February 2007

Dear supporting churches and praying friends :

Time is short!

Hebrews 9:27, “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.”

Death is sure for every human around this world. But of those in Santander, Spain; they are dying without having heard of the only way to heaven—Jesus Christ! During the last 2 years that we have traveled raising support, more than 7,300 people have died in the metro area of Santander (pop. 380,000). During our trip to Santander in December, Pilar spoke with a priest outside of the cathedral. He was convinced that salvation was obtained by keeping the 7 sacraments for “Christians”, and by keeping the natural laws of man for “non-Christians”. To him the Bible was a good “story book”, but could not be taken literally. Knowing what their leaders are teaching and that there is no independent Baptist witness there, most likely all 7,300 burn in hell today having never received a Gospel tract or clear presentation of the Gospel.

We praise God because He allowed us to move back to Madison. That is a huge blessing because we will be able to spend the last weeks with our families and our home church when we aren’t away at meetings. We thank God for His clear direction in the last 2 months. We were excited about the possibility of working with the Andrews family in Spain, but after taking a survey trip with them in December, God has placed different places in our hearts. We are encouraged, though, to see how God is calling other young couples to Spain.

We are thankful to God that He has allowed us to save for much of our needed passage funds—enough for a good, dependable minivan; language school; and housing setup. We still need to save for $3000-tickets, $4000- shipping container and $2000 apartment (first month we are required to pay for equivalent of 3 months rent). Please, help us pray for that need. If you would like to make a one time offering to take care of that need just mark it for “passage fund”.

Our most exciting news is that we are planning to leave for the field the first week of March!

In the last month we have been promised much of our support, but we are still in need of $300 monthly. Please pray that the remaining would come before we leave. We are so thankful for what God has allowed us to accomplish in the past two years, but we are ready to take the next step, praying that we will be used for Him to bring many to Him.

Your co-laborers in Christ’s service,
Matthew, Pilar and girls


Prayer Requests:
• The remaining $300 monthly support to come in quickly
• Salvation for Pilar’s dad-Francisco and sister-Encarni
• Good exchange rate for dollar/euro
• An open door among Spaniards to preach the Gospel-Colossians 4:6
• Contreras family and work in Gijon

Click here to read of our trip to Spain in Dec. 06.