From Barcelona to Malaga

Life without rules is what life is like for non Christian teens in Spain. School ends at the age of sixteen and there is no curfew for the teens of Spain. In Gonzales teens have a midnight curfew. A night out for the teens of Spain would be meeting friends and going to the clubs, you have to be 18 to drink but teens can go into the clubs without mom & dad. Our new friends took us around to see the teens’ hang outs, and the subways were full of teens, we saw 12 year olds heading out at 10:00 pm on Friday night. A day for a teen in the summer would be going to the beach where they are topless and the teens are too. Teens can freely smoke pot, because pot is legal in Spain. There are no jobs for the teens in Spain, so from 16 to 23 you just hang out and have fun. Since the few churches in Spain are a new to reaching people, they haven’t figured out a way to reach out to the teens. – Charlie Matlock


Friday November 12, was an awesome day. Besides being another long day, I feel like we made major strides in being connected with the business world here in Catalunya. (Pastor Raul Hernandez must be commended for the brothers and sisters he has introduced us to, all them the influencers in their field.) We met with a married couple who immigrated here from Argentina. Mauricio’s business is import/export. We discussed several options for a setting up a cooperative. We have an initial plan in three different areas for beginning. It is our plan to continue to network our resources. I am hopeful that we will be able to develop a long term relationship with these brothers and sisters in Spain.
On another note, it is very important not to spit seeds on the sidewalk, the fine is $ 300! Dog poop on the sidewalk, $900, hanging your bici (bicycle) on the balcony, $900, speeding tickets, $900. Most young people travel on mopeds. They drive like maniacs! They weave in and out of traffic like a “Laurel and Hardy” Keystone cops movie.
Affordable housing is very scarce. Depending on the area, an apartment may cost from $1,000 to $2,250 per month. Entry level jobs will pay from $450 to $900 per month. The exchange rate is $1.50 to 1.00 €. – Rene de la Garza


Imagine this; a young Moroccan illegal immigrant places her faith in Christ after a church member cautiously shares his faith with her. Her parents as a result angrily disown her and kick her out of the home, only to find herself without a home and into the loving mercy of her new found friends. Her parents plead with her to come back, which she does, only to find herself thrown into the trunk of a car and taken to Morocco to be married to a Muslim husband. Occasionally, though rare now, she calls to say that she is OK. This is a real but all too often account of what happens with Muslim immigrants when they put their faith in Jesus Christ; the personal risk to their life is a great one. I was introduced to one of only 3-4 leaders in Spain, who works in Barcelona as a businessman and belong to an organization whose sole responsibility is to evangelize the Muslim and disciple and integrate the Ex-Muslim community into the few Churches in existence in the area that have a heart for reaching the Muslim community, which are even fewer. We just traveled 12 hours to Malaga, Spain to meet some more key influencers in Malaga, then we will travel to Granada for another meeting and then to Madrid for our final key contact so please pray for us in our next leg of the race. -- Jesse Elizondo