doubt remember, in our last general assembly the church approved a motion to recognize Matthew Leighton as an elder/pastor. This was a historic step in the life of our church as it represents the transition from a single-pastor model of church government to a plurality of elders model. In God’s grace we will celebrating an ordination service for Matt on the 19th of this month and expect a good turn out for this blessed occasion. We especially look forward to having Jim and Caroline here for this special service.
But there remains the task of recognizing deacons. This is one of our priorities now. We have started trying to spread a biblical vision for deaconal ministry here and are hoping that in a month or two we will be able to recognize several deacons. We plan on dedicating the first part of our church meeting on the 10th to addressing this issue of deacons as well. Because of the diversity of backgrounds we are realizing that there are many different views regarding the qualifications for and nature of the office of deacon. By God’s grace we hope to clarify these issues in our meeting on the 10th and from there we would initiate a process of recognizing those whom the Lord has been preparing for this vital ministry.
Thank you all again for praying for us and supporting us in our ministry here. We have sensed the Lord’s help in so many specific key moments in the life of our church here and there is no doubt that the Lord answers prayers.
Yours in Christ,
The Phillips’
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