“Revival: an extraordinary movement of the Holy Spirit producing extraordinary results.”
- Richard Owen Roberts
Revival comes when the Holy Spirit moves in supernatural ways through a people who are open, willing, and desire closeness with Him and to see him move. This 2022 we have seen more and more of that in Barcelona.
Coming from a harsh social and economical season with COVID, people have come back to church eager for God’s presence - and WOW. People are coming to Christ!
When I talked about REAL in day 3 (if you haven’t read it you can do so here!) I mentioned how we saw 50 people come to Christ in the one weekend. Well, it wasn’t unique to that weekend! Every week a handful of people show interest to know more, and slowly also to give their lives to Christ.
We see this in our Foundations class (every Sunday we have a 7 week course where we go over the basics of faith). It has been so packed that we’ve had to add more schedules. People’s questions are becoming more complex so we started Foundations II.
Awaken, our young adults ministry, is full of people (more on that coming).
Some Sundays are so full that staff and volunteers have to sit on the stairs. Some days we have to add seats in the lobby and connect a screen. A couple times we were so full people were queuing outside around the entire block!!
And truly, only God knows their individual hearts - but they are COMING. They are being exposed to the Gospel. People are hearing about Jesus in ways they have never before.
And the church is moving in spiritual gifts, taking leadership roles in volunteer teams, opening new ministries, praying in faith and even words of knowledge and wisdom. It has been AMAZING and EXCITING to be part of it!
Roast Club
Some friends and I (including Sonya, who you saw in pictures yesterday and Day 2, you'll see her in a picture bellow as well) are getting to see part of this shift first hand in our favourite coffee shop: Roast Club. Not only do they have the BEST specialty coffee in town and amazing brown butter cookies (which they absolutely do), they also have the best people working there. Slowly we have rotated through every shift and have become friends with every one of them.
They are a diverse bunch, there are Irish, Mexicans, Argentinians, and Spaniards to name a few. Slowly our quick coffee stops became standing in the Take Away window and talking a little about everything. Some inside jokes, some dating advice, and some life perspective and anxieties.
We have been praying for them endlessly. Lately the Irish barista John has been asking more questions about what we do (work in a church) and why (bear in mind our jobs are incredibly weird to some. To them we are “cool nuns”). One day talking with John we asked if we could pray for him for a personal matter he’d been referring to. For the first time, he said yes. We prayed and he said “you know why I love hanging out with you guys so much? There’s something different about you, you carry peace and I need peace”.
This has given us more space to talk about Jesus and while he’s not quite convinced YET, he’s more open to talk about it and is actively seeking that peace.
Prayer request
Please pray for wisdom as church staff to steward and manage this expansion well. This is God’s church and I believe He’ll take care of it but some days it’s easy to feel overwhelmed!
Please pray for John and the rest of the Roast Club crew. I am CONVINCED that every single one of them will end up coming to Jesus one day. I just hope I get to see some of it! Pray for softened hearts, devine moments, and key conversations.
What an honour it is to be a tool in God’s hands to reach people that he unconditionally loves. I pray that he does it more and more!
Comments