This tale comes to you from Granada in the South of Spain, where my husband and I are serving with students in our local church and where we base ourselves while working to build Fusion as a local-church based student mission movement across Spain. We’ve been in Spain for nearly four years now, and they’ve been years of lots of learning and listening, praying and persevering. The tale of three Marys and a Martha are all recent stories of students we know that will give you a little snapshot of the trials and joys of student ministry here in Spain! So here goes…
The first Mary (María in Spanish) is a good friend and someone who gives us lots of hope for Spain. She came to faith as a student recently after going to spend her summer with a Christian family she knows in the States, because that was the best place she knew to seek God. She has gone from strength to strength since - we’ve been going onto campus together to talk to students about Jesus, she’s recently started her second small group to read the Bible with her non-Christian mates, and just got baptised last month. Unfortunately though, anything her or her twin (who was part of the first small group she ran) do with the church they do when their parents are out or away, as, although technically 'catholics', they think it is a waste of time and don't allow it.
María is a huge encouragement to us, and a sign that God is on the move in students here, but sadly this kind of family stronghold is not uncommon. Pray with us for breakthrough in the hearts of students' parents, and for more Marys like this!
The second Mary is a 19 year old entrepreneur from Granada who joined our student group at the beginning of this academic year, after her family's old church folded. She has grown up in local evangelical church (rare for a Spaniard) and done really well to find her own faith despite the controlling atmosphere and not having christian mates. Finding a church this year that had other people her age who she could grow with and discuss faith with had been a big encouragement to her. She had a lot to offer and had taken on leading our new student small group along with another girl. But sadly, recently she stopped coming to our church and is taking time out of contact with everyone as her Dad forbade it when he found out that women preach at our church.
Strong control cultures in the evangelical church and in families are far more common with students here than we've seen in the UK. Pray with us for breakthrough for María, and in the evangelical church culture.
The third Mary is another student from Granada. She came along to our student group one Friday after meeting some people from our church in a homeless outreach programme they run. She is not from a faith background, but was in a place where she wanted to seek God. She ‘felt like it’. Sadly, after keeping in touch with her but not seeing her again, she told me she doesn’t think this is the moment for her to seek God after all. We don’t know her circumstances or what has changed, but we do know that she was seeking God and something switched off or changed.
This is really common in any kind of student ministry - God is on the move, but so is the enemy! Pray with us for this María, and for all those who God is stirring to draw close to him - that they would have the courage to do so!
Finally then, Martha (Marta in Spanish) is a history of art student from a town a couple of hours away. Her family are not involved with or interested in faith in any way, so when she came to faith through the alpha we did with the catholic student group last year, it was all completely new to her. She came to us recently as she wanted to get baptised because she loves Jesus, but isn't convinced about all things catholicism. Conversations with her parents haven't been easy, being an evangelical christian in Spain is choosing to be different and weird, and starting to read the Bible is a brand new journey of discovering it all from scratch (a lot less done in catholic contexts where she has been being discipled up until now). But she is all-in; wants to give her life to Jesus and learn everything there is to know. Baptising her and having her join our student group recently has been so fun and encouraging. Pray with us for her to continue to grow in faith, and let's pray for more Marthas!
