Pray for Spain
The ministry of The Gideons International
| Dear Prayer Warrior, It is sometime since a bulletin has been sent and we thank you for your faithfulness in your prayers for this ministry. It came to my mind the other day of the phrase from Scripture often quoted by those who don’t know the Author: “The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak”; just like the other phrase, “Man shall not live by bread alone..” which is always left unfinished. One might think that this term would have to do with other aspects of church life, the building up of the church and counselling, to name only two. Jesus could have used the words in many other contexts, even to Peter on the Sea of Galilee. However He uses them in the Garden of Gethsemane, in connection with prayer. This emphasises again the importance He placed on prayer, and so should we. Would we have been more faithful in those circumstances?New camps. Since the last bulletin two more camps (branches) have been started in Lugo a provincial capital in North West Spain, and in Vitoria, the capital of the Basque country near the Pyrenees mountains in the North. Pray for these Gideons and Auxiliares as they have recently commenced distributions.
Scripture Blitzes. These were held on the island of Lanzarote in April and in Barcelona in October last year. In Lanzarote, being a holiday destination, the distributions were made to hotels and in Barcelona at the various universities. St. Jame’s Way Pilgrimage. With grateful thanks to the Lord, in April this year we finally reached Santiago de Compostela having begun in the Pyrenees in April 2008. In all, more than 240 hostales of all sizes were offered Scriptures to place on the bookshelves for the use of the pilgrims both, bilingual and trilingual and the great majority now have Bibles on the shelves. Praise the Lord! |
Prison Work. In Spain one of the areas where Gideon Scriptures are being used for the Glory of God is in the prisons.Dr. Manuel Vela, President of Madrid camp, who some of you may remember asked his employers a few years ago, for another day free to do Gideon work and they also gave him an increase in salary, reports that around 70 prisoners a month in the prison on the North side of Madrid are coming to the Lord. This is a transit jail where prisoners are only held until they are sentenced. He emphasises that dealing with prisoners and their spiritual condition is much different from dealing with those on the outside. He has also had to rebuke evil spirits and demand they leave, but God always gives the victory. As usual in the summer there will be a baptismal service in the prison pool for about 80 inmates.
His own church has organised a correspondence follow up for converted inmates that now runs into hundreds. PRAYER POINTS
National Conference. Next year’s conference will be held in a hotel on the coast of North West Spain near Vigo, March 16-18, 2012. Our last conference in the area was in 1997. Hotels. Some years ago the hotel group, NH Hotels, a Spanish group with hotels around Europe gave permission for Bibles to be placed in reception of the Spanish hotels for any guests who requested them. 2012. On a personal note, we hope to be able to commence in the Spring next year, the northern route of the St. Jame’s Way pilgrimage along the North coast of Spain from the Basque country, through Cantabria, Asturias to Galicia placing Scriptures in the hostales. September 2011
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