How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?
Romans 10:14

Hello to all our praying friends. In this update, I’ll talk about some of our outreach efforts here on the mission field. Many of you pray with us every day that the Lord would save souls here in the Basque Region, and we believe God will accomplish this through the growth of local, Bible-based churches throughout Basque cities and towns. My goal is to train our believers to be disciple-makers and leaders in our church or in future churches.

Many of you have been following the Christmas postcard project. When I was kid growing up in Spain, every week we would canvas basque cities, placing tracts in mailboxes (perfectly legal here) and handing them out to people in public. I would love to know how many hundreds of hours I spent distributing tracts as a kid! Gospel tracts served two main purposes: sharing the Gospel and spreading awareness of the local church. Times have changed a lot since then though. People mostly respond negatively to what they would call “propaganda,” and it is much harder for people to stop and talk with a stranger in public. I still look for every opportunity to share the gospel with people I meet, but for years now, instead of distributing tracts, we send out a full-color Christmas card each year with a Gospel presentation and information about church. 2024 was the first year I reached out to our supporting friends and churches to cover the cost of sending a card to each of the 14,388 homes in Errenteria. We were overwhelmed by the enthusiasm and generosity of everyone who sent gifts and prayers, so, Lord willing, we plan to expand the area covered by the project for next year.

Postcard coverage map

In December we hosted a Christmas concert at church. The choir of the Irun church prepares two musicals each year primarily as an evangelistic ministry. Many who are too terrified to come to a non-Catholic church service will happily come to a free concert held in a church building— even if said concert includes a gospel-based story and a message from the Scripture at the end! Raquel and I have always been involved in the music ministry at our churches, and we love working with the Irun church to prepare these concerts. We will be hosting another concert next month for Easter.

At the beginning of each year, our church orders personalized calendars to use as gifts. I visit all the apartment buildings in our church neighborhood to give calendars and homemade cookies to the church neighbors. Since churches in Spain are usually inside neighborhoods, often with people living directly above the ceiling of church, it’s very important to do our best to have a healthy relationship with the neighbors. As Paul puts it even better: If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men — Romans 12:18. If Errenteria is our Jerusalem, then our church neighborhood is the epicenter of our evangelistic mission!

Our circle of unsaved friends has expanded a lot since Leire and Sofia started going to school. We meet with the parents of their classmates often on Fridays, as most weeks someone in one of the two classes is celebrating a birthday party. We see the birthday events as opportunities to make friends with and give the Gospel to other parents who need to be saved.

Lastly, on an individual level, I’m witnessing to one of my Basque friends. We met in 2020 before I had children. He practices English with me and I practice Basque with him. We both love mountains and hiking, so we get together a few times a year to climb a mountain somewhere. Last month we managed to find some snow on a mountain not far from us. He is somewhat receptive to the Gospel, as he believes in God. But he’s not at all interested in abandoning his Catholic background yet. Please pray for him and for me as I share the Gospel.

Thank you for your prayers! God bless,

David
Psalm 34:3

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