Giving Tuesday {a request}

I love the week after Thanksgiving. I know it's all commercialism and buy buy buy, but I enjoy it. I don't go crazy, but I do spend a little money over the weekend and on Cyber Monday because sometimes the deals on gifts and things we were looking at anyway are just too good. I always buy our Christmas cards and family photo gifts with these fantastic deals, for example.

Perhaps you got some good deals this weekend too! I love how each day has it's own name - Black Friday, Small Biz Saturday and Cyber Monday. It helps me plan! I hope you'll forgive me for jumping on the bandwagon with this request, which is a little different. We've had our shopping days, but today is Giving Tuesday, a day that celebrates generosity and doing something more, something to give back.

And I have been a constant example of how you can help those in need by working hard. You should remember the words of the Lord Jesus: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” Acts 20:25

Here's what they say on givingtuesday.org: "It’s a simple idea. Just find a way for your family, your community, your company or your organization to come together to give something more. Then tell everyone you can about how you are giving. Join us and be a part of a global celebration of a new tradition of generosity."

There's no shortage of options. I often share my Angel Tree story and recommend a Global Gift Catalog (today World Vision has a matching gift!). Those are just two special ways my family gives back each year around the holidays.

Would you consider partnering with us as part of your Giving Tuesday plan? We are less than $1500 away from full support, plane tickets, language school, and feet down in the field, where less than 1 percent of people know Jesus.

The statistics say that 77% claim to be Christian, but less than 1% of that group claim Evangelical beliefs. Just to be clear, some of the beliefs up in the air for Spanish "Christians" include the deity of Christ, the personal love of God, Jesus' death and resurrection, and salvation by faith alone. By our calculations, that means that of 46.5 million people, only 400,000 are evangelical believers.

He told them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field." Luke 10:2

Your monthly gift (of any amount!) will enable us  to put our feet on the ground at a growing church plant in Alcalá, where the population grows each year. New apartment complexes mean that young families just like ours are moving to Alcalá, where there is not a church on every corner. In Alcalá it really seems like nobody has a neighbor who can share the love of Christ with them. We've been called to be that neighbor, and we are so eager to go! We long for the friendships we'll build trading English for Spanish, meeting children in the courtyard of our complex, and doing life shoulder to shoulder with Spaniards.

You can be part of the amazing joy it will be to see a small Spanish church plant grow, raise up a Spanish pastor, and plant its own church elsewhere.