El Encuentro 2017

High up on a hill outside Alcalá de Henares, once home to Cervantes - author of Don Quijote, with stunning views across the Sierra mountain ranges and back to Madrid, sits the retreat centre that hosted El Encuentro, our annual time away.

The purpose of the weekend was spending time together, deepening relationships, enjoying God and having space to really hear Him clearly, away from the buzz and rush of the city that we love and live in day to day. The weather was good too, so there were opportunities to explore and savour the views. 

What comes to mind when you think of a retreat in Spain? Perhaps it would be some of the things we happily shared together at El Encuentro! Paella, tortilla de patatas, Jamón Ibérico, dancing, sunshine and siestas all contributed to an excellent weekend. However, these wonderful, typically Spanish things merely added to the tangible sense that God was with us throughout. From the very start, His presence was powerfully with us. As we worshipped and as the Bible was taught, there was a corporate feeling that lives were being changed and our mission together was being strengthened.

Joined by friends from Southern Spain and Portugal, we were also blessed to have teaching from the Basque Country and the UK. Itiel Arroyo, from Bilbao, is an engaging young pastor with a passion for preaching and advancing the kingdom of God across his country. Mick Taylor was with us too, from England. He recently moved to Bournemouth from London to join the leadership team at Citygate Church and heads up training for Commission.

Itiel spoke strongly and skilfully to us about an obedience that naturally follows encountering God and his grace. He was encouraging us to protect and nourish the presence of God in our lives and that the correct response to our salvation must be to put Jesus first. A changed heart is one that longs to please Him. Mick taught with gentleness and joy about God’s amazing grace, as well as the importance of being a people of the Word, the Spirit and wisdom.

During the weekend we paused for several moments of personal testimony to hear how God was speaking to individuals and spurring them on to greater faith and deeper relationship with Him. We also heard a number of prophetic words, with Mike Shaw reminding us of Guy Miller’s picture of wells being dug across the region and of churches in those places being resource centres to equip the numerous churches that will surely be planted across Spain and Portugal in the coming years.

This retreat was a significant moment in the short history of the church. Over the last year or so, the church has grown quickly. As a result, there are more native speakers in the church this year than before, so the dominant language at the event was definitely Spanish. This is great! It's also vital for growth in Spain, where there are very few evangelical churches. The country is in desperate need of a move of God and for Spanish speaking churches to be planted.

The chance to be away together as a group was so important. Taking a few days out has freshly inspired us for mission. We serve in a land which is spiritually dry and where churches like ours can easily become isolated. However, if you take a moment at the weekend, like communion on the last day for example, when a spontaneous celebratory worship song broke out in gratitude for what Jesus has accomplished for us all, we certainly didn't feel isolated then. We were together. If you pray for us, you are a part of this togetherness, part of the same family. Praise God for community!

El Encuentro 2016

"El fin de semana del 12 al 14 de febrero, la iglesia Cristo Salvador de Madrid (España) ha tenido su retiro anual en el Mirador de Alcalá (Alcalá de Henares); un lugar apartado e ideal para la convivencia y la reflexión.

Tuvimos la gran bendición de recibir a hermanos llegados de algunas de nuestras iglesias en España como Valencia y Huércal-Overa (Almería). También tuvimos la visita de Michael y Jesicca Shore de la iglesia de Penafiel (Portugal). 

Ya desde el primer momento, el viernes por la tarde, tuvimos un hermoso tiempo de alabanza y nos emocionamos con la apasionada predicación de Kevin Bartlett, quien nos presentó al primogénito de toda la creación de Colosenses 1, descendiendo de su trono para expresarnos su infinito amor redentor.

El sábado, fue un intenso "baño apostólico" con Guy Miller quien nos hizo viajar por la historia, identificando cada chispa de fuego que fue encendiendo desde Pentecostés hasta nuestros días, en los que estamos siendo desafiados proféticamente a extendernos hacia adelante con el mensaje salvador de Jesucristo.

Tuvimos interesantes talleres que nos hicieron despertar a una mayor necesidad de dependencia del Espíritu Santo en la obra apostólica de la iglesia; y la tarde fue un intenso tiempo de reflexión acerca de su poder; poder que también pudimos experimentar a través de palabras proféticas y de un genuino fluir de la presencia del Espíritu Santo que impactó nuestro corazón.

El sábado también fue un precioso tiempo de convivencia, café y juegos, que nos ayudó a conectar los unos con los otros de una forma divertida y emocionante, haciendo nuevos amigos.

El domingo, y como colofón, tuvimos un tiempo para visiones y palabras proféticas que diferentes hermanos compartieron con la iglesia. Posteriormente, Andy Wickham, director de la fundación RZ, estuvo enseñando acerca del poder del evangelio para destruir las obras del diablo, y de cómo este mensaje es radicalmente diferente a todas las ideas que el hombre pueda fabricar.

En una segunda plenaria, nos dio una lección magistral de apologética, argumentando acerca de las evidencias de la existencia de Dios y de la resistencia que el hombre le ofrece.

En definitiva, este ha sido un tiempo extraordinario donde hemos sido refrescados, equipados y desafiados para extendernos como iglesia en el propósito al que Dios nos ha llamado. Nos fuimos de allí con la sensación de que cada año somos más bendecidos y con el deseo de volver nuevamente a nuestras ciudades para vivir y practicar todo lo aprendido. El año próximo más. En junio....¡Hola de nuevo, Península Ibérica!. Destino Penafiel."

Rafael Prieto (Madrid Feb 2016)

El Encuentro 2016

We recently had our annual retreat and below is a report from Rafa one of our members regards all that God did amongst us:

'The weekend from the 12th to the 14th of February, the church Cristo Salvador of Madrid (Spain) had its annual retreat at the Mirador de Alcalá (Alcalá de Henares). It was an ideal place to be together and reflect.

We had the great blessing of having brothers coming from some of our churches in Spain such as Valencia and Huércal-Overa (Almería). We also had visiting us, Mike and Jess Shore from the church in Penafiel (Portugal).

From the first moment, which began on Friday evening, we had a beautiful time of worship, we were excited by the passionate preach by Kevin, who talked of the firstborn over all creation from Colossians 1, coming down from his thrown to show us his infinite redemptive love.

The Saturday was an intense ‘apostolic drenching’ with Guy Miller who made us travel through history, identifying spark and flame that was started at Pentecost and continues until our day, days where we are challenged prophetically to spread abroad the message of our savior Jesus Christ.

We had interesting workshops which woke us up to the necessity of dependency on the Holy Spirit and the work of the apostle in the church. In the afternoon we had an intensive time of reflection on his power, power that we could experience through prophetic words and the genuine movement of the presence of the Holy Spirit that impacts our heart. Also on Saturday we had a precious time of being together, coffee and games that helped us to connect together in an exciting and fun way, we made new friends.

The Sunday morning was a climax when we had a time of prophetic visions and words that different brothers shared with the church. Afterwards, Andy Wickham, director of Ravi Zacharias Trust taught about the power of the gospel to destroy the works of the devil, and how the gospel message is radically different to all the other man made ideologies.

In the second session, we were given an outstanding apologetic argument about the evidence of the existence of God and the resistance that man offers.

To conclude, this has been a truly extraordinary time of refreshing, equipping, and challenges to grow the church into the purposes of God, who has called us. We went from there with the sensation that with every passing year we are more blessed and with the desire to return again to our cities to live and work out everything we have learnt. There is more for us this year. In June……….Hello again, the Iberian Peninsular! Destination Penafiel.´

Rafael Prieto (Madrid Feb 2016)

La Mudanza a Teatro Quevedo y La Inauguración

Mil gracias por orar por nosotros y siento que no os hayamos informado recientemente sobre las noticias. Aquí están los puntos principales desde los últimos meses.

En primer lugar, gracias a la generosidad de los miembros de Salisbury City Church, hemos podido colaborar con 4 hombres de Madrid para ayudarles a montar una pequeña empresa. Debido a la crisis han estado en el paro mas de 2 años con poca esperanza de encontrar otro trabajo. Hemos puesto el nombre SAROVIPA y impreso miles de folletos de reforma y otros de limpieza de cristales. También les hemos comprado un portátil y una impresora y uno de nuestros Grupos Misión está involucrado en darles formación en realizar las cuentas, etc…

En segundo lugar, nos hemos mudado del local en el centro de la ciudad a un teatro en un barrio que se llama Quevedo. Es un barrio mucho más auténtico de Madrid; tiene una entrada con un bar que es muy acogedor y un escaparate en una calle muy transitada. Mientras los gastos aumentan así como las tareas las mañanas de los domingos parece que, hasta ahora, la mudanza nos ha salido muy bien. Es cierto que hemos visto una aumenta de hispanoparlantes en las reuniones desde que nos mudamos. También, celebramos nuestros primeros bautizos durante este mes.

En tercer lugar, estamos a punto de lanzar públicamente la iglesia. Aunque llevamos más de un año teniendo reuniones publicas, nunca hemos inaugurado oficialmente la iglesia con publicidad etc…  Hemos puesto el nombre ‘Iglesia de Cristo Salvador’, tenemos un nuevo logotipo, página web (ved: www.cristomadrid.es) y publicidad. Planeamos algunos eventos durante el mes de noviembre para lanzar la iglesia que incluye: 

• Una fiesta con ‘micro abierto’ (open mic) en un bar del centro de la ciudad 
• Una serie de sermones los domingos sobre: ¿Dios es(tá) real/muerto/bueno?
• Una fiesta con cena y concurso de trivia
• El domingo de inauguración con ofrenda para la misión de 'Cristo Salvador'
• Un desayuno para conocer a los pastores de Madrid

Es probable que haya más para contaros pero ya sabéis las noticias principales. Gracias por colaborar con nosotros por medio de vuestra oración por el ‘churchplant’. Por favor, dad las gracias a Dios por todo lo que hace entre nosotros y orad por la iglesia durante el periodo del lanzamiento y por los eventos así como los hombres de SAROVIPA. Mil gracias.

Venue Move & Launch

A big thanks to you all for praying us and sorry for the lack of news updates recently. Here’s some highlights from recent months to catch up:

Firstly, thanks to the generosity of Salisbury City Church members, we have been able to partner with 4 local men to help them in the start up of a small business. Due to the crisis in the construction industry they have been unemployed for the last two or three years and with very little hope for finding work. We have printed flyers for odd jobs and window cleaning and called the business SAROVIPA. We’ve also purchased them a laptop and printer and one of our mission groups is involved in giving them on-going training in running their accounts, etc…

Secondly, we have moved from our city centre venue to a small theatre in Quevedo, Madrid. It is in a much more authentically Madrid neighbourhood with a lovely bar area and glass frontage onto a busy street. While increasing costs and workload on Sunday mornings the move so far seems to have gone very well. We’ve certainly seen an increase in Spanish speakers with us since the move. We also had the privilege of having our first baptisms in this period as well.

 Thirdly, we are about to publicly launch the church. Although we have been running public Sunday meetings for over a year now, we’ve never had the opportunity to do an official launch with publicity etc… We’ve named the church, ‘Iglesia de Cristo Salvador’, have a new logo, webpage (check out: www.cristomadrid.es) and publicity. We have a number of events to help launch the church throughout November including:

• an open mic evening in a city centre bar
• a 3 week sermon series, 'Is God real/dead/good?
• a quiz night with supper
• the launch Sunday with gift day
• a breakfast for local church leaders

There’s probably more that we could say, but the above are the main highlights. Thank you for partnering in prayer with us for the church plant. Please thanks God for all he’s doing amongst us and pray for the launch period and the events as well as for the guys in SAROVIPA. Many thanks.

Progress and Battles

Dear all,

Many thanks as always for partnering with us on this adventure by praying. As we move from a mainly British missionary group to a more established mission based church plant, we are experiencing changes which gladden our hearts and that stretch us in new ways.
We have had two new Spanish families come and join us and some youngsters as well. Our meetings are all in Spanish as they have been for some time and this is becoming less of a challenge as everyone's language learning improves.
Due to the influx of visitors, Kevin has begun a foundation course with five people on it and several more waiting for the next one. Kevin and his team also run an Alpha course which provides food for everyone but mainly men and women selling balloons etc, dressed as cartoon characters to earn money from tourists. Many of them have lost their jobs due to the financial ongoing crisis. Please pray for them to find work and in the meantime to find Christ.
The mission groups are developing very well and some saw visitors coming along to the Christmas Carol service. Please pray for the leaders of these groups, Dave and Tom, Sally, Geofree and Caroline, Joel and Andrés.
Andrés has come to join us from the ever so generous Mexican church under Oscar Suarez's leadership. Andrés has taken over leading the youth group from Iván and is proving to be very popular, he is planning on staying with us for a year and lives with the Bartlett family, so pray for mercy for him.
So it is with excited thoughts we ask you to pray for a new venue that we can comfortably fit in. The venue in the center of Sol has been excellent in its location and facilities and something similar but larger would be wonderful.
Please also pray as Kevin starts to develop his leadership team, which is becoming a priority with the growth and needing to spend time away from Madrid.
Many thanks and God bless


(Photo of Andrés, Jasmin and the youth group)

Avances y batallas

Queridos amigos,

Muchas gracias como siempre por compartir con nosotros en esta aventura a  través de sus oraciones.

A medida que cambiamos de un grupo de misioneros, en su mayoría británicos, a una pequeña iglesia más establecida basada en el misión, estamos tropezando con cambios que nos hacen felices y nos ponemos en un nuevos desafíos.

Tenemos dos familias españolas nuevas con nosotros y algunos jóvenes también. Nuestras reuniones son todas en español coma ha sido ya durante un buen tiempo y esto se ha hecho cada vez mas fácil a medida que el aprendizaje del español de todos ha ido mejorando.

Debido a la llegada de nuevas visitas, Kevin ha empezado un curso de cimientos con cinco personas y hay algunas más que están esperando el próximo curso. Kevin y su equipo también están organizando un curso alfa, el cual provee comida para todos pero principalmente para hombres y mujeres que venden globos etc. vestidos como muñecos de Disney para ganar algo de dinero de los turistas. La mayoría han perdido su trabajo debido a la crisis económica que atraviesa el país. Por favor, orad por ellos para que puedan encontrar trabajo y mientras tanto puedan encontrar a Cristo.

Los grupos de misión se están desarrollando muy bien y algunos de esos grupos sirvieron de conexión para que invitados fueran al servicio de navidad. Por favor orad por los líderes de los grupos, Dave y Tom, Sally, Geofree y Caroline, Joel y Andrés.

Andrés ha veni

do a Madrid para estar con nosotros, de la generosa iglesia en México bajo el liderazgo de Oscar Suarez. Andrés ha empezado a dirigir el grupo de jóvenes, anteriormente dirigido por Iván, y es muy popular con los chicos. El está planeando quedarse  en Madrid un año Y vive con la familia Bartlett, entonces orad en especial por  gracia para él.  

Entonces, con mucha emoción les pedimos que oréis por un local nuevo en el que quepamos mejor. El local en Sol ha sido excelente por su ubicación e instalaciones, y algo semejante pero más grande sería maravilloso. 

Por favor también orad mientras Kevin empieza a construir un equipo de liderazgo, el cual se está convirtiendo en una prioridad con el crecimiento en la iglesia y su necesidad por pasar tiempo fuera de Madrid.

Gracias y un abrazo fuerte.

(El grupo de jovenes con Andrés)