(a recent prayer letter received from Bill and Therese Williams, Spain)

Christmas Blessings

Christmas Sunday witnessed a record-breaking attendance of 75! There were eleven first-time visitors present as well. Our choir performed the Christmas cantata “The Colors of Christmas,” and our young people and children also had their Christmas programs. We asked for prayer in our October letter for growth in the Faith Baptist Church of Palencia, and we are pleased to announce that God has answered those prayers. We are now averaging in between 60-70 which exceeds our pre-Covid levels of attendance. Lord willing, soon we will have to take down a wall in order to make an overflow room. Praise the Lord, and thank you for your prayers!

Pastoral Transition

We had also informed you and asked for your prayers in the last two letters of the likelihood of the transition of the pastorate from the missionary to the national pastor, Valentin Lucaci. Praise the Lord that those prayers were also answered! On Sunday, January 15th with 73 in attendance, I resigned the pastorate, and the church members voted unanimously to elect Valentin as the new pastor of the church. The church as a whole is excited about moving forward with more souls saved in the last few months and a baptismal service that is planned for the end of this month.

Therese and I are thrilled to see the Lord’s blessings on our ministry of the last ten years in starting the church, and now seeing the full circle come around as we surrender this part of our ministry; but we are also a little saddened to know that this phase of our ministry is drawing to a close, not only here in Palencia, but also in Spain where we have labored now for 35 years. My present role is pastor emeritus, and Therese and I will remain here in the church for several years in a supporting role as well as continuing to work in other ministries here in Spain.

Camp Generator and Church Van

Also in our last two prayer letters I mentioned the need for funds for a new camp generator, and in our Christmas letter I informed you all that the funds had been abundantly received for the generator. Just this past several weeks, the generator was installed, an electrician has rewired everything, and it is up and running great! Thank you for your prayers and offerings!

I also mentioned that in the case of any extra funds received for the generator, I would be contacting the pastors to see if said funds could be used for another need for our church. We are trying to purchase a nine-passenger van. Our eight-passenger Ford van is now 15 years old with almost 200,000 miles on it. It could last another year, but we really need to purchase another van shortly. The problem is that used vans are very expensive and few and far between. We already have raised about $4,000 for the van, our church might be able to put up at least another $4,000; but we would appreciate any help that you might be able to give so that we might be able to purchase it within this year.

Thank you all for your faithfulness to the Lord in your faithful support throughout the years to our family and ministry!