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- Abandoned, Deceived, Healed
- God's Great Deeds Through the Spanish Team
| | | | Dear lezer,
An important spearhead of our work is to present the gospel in as many different languages as possible. After English, Spanish is the language in which we reach most people online. That is why this letter pays special attention to what happens in Spanish. Did you know that the majority of the people we reach with Spanish live in South America and therefore hardly anyone comes from Spain? That says something about Europe...
Heydi from Guatemala tells her eventful life story. She did the Bible Basics course in Spanish and is now a mentor herself. Precisely because of what Heydi has been through, she can advise others and provide pastoral assistance.
A second important spearhead is 'from screen to church': it is our desire that people find their way to a local church through online contact. There is the community of faith where life with Christ takes shape. In our Spanish team, employee Moises is serious about linking people to churches. And that pays off! She Rises, GlobalRize's women's branch, also recently started in Spanish, Ella Resplandece, with more than 12,000 followers.
| | | | Abandoned, deceived, healed | | | She was totally dejected when she discovered that the man she loved had abandoned her, was already married, and had children. Heydi from Guatemala wanted to turn the clock back and felt overwhelmed, realizing that she had been living in adultery.
Heydi found it hard enough to find out that she was rejected by the man she loved. But when she discovered that he was already married, she cried tears of remorse and suffered from depression. For a long time, she carried the burden of what had happened alone and she couldn’t talk with anyone about it. Not even with her mother, because she knew very little of the whole situation.
Help
After a while, Heydi did the most sensible thing, ‘I already went to church, but now I went looking for help there. God gave me three or four people, brothers, and sisters whom I love with my whole heart: dr. Jaime Mirón from the Luis Palau Institute; Lidia Jaen, the pastor of the Siloe Temple in California; and my friends Véronica and Ruth. They stood by me with their prayers, advice, letters, and testimonies. A process of praying, pleading, and asking for forgiveness for my sins and my pain started through the contacts I had with them. God started little by little to free me.’
Hunger for God’s Word
Heydi began to hunger for God’s Word and was encouraged by Rev. Dante Gebel’s sermons. She found the online BiblBasics course from GlobalRize on our Spanish language page, Palabras Biblicas. There she received a very involved mentor, Joanne from The Netherlands, who had studied Spanish in high school, is now in teachers college, and has been a volunteer with GlobalRize since she was 18.
Heydi says, ‘Because of the pain in my heart, I felt the need to seek the Lord. I wanted to get to know Him better through the course and discover the depths of His Word. I thank Joanne because she had the patience to lead me in the midst of my pain.’
Questions about life
After she finished the course, Heydi signed up to be a part of the Spanish team. It was decided that the best place for her to help was in the chat team. There she can help people with their questions about life and relationship problems. She can show others the way because she can clearly see the contrast between her old life and her new life with God. | | | ‘I am so thankful for the fact that I work in the chat team. I am the least savvy of the brothers and sisters on the team, but I know that I will improve with the help of the Lord and the chat team brothers and sisters.’
All the glory
After her initial hesitation, Heydi is eager to share her testimony now. ‘My greatest desire is to be able to help someone else; all to the glory of my Lord, whom I love with all my heart. To Him be the glory that I am now healthy and free, fully healed from pain and sin.’
- Pray that Heydi will be a blessing to many people.
| | | | God’s wonderful deeds through the Spanish team | | | 
At GlobalRize two of our main goals are to share the Gospel in many languages and help people find their way to a local church. The Spanish team is a beautiful example of how we would like to see this happen. Arjan Vaders, their team leader, is a part of that and sees the Holy Spirit working in a wonderful way.
In 2012 Arjan posted the very first Spanish texts on our new Spanish language Facebook page, Palabras Bíblicas. Now, nine years later, there is a mature team that can serve as an example to the other language teams. In particular, the efforts of Moises, a mentor from Venezuela who lives in Chili, stand out.
Seeking a church
A year ago, Moises took on the responsibility of finding churches for people who asked for help. At the end of the Bible Basics course, every student is asked, ‘Do you want to start going to church? Do you need help finding one?’ The students who want that, provide their email address and telephone number, and the mentor passes that on to Moises. He starts right away by searching for a church in their area. In the meantime, there is a message sent to the Spanish mentors’ WhatsApp group to pray that a church can successfully be found. Moises checks the directory of the Spanish language Baptist organization for the contact information of a pastor or church that is in the city or village nearest to the student. He doesn’t just pass on the student’s contact information, but personally calls both the pastor and the student and arranges a warm welcome. In this way, Moises has already matched 111 students with their new church! This man understands the importance of striking while the iron is hot, and doesn’t see it as something that is quickly done, but as a precious moment to help bring in the harvest.
| | | Tears of amazement
Arjan heard all about this in a recent Zoom meeting with his Spanish team. Moises had invited three pastors and three students to take part in the meeting to share their testimonies. Arjan, ‘When you hear the testimonies, you know that this is the work of the Holy Spirit. I had tears of amazement in my eyes. God is so good. It is His work.’ He says about Moises, ‘Moises mentioned that GlobalRize is one big family to him, to which he includes those students and pastors. The pastors also felt it a privilege to be a part of the effort with us to create a warm welcome for the students.’
Mature
You can see the maturity of the Spanish team in every area: The faithful co-workers, team leaders who take on the responsibility for the Facebook page, the chat, and the guidance of the mentors. And in the over one million followers on the Facebook page. The Spanish website has over 900 articles about the Bible and faith and offers twelve courses in Spanish. And She Rises, the women's branch of GlobalRize, has now also started in Spanish: Ella Resplandece, with a new website and Facebook page. The team mostly reaches people from Latin America. There are very few followers or students from Spain, as of yet.
It’s very special to be able to see God’s wonderful deeds through this team!
- Thank God that the Spanish team has grown in so many ways.
| | | Do you also want to change lives online?
Apply to be a coordinator for Bible reading plans or chat member! | | | | | |
