July/ August update

THE CONTRERAS FAMILY IN GIJÓN, SPAIN

                - JULY UPDATE AND PRAYER REQUESTS FOR AUGUST 2012

First of all, we´d like to ask you to pray for Pastor Dan Holland of Community Baptist Church, Stuart, FL, home church of Danielle´s family and a long time supporting church of our work in Spain.  Pastor Holland suffered a massive heart attack two weeks ago and has been in a coma ever since.  Please pray God will fully restore his health, and that God would strengthen his family and church during this time.

We are praying to lay the flooring for our multipurpose hall as soon as possible now that we have the plans, permits, and documentation that we had been waiting for.  The area where we are laying it used to be a garage where trucks would load construction materials.  Basically, it requires 70 square meters of flooring:  first, a layer of material required for sound proofing, impact absorption, and that helps keep heat during the winter; then, a five centimeter thick layer of concrete; and finally, tile, parquet, or whatever material we want seen as the floor. 
In Spain, since most communities consist of storefronts like ours with apartments built above them, rather than residential areas separated from commercial areas, strict measures are taken to assure residents are not disturbed.  This flooring is one of those measures.

Brethren from an evangelical church in town are helping us find the materials and do the work at the lowest cost possible.  I´ve challenged the folks from our church, Iglesia Bautista Libertad de Gijón, to start by purchasing the concrete that will be needed, and offerings have already been received.  One of our supporting churches has offered to give a matching offering of up to $3,900.  They write:

                We would like to propose a matching gift fund.  [We] will match up to $3900 funds you receive                for the                 floor      project by December 1, 2012.  You can include any funds already received for the match.  If you get the match   before then, let me know and we will release our portion to you.

If the Lord puts it on your hearts to contribute towards this need, we would be very thankful to the Lord and to you for your special giving to this missionary need.

We are amazed at how many people God brings our way weekly through our Be Strong outreach.  Whether with college students who come for English classes or street kids who come for weight training, God has been giving us more meaningful and repeated opportunities to share the Gospel and Bible principles than ever before.  The impact will be even greater when the renovations are finished.  Please pray that God will continue to use this to reach lost folks and bring them to faith in Christ.

Church attendance has been low this summer and we still struggle with inconsistence and lack of commitment from members and attendees alike.  We just keep urging the folks to not be “troubled about many things,” but to choose the “one thing [that] is needful … that good part” (Luke 10:41-42); to not let “the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word,” and become “unfruitful” (Matthew 13:22).  Pray that the believers will truly invest their lives for God´s glory and eternal purposes.

We continue praying also that God would provide a family, either from a church here in Spain or another missionary family from the United States, who would be called to this work in Gijón and fully believe in the ministry strategy God has given us through Be Strong, and serve as co workers.  Would you remember us in prayer for this need?

We also still need to purchase books for the boys´ upcoming school year.  If anyone has information as to how we can purchase them at a good price, please let us know.

Thank you very much for faithfully supporting us monthly and for keeping us before the Lord in prayer.  May God be glorified in all that is done!  

Love in Christ, The Contreras family - Joseph, Danielle, Isaiah, Andrew, and Michael

Support address:  Central Missionary Clearinghouse, PO Box 219228, Houston, TX 77218

Field address:  Calle Feijoó 52, 4-C, 33204 Gijón, SPAIN

Sending church:  Sun Valley Baptist Church, 9901 McCombs, El Paso, TX 79924