From the July-September 2009 Issue
33 years of God's faithfulness
Luis and Pilar Cano
Ciudad RealAt the time of writing this article we are preparing a celebration (at the end of May) for the 33rd anniversary of the church here in Ciudad Real. 33 years already? How time flies! And what a lot of things have happened in this period of time! On some occasions we have seen God’s hand working in a very clear way, lifting up, holding up and guiding his people. On other occasions he has passed like a shadow or a breeze of fresh air.
For this anniversary we have chosen the theme of Christ, with three talks or sermons, plus other activities. The main aim, apart from glorifying God for his faithfulness, is to reach old and new contacts who have passed through the church.
Early days
In the mid 70s, Francisco (Paco) and Esther Farrugia with Jean Pleasence (today Jean Woods) began to meet in the living-room of a flat in the town, where they made the first contacts and saw some conversions within their neighbourhood. At the end of 1979 a small meeting place was rented where some of us heard the gospel, and there was established a young people’s meeting that would be of great blessing. There wasn’t any music or any attractive entertainment, the only thing we had was the Bible, exposition and discussion, and, for those of us who used to go, it would set the principles that even today have guided us in many aspects of our lives (the reading of good and sound Christian literature, a way of thinking, the centrality of classic preaching and not of substitutes like psychological expositions, superficial meditations and so on).
Expanding the work
At the beginning of the 80s, the church was able to buy its own premises, where almost everybody played a part, from pulling down walls, taking out debris, painting the walls, painting the benches, preparing coffee, cleaning, etc.
In 1986 Andrew Birch, together with his wife Vivienne, came to pastor the church, and, after facing some black clouds, the work was established again with his gifts of teaching and preaching, knowledge of music and a great dose of patience. By the 1990s, there was already a new meeting place.
In 2004 Pilar and I were called to the church to continue the work. Well, in reality, for us it was a way of coming back home after 20 years, and we realise we haven’t achieved what our hearts desire. There are still many horizons to reach; all the ways forward are open and we don’t want to live on past successes.
Present situation
At the moment the meeting place has become too small again for the 70 people who can meet on Sunday mornings, but, above all, it is small for other activities we would like to do. We need a bigger room for the Sunday school and for the crèche. We feel too cramped when we have a fellowship meal together and you can hardly move. Those are nice disadvantages. We have put this matter in the church’s mind and heart, also in prayer of course. We are studying and investigating the best and most feasible option, that is to say, what the church needs, what the church can take on. We have opened a bank account especially for this purpose and we have already received some generous gifts.
We are continuing with evangelism in the streets, villages, in the hospital and in small groups in homes. We have improved quite a lot with the television recordings for the hospital of the Sunday morning meetings, but there is still much to do there and the Director of the hospital is not making things easy for us. We continue trusting that it is God’s will to go on, and therefore He will open the way.
The present economic crisis is affecting everybody; for some the situation is even worse, where they have lost their jobs and others don’t receive any help from unemployment benefit. Therefore the church has established a group of people to try and help those in need to the measure of our abilities.
In all these projects the main riches are the human ones. The congregation is very encouraged and eager to be involved in the church activities. The mid-week Bible study and prayer meeting is growing in the number of people coming and participating. There is always a group of believers, especially women, willing to be involved in evangelism and other meetings and activities. Although there still aren’t any other elders or deacons, we are making progress as there are about four or five men able to preach and lead Bible studies, which gives me a great relief.
We know we are only a very small part of the great church of God. We are a small number in a numerous and precious procession of the redeemed, who go to meet their Lord, and that, in spite of our lights and shadows, gives us assurance that the Lord is the one who edifies His church. It is not Paco’s, Andrew’s or Luis’s church, it is the Lord’s, but we don’t want to stop wanting the Lord to have greater things prepared for us. We can’t know God’s will for us tomorrow, but we can dream about it and work for it.