Alabama Baptists brought own barriers in the twin cities of Alcobendas and San Sebastian de los Reyes, just north of Madrid. And David and Susie Dixon send Alabamians a Texas-size “thank you.”
The Dixons, who are Southern Baptist missionaries from Texas, serve San Sebastian de los Reyes Baptist Church, the only Baptist church in that area. Averaging about 40 people, the mission church of First Baptist, Madrid, worked with several groups from Alabama throughout the partnership.
“We had a baseball team that came and did baseball clinics in the parks and played the local baseball team here,” Mrs. Dixon said, noting the Alabama team “smeared the local team.”
“This group provided a good contact in the schools,” she said. “They were loved everywhere and opened doors for future seeds.”
“We also had the senior adult ‘Amen Choir’ from Lakewood Baptist Church, Phenix City, come,” said Dixon, who serves as interim pastor and interim director for the Baptist theological seminary in Madrid. “They sang in the senior day center, in municipal auditoriums and did a cultural exchange with another senior adult group at the day center.
“We also introduced them to prayer walking,” added Mrs. Dixon, who also teaches at the seminary. “(Our church) fell in love with them. They are so full of the Lord’s love and exuded it everywhere they went.
“We counted 700-800 people the choir had contact with just in their 10 days here,” Dixon said. “These were close contacts,” he said, nothing the positive impact they left on the Spaniards.
“They also brought photo albums with captions in English and Spanish to tell about their lives — grandkids, home, church, etc,” Mrs. Dixon said. “Because they shared with that, the people were receptive to receiving the tracts.
“A lot of our evangelism has to be a cultural exchange,” she said. “But if (the volunteers’) culture has Christ at its center, then to share their culture is to share Christ.”
Another team that encouraged the church came from First Baptist church, Muscle Shoals, last November during the revival campaign. The team of three shared testimonies, held a seminar on Y2K and led a youth rally, which resulted in five professions of faith.
One of those professions of faith included the Dixons oldest son, Daniel, who is 16. Thy also have two other sons: Joel, 13, and Michael, 7.
Achieving that many professions of faith at one time is quite unusual in Spain, the Dixons remarked.
“(The groups) don’t usually see people come to know Christ in a personal way,” Mrs. Dixons said. “You have to measure your success by things such as whether the people heard the gospel or received a New Testament.”
But some walls did come down because of the volunteers, she noted.
“A big wall for us was (Daniel’s profession of faith),” Dixon added.
Another youth made a profession of faith a few weeks after the team left and the Dixons, who have been in Spain 11 years, believe it was a result of the team being there.
Another barrier that has come down as a result of Alabama Baptists is the church’s relationship with local government officials.
“We’ve made contact with the mayor in our town, who has a lot of power to open and close doors in our town,” Mrs. Dixon said. “The Alabama Singing Men started it with the positive impression they made early in the partnership.”
The Singing Men performed a concert using handbells from the Dixon’s church.
“They gave the concert in the municipal auditorium, which the mayor got for us at no cost,” Dixon noted. “He was the key person in getting that for us and we gave out the gospel to everyone. It was well attended and became a big event.
“Public relations is a big part our witness here,” he said. “Baptist are looked upon as a sect, as all evangelicals are.
“Overcoming that stigma in the eyes of a lot of Catholic people is a major part of our battle,” he explained. “This will help them to be more open to receiving our witness.”
Because the Singing Men had an audience with the mayor and presented him an Alabama flag, an Alabama pin and a Bible, the mayor was excited to also meet the senior adult choir that came. The senior adult choir also gave him a Bible, sang and told him they would be praying for him.
He has even been to the church for various activities and works with the church members when they need the municipal auditorium. Another big step was getting a public street sign that points to where the church is, the Dixons said.
“We are the only evangelical church that we know of with this,” Mrs. Dixon said.
“Catholic churches get that without any hassle, but for an evangelical church to get a sign, somebody has to open the door,” Dixon said.
Other positive impacts from Alabama Baptists on the Dixons’ immediate family have come from Shades Mountain Baptist Church, Vestavia Hills and First Baptist Church, Dadeville.
The Shades Mountain volunteer team worked with missionaries during their annual missions meeting last summer and did “ missions support at its best.”
First Baptist, Dadeville, partners in prayer with the Dixons. One 90-year-old woman in particular “has just adopted us,” Dixon said. “She has become our grandmother and is there praying constantly for us.”
Just as that 90-year-old in Dadeville will continue to have the Dixons’ prayer needs before her church, the relationships with all the churches in Alabama that have worked with the north Madrid church “are permanent.”
“The relationships have jelled,” Dixon said. “I know we have missions friends back in Alabama from now on.”
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