Kayla and Nicole in their Flamenco dresses!!
It has been almost three weeks since we arrived in the Madrid Airport and already it seems like it has been months. First days in a foreign country are very busy trying to set up your household and take care of all of the necessary things that would help us to better serve in the country. We arrived on a Tuesday and headed north to Gijon. We praise God for the Contreras Family and the help they have been. We were able to sign the rental agreement on our apartment, set up bank account, phone, health insurance, purchase household items and start gathering the necessary paperwork for the residence process. We ask you to pray that it would go fast and easy. Although it should be easy because I am married to a Spanish citizen, still, we are dealing with immigration. Those that have had to deal with something like that know that they can make easy things very complicated.
After setting up basic things in our new house we headed back to Madrid to find a car. We praise God we were able to find a good car with very low mileage. We wanted to get at least a 7 passengers, but those are very expensive and we were not able to get but a 5 passengers. We know that we will need a bigger car for the ministry and we know that God will provide with the money we need to take care of that when the need comes.
Our container should be arriving the beginning of April. We are so thankful to Lighthouse Baptist Ministries for packing our container and also to Happy Acres for taking care of our paperwork for us. Both were such a blessing to us. We are very excited about it arriving, as we were able to pack many tracts and Bibles, as well as discipleship material and children church material. We thank BEAMS for the donation of 120 Bibles and the Fellowship Tract League for the donation of several boxes of tracts in Spanish. We are excited to head back to Gijon and start showering the city and the area where God has put us in with gospel tracts, that they may hear about the living Jesus and His message of Salvation.
Our first Sunday in Spain we enjoyed our first services at the newly started church in Gijon. We praise God for the faithfulness of the Contreras Family, and the love we can see in them for the people that God has called them to. On Sunday morning we were able to meet Rosa, a lady from Bolivia, and Chris, a gentleman from England married to a Spaniard. Both have been coming to church the last couple of months. Please pray for Chris’ wife as she is saved, but has had bad experiences with Charismatic churches in Spain and is hesitant about coming to church. Sunday night we had Jose, a young man that Joseph Contreras met playing American football. His wife divorced him recently but he is still hoping that she will get back with him. Joseph has spent a lot of time with him and it seems like the Holy Spirit is working in his heart. Please pray that his heart will soften, that he may see His need for salvation.
For our second Sunday we were at Madrid and I was able to preach for first time completely in Spanish. It was hard but the Lord help me. The especial blessing was that it was at the church were Pilar got saved, also the first church were I preached in Spain back when we were at our survey trip. We praise God for this church Iglesia Bautista el Faro and for the Pastor, Alejandro Sanchez. We ask you to pray for this work and for the believers there.
While we are at IKEA (household store) looking for furniture we meet a lady from Spain that is married to a man from the States. She heard the children speaking English and approached us. She happens to teach Spanish as a second language. I was able to do some testing to determine my level of Spanish. She looked into it and we will talk about possibly taking classes with her. I understand I need much wisdom about this, because I know that learning the best Spanish I can will help me have a better ministry among the Spaniards. We will be looking into some places this week; please pray that God may lead me to the place that He has for me. Also pray that we may reach this couple for His glory, in a paper that I was to write for her in Spanish about why we moved from the States I was able to share the gospel.
We will ask you to also pray for the youth group from our home church that will be coming in June. We will have a group of 23 teens and adults coming the first week of June and spending with us 10 days. We know that they will be a blessing for we will be able to get much canvassing done as well as being able to make contact with info and tracts in a small town close by. We are also considering the possibility of going to Santander for a day to pass out tracts. We also want to be a blessing to them. We want to be used to show them the need of missionaries around the world and even in Spain. Please pray that it will be fruitful for the work of God.
Much has to be done, but our desire is to be able to start working among the Spaniards, getting to know them, and reaching out to them. We want to see them saved, we want to see them getting a burden to reach their own people, we want to see them dedicating their lives to Him, we want to see Spain turned upside down for Him. For that we need, especially, the filling of the Holy Ghost, leading us to those that will listen. But we also need much help, please play for the Lord of the harvest, that He will send forth laborers into His harvest.
We want to thank those individuals and churches that helped us with our moving expenses. We thank you for your willing heart. May God bless you abundantly.
Now more than ever we need your prayers. Know that we are also praying for you.
Ministering together with you to see Spain reached for Christ.
The Matthew Stark Family
