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Reaching Couples in Urban Spain

Cindy Brown, Spain

Where is she taking me? thought my houseguest as we walked on a dirt path next to a busy freeway near Madrid, Spain. People looked curiously at the two of us middle-aged women armed with cans of white spray paint. Were we going to join the teenagers painting graffiti under the freeway overpass? No, our goal was to transform pruned tree branches into decorations for an outreach event that weekend.

Urban church planting in Spain is a challenge. Recent prosperity has made many Spaniards look to material things to fill the aching void that only a personal relationship with Christ can fill. Spaniards may have a degree of personal wealth, but they are lonely and often sense a lack of hope. How do we reach people in our area of Spain? Most of our friends are not yet interested in attending our weekly Bible study. One of our ideas is to stage regular outreach events like the couples' banquet we planned around Valentine's Day.

On the evening of the banquet, silvery painted branches covered with twinkling lights transformed our rather plain storefront church into a winter wonderland. Good smells wafted from the kitchen where a team of Americans and Spaniards busily prepared the food. Fourteen nicely dressed couples were milling around the candlelit tables. One of the challenges of urban ministry is making people feel comfortable among strangers. All our guests come at our personal invitation, but they don't necessarily know each other. How do we make them feel comfortable with each other? A fun "mixer" game soon had our guests laughing and talking with each other: “Did you have your car stolen last month?” “Are you the medical doctor with a new baby?” “Have you worked for the embassy?”

After the meal, the guests were ready to listen as missionary Rich Brown got up to speak. He had pondered long about what message to bring to such a varied group of people—two thirds of whom were yet unsaved. Using PowerPoint, Rich spoke to the married couples about God's design for marriage and how to resolve marriage conflicts. Our next door neighbors laughingly wanted to know if we had been able to hear them through the wall! "Very helpful" was the comment we heard afterward. One couple was especially grateful and came back the next evening for our Bible study. Since then, they have attended several more times and are considering our offer to meet regularly with them to study what the Bible says about marriage.

Our desire is not only to help these people in their marriages, but to introduce them to the One who invented marriage. We know Jesus Christ is the answer to the questions that most of our friends have but may not have verbalized. Please pray that God would move in a powerful way in Spain to save the people He has called out for His name.