Newsletters

  • Oct
    2021
    14
    2021 / Oct / 14

    October 2021

    Baby dedication at the church in Burgos on Oct. 3.

    Attendance has been increasing at the church.
    Praise the Lord!

    We had a man come to a service that none of us had met before. He has prayed with us to accept the Lord and says he has been freed from depression diagnosed by his doctor. Now he attends faithfully and calls himself a “member” of our church. Glory to God!
    Rev. Rich ministering at our home church, Family Church Fredonia

    Partner reception in Forestville, NY. Thank you for joining us. We had a great time!

    Enjoy this video of Rev. Rich ministering at Impact Family Church in High Springs, Florida.

    Rev. Daphne at our 15th Wedding Anniversary celebration. Awe!
    (PS: Rev. Rich was there…)

    We had a wonderful time in the USA. It was great to see and spend time with you: our Pastors, partners and family. Thank you for inviting us, greeting us, and taking time with us. And thank you for your continued prayers and generous support. Together we will accomplish all of God’s plan. We love and appreciate you!

    Rev. Rich ministering at Faith Life Family Church in Warner Robins, Georgia.
    Check out this quick update video from Avignon, France in June of this year.

    “Even so, come, Lord Jesus.”

    Revelation 20:20

    The Solution to all of our Problems

    Matthew 5:14-15
    14 Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.
    15 Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.

    Philippians 3:16
    Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing.

    These are interesting times in the world. These are interesting times in the United States. Some of us are experiencing unique challenges in our personal lives. Many are asking why things are turning out the way they are and what they can do to see an improvement. As always, God gives us the answer in His Word.

    In Matthew 5:14-15, Jesus tells us that he has made us, His disciples, the light of the world. When darkness enters any situation, any nation, God will shine the bright light of His truth to overcome and drive out the darkness. The interesting thing that we must remember is that the church is God’s light. That means that it is always through us, His church, that He will shine His light. The church is God’s lamp. But if the lamp is unplugged from the power source, or covered up with clutter or dirt, God’s light will not shine in the world, no matter how bright it is when he sends it. What is the solution? By filling ourselves with thoughts of God’s Word, by boldly speaking forth the truth of His Word, and by practicing the Word, we shine the white-hot light of God into our lives and our nation and we drive out the darkness by His power. When we fully cooperate with God, we experience the fullness of His blessings.

    Philippians 3:16 brings out a truth that is very important and pertinent to the time in which we live. Our responsibility as Christians is not to know everything about every Bible doctrine. We don’t have to have all of the answers. Our job is simply to live up to what we have already attained which means to walk in the light that we have or to practice the things that we already know. God knows and can do everything, and He stands ready to rush in and help us at our point of need. But God never does something that we know to do for ourselves. He will wait for us to do our part so that He can do His part. We don’t have practice what some great minster knows or what our brother in Christ knows. We are only responsible for what we personally have learned. And that is enough. In your own life, faithfully do what you know to do, and watch God powerfully work to bring you into His full blessing.
     
    We must, as Christians, resist the voices in our society that tell us that we don’t have to do what is right. They would encourage us to take a shortcut to success. “Lie to get ahead. Take the instant pleasure no matter who it hurts. If you are unhappy, it is God’s fault because He made you wrong. Go ahead and get an operation to change how you were made.” These are all lies from the devil. If we will faithfully practice the truth of God’s Word in every circumstance, we will see His blessings and find true satisfaction. And if we miss it, as all do, we repent (I John 1:9), receive God’s forgiveness, and move on. And by doing what we know, we open ourselves up to further revelation from God where we lack His wisdom and knowledge.

    This same truth will save our nation. The Christians in our nation must arise and simply practice what we know. Charismatics, Pentecostals, Denominational Christians, the ministers, the mature, the young, new born Christians, if each one would simply practice the things that they have heard and been taught by the Lord, the exceeding abundant light and power of God would flow through the church and right the wrongs that we see in our nation. Let each of us dedicate ourselves today to practicing what the Lord has already shown us in His Word so that we can see all the best that God has for us and for our nation.

    If we don’t know where to begin, how about we practice 2 Chronicles 7:14?

    “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”
     
    Great things are ahead for us as we walk in the light! We love and appreciate you.

  • Jun
    2021
    22
    2021 / Jun / 22

    June 2021

    In this video, complete the tour of the Burgos church building and hear about our progress registering the church with the Spanish government.

  • Feb
    2021
    03
    2021 / Feb / 03

    February 2021

    We hope you enjoy this short video tour of our new church building.

    Thank you so much to all our partners for prayerfully and generously supporting the work here. We are advancing together! We love and appreciate you!

  • Aug
    2020
    27
    2020 / Aug / 27

    August 2020

    We got a building! Praise God!!!

    The hotel where we had been meeting went out of business and didn’t reopen after the quarantine. We began to pray for God’s highest and best for our next step (Romans 12:2).

    At the same time, the Seventh-Day Adventist Church in Burgos left their building after 19 years. It seemed good for us to look at it, so we contacted the Pastor. Three weeks later, we had rented it! It is an exciting time for us and the people of our church. 

    Below are some photos of our initial workday. Stay tuned for ongoing progress reports!

    Thank you for your prayers and generosity. Your faithfulness is making a difference! 
    God has brought it to pass!
  • May
    2020
    27
    2020 / May / 27

    May 2020

    Greetings from Burgos, Spain. Everything is going great here. We’re so thankful to share in this work together with you.

    God is with us now as always!
  • Mar
    2020
    27
    2020 / Mar / 27

    March 2020

    We are doing great! How are you? The Lord is with us!

    This has certainly been an odd time for the world, but for those of us in the Lord Jesus, it is the greatest time ever to be alive! He warned us that we would hear about pestilences or plagues. Covid-19 is exactly that. I know things can seem intense, especially if we have a loved one with symptoms or if the social changes threaten our job. However, as plagues go, this is actually mild, thank God. And the Lord told us what to do when we see bad things happening in the last days. “And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.” – Luke 21:28 The Lord is with us now in the spirit and is coming to take us to heaven with Him! How wonderful! We rejoice and rest in Him. He has everything covered for us.

    The Cathedral of Burgos is our busiest tourist attraction. Here it is completely empty on a Saturday afternoon. Never happens!

    What is going on in Spain?

    The Spanish government has declared a state of emergency from March 16 – April 12. According to their rules, we can only leave the house one at a time for groceries or medicine (or to walk the dog if we had one).  Our church cannot meet during this time, but we provide livestreamed services and lots of calls and texts with our people. The ones that are faithful to church are doing very well.


    It has been awesome to see the many ways that the Lord helped us prepare for this over the past several months.  We moved from a 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom apartment into a 2 bedroom, 1.5 bathroom apartment which is way more functional for lockdown. We had paperwork issues with our residency that got all cleared up just 2 weeks before the state of emergency was declared. The Lord directed us to do a 5 week intensive class on healing that ended on March 11, so our church people were built up in their faith for healing when this hit. God usually leads us to travel quite a bit, but He hasn’t had us plan any trips since October. We are healthy and provided for (Thank you for being so generous!). Our God is truly faithful to us and to you. How wonderful it is to serve the Lord Jesus Christ at all times!
    We trust God to take great care of you and show you his peace, protection, and provision like never before. Covid-19 will be over soon! Many blessings to you and yours.

    Rev. Rich ministering on No Plague Shall Come Near my House on March 1.
  • Jan
    2020
    30
    2020 / Jan / 30

    January 2020

    God is moving in our Burgos church!

    Over the past several months we have seen such an increase in our meetings. More visitors are coming, even from near-by towns. Some people that had left are returning and seeking a deeper relationship with God. Two people recently got filled with the Holy Ghost. Praise the Lord! It is so good to see an increase in spiritual things and growth in the number of people. You have been faithful to pray and give, we have been faithful to teach the Bible, and now, together, we are seeing God’s faithfulness in Burgos. How wonderful! 

    We had a great Christmas service. As happened here, more new people are praying with us to accept the Lord. Awesome!
    Here is a picture of a nice meal after service with church folk and their families. In Spain, food is a great way to connect with new people. Some came from surrounding towns and even other countries.
    Last fall we had a four week class on the Holy Spirit and prayer. Later these two ladies visited our house to be filled with the Holy Ghost. After discussing the Word and praying a simple prayer of faith, both easily began to pray in the Holy Spirit. Glory to God!
    One of our new people visited to decorate Christmas cookies. After retirement, she dedicated herself to the study of Catholic theology and prayer. She always speaks of the great peace that is in our services and talks of how all the priests should do what we do!
    We gave out 20 Christmas cookie plates or bags as a little outreach. It really made an impression. Our butcher told her customers that they should do such things at Christmas.
    This year we went big on Christmas cookies, making around 600. People came over to help us decorate. Serving cookies after the Christmas service was very popular!
  • Nov
    2019
    19
    2019 / Nov / 19

    November 2019

    We appreciate you so much! You play such an important role in all that we do through your prayers and generous support. Enjoy this video which we have made to help keep you well informed on what we are doing together. 

  • Sep
    2019
    18
    2019 / Sep / 18

    September 2019

    Wow, what a summer it has been! Thank you for your prayers and support that help make everything we do possible. You are such a blessing!

    Sharing the Word before water baptisms in Burgos, Spain.

    The Lord Jesus Christ, Our First Love 

    The Lord has been speaking to me about living with Him as our first love (Revelation 2:4). That is very normal for us. It is how we are designed to live. We are born-again Christians, new creatures in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). God already lives in us. It is the most natural thing in the world for us to partake of the supernatural life of God that is on the inside of us. If we simply keep our eyes on Christ and His Word and live out of the peace and joy in our hearts, we will experience the rich blessings that come with having the Lord Jesus Christ as our first love.

    On the other hand, the Christian that accepts the Lord and has God living in Him but continues to focus on everything that is going on in the world is like a person who lights a candle and puts it under a bucket or a bushel basket (Matthew 5:15). This person has the burning, shining, explosive, wonderful power and presence of God living in them. However, by focusing on their bills, or their physical pain, or social media, or movies, or that guy that did them wrong, they keep any of that light and life from escaping to bless themselves or others. The Ephesian church in Revelation 2 is an especially interesting case. Jesus commends them for working hard for Him and having good discernment, but He later says that He is not happy with them because they have left their first love. How can that be? Well, we should work hard for Jesus and be able to discern that which is not of Him, but apparently the Ephesians were focusing on their works and their discernment instead of focusing on Jesus while they were working hard and being discerning. This is a subtle but vitally important distinction. Let’s be sure to keep our focus on the person of Jesus and our relationship with Him even as we serve Him.

    In all we do, let us love Him and put Him first by focusing on the truth of His Word and the power and presence of His Spirt who ever indwells us. Then we will live in the fullness of all that He has for us (John 15:7).

    We are learning “How to Study the Bible.” Since April we have done 2 in-depth, four-week classes on prayer and how to study the Word.

    Testimony: God provides a good job!
    One of our ladies had been working in a temporary job. She needed her boss to offer her a permanent contract (a big deal in Spain). She prayed with Rev. Daphne, asking God for what she needed. She also happeded to give an offering to the church for the first time (another big deal in Spain). You already know what happened. When people obey God and believe Him, He always comes through. She got her permanent contract the next day!

    We did our baptisms in the lovely Arlanzon River that flows through Burgos. The night before, thunderstorms were in the forecast, but the Lord gave us sun until we were done!
    The Lord has blessed us with a young couple that is very faithfully serving along side us in the work. In this picture, he is helping me baptize her. Like Bro. Hagin said, “Thank God for anything that helps.” 
    Walking to the river for the baptism
    Christian Fellowship
    We have been looking for conferences here in Europe to give some extra training to our people. We brought one of them to some meetings in Barcelona. She was impacted by the importance of God’s Word in our lives.
    God helped us get into a new apartment in Burgos! We moved from the old city to the south side of town, and have gone from one bedroom to two! Here is a picture from our new neighborhood. Thank you for helping us make the move!

    Our work traveling to other nations with those that are interested in missions continues to grow. In the past year, Rev. Rich has traveled more than 40 days to 7 countries (outside of the USA and Spain) with Rev. Daphne and 3 other individuals. We are having tremendous times connecting with people and preparing for outreaches in each of these places. And through our training program, we are helping to prepare laborers for these works. With the growth of the ministry in Burgos and these areas, we are believing God for an increase in funding. Thanks so much for all you already do! If you or anyone you know are looking for a good place to sow some extra seed, please visit our donation page. Together we will reach those who do not know the gospel of our Lord Jesus!

  • May
    2019
    20
    2019 / May / 20

    May 2019

    When we aren’t in Bugros…

    We spend over 9 months of the year in Burgos, but sometimes the Lord deals with us to travel to other cities and countries and lay the groundwork for future outreaches. Here in Spain, it took a couple of years to get things started. With some targeted trips, we can do much of this preliminary work in several places at the same time. More and more, the Lord is providing me travel companions so that Daphne can stay and take care of the Spain work. Here is an update on two countries I visited recently. God is leading us into His fruitful harvest. We give Him glory for all that is happening and you thanks for being such an important part of this ministry!

    By the end of our third trip to Mons, Belgium we have:

    • Befriended the owner of a coffee shop that is open to having us use his facilities to teach the Bible
    • Met and shared the gospel with a Turkish apartment-hotel manager who will help arrange housing for those who travel with us
    • Connected with someone in America that is fluent in French and can teach and translate for us.
    • Visited a local French school and discussed options for anyone wanting to learn the language

    Early outreach in Mons:

    • Gave the book In Him by Kenneth E. Hagin to a kind Catholic man and encouraged him to use it to study his Bible
    •  Met a man who struggled with schizophrenia and lost his arm in a motorcycle accident – He tried to convince me that God could not love him because of all that he had been through. I assured him that God did love him and gave him a track about His love. He was thankful and, as he left, he made sure that I saw him clinging to the track.
    • Had a very good first conversation with a Muslim store clerk that knows I am a Bible teacher
    • Became Facebook friends with a local man who, after finding out that we were a long way from our destination, walked with us to his house to pick up his car and gave us a ride.

    Fascinating Fact about Mons:

    The last shot of World War I was fired in Mons, Belgium when a German sniper shot and killed a Canadian soldier just 2 minutes before the arimistice was to take effect.

    On our first, four-day trip to Utretcht, The Netherlands:

    • We spent time with Dutch friends and shared at their church (see below to learn the intriguing story of how God brought us together).
    • Pastor Greg Anderson, who traveled with me, had a great conversation with a local about what it really means to know and serve God. 
    • We met several people and learned our way around the community.
    • We visited a local Dutch language school and became aquantied with their program for anyone who wants to study Dutch. (However, most people speak English in the Netherlands, so much can be accomplished at the same time as the language is being studied.)
    Our friends Adriaan and his son, Willem, introduce us to the “famous Dutch pancakes.” YUM!
    My dear friend Pastor Greg Anderson from Impact Family Chruch joined me on this trip.

    How God brought us together with our Dutch friends

    It was the summer of 2016 and Daphne and I were out and about in Burgos in our exercise clothes. I was wearing a Family Church t-shirt. We were returning home when I heard a voice behind me calling out, “Family Church, Family Church!” As I turned to see what was happening, I was wondering who could be saying “Family Church” in English in Burgos, Spain. It was Adriann from the Netherlands. He had been searching for an English-speaking church in Burgos, Spain and had come across our information (although we do our services in Spanish). He saw on our website that we are connected to the Family Churches in the New York and Pennsylvania region. And when he saw my Family Church t-shirt, he recognized me.

    Fast-forward over a year and the Lord started to deal with me about Utrecht, the Netherlands. And over 2 years after we first met, as I was preparing to visit the city, I wondered if the man that I had met here in Burgos lived nearby. I contacted him and learned that he lived just outside of Utrecht, about 20 minutes from where we were staying. He was very welcoming. We had a wonderful time with him and his son and his church community. I am very thankful to God and to him!

    Brothers, pray for us. We are praying for you!While I was doing my devotions, this Bible verse jumped out at me. “Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored, as happened among you.” (2 Thessalonians 3:1 ESV) This is the perfect prayer to pray for us. As we work in Burgos and travel, we believe that the Word of God is speeding ahead and being honored! Thank you so much for your prayers.We pray for you, our partners, regularly. Most often we use the scripture prayers in Ephesians 1:15-23 & 3:14-21 to lift you up to the Lord. We believe, according to those prayers, that you have wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of God and are strengthened with all might to walk with God and know the fulness of His love. Praise God for his powerful working in our lives!

    How God brought us together with our Dutch friends:It was the summer of 2016 and Daphne and I were out and about in Burgos in our exercise clothes. I was wearing a Family Church t-shirt. We were returning home when I heard a voice behind me calling out, “Family Church, Family Church!” As I turned to see what was happening, I was wondering who could be saying “Family Church” in English in Burgos, Spain. It was Adriann from the Netherlands. He had been searching for an English-speaking church in Burgos, Spain and had come across our information (although we do our services in Spanish). He saw on our website that we are connected to the Family Churches in the New York and Pennsylvania region. And when he saw my Family Church t-shirt, he recognized me.

    Fast-forward over a year and the Lord started to deal with me about Utrecht, the Netherlands. And over 2 years after we first met, as I was preparing to visit the city, I wondered if the man that I had met here in Burgos lived nearby. I contacted him and learned that he lived just outside of Utrecht, about 20 minutes from where we were staying. He was very welcoming. We had a wonderful time with him and his son and his church community. I am very thankful to God and to him!