From the May-August 2010 Issue
Ladies' Retreat
Luis and Pilar Cano
Retreating to Ciudad RealOn February 19th a group of 16 women from Palma de Mallorca, from the church where Andrew Birch is the pastor, came to spend the weekend with the women here in Ciudad Real and they had a short retreat. On Friday, after leaving their suitcases in the different homes of believers from the church where they were going to stay, they went to visit the town. After that they had a meeting at the church where Vivienne Birch gave a message and they had dinner together, enjoying the lovely food which the ladies prepared.
On Saturday morning eight cars went off to Valdepeñas (an hour’s drive) where the women from the region had organised a meeting about “Sexual relations within a Christian marriage”. More than 160 people met together and it was excellent. In the afternoon, on the way back to Ciudad Real, we went to visit Almagro, a village popular with tourists. Then in the evening 32 of the women went to a restaurant for supper.
On Sunday morning at the service, we were packed, with nearly 90 people, not counting the children, in a room with space for 70 people, and about 60 of us stayed on to have lunch. Before taking the women to the airport there was time for laughs and fellowship. The farewell was very emotional. It was a memorable time, especially for the women. All this started last year when the church in Palma invited Pilar to speak at their women’s retreat and ten women went with Pilar. They had a blessed time and they wanted those in Palma to pay a visit to us.
Other such events
It is not the first time we have had this kind of meeting. In the past we have had the Reformed Pastors’ Conference (AMRE) and we also gave them hospitality in the homes of the believers from the church. Last October Pilar organised the first retreat for pastors’ wives in Spain; such a thing had never been done before. It involved a lot of practical work and sending information to more than 1000 addresses! However, the event was a real blessing and the 50 women were encouraged to repeat it in the future.
From time to time, we also like to have fellowship lunches in the church and invite other Christian groups to them. Apart from our own activities, we participate with other churches in the region in the organization of women’s and young people’s meetings every three months; twice a year the churches meet, and every two months the pastors meet, plus any other retreat.
Why am I telling you all this? Because we have seen the benefit that it is to have fellowship with brothers and sisters from other places, churches and even denominations. To know that we are not alone and that the fellowship one with the other strengthens our communion with the Lord.
Working together
We are not alone; there are many brothers outside who can teach us and opportunities where we can contribute too. We also have members who are collaborating with different Christian organizations like the Gideons in distributing the Scriptures, or others involved in the distribution of CDs and DVDs with a gospel message in many different languages. Apart from that, we have Demetrio Cánovas and the work of EDITORIAL PEREGRINO, camps for young people and children, etc. All these aspects of the church are not only a help to others but to us too.
Over the years we have learned in practice, and not only in theory, that we don’t live for a church, nor to serve a denomination, but we serve and live for the Lord of the Church through a particular local church.
It is for these reasons that the church in Ciudad Real feels so united to EMF and we are very grateful to many churches in the United Kingdom who through the years have prayed and helped in the work of the Lord here. It is so good to hear from you all and we pray regularly for ‘the other works’ of the Lord.
Our frontiers are not local, nor denominational, but horizons that the Lord shows us and helps us to conquer!