Opening doors, knocking down walls and encouraging fellow Christians summarizes the role Alabama Baptist played in Spain during the 1996-1999 partnership with the European country.
Missions efforts with Spain did not allow Alabamians to bring back reports of large numbers of conversions, but it did provide them an opportunity to participate in one of the most successful seed-planting times yet.
A country dominated by Catholicism, Spain is one of the hardest countries to reach with the gospel. And Baptist receive little respect because they are looked upon as a sect.
In fact, until the early 1970s, anything non-Catholic was forbidden under the regime of Franco, the dictator of Spain for many years. Many Christians were persecuted under his reign.
About 40 million people live in Spain and only 8400 of those are Baptists. There are 80 Baptist churches in the country and most have less than 100 members. The largest Baptist church in Spain is First Baptist, Madrid with 200-300 members.
But tiny rays of light are appearing, and Spanish Baptist believe Alabama Baptist played a major role in widening the cracks.
“The whole thing of partnership has been a blessing for Spanish Baptists,” said Xoan Castro, director of missions and evangelism for Spanish Baptists. “The most important thing or me were the two evangelism campaigns (in 1997 and 1999).
“The arrival of brothers and sisters from Alabama has revived our churches and given them enthusiasm to continue the work here,” said Castro, who is from La Coruna but lives in Madrid. And the church-to-church partnerships have produced good results, he added.
“Nothing can be done without prayer, and the sister church relationships have enabled the churches to know each other more fully and enabled them to pray more fully and enabled them to pray more fully about our special needs and circumstances here in Spain.”
“From the very beginning, we did not want to just receive from the churches and our brothers and sisters in Alabama. Instead, we wanted them to walk in our footsteps, to feel our hurts, to share our pain, to see our vision, to share what we believe God wants to do here in Spain,” said the 39-year-old Castro, who previously served as a pastor.
“Listening to the reports of our brothers and sisters, we realize that they have received as much or more than they brought here,” he said.
“This is what I and the other leaders have been praying for — that they would receive double what they brought,” Castro said. “Based on what I’ve heard, it sounds like God has answered those prayers.
“The official partnership has ended, but the love relationship we have for our brothers and sisters in Alabama will never end,” he said.
“I want Alabama Baptists to know that Spanish Baptist are making big plans, because we have a big God and we know He can do big things here in Spain.”
“God only knows the encouragement Alabama Baptist have done in Spain,” said Jeff Wallace, Baptist missionary in Fraga. “We will all gather around the Lord one day and celebrate the good Alabama did for Spain.”
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