Spain-Portugal Trip Report
December 2004
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Greetings in the Wonderful Name that is above every name, the precious Name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We have just returned from a two-week trip to Spain and Portugal.
SUMMARY. Five of us traveled to Spain and four of us continued on to Portugal. This was a very different kind of trip from many of our previous trips. Usually, we do everything that we plan and more. This time, we did very little that we planned and yet we say the Hand of God at work in the opportunities presented to us.
DETAILS.
Spain – our team embarked on two areas of ministry. Since there were three Romanians on the team, we spent a lot of time ministering in Romanian churches and to Romanian people. There is a very large population of Romanians near Madrid in a city called Arganda del Rey. One important contact that was made was with Romanian pastor Rus who brought several youth from his congregation for “open air” evangelism with A.G. missionary Jacob Bock in the very center of Madrid (Plaza del Sol). We participated in this for two nights. He is also interested in a making a trip to Romania with brother Constantin Lupancu and a representative of an organization based in Spain called “Remar” (similar to Teen Challenge) for the purpose of establishing ministry in Romania to drug addicts, street people and ex-inmates when they are released.
The other area of ministry was to Spanish speaking churches in Spain. Primarily, pastor Jaime Flores of the Christian Life Center in Tinley Park made contacts, built relationships and generally got very excited about his first mission trip. The Verbo church, started in Guatemala, located near Madrid and other churches expressed interest in becoming affiliates of Chaplains for Christ and establishing prison ministry in Spain. We brought 230 full Spanish Bibles on the plane with us for distribution to inmates in the prisons. One pastor is coming to Chicago Jan. 26 and will minister in the Cook County Jail and discuss affiliation with us. We also made contacts for possible trips to Germany, Italy, Austria and Belgium. In reality, the whole world is open to us. However, we want to go only where He sends us.
Portugal -The three Romanians and I continued on to Lisbon on the overnight train and stayed there three days. In addition to ministry in the Romanian churches, we participated in an Elim Church baptism service in December in the Atlantic ocean. The Romanians seem to take it all in stride but this American was cold. We ministered in the prison at the Estabelecimento Prisional de Alcoentre located 50 kilometers north of Lisbon. Getting into this prison was a real miracle. Because of some miscommunications, our contacts in Spain made no arrangements for us in Lisbon until eight hours before we were to board the overnight train to go there. When we arrived in Lisbon, everyone told us it was impossible to get into the prisons with no notice (we wanted to conduct a prison service the same day we arrived). While I have been able to arrange for such things in Latin America without notice, Europe is quite a different matter. Each one we talked with told us it was impossible but we asked if we could try. We eventually found ourselves working with a Portuguese brother who has weekly services at a prison but even he was denied entrance on the day we arrived because all the inmates were at a Christmas party. When we arrived at the prison with 1000 tracts in Portuguese, we knocked on the door. The first guard told us no entrance but just then a corporal and a sergeant came through the door and we talked with them for a while. Again we were told that the Christmas party was going on and where was our access permission form? They told us that they couldn’t help us but perhaps we should talk with the lady who was also just leaving for lunch. It was the Director of the whole jail. Her timing was perfect. We explained that we wanted just 15 minutes to pass out these tracts that we had brought from the U.S. and she gave us permission. After lunch, we had a one-hour service with four men in Spanish. I translated for the Romanians and at the conclusion, we prayed for each man individually. One Venezuelan was at the service for the first time and as soon as we began to pray for him, he broke down sobbing in repentance. We purchase several Portuguese Bibles for this brother to use in the prison.
“… I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it:” Rev. 3:8
Please continue to pray for us as we are currently making plans for trips to: Romania, Guatemala, Honduras, and perhaps Senegal. May the Lord richly bless you all.
