The Alvarez Family: March-April 2022 Prayer Letter

The Alvarez Family – Missionary in the Basque Country 

Once more we greet you filled with gratitude and joy because of the Lord’s
goodness in our lives. It is a joy to serve our loving Savior!

Thank you for your prayers and faithful support. By God’s grace we keep moving forward here, in this beautiful place so spiritually needy. This past month of April we celebrated the 26th anniversary of the day we arrived in Spain. Praise God! He has been faithful to His promises every day! Glory be to God!

Church: Salvation

His church here in the Basque Country. In the last weeks, several people have placed their faith in Christ as their Lord and Savior.

I specially think of Iván, a man suffering from Alzheimer’s. In a moment of clarity, I was able to witness to him, and he heard and understood. With a simple prayer he placed his faith in Christ. After he prayed I asked him, “Ivan, now, with Christ in your heart, where will your soul go the day you die?” It was so exciting to hear him answer, “To Heaven!” What a moment full of joy and gratefulness! I could not help cry tears of joy.

Bertha, his wife, who was with us, got very excited and together we thanked God for Ivan’s salvation. The Gospel is God’s power to save. It is still exciting, as it was the first time, to see a soul being saved and transformed by God.

Ladies Conference

Our Lord keeps doing wonderful things in Ladies Conference In the month of March we were able to carry out a ladies conference for the ladies in our church and two other churches in the region: the Baptist Church of Irun and the Baptist Church of el Puerto. A good group of ladies enjoyed several hours of good teaching and fellowship. Tete and Mimi Bonikowsky did a great job. Their teachings were an encouragement and great blessing to the sisters that attended. Praise God for the conference! Everyone returned home joyful and edified.

Aierdi: Apologetics Retreat

In spite of the big landslide that took place at the entrance of Aierdi’s property and that the work to fix the road to Aierdi has not yet begun, we were able to carry out our 2nd Apologetics Retreat in the month of April. Close to 40 people were present for the retreat. Young people from different parts of Spain were able to come: from Guadalajara, Azuqueca, Irun, Palencia, Logroño and Barcelona, among others.

Perhaps some people might ask, what is “apologetics”? Apologetics is the part of Theology that seeks to defend our Christian faith rationally and historically. The classes were very interesting and challenging, specially for young people that live in a society which constantly ridicules, attacks and
defies their faith.

Therefore we thank God for giving us this opportunity to encourage and equip our young people to stand firmly for their faith, to not be afraid to defend it or to live for the Lord in spite of social pressure, as they serve Christ with a willing and ready heart. Of course, the good food prepared by Tete and her team of helpers could not miss. Everyone who has come to an activity at Aierdi knows that the food cooked there is delicious

51st Intensive Institute

In the month of March we had our 51st Intensive Bible Institute. The theme
was, “Joshua, a person like you and me in the plan of God.” In this occasion we had brethren come from Irun, Logroño, Palencia and Huesca, as well as a missionary family that is serving the Lord in the south of France.

It was a joy to see once again how the Word of God feeds, instructs and challenges the believers. The ministry of the Intensive Institutes has become one of our favorites. Because of the pandemic we were not able to carry them out for more than two years, so now we are starting again with great eagerness and joy with this special ministry that, by the way, several other ministries in Spain have imitated for their churches.

Thank you, dear brethren, for your prayers, generosity and vision. All the fruit that we are reaping in Spain abounds to your account before the Lord. How amazing is God’s plan and will!

Because He is worthy: Juan, Teté and Andrea Alvarez
Basque Country, Spain.

Missionary Link

What a blessing it has been to see how the Lord has blessed this ministry! This past 2nd May we carried out our 5th Missionary Link monthly meeting via Zoom. The emphasis of the last two meetings was South America. It has been so exciting to see pa stors and missionaries that are serving in that region of the world joining us in the meeting! In a previous meeting the
emphasis was Oceania, where a family that was sent by our church is serving in Australia. Their names are Octavio and Areli Gomez. Brother Gerardo Ramos also joined us for that meeting. He and his family, who are originally from Ecuador, were saved under the ministry of a Mexican missionary and are now getting ready to go ser ve in New Zealand.

Isn’t it exciting to see Hispanic missionaries going to the world to take the Gospel? To me it is an amazing blessing, which, at the same time, makes me see the enormous responsibility that we have to prepare well to continue taking the light to other nations for the glory of God.

Thank God for the American missionaries and for the churches that were willing to support them as they took to our nations the Message that set us free.

Thank you for your sacrifice and generosity! Now it is our turn. We have beautiful plans for our Missionary Link ministry. Please pray that the Lord would give us wisdom to make the right decisions, as well as the means to be able to carry out these plans.

Lord willing, this coming September the Missionary Link team will be participating in our sending church’s missionary conference. We are going to carry out a retreat for pastors and missionaries while we are there, making the most of our time. We are joyful and looking forward to see what our Lord will do through this ministry. Our desire is that He would receive all the glory and honor!

“But ye shall receive power, after that the
Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall
be witnesses unto me…” Acts 1:8a