October 2013

Prince and Gina's Praise Report from Spain

October 2013

 

Dear Prayer Partners,

 

Well, I could tell you why I haven't written in a year, but it would fill this entire page. Besides that, it would just be an excuse – my father absolutely hated excuses – he just wanted results (I'm an Army Brat).  

New Book Published

In April I released my second published book, in Spanish, titled, "The Seven Ways That Man Died" (Las Siete Maneras En Que El Hombre Murió). The book has had a very favorable reception in the theological community and has been generally vary popular in the Latin America and Spain. It can be found for sale on Amazón.com, Amazon.es, Barns & Noble and Google Books. My publisher is asking for my material in English. They are also asking for it in India, English speaking countries in Africa as well as other places. So please pray that can find the discipline and time to translate my works into English.

Discipleship

Last (school) year I discipled a young convert from Islam named Farid de Algeria (photo to the left).

This year four students have requested to for me to disciple them during the course of their studies: Santiago y Adriana, Enol Farpón y Miguel Ángel Expósito.

   

 

 

 

                                                                            

                                                                          Santiago y Adriana    Miguel Ángel         Enol

 

Ministerial Activities

In the last year, apart from our home base ministry here in Spain, our ministry has taken me to Germany, Ethiopia, Ghana, Mexico and the USA (Washington DC, Omaha, Nebraska and California) for conferences, services and book presentations.

 

I returned to Mexico for the 30^th anniversary of the church. Before we arrived that region had never had a Gospel witness. Now in the 300 kilometer stretch of Pacific coast and about 100 kilometers inland, there are about 200 churches – ours being the pioneer (very first) work in the region. Many local pastors came out to greet us as the apostles of the work in that region. Several pastors were saved as children in our church and now have healthy congregations of their own! People that were saved in our church and have moved on hold important positions or are faithful members in about 60% of the churches in the region. Many of them came to the services to greet me with joyful tears. What a change! I lived under constant death threats the whole time we worked there (2 Cor. 4:17).   

Teaching at the Theological Seminary

Seven years ago, that which is today the AG Theological Seminary of Spain was a simple Bible school with 7 students (and 45 years of history). Today in the last 21/2 years, it has become a government-accredited university with 70 resident students, over 300 in our extension campuses around the country and over 700 in our on-line courses. (Note: The Assemblies of God of Spain is officially known as F.A.D.E. or Federation of the A.G. churches of Spain)   

 

I am particularly and ineffably blessed with the privilege of being a vital part of the seminary faculty for several reasons; two of them are:

• I can fulfill one of my deepest passions – that of making disciples. Here I can profoundly influence the life of many of those with are going to take the work of God here in Spain to the next level for the next 40-50 years! I can also take individuals under my wing and invest fully into their lives.
• I can my fulfill my passion and true calling and walk entirely and genuinely in my ministerial gift of being a teacher (Ephesians 4:11).

Expansion Projects

Last June 12 fourth year students presented their theses to complete their studies and graduate with their Master of Theology (M.Th.). This is important, mind you, because these are the very first people to earn a "Protestant" theological degree in Spain accredited and publically recognized by the Spanish government. A truly historical event! Greater still, all 12 of our graduates are actively involved in the ministry with seven of them having been installed as new pastors in different parts of the country! (Note: A university here in Europe is also known as a "Faculty" "Faculdad", not to be confused with the American use of the word, which here would be "cuerpo docente" or "staff").

 

We have been given about three years to bring the entire institution up to total legal and academic standards in order to maintain our accredited status. With myself included, we now have eight professors with a Ph.D., Th.D. or some other form of an academic or educational themed doctorate (as opposed to being, a D.D.S. or an M.D.). This means that we will be under the gun for another year and a half and they will be going through everything we do with a fine toothed comb!  

 

The entire curriculum of courses is divided into five different theological disciplines and departments. Only those of us with doctorates can sign off on the courses offered. We have a teaching staff of more than 60 professors distributed throughout these various departments with those with a Ph.D. or Th.D. as department heads. My particular department is that of Philology (not philosophy) and Biblical History.

 

As well as teaching Exegetics 2 and History of the Old Testament, I am dean of academic development and the international liaison between our seminary and many others worldwide.

 

On another note, since last June our facilities have been under construction with the necessary remodeling in order to bring the present structure up to legal government standards as one of the [hundreds] of demands that we need to fulfill in order to come completely up to standard. This construction project is laid out in three phases. We are, at present in stage one. I have attached a short video and a photographic overview and summary of the work and vision. Our ultimate goal between now and 2020 is to establish 1,000 new churches and provide them with rightly prepared workers for the extension of the Gospel in Western Europe.

 

Please Keep Us in Your Prayers

Please know that without your earnest and constant prayer and support we would be severely crippled. You must know that my ministry at the seminary IS NOT A PAID POSITION; you are are sole support!  God has been blessing us so much in our work out here, but these blessings have not come without corresponding challenges. Just like Moses needed Aaron and Hur to help him hold up his arms in Exodus 17:10-13, I really need your help to hold our arms up. However, as the psalmist said, "I will hope continually, and will yet praise thee more and more." (Psalm 71:14).

 

Please know that we do thank you so much for all of your prayers and loving support of our ministry. May God continue to bless you for your much-needed financial support of our ministry! As always, you are a matchless BLESSING to our lives and the lives of countless others that you help us to reach for Christ! We love and deeply value you all!

           

H.M.S., 

Your Missionaries in Spain

Dr. & Mrs. Prince M. Parker

E-mail: prince.parker71@gmail.com

Blogsite: http://missionaries2spain.blogspot.com/

October 2013

August 2012 – October 2012 Praise Report

Prince and Gina's Praise Report from Spain

August 2012 – October 2012

 Dear Prayer Partners,

We just wanted to send a Praise Update to let you know of a few more (of the many) things that God is doing; but I just have to say that... THIS HAS BEEN ONE INTERESTING YEAR!

Teaching at the Theological Seminary

I also must add that, according to my particular ministerial gifting, that God has placed me in the most advantageously strategic and perfectly suited place for the advance and future of the work of the Gospel here in Spain. This is an absolute, God given opportunity to teach and make disciples in Spain. 

There are five of us that are full-time faculty here; the rest of the fine professorial staff is adjunct. The results are that I serve in numerous functions:

• I am assistant to the seminary rector (Dr. Jesus Carmes) overseeing the general academic quality of the courses offered by the seminary.
• I am on the thesis review committee; right now, I am in charge of the esthetics and the multitude of indispensable details involved in writing a thesis – from the project presentation to the actual dissertation. I am not involving myself in the acceptance of the proposed themes though I do opine about some of the aspects presented. It I have also been asked if I would like to be a tutor/advisor to one of the candidates… which task I strongly prefer not to do.
• Finally, and to my greatest enjoyment, I teach Exegetics II (the branch of theology that specializes in the laws that govern orthodox Biblical interpretation) and Old Testament History.

Surely, I will be (and have been) performing a plethora of other tasks as the needs arise, but I am counting it as a privilege to be able to serve in this or whatever capacity I am allowed.

There is, however, one cross that we have been called to bear with this blessing.

Interesting Year

As I said at the beginning of this praise report, this has been an interesting year! When we moved from Cáceres, my plan was to sell our townhouse; but because of Spain (world famous) economic crisis, we have an upside down mortgage, there are no buyers and the banks are not giving loans. So, I pay, a now, exorbitant mortgage on a house that I can only rent for a third of the price and I have to pay, out of pocket, a tad bit more than the other two thirds.

This does not leave us in apt financial to thus rent another house in Córdoba where I now live. Therefore, I live in what I call a monk's cell in the men's dorm at the seminary. Without a decent place, at this time, to house my lovely wife, she has taken up temporary residence with our daughter Jasmine in Washington DC, until a far better logistical situation arises. We celebrated our 36^th wedding anniversary (November 6^th) with a chat via Skype.

Another "interesting" thing that happened is that:

• Monday of the first week, my email account was hacked effectively cutting me off from the account that I have had for about 15 years. Please take not of my new email address at the end of this praise report.
• Tuesday, my terabyte external hard drive fell and went "kaput!", sending about 20,000 of my studies, investigations, written books and articles, teaching and research materials and much more; about ten to fifteen years of work, if not more, into cyber oblivion.
• Wednesday, as I was accessing my cyber back-up hard drive, it told me that I had to renew my password. To do that I was asked to do it via my email address, when I tried to do that… of course, I was locked out of my email account by the hackers thus effectively losing access to my cloud... 

The seminary and some sympathetic functionaries of the city of Ecija have been trying to help me recover my data, but so far the news hasen't been of the most encouraging nature. Praise God anyhow!

Then the last of September I received an urgent call from my daughter Lupe, and I caught a flight the next morning to be with her and her family in Charlotte, NC. Unfortunately, my granddaughter passed away six hours before I arrived. She was taken back to Puerto Rico for burial, but I had to return to Spain. Gina and my daughters went with Lupe and her family to Puerto Rico to be with them.

The entire family has been experiencing the grace and peace of God during this "very interesting" time of God's dealings in our lives.  

Ministry Trip to India

In October, the Lord sent me to Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India, for two weeks of ministry in this city of 7 million, in some rural areas of the state as well as in the cities of Vyara and Surat. As is common in such countries such as India, some of these beautiful Believers traveled 20 hours to come and sit on the floor for hours at a time so that we could teach these converted Hindus the Word of God. There was such a hunger for my teachings that they just drew more and more out of me seeking time to hear the Word long after my sessions had ended.   

I am used to traveling around the world and ending up in the strangest places on earth under the oddest situations and conditions and my experiences with India rank right up there with the best of them. Indians are a handsome people and their country is stunning, but I classify their traffic in the top five of the world's most insane! Hundreds of bicycles, motorbikes, trucks, autos, pedestrians, livestock (including camels) and three wheeled taxis all crisscrossing at full speed, nobody brakes for anything, and all this done with absolutely no regard for ANY semblance or recognition of law.  

Please Keep Us in Your Prayers

Brothers and Sisters please know that without your earnest and constant prayer and support we would be severely crippled. God has been blessing us so much in our work out here, but these blessings have not come without corresponding challenges. Some of our needs have been so great that they threaten to become burdensome – and I am committed to cast all of my burdens upon the Lord. Two of my favorite Scriptures are, "Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you." (1 Peter 5:7) and "Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God." (Philippians 4:6).

None the less, just like Moses needed Aaron and Hur to help him hold up his arms in Exodus 17:10-13, I really need your help to hold our arms up. But as the psalmist said, "I will hope continually, and will yet praise thee more and more." (Psalm 71:14).

Please know that we do thank you so much for all of your prayers and your loving support of our ministry and may God continue to bless you for your much needed financial suppor of our ministry! As always, you are a matchless BLESSING to our lives and the lives of countless others that you help us to reach for Christ! We love and deeply value you all!

H.M.S., 

Your Missionaries in Spain

Dr. & Mrs. Prince M. Parker

E-mail: prince.parker71@gmail.com

Or: prince_parker@mail2missionary.com

Blogsite: http://missionaries2spain.blogspot.com/

 

 Praise Report from Spain
Prayer Update

May 2012 – July 2012

Dear Prayer Partners, 

In our months of hiatus before the new academic year begins at the seminary in Córdoba (Spain), we have been anything but idle. I’ve had to cross the Atlantic so many times this year that I feel like I’ve been stitching a football.

Focus on Leadership Training

Since I turned the church in Cáceres over to the Spanish national church (Assemblies of God of Spain) leaders in March, word has gone out that I would be relatively free until I begin teaching again at the seminary in September and invitations began to pour in from different countries to go and minister.

In May I was invited to the country of Ghana to hold and Encounter and leadership conference with the leadership of two different denominations representing more than 10,000 churches. They requested for me to come and help them set up a model church (actually two model churches) with a focus on small groups (cells) and discipleship training based on what I, for years have called, “CCDC” (Conversion, Consolidation, Discipleship, Commission).

I was accompanied by Brother Virgil Amos, director of Ambassador’s Fellowship and two associate pastors from a large church in South Africa and us we taught, prayed and ministered in this special “retreat” for three days.  

I have always know that the demonic activity in places like parts of Africa, Asia and Latin America is graphically vivid than normally seen elsewhere, but the testimonies given by the pastors and things that we experienced during this encounter were over the top and showed me that much more teaching and power gift ministry would be need to help these valiant servants of God arm themselves for future battles. 

Afterwards I spent several days in closed door sessions with the Leaders of these churches and was deeply impressed with their integrity and spiritual acuity (not common traits in those parts) as well as their honed intelligence and educational level (not uncommon in those parts) that I understood that these men were very good ground in which to sow much more time and much deeper teachings of the Word of God. Their sincere hunger for the “meat” of the Word and spiritual discernment in receiving the Word refreshed me while giving the Word as much as they were refreshed by receiving the Word.

Almost Every Time I Go To Africa

Those beautiful brothers and their aides stayed with me drawing the Word out of me with their earnest hunger until they left me at the airport and could go no further. When I finally boarded the plane I began a whole new adventure.

After a few hours delay (normal in Africa) we were about to take off when a truck collided with our aircraft on the tarmac! (Not normal anywhere) My first thought was,

“Now what?!”

There was substantial damage to the aircraft, so, of course we had to deplane and wait until the airline and airport got it together to see who was going to be responsible for putting us up in hotels for the night and until another plane could be brought in from somewhere. It was another 25 hours until we could get out of the country! 

This was great news for the local church leaders. They found out about my delay and found my hotel and we spent the next day feasting on the Word and in truly edifying fellowship until I finally had to board my departing flight; but not without them getting me to promise to return in a month to give a follow-up on the series of teachings that I had been giving them.

Second Trip To Ghana

So, it was that in June I found myself on another very long flight back to Ghana. Only this time it was even longer. I connected with this flight at of JFK (New York), and it turns out that the president of Ghana had been at the United Nations and decided, at the last moment, to take that flight, along with his entire entourage. We all not only had to deal with the TSA, but the US Secret Service checking all of our bags and doing personal, physical inspections. We were delayed for TEN HOURS in New York!

Man! There sure was a lot of hoopla for the president when we arrived in Accra!

Another TWO HOURS just to deplane in Accra!

I had particular problems because this particular flight also had the final destination of Monrovia, Liberia, with Accra, Ghana, as just a stop along the way. I got pulled out of line several times and sent through the wringer and my luggage was also pulled a couple of times, because my name is, “Prince”. It turns out that The Hague had recently sentenced the homicidal ex-dictator of Liberia, “Prince” Johnson. They are still on the lookout for his crazy rebel supporters. Did I say something about, “every time I go to Africa”? 

Oh, wait, I´m not finished. Shortly after my trip I find out that the president of Ghana just up and DIED, all of a sudden like! (Either that or he was given a little help along his way to death’s door)!    

New Book

At any rate, this time before class begins has also been ideal for me to complete my second book that has been accepted by an international publisher. So I am, once again, a published author. The book has gone to the editing department and I am waiting to hear their comments about what ever improvements and modifications I must make to the original manuscript.

The publishing company will decide on the final name of the book, but right now the options are, “Dead Seven Times”, “Seven Times Dead” or “Seven Ways the Man Died – An exposition on spiritual arguments, curses, the Fall and our relationships”. I should add that right now the book is only available in Spanish with plans to put it in English.

I was told that it should be released for sale by December and will be available in ebook format, online and in about 30,000 Christian bookstores worldwide. Of course I will keep you informed. 

Keila Update

Keila has been readmitted into the hospital and has been there for over a month now since her stem cell transplant. Blood clots have been forming and she has had several other serious challenges. So we continue to request prayer on her behalf.

Thank You!

Once again, we thank you and praise God for your incessant prayers and continued support!

We love and deeply appreciate you!

H.M.S.,
Dr. & Mrs. Prince M. Parker
Your Missionaries in Spain

New Believers & Outreaches

 Above: Sister Brisa Radic being baptised in September

 Above: Calling out and presenting the newly baptised to the congrgation and presenting them with their baptismal Certificated. 

 Above: The New Believers are permitted to partake in the Lord's Supper for the first time (with tears) now that they have been baptised.

 Above: The baptisms of Yasser and Micaela

 Above: Praying for those to be baptised

 

 Above:

One of the new Believers is Miguel Angel (Mily) Lofredo, is one of the new men that have become to come to the services. Mily is faithfully being consolidated by my “Timothy”, Jonathan Lancho. (Mili is on the left in the photo with one of my faithful men, Jorge Radic).

 Above and below:

Raul & Elizabeth Villamil (who have also been my students in the seminary), and their six children are a beautiful and talented family that love the Lord and have decided to dedicate themselves to Him and start a new church in their city.

 

Below please find our most recent Praise Report dated

July 2011 to September 2011

July 2011 – September 2011

Prince and Gina's Praise Report from Spain

July 2011 – September 2011

 

Dear Prayer Partners,

 

New Believers & Consolidation

The Book of Acts says of the Early Church that, "… the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved" (Acts 2:47). Well, we're not seeing people being added daily, but God is bringing a nice flow of new people that are having personal encounters with Christ and are being added to the church.

 

Praise God! We are grateful to God that we can say that since our last Praise Report that several more new Believers have been added to the congregation; something that we would not have seen a few years back here in Spain and is yet to be seen in some parts of the country.

 

Thank God that our work in consolidating the new people has vastly improved and more new converts are becoming faithful and active in the church. We are also seeing many more of the new converts understanding their purpose and taking up the challenge to consolidate the other new Believers that are beginning to come in.

 

One of these new Believers is Miguel Angel (Mily) Lofredo, is one of the new men that have become to come to the services. Mily is faithfully being consolidated by my "Timothy", Jonathan Lancho.

Recent Baptisms

September 8^th we celebrated a baptismal service in a local river and were blessed to officially receive four new Believers into the church. There are about four more that have yet to complete that new members orientations and get incorporated into consolidation and discipleship cells.

 

Satellite Work in Mérida

For the last couple of years now we have been collaborating with a family of Believers in the city of Mérida, a city found about 45 minutes from Cáceres in the Province of Badajoz.

 

Raul & Elizabeth Villamil (who have also been my students in the seminary), and their six children are a beautiful and talented family that love the Lord and have decided to dedicate themselves to Him and start a new church in this city. They came to us about four months ago ask for our covering and assistance en establishing this new work. We have begun to send faithful families from our church to be with them on certain Sundays during the month.

 

Recently they were able to go from holding Bible studies in their house and acquire a place to rent for their services. They now have a marvelous group of about 25 adults in a congregation that has both Gypsies and Spaniards.

 

I am in the process of helping Raul obtain his national ministers credentials so that he might be able to freely minister here in Spain.

School of Leaders

Praise God that we have finally been able to officially begin our School of Leaders (discipleship training school) in the church and I am on my way to finally form my 12. The candidates are extremely excited and totally on board and have begun to bring forth good fruit!

Matrix Retreat

This past summer the Lord gave me what probably has been one of the most creative ideas I've ever received. It is a Reencounter (retreat) designed to graphically teach new Believers about the threats and dangers that the spiritual and moral ambience of the world pose to them and just how they can overcome them with total victory in Christ Jesus!

The retreat is based on the movie "The Matrix" and is called "The Christian and the World". The new Believers are called to make a fresh and conscientious decision for Christ near the end of the encounter by choosing between the "red pill" and the "blue pill" (jellybeans).

 

All of the attending youth that have gone through this re-encounter were deeply impacted, but four of them have since been baptised and are aggressively active in all aspects of the church and are eager to share their faith. They now have a very clear idea of who the Christian is and what the world really is!

Theological Seminary

I have officially accepted a teaching position at the "Spanish Theological Seminary" of the Assemblies of God of Spain located in La Carlota, Córdoba. At present am teaching a semester (32 hours) on Hermeneutics. The rest of the official staff is thrilled that I have joined them – and the truth is, I am too.

 

Even though it adds to my already taxed work load, it's an honor to be a part of the teaching faculty and to be a part of those that are preparing the next generation of pastors and leaders of the Body of Christ here in Spain! After all, that's a very great part of what we are all about here.

Thank You & Please Keep Us in Your Prayers

We want to thank every one of you that so faithfully pray for us and support us financially every month. But what Gina and I are praying for is for ten new churches to pick us up and support us for $100 a month. We need at least this much increase in our support in order to consistently make ends meet every month and to reach specific ministry goals. You are a matchless BLESSING to our lives and the lives of countless others that you help us to reach for Christ! We love and deeply appreciate you all!

      

H.M.S., 

 

Your Missionaries in Spain

Dr. & Mrs. Prince M. Parker

 

Nuevos Creyentes

 Arturo y Daniela (above and below) are a big blessing to the congregation and contribute tremendously to the edification of their cell group and the congregation in general