ANSWERS TO PRAYER. . . . In our last prayer letter I asked for prayer concerning my paperwork—Praise God everything went well and I should have my residence card in less than 1 month and it will be good for 5 years.
Also, the container arrived a little later than expected with only minimal damage to a few items. How do you unload a 20 ft. container and get everything up to the 5th floor of an apartment building? Run it all up on a lift and pull it through the window! The boxes are now all unpacked and we have even put up pictures on the wall, finally it is home.
Spanish classes have been difficult to work out. There are many opportunities in Gijon for me, but arriving in mid-semester made it hard to get into a class. I did take classes for a while with a tutor without much help so Pilar and I have restarted classes each day at home. I will continue with these until this summer when I can start classes at the University and later in the fall continue with those classes. Pray for God’s grace in this matter. I can speak well enough for now and understand probably 90%, but I am eager to have the language down perfectly.
NEWS. . . . It has been a blessing to get involved at the church. I am preaching every other Sunday, leading music, and translating Sunday mornings into English for Chris (Englishman).
Pilar has started a ladies meeting on Fridays at 12:00, and is helping in the “kids club”. The girls are doing well—picking up Spanish, and Noelia is finally crawling which means she is happier but also into everything.
There is a new project that we have started called “Pueblo Project” in which you can get involved personally. As this prayer letter is already very full, please take time to check our website and read more about it. It is an outreach into the small cities around us to get the gospel to them and inform them about our church. Also, we are updating our web page every week, so you can be more informed about our work here.
INSIGHT & PRAYER. . . . As we fill mailboxes with tracts and go visiting door-to-door we have found time and time again that so many are just sick of religion. Pilar has often told me that a missionary going to some countries, starts at 0 with the people. A missionary going to Spain starts at -5 because first we have to get past all of the hurt and the distrust that they have for “religion” before we can even get to the point of trying to share the gospel. It is very true! Spaniards are very open, friendly people but as soon as you mention the Bible a wall comes up. They were forced into Catholicism under Franco and have seen the lies of it. Because of that and the hurt that also the mormons and Jehovah’s “false” witnesses have done, the vast majority are very skeptical. At the door of Laura’s house, after having shared for almost 1 hour who we are and what we believe, and answering all of her questions, she became very open with us and listened well to the gospel. I believe the Holy Spirit was working in her heart and she expressed and interest to stop in and visit. The difference between her and most others around the world is the fact that she believes in God and wants to know Him. Pray that she will allow us to come back and share more of God’s Word with her. Also for the others with whom we have been able to talk more deeply about the gospel from going door-to-door this last week: Gustavo, Horanila and Isabel.
Please pray for the youth group coming 5-15 June from our home church, Madison Baptist Church. Pray that God will be glorified with all of the work done during those days and pray that God will do a great work in the heart of these young people. Please remember to pray for a big day on 10 June with Pastor Alberto Puente doing the preaching. Pray for souls to be saved, lives changed for eternity!
Thank you so much for your prayers and financial support, we couldn’t be here without your help. May God bless you and your churches.
In Christ’s service,
The Matthew Stark Family
