October 16, 2015
By Steve and Claudia Irvin, Alliance workers serving in Spain.
A mother’s prayer for her child to be born again is a prayer God loves to answer. We witnessed such an answer to prayer recently when Nancy* put her faith in Christ at Alianza de Amor, a church in Madrid.
Nancy’s mother attends Los Héroes Church in Bogotá, Colombia, where we once pastored. Through our mutual friend and former international worker colleague Mary Block, she contacted us about a year ago and asked Claudia to connect with Nancy when she came to Spain to study. Nancy had never given her life to Christ, so her mom had hoped Claudia might get to know her and encourage her toward faith in Him.
Claudia and Nancy exchanged some text messages, and one day they had coffee together downtown. But Nancy seemed reticent to accept our invitation to church. She was studying and lived far away. But God was working in her life. After four or five months, she finally showed up one Sunday morning.
During the last couple of months, Nancy has attended Alianza de Amor. She has heard the gospel in the Sunday preaching and has become good friends with several of the young people.
Recently, we bumped into her after the service. When we mentioned one of her relatives whom we had previously met in Madrid (once again through Nancy’s mother), Nancy urged us, “Please meet with him to see if he is ready to believe the gospel.”
The Spirit prompted me (Steve) to ask, “When will you be ready?” There had been an evangelistic invitation that very morning, and Nancy had not responded.
She hesitated for a moment and blurted out, “I am ready. I just don’t know how to do it.” As people milled around us, we shared once again the gospel of Christ’s death and Resurrection and the call to trust Him as Lord. She replied, “Yes, I believe.” We invited her to a quiet room and prayed with her to receive Jesus as her only Lord and Savior. What a glorious moment!
*Name changed
Pray
Please pray for Nancy as she begins her walk with Christ. Pray for Steve and Claudia Irvin and others as they seek to encourage and disciple Nancy in her faith. Pray that God will continue to prepare many people in Spain, both Spaniards and immigrants, to believe in Christ.