a city in Spain

Dear Epaphras,
Greetings from Northern Spain.  Today, we’d like you to pray for the PIONEERS Area Leader of Spain, Portugal and Basque Country: Shane, Ruth and their three boys.

This family lives in a large coastal town of Northern Spain with a population of about 200,000.  There are only a handful of churches in the city.  Most of the people are cultural, non-practicing, Catholics.  Some devout Catholics practice a form of religion that virtually ignores the finished work of Christ on the cross.  Pictured to the right is an Easter parade in Spain where followers drag chains as a sign of penitence and the burden they carry for their sin.

Shane and Ruth are part of a growing church where they have been serving for nearly seven years.  This weekend, Shane will be starting a training program for the entire church that focuses on disciples making disciples who in turn make disciples.  This training is spreading through PIONEERS teams in Europe, re-inspiring many to get back to the basics of ministry; boldly proclaiming the Gospel, enduring persecution and greater commitment to prayer and intercession.  The goal of the training is to inspire and empower the entire congregation to engage Jesus’ command to, “…go and make disciples of all nations…” (Matthew 28:19)  With that as a goal, its no wonder the family is experiencing spiritual resistance this week.

Pray for Shane and Ruth’s family.  Ask the Lord to protect their health and pour out encouragement upon them.  Shane writes, “we all seem to be struggling with something that is not physical at the moment, so if you could ask for people to be praying for energy that would be great!”  Ask the Lord to thwart the plans of our enemy and for favor this Sunday as they start this training.  Shane, who speaks excellent Spanish, nonetheless covets your prayers to be able to communicate clearly.  Pray for openness within the congregation and that the Lord would give the entire church a deeper burden for the lost of their city.

To follow the ministry of PIONEERS in Spain please “like” the PI Iberia Facebook page here

On the home front, we had a quick visit to the emergency room on Monday with Julia.  For several weeks she has been sluggish and over the weekend her legs hurt so badly she could barely walk – a sign that her bone marrow is in overdrive producing red cells.  Its been two years since her last regular transfusion and we’ve gotten out of the habit of her being sick.  In the end the Lord intervened and her hemoglobin jumped up from around 8.4 to 8.7 and she didn’t need a transfusion. Her leg pain subsided and she was back in school the following day and even scored an A+ on a French poetry exam!

Thanks for praying for us and our teams in Europe!

In Jesus,