About Us
OUR MISSION
We are part of a church planting team currently on the ground in Granada, Spain. Our team’s mission is to plant communities of faith among secular Spanish people.
OUR CONTEXT
Like most of the traditional people groups in the rest of Europe, the four primary people groups in Spain have about 1% or less of the population following Jesus. In Spain, those four people groups are: Spaniards (30.7 million people with 1.35% following Jesus), Catalans (3.8 million people with .54% following Jesus), Gallegos (2.4 million people with .40% following Jesus), and Basques (2 million people with .67% following Jesus).
Because of the incredibly low access to the gospel in Spain and across Europe, these fields have recently been described not as “post-Christian,” but as “pre-Christian,” in need of new, focused, and highly contextualized efforts to share the gospel and plant the church among the secular, least reached peoples of the continent.
Our team is one part of that church planting effort.
OUR LOCAL MINISTRY
Our vision is to see a self-led, self-financed, and self-propagating community of faith established among Spanish people. To that end, a small but growing community of faith has been planted in the downtown of Granada called Granada Comunidad Cristiana. The church plant is still young, so the primary tasks for our team remain the discipleship of young believers, the evangelism of the lost, and the raising up of local leadership.
Alongside our church plant, our team runs a ministry center called Raíces Centro Cultural, which serves as a public-facing ministry of the church. Through Raíces we host “bridge programming” for university students and families with young kids. It serves as a platform for generating new contacts, moving people toward Jesus, and connecting them to the community of faith.
We are part of a church planting team currently on the ground in Granada, Spain. Our team’s mission is to plant communities of faith among secular Spanish people.
OUR CONTEXT
Like most of the traditional people groups in the rest of Europe, the four primary people groups in Spain have about 1% or less of the population following Jesus. In Spain, those four people groups are: Spaniards (30.7 million people with 1.35% following Jesus), Catalans (3.8 million people with .54% following Jesus), Gallegos (2.4 million people with .40% following Jesus), and Basques (2 million people with .67% following Jesus).
Because of the incredibly low access to the gospel in Spain and across Europe, these fields have recently been described not as “post-Christian,” but as “pre-Christian,” in need of new, focused, and highly contextualized efforts to share the gospel and plant the church among the secular, least reached peoples of the continent.
Our team is one part of that church planting effort.
OUR LOCAL MINISTRY
Our vision is to see a self-led, self-financed, and self-propagating community of faith established among Spanish people. To that end, a small but growing community of faith has been planted in the downtown of Granada called Granada Comunidad Cristiana. The church plant is still young, so the primary tasks for our team remain the discipleship of young believers, the evangelism of the lost, and the raising up of local leadership.
Alongside our church plant, our team runs a ministry center called Raíces Centro Cultural, which serves as a public-facing ministry of the church. Through Raíces we host “bridge programming” for university students and families with young kids. It serves as a platform for generating new contacts, moving people toward Jesus, and connecting them to the community of faith.
April 2025
New Life in Jesus
Our move to Virginia is complete! Last Tuesday, we arrived back in the States for a season of “itineration” - connecting with family, friends, and churches, while also expanding our base of prayer and financial support. It’s been a whirlwind of a season between organizing the logistics of a transatlantic relocation and seeking to “leave well.” Our last several weeks were full of team meetings, moments of prayer, to-do list items, and bittersweet “see you laters.”
More than anything in this season, we’ve been reminded time and again of the Lord’s goodness, grace, and faithfulness to Spanish people and to our community of faith in Granada.
Two weeks before we left, we celebrated the baptism of a young woman in our community named Alejandra*. Alejandra got connected to us as a somewhat unknown “contact of a contact.” All we knew when we were given her contact information was that she was generally interested in learning about Jesus, but over the past year, she has become not just a dear friend but a sister in Christ. She chose to be baptized a few weeks ago, standing up in front of her friends and community to testify to the new life she has found in Jesus.
Another woman in our community named Paloma* sat with us in our living room just a few days before we boarded the plane to leave Spain and shared how she had tangibly experienced the protection and presence of God in the midst of deeply distressing circumstances. “I’ve been born again,” she said through tears.
We’ve left Granada for a season, but we know that the good work that the Lord has begun in our community in Granada, he will “carry on to completion.” While we’re in the States for a time, we’re excited to hear from our team that is still on the ground in Spain and from the new leaders emerging in the church about how the Lord is at work bringing new life in Granada in this season.
Thank you for joining us in prayer for the goodness and mercy of Jesus to continually be made real to secular Spanish people by the power of the Holy Spirit!
We want to say again how grateful we are for you and your support of us in so many ways over this past term in Spain. Your faithfulness and steadfastness with us has been an enormous gift. We’re glad to be back in the States for a season, and we’re looking forward to getting together and catching up while we’re here.
May your celebration of Easter this weekend be full of the joy and wonder of the new life that is ours in Jesus! Praise him for his deep love and his powerful grace that is at work in us and in Spain.
Blessings,
Jess, Andrew, Nora, and James
PS Please read below for some more ministry and personal updates!
Our move to Virginia is complete! Last Tuesday, we arrived back in the States for a season of “itineration” - connecting with family, friends, and churches, while also expanding our base of prayer and financial support. It’s been a whirlwind of a season between organizing the logistics of a transatlantic relocation and seeking to “leave well.” Our last several weeks were full of team meetings, moments of prayer, to-do list items, and bittersweet “see you laters.”
More than anything in this season, we’ve been reminded time and again of the Lord’s goodness, grace, and faithfulness to Spanish people and to our community of faith in Granada.
Two weeks before we left, we celebrated the baptism of a young woman in our community named Alejandra*. Alejandra got connected to us as a somewhat unknown “contact of a contact.” All we knew when we were given her contact information was that she was generally interested in learning about Jesus, but over the past year, she has become not just a dear friend but a sister in Christ. She chose to be baptized a few weeks ago, standing up in front of her friends and community to testify to the new life she has found in Jesus.
Another woman in our community named Paloma* sat with us in our living room just a few days before we boarded the plane to leave Spain and shared how she had tangibly experienced the protection and presence of God in the midst of deeply distressing circumstances. “I’ve been born again,” she said through tears.
We’ve left Granada for a season, but we know that the good work that the Lord has begun in our community in Granada, he will “carry on to completion.” While we’re in the States for a time, we’re excited to hear from our team that is still on the ground in Spain and from the new leaders emerging in the church about how the Lord is at work bringing new life in Granada in this season.
Thank you for joining us in prayer for the goodness and mercy of Jesus to continually be made real to secular Spanish people by the power of the Holy Spirit!
We want to say again how grateful we are for you and your support of us in so many ways over this past term in Spain. Your faithfulness and steadfastness with us has been an enormous gift. We’re glad to be back in the States for a season, and we’re looking forward to getting together and catching up while we’re here.
May your celebration of Easter this weekend be full of the joy and wonder of the new life that is ours in Jesus! Praise him for his deep love and his powerful grace that is at work in us and in Spain.
Blessings,
Jess, Andrew, Nora, and James
PS Please read below for some more ministry and personal updates!
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
January 2025
Ministry Update:
“People have got to hear about this”
In December, our team organized a discipleship seminar for our local church plant where we invited folks to discuss the question: “What is the next step I need to take in my walk with Jesus?”
Some shared about wanting to deepen their commitment to life in community. Others shared about wanting to grow in their knowledge of the Bible.
One young lady, a student named Celia* who is studying here in Granada for the year, said, “When I get back to my hometown, I can’t wait to tell people about Jesus. I had no idea. They have no idea. People have got to hear about this.”
Celia has received Jesus over the past several months with the kind of joyful enthusiasm that just makes you smile. She’s said she’d like to be baptized when she gets back to Granada after the winter break.
And in that enthusiasm, she’s articulated something that is simply true: people have got to hear about this.
The same week we hosted that seminar, Andrew was getting breakfast with the father of a classmate in Nora’s school. He made a comment that is particularly striking in light of what Celia shared. He said, “Until you, I had never met anyone who believes in God.”
Those two comments taken together help clarify a lot of the “why” of why we are here. We continue to be so grateful for stories like Celia’s in the young church that we are working to plant here - stories of growth in Jesus and answered prayers and decisions to follow him. And yet we are also compelled by what Celia observed. People, like the dad of that student in Nora’s class, have got to hear about this.
We’re grateful for the part the Lord has called us to play in that.
And we also want to say again that we’re deeply thankful for you and your part, too. Thank you, again, so much for your support and prayers for us. We are humbled, and we know that without you this would be impossible.
Personal Update:
We’re coming to the States!
The end of our current term is coming up at the end of this month, and per the guidelines of our sending agency (AGWM), we will be coming back to the States this spring in order to connect with the individuals and churches who support us and also expand our support base some. We imagine that we’ll be based out of Virginia for the better part of 2025 if not a bit longer, and while we are there we are looking forward to seeing you! There is something very sweet about having extended time to reconnect and get together, and we’re excited about it.
If you lead a church or a small group (or even if you just have an interested friend!) and would like to have someone come and speak or share on missions or church planting in a secular European context, we would be thrilled to do that. Feel free to reach out as we’re starting to get different meetings on the calendar.
The Advent season was a meaningful time in the life of our church plant. One personal reason for that is that we had the opportunity to celebrate the dedication of two babies, including our son James! It was a true joy to dedicate him to the Lord, and of course it was particularly special as we got to do it alongside another couple on our team, Rigo and Abigail Herrera, as they dedicated their daughter.
We hosted Thanksgiving “tapas style” through our local ministry center Raíces late last fall. It’s always a fun time organizing a meal for 85 of your closest friends! This event was a big win for us, as it was a simple but clear way for our church community to bless the folks who participate in Raíces activities and events Monday-Saturday, the vast majority of whom are not Christians.
Jess and some of the women she is regularly investing in and discipling after a recent women’s ministry event at the church.
In Spain, the big winter holiday isn’t, generally speaking, December 25 but rather Three Kings Day on January 6th. There’s always a big, family-friendly parade on January 5th. Nora’s highlight this year was catching pieces of candy as they were thrown from the floats passing by. Definitely a magical part of the season!
Prayer Points:
Prayer for Andrew’s Dad
As we shared in our last newsletter, Andrew’s dad is currently going through treatment for brain cancer. Please continue to pray for healing, strength, and comfort! The Lord has been very present in the midst of a very challenging season, and we trust he will continue to do so. Thanks for praying.
“People have got to hear about this”
In December, our team organized a discipleship seminar for our local church plant where we invited folks to discuss the question: “What is the next step I need to take in my walk with Jesus?”
Some shared about wanting to deepen their commitment to life in community. Others shared about wanting to grow in their knowledge of the Bible.
One young lady, a student named Celia* who is studying here in Granada for the year, said, “When I get back to my hometown, I can’t wait to tell people about Jesus. I had no idea. They have no idea. People have got to hear about this.”
Celia has received Jesus over the past several months with the kind of joyful enthusiasm that just makes you smile. She’s said she’d like to be baptized when she gets back to Granada after the winter break.
And in that enthusiasm, she’s articulated something that is simply true: people have got to hear about this.
The same week we hosted that seminar, Andrew was getting breakfast with the father of a classmate in Nora’s school. He made a comment that is particularly striking in light of what Celia shared. He said, “Until you, I had never met anyone who believes in God.”
Those two comments taken together help clarify a lot of the “why” of why we are here. We continue to be so grateful for stories like Celia’s in the young church that we are working to plant here - stories of growth in Jesus and answered prayers and decisions to follow him. And yet we are also compelled by what Celia observed. People, like the dad of that student in Nora’s class, have got to hear about this.
We’re grateful for the part the Lord has called us to play in that.
And we also want to say again that we’re deeply thankful for you and your part, too. Thank you, again, so much for your support and prayers for us. We are humbled, and we know that without you this would be impossible.
Personal Update:
We’re coming to the States!
The end of our current term is coming up at the end of this month, and per the guidelines of our sending agency (AGWM), we will be coming back to the States this spring in order to connect with the individuals and churches who support us and also expand our support base some. We imagine that we’ll be based out of Virginia for the better part of 2025 if not a bit longer, and while we are there we are looking forward to seeing you! There is something very sweet about having extended time to reconnect and get together, and we’re excited about it.
If you lead a church or a small group (or even if you just have an interested friend!) and would like to have someone come and speak or share on missions or church planting in a secular European context, we would be thrilled to do that. Feel free to reach out as we’re starting to get different meetings on the calendar.
The Advent season was a meaningful time in the life of our church plant. One personal reason for that is that we had the opportunity to celebrate the dedication of two babies, including our son James! It was a true joy to dedicate him to the Lord, and of course it was particularly special as we got to do it alongside another couple on our team, Rigo and Abigail Herrera, as they dedicated their daughter.
We hosted Thanksgiving “tapas style” through our local ministry center Raíces late last fall. It’s always a fun time organizing a meal for 85 of your closest friends! This event was a big win for us, as it was a simple but clear way for our church community to bless the folks who participate in Raíces activities and events Monday-Saturday, the vast majority of whom are not Christians.
Jess and some of the women she is regularly investing in and discipling after a recent women’s ministry event at the church.
In Spain, the big winter holiday isn’t, generally speaking, December 25 but rather Three Kings Day on January 6th. There’s always a big, family-friendly parade on January 5th. Nora’s highlight this year was catching pieces of candy as they were thrown from the floats passing by. Definitely a magical part of the season!
Prayer Points:
Prayer for Andrew’s Dad
As we shared in our last newsletter, Andrew’s dad is currently going through treatment for brain cancer. Please continue to pray for healing, strength, and comfort! The Lord has been very present in the midst of a very challenging season, and we trust he will continue to do so. Thanks for praying.
December 2024
Ministry Update:
There are many wins to celebrate! Every week, lost people who feasibly never would have met a Christian unless our team and church plant had been there are reading the Scriptures, hearing the gospel, and growing in their love and knowledge of Jesus.
A young woman who only just got involved in our community this fall and had never interacted with the Bible or known who Jesus was told us two weeks ago that she can’t wait to go back to her hometown because “people there need to know about Jesus.” She is going to be baptized in the early spring 2025.
Our main challenge continues to be to raise up local leadership within our community. This fall is the first time that a non-team member is running leadership of a small group. It’s a young couple who have been discipled and gotten married in our church, and now they have matured to the point that they are discipling others and leading a small group ministry. We’re praising God for his faithfulness to them and our community!
We are daily reminded of the deep need for the gospel to be proclaimed and received in Spain. There are so many who know so little about Jesus. Two weeks ago, Andrew was getting a coffee with a man named Javi, who is the dad of one of our daughter’s classmates, and the dad said to him, “Until I met you, I’d never met anyone who believed in God.” We know so many people with stories and backgrounds like Javi’s. They are people who, statistically speaking, will go their whole lives and never meet someone who even knows someone who could tell them about Jesus. This is why our team is there, and we are continuing to pray that the Lord would use our team to plant the church among people who have little or no gospel access.
Upcoming Projects:
The main task for us, as we mentioned above, is to share the gospel, disciple young believers, and raise up local leadership for the church. Our goal is to see the church be able to stand on its own two feet, without foreign assistance in finances, leadership, or vision. This is a big task, and we are asking the Holy Spirit for wisdom, divine insight, and strategies to plant a church that is healthy and sustainable for the long haul.
One specific upcoming project that we’re excited about is a Media 2 Movements initiative that will be launching in 2025, using social media to find spiritual seekers who are looking for answers to their spiritual questions online and then connecting them to our small groups and church community where they can be discipled and grow in their followership of Jesus.
Prayer Points:
We are coming up on a season where we will be based out of the US for itineration starting in mid-spring 2025. Since we have been providing leadership for our local team, we are praying for wisdom in how best to navigate that transition.
Personally, we’re continuing to pray for Andrew’s dad who has been diagnosed with brain cancer. We’re praying for healing and comfort for him and the family in this particular season.
There are many wins to celebrate! Every week, lost people who feasibly never would have met a Christian unless our team and church plant had been there are reading the Scriptures, hearing the gospel, and growing in their love and knowledge of Jesus.
A young woman who only just got involved in our community this fall and had never interacted with the Bible or known who Jesus was told us two weeks ago that she can’t wait to go back to her hometown because “people there need to know about Jesus.” She is going to be baptized in the early spring 2025.
Our main challenge continues to be to raise up local leadership within our community. This fall is the first time that a non-team member is running leadership of a small group. It’s a young couple who have been discipled and gotten married in our church, and now they have matured to the point that they are discipling others and leading a small group ministry. We’re praising God for his faithfulness to them and our community!
We are daily reminded of the deep need for the gospel to be proclaimed and received in Spain. There are so many who know so little about Jesus. Two weeks ago, Andrew was getting a coffee with a man named Javi, who is the dad of one of our daughter’s classmates, and the dad said to him, “Until I met you, I’d never met anyone who believed in God.” We know so many people with stories and backgrounds like Javi’s. They are people who, statistically speaking, will go their whole lives and never meet someone who even knows someone who could tell them about Jesus. This is why our team is there, and we are continuing to pray that the Lord would use our team to plant the church among people who have little or no gospel access.
Upcoming Projects:
The main task for us, as we mentioned above, is to share the gospel, disciple young believers, and raise up local leadership for the church. Our goal is to see the church be able to stand on its own two feet, without foreign assistance in finances, leadership, or vision. This is a big task, and we are asking the Holy Spirit for wisdom, divine insight, and strategies to plant a church that is healthy and sustainable for the long haul.
One specific upcoming project that we’re excited about is a Media 2 Movements initiative that will be launching in 2025, using social media to find spiritual seekers who are looking for answers to their spiritual questions online and then connecting them to our small groups and church community where they can be discipled and grow in their followership of Jesus.
Prayer Points:
We are coming up on a season where we will be based out of the US for itineration starting in mid-spring 2025. Since we have been providing leadership for our local team, we are praying for wisdom in how best to navigate that transition.
Personally, we’re continuing to pray for Andrew’s dad who has been diagnosed with brain cancer. We’re praying for healing and comfort for him and the family in this particular season.
Posted in Missionaries
Recent
Archive
2025
2024
No Comments