When Missionaries Lose Their Adventurous Spirit

As a young teenage girl, I approached going on missions trips as an adventure! It was what I was called to do. From the time I was 10 years old I felt called to take the name of Jesus to other children who didn't know Him.

Finally, I would be going to the uttermost parts of the earth! Mexico, Guatemala, and Paraguay were my destinations at the age of 15, 16 and 20. Oh! the thrill of the unknown and the joy of speaking Spanish to those who did not know Jesus.

Fast forward almost 20 years, three sons and 14 years on the mission field of Spain. I was settled! In love with the city of Gijon and it's people. We had friends, a ministry, and a close knit family.

God has now called us back to to the United States. We have been living stateside for almost two years. Getting settled and trying to make the best of it.  This is a whole new adventure. I find myself struggling to think of ever moving again. To even allow myself the thought of launching out into new ministries. Where has my adventurous spirit gone?

I'm a teacher missionary. It's a calling. As our pastor said tonight,

"If you are called to be in the ministry, don't stoop to be a prime minister!"

This resonated in my heart. I can not settle. I must keep serving no matter where I am planted. Yes, even if we are called to leave our comfort zone again and again.

We were commissioned and sent. We came home, but we are still called and set apart. I will go and serve wherever He sends us on our next adventure home or abroad.

"Here am I Lord, send me."

~ Dani

Please consider helping us get our belongings back from Spain. Click HERE

What You Mean to Us!

Before anything else, we want to express a very special thanks to all of you who continue to pray for our family and support us financially in the ministry. We thank God upon every remembrance of you. Philippians 1:3

The Lord’s leading in our lives to transition to home missions has been a step-by-step process, and God has put very special people in our lives to mentor us through the process.  Dr. Stephen Little and Bro Herb Taylor of Baptist Church Planters have been particularly instrumental in this way.  We thank the Lord for their wisdom and encouragement.  Please continue to pray for us and support us as we follow God’s call on our lives as full-time missionaries.

Our present service in ministries of our home church, Starkey Road Baptist Church, is important during this time.  Most of our involvement is in music ministry.  Joseph plays classical guitar during worship for the Wednesday evening Bible study and prayer meetings.   Isaiah, Andrew, and Michael play for the worship time in their youth group.  Both Danielle and Joseph collaborate with Pastor Brandon, our youth pastor, in training and preparing young people to use their musical talents to glorify God.  

Joseph and Danielle will also be leading the worship and praise time in the Spanish-speaking church services on Sundays.  Pray that God will use us to be a blessing to our church in preparing not just musical leaders, but spiritual leaders for the next generation.  Daniel Cornell is one example.  He is a missionary kid from Venezuela and attends the Spanish church services.  Joseph has been teaching him guitar for the past two months and we pray he can use what he learns in church.  His first opportunity is coming up!  He will soon play “Buscad Primero el Reino de Dios” (“Seek Ye First”). 

Our prayer is to resume deputation this Summer or the latter part of this year.  While serving in Spanish ministries here in St. Petersburg, FL, areas in other parts of the country in great need of bilingual home missionary pastors have been presenting themselves to us.  Pray that God will show us what role He would have for us in meeting the spiritual need of these communities here at home.  And pray He will continue to meet our financial needs as He faithfully has throughout our time back in the USA.

Many of you assured you would keep praying for unsaved people we’ve mentioned in previous prayer letters.  After my long conversation explaining the Gospel to “Joe” at the gym, every time I have seen him since he has thanked me for taking time to talk with him.  We continue to chat at the gym about physical health and spiritual needs.  I have been teaching guitar to a young man for a few months now, the young person for whom I asked prayer in a previous letter.  God opens doors for me to mentor him about character issues, but pray he, his Mom and her friend would be open to hear the Gospel.

Finally, Paul asked in 2 Timothy 4:13, “Bring … the books, but especially the parchments.”  This is our request.  We need a special financial gift to ship our belongings back from Spain.  We have distributed the majority of our things to churches and missionaries in that area.  What remains are books with Joseph’s study notes, many of which cannot be replaced, like an original printing of Armitage’s Baptist history.  Along with those are college and seminary notebooks and family photo albums.  We need over $1500 to ship it all.  Please pray how you can help with this need.  

The Next Phase

Contreras School 2009 - 5th grade and 3rd grade

Even though, we gave away almost all the boys' homeschool materials to missionaries, there were still many books, photo albums, clothes and personal items that we stored away in a storage unit when we packed up our apartment. Danielle is still teaching phonics, and doing reading help at school, and Joseph is preaching and teaching as well, so there is not a day that goes by that we don't pray to get our study materials, and books. 

Fellow missionaries, the Grants, living in Asturias, have been so gracious to help disperse our furniture and electronics to others in need. Now comes the difficult task of separating and deciding what is personal and what we don't actually need anymore. 

We have found two companies who will ship based on volume, shipping door to door. We need to measure the volume and then get an exact quote. We received one quote for ten boxes at $1,600, but it looks like we still have more than 10 boxes.

 Of course, our treasure is stored up in Heaven and not here on Earth. These are just things, however, it is hard to not be concerned we won't ever see our precious memories again. 

Please pray for this next phase of our ministry. 

Would you consider giving to this project? Click here to give. 

More Than Words

Ruta del Alba, Asturias, Spain

A pool of thoughts held 

and ready to pour out

as a waterfall 

flowing stronger 

than before.

But words are lost, 

stolen by originality

a time so dear 

expressed only in eternity.

Wandering minds 

touched, 

brought closer today.

cherished moments

are loved 

more than words can say. 

(dedicated to the new missionaries in Spain who will be carrying on the good fight. )

Tell It!

Tender quiet heart

with passion for the King,

Windows of souls

to Him you bring. 

Filled broken vessels

burdens to share, 

White caped waves 

have not a care. 

Throne of grace

pardon so dear,

Fierce whispering winds

tell it, no fear! 

(both poems written by Danielle Contreras,1995)

@ Daily Peace

God is dealing with us in a special situation right now. It is a place in our lives we have never been. We are needing to trust Him more than ever before. We need to trust, even though we don´t see the future clearly.

Not truly trusting and resting in God each and everyday can take away our peace. One of the fruit of the Spirit that we should all seek is peace.

Mission opportunities

Midway through fall, Gijon, which was full of vacationers from all over Europe during the Summer, is now full of students attending Gijón ́s polytechnic school of engineering. The university campus is located in what is called, “The Knowledge Mile,” which is also home to the Science and Technological Park, two technology centers, and more than 50 technological-based enterprises and innovation centers of global scope. It is considered the “Asturian Simi Valley.”

We are pleased that by word of mouth more college and career aged people are coming to our Centro Be Strong to improve their English skills for school and work. At present we have about 30 students. Being an evangelistic center, we pray that as people browse through our Gospel literature and as we share our faith, that God would open hearts and bring young people to salvation.

 As Be Strong evangelistic ministries grows, there is a need for short or long term English teaching missionaries. If the Lord burdens your heart to serve in this type of ministry, please contact us for more information. 

Missionary Interview

We discussed everthing from homeschooling on the foreign field to sports in missions. Here is a preview of the interview. 

 Missionary Michael Andrzejewski: "Most of our readers know that we made the decision to put our kids into the public school system here. It was a tough decision, but one that we feel like was right for them. You guys have been on the field a good bit longer than we have, and homeschool your three boys. From both Joe's and Dani's perspective what are the biggest challenges you have faced with homeschooling on a foreign field rather than in the United States?"

Danielle - I totally understand the difficulty of this decision. Each family has to do as God leads them in this area. Homeschooling was something the Lord put on my heart when I was an undergraduate studying to be an elementary teacher. To me there was no greater ambition than to teach my own children to read and write. When we came to Spain and had our babies, we learned that homeschooling was not illigal but nor was it a legal. There were no laws for or against it. We decided not to put our boys into the school system at all here in Spain, so that we wouldn´t have to pull them out to homeschool later on. We had heard that many familys who have chosen to pull their children out after being in the school system inorder to homeschool have had much more negative attention and often court hearings. I often wish we could have put our children into kindergarden and primary school for the language sake, but they are getting Spanish down with tutors, extra class work, and extracurricular activities in the city such as sports and music. Homeschooling in Spain is becoming more recognized, however there are still many strikes against it as it is not  the norm. We are so excited to have started our 9th year of homeschooling.

Missionary Michael Andrzejewski: Last summer we took a short, three month furlough, that in some respects was about 2 months too long for me. Given all of the factors involved (being absent from the Spanish ministry, travel costs, need for rest, need to see stateside family, etc.) how do you feel about furlough in general and what do you think is the best way to do it?
 

Joseph - Honestly at this point I would love to go back to the States for a furlough.  I can´t wait to do it again.  I feel as the years go by, the more I need to take a step back and seek God´s face, and find some refreshment in the ministry.  I love our city, Gijón, Spain, I love the way the work in the community is going, as a missionary /pastor, the lack of spiritual interest, of course among the lost people but more so among those who profess to be saved, weighs heavy on me and messes with the mind, it causes struggles with doubt.  So furloughs for me are welcomed =).  I guess I would say furlough´s are best done when there is a strong two to three family team of pastors or missionaries working together.  There is no need to worry about who will continue the work, there would be minimal change-up for the work since the families staying would be regular workers, not new ones coming in just for the furlough, etc.  A team of two to three families who are in every true sense of the phrase "of one mind" I believe definitely helps to have a smooth furlough.  That is something we need. 

Missionary Michael Andrzejewski: Tell us a little about your vision with Be Strong. The building itself is a place where the church meets, but it is also so much more than that. In telling us, be sure to include how the surrounding community has responded.

Joseph - We arrived in Spain in 2000.  We started our church planting effort in Gijón in 2005, in a small 35 square meter office.  God did bring a number of evangelical people and it wasn´t hard to outgrow our place.  We were terribly limited by space.  We needed room for a kitchen, nursery, and kid´s club activities.  But our small church could not afford a bigger place, so we were kind of in a "catch 22".

 Meanwhile, I needed to be honest with myself and admit I was trying to plant a church as if I was living between East TX to Northern FL.  I am not against handing out tracts, we handed out tens of thousands of tracts in mailboxes, streets, door to door, in towns, etc.  While noone ever responded, most people got annoyed, and there was no possibility for follow-up, I would routinely tell myself, "Well, I did my part, that´s all I can do, I´m suffering the reproach of Christ."  But deep down I knew that I couldn´t say that in spending some hours in my office, going out three to four days a week to pass out tracts, and having church services, that I was doing the work of a missionary.  Was I really having an impact in society?  Do my encounters with people always have to bring so much scorn?  Plus, I was only reaching "stray evangelicals", not the lost.  And many of those "stray evangelicals" quite honestly brought grief, divisions, and problems. 

It was through conversing with a missionary in Auschaffenburg, Germany, that I began to really identify barriers that needed to be removed in European mission fields. .... READ MORE  

We so appreciate Michael and Nina Andrzejewski and their ministry in Barcelos, Portugal. Please, take a moment to get to know them and pray for their ministry, as well.