Warm greetings in the Savior’s name . . . from several miles up in the air!
It seems I’m always writing to you on another flight. It’s a good thing. It means our ministry together is going places . . . with something good always happening!
Today, I’m returning home from Spain—where we celebrated a remarkable year of ministry ending with a thrilling graduation ceremony. I saw your faithfulness and your generosity in the faces of those graduates. You have served in the “root network” that produced this harvest!
It was music to my ears to hear the dean of the seminary calling the graduates’ names by region. Hearing the names of each part of the country was a beautiful reminder that God has expanded our work all across the nation of Spain . . . once a spiritual wasteland, now pulsing with the energy of the Spirit!
The roll call was inspiring! I was able to witness:
- More than thirty graduates from the Iberian peninsula (the Spanish mainland),
- Some from provinces in the north, on the border with France,
- Some from the central provinces,
- Some from the south, and
- Twenty graduates from the Canary Islands (these islands are to Spain what the Hawaiian Islands are to the U.S. mainland)
If someone had asked me forty years ago as we started our ministry in Spain what my dream come true would be, I would have said: my hope is to see a band of Spaniards trained and deployed to reach their regions with the Gospel.
Now, it’s happening.
(And there’s more celebration to come: most of the Canaries grads didn’t make the trip to Madrid because their friends and family would have a hard time attending the ceremony; as a result, about twenty-five additional graduates from the Canaries will enjoy a graduation ceremony of their own on Grand Canary Island in the near future.)
I wish I could take you on a tour of Spain to see the action firsthand! We could go north to Pamplona, where students mounted major evangelism campaigns. This city is famous for the “running of the bulls.” (Reality check: Nearly every town in Spain has a running of the bulls, but Pamplona is especially prominent thanks to Ernest Hemingway. Fun fact: the oldest recorded running of the bulls actually happened in Cuéllar, Segovia, 220 miles from Pamplona!)
We could also travel to historic Jaén, a province in the south, once a strongly Jewish city. You would see beautiful palatial homes that once belonged to noble Jewish families in the Middle Ages. The Gospel has now been proclaimed to this region—by God’s grace, and thanks to your generous support!
Our students love the experience of traversing the length and breadth of the Spanish nation and sharing the life-transforming Good News with their countrymen!
Your support has empowered terrific leadership in our Spanish seminary program. A graduate named Unai Arretxe became our secret weapon for the seemingly impenetrable Basque region. Now, he’s our secret weapon for the entirety of Spain.
Unai is a true evangelist at heart. He’s like a spiritual son to me. As I was saying goodbye to all the students and teachers for the summer, he gave me a heartfelt hug and said, “I’d follow you to the end of the world.” I’m not going to the end of the world any time soon, but I understood what he was really saying: Wherever the Spirit leads, that’s where we’re going to go.
It’s inspiring to see how the students follow Unai. No matter where or when a campaign is scheduled, nobody objects, and everyone wants to take part. No one wants to miss a single evangelistic experience; no one wants to be left out.
That is leadership! Spiritual leadership! I am so grateful that the Lord has us working together in the same family!
I am so grateful that the Lord has called you and me to work in the same family! In Unai, I see how God multiplies your investment over time. You helped to train Unai—and you are supporting Unai and his family in ministry today. The faithfulness of friends like you has empowered Unai’s ministry for nearly twenty years.
I also see in Unai the great truth that God does not look on the outward appearance (I Samuel 16:7). I’m not sure you would have been excited about supporting Unai if you had known him back in the beginning. For one thing, he had hair down to his waist!
But the look was part of his strategy. He had started a street ministry. He and his team were “breakdancing” (remember that fad?) to attract people in streets and parks. He had managed to acquire two vans, and he filled them up with young Christians who went into the streets to share the Gospel. Even then, the young people followed Unai everywhere! God had given him the gift of leadership, and he was faithful in it.
Before I first met him, Unai kept hearing from members of our Spain team, “Manny is coming! Manny is coming!” Maybe they were trying to frighten him. Maybe it worked! The tension built up in him so powerfully that, a few days before my arrival, he cut his hair! We still laugh about this, nearly two decades later.
Today, Unai is a respectable-looking middle-aged man of God, leading our entire ministry in Spain. His evangelistic zeal has not diminished one whit. He is thrilled about everything God is doing in his homeland—he still thrives in taking students on evangelistic campaigns —
And he is not satisfied.
In our next year of ministry, he wants more extension centers all around Spain. He wants more teachers. He’s already located another half–dozen teachers to staff the new extension centers we don’t even have yet!
Unai is just one amazing example of how God uses your generosity. Through consistent godly leadership, young people are being transformed from students into disciples.
God is moving powerfully in Spain! What’s next?
I wish you could have been there for our “open doors” week. This is an annual program that allows aspiring students to stay in seminary apartments and attend classes. They enjoy fellowship with the program students, they make friends, and they get a sense of supernatural potential.
For this year’s “open doors” week, we welcomed sixteen aspiring students—that’s a BIG number in Spain. I was teaching a course and had them all in class. They asked all their questions; then, they went out and shared the Gospel. It was an amazing experience for them to see how much our seminary students know about the Gospel and about sharing their faith.
It was energizing that some of the aspiring students asked to stay a second week!
When it came time to say their goodbyes, there were many promises for the future: “See you in the fall, when classes start again!”
Our graduation ceremony and banquet were such times of joy. Some of our students, through sweet tears, asked, “Can we stay and do it all over again?” They didn’t want to leave! And yet, they were eager to dive into the work of evangelism, back in their home regions.
Our keynote speaker made the need clear. He delivered “bad news and good news.” The bad news was that record numbers of ministers in the U.S. are leaving the ministry. Our graduates are moving into ministry in a crucial hour.
But the good news was, and is: God’s character is trustworthy. He is faithful! He is present with you at all times. He has made a great commitment to us: “I am with you every day, all day long, for all the days, until the end of the world!”
What happened to those who have left the ministry? Didn’t they know God’s promise? Well, they heard it, but they didn’t have the faith to believe it and to live it. It is similar to what happened to the Old Testament Hebrews: they had the promise to enter His rest, but they didn’t have the faith to enter in. They wandered around the desert because of their lack of belief in His ability to deliver!
This was a serious error. God swore in His anger “they will never enter my rest.” Joshua had to come along and lead the community of faith to face the giants, defeat the giants, and take possession of the land.
Some 400 years later, David comes back to this urgent theme in Psalm 95:
“Today, if you would hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, As in the day of Massah in the wilderness, ‘When your fathers tested Me, They tried Me, though they had seen My work. For forty years I loathed that generation, And said they are a people who err in their heart, And they do not know My ways. Therefore I swore in my anger, Truly they shall not enter into My rest.’”
God calls you and me to live a life of faith focused on Him and on His purposes. Any other kind of life falls short of our God-given potential.
C.T. Studd reminds us: “Only one life ‘twill soon be past. Only what’s done for Christ shall last.” Either we believe this, or we don’t.
God calls us to be “all in.” He calls us to go into our Canaan—not to wander about. He calls us to take Him at His word and live for Him, and for eternity.
Some don’t. Some won’t. I see many today primarily living for this life. They may involve themselves a bit in God’s work, as if taking a little “insurance” for the hereafter. God says, “They do not know my ways.” I’ve even known people to claim grace for maintaining an illicit affair. They don’t know God.
All compromised lifestyles are doomed. I am convinced of better things concerning you. Let’s sell out to Him, as we see our days grow shorter in anticipation of His coming. No half-measures. God calls us to be the community of faith that lives for Him and Him alone.
Summer is here. Time for harvest. The soul-harvest is ripe. A wise son reaps in harvest time. As we enjoy the summer season, let’s not take a break from the fruitful work God has called us to. Let’s make this a summer of service to Him.
I can assure you, our teams around the world will be busy about His work as always! Please stand with them. Join the Father, the Son, and the Spirit in their work. “Get up, dress up, and show up.” I hope you’ll give generously today, and I urge you to keep praying!
We’ll see you in the harvest fields!
Selling out to Him,
Dr. Manny Fernandez
P.S. There’s no “risk.” We have the joy of seeing God move through your prayers and gifts.
What will God do next? It’s a privilege to take part in it. Thank you again for your friendship, your partnership, your generous giving. God bless you!