New church building for Trujillo

The medieval city of Trujillo was the birth place of Francisco Pizarro, “Conquistador” of Peru. Seated on a hill overlooking the dry plains to the south of the river Tagus and a centre for the cattle farming of the area, particularly known for cured Iberian ham and cheese, Trujillo has nevertheless lost the importance which it once had. In many ways it has remained anchored in the past and the pride in its Conquistadors is out of place when many of its men have to leave in search of even menial jobs in the big cities of Spain.

For OM, Trujillo was our first church-plant, starting in 1992. A women’s team was joined by an American couple and these by a men’s team. Together they have done every kind of evangelism imaginable, but only a handful of people have come to the Lord and some of these have now moved on to other places. For several years there was a meeting hall, but when the owner needed to sell it, as there was no full-time worker there at that point it was decided to go without. But now the Lizardo family are well settled in after almost four years, have seen small signs of growth and feel that a high-profile meeting location will help to draw the people. Just such a building was found late last year on the main street into the town and after weeks of preparations was inaugurated on 2nd February.

The hall is long and narrow, with an arched ceiling. You could almost say it is neo-romanesque! Beyond the hall a door leads to a small apartment with dining room, kitchen, bathroom and two bedrooms. Normally one of the rooms will serve for the Sunday school, but as funds permit we hope to be able to equip them also as temporary accommodation for travelling teams and other visitors.

At the inauguration the hall overflowed into both the back rooms and onto the street as over fifty well-wishers joined the fewer locals and church members to pray for the church and celebrate this event. Previously attendance has been less than ten people, including the Lizardos’ two boys Paul and Daniel. Our prayer is that sooner rather than later the Lord would bring more locals to himself so that the hall will quickly become too small for Sunday worship. Will you join us in that prayer? Thank you!

Pray particularly for an important up-coming event: the Valera 400th anniversary celebration exhibition which will take place at the end of May. Cipriano de Valera was a monk from Extremadura who came to the Lord during the time of Philip II (of the Armada!) and having escaped the clutches of the Inquisition made the first and most important revision to the first printed Spanish Bible. The original had been printed in Frankfurt in 1569, the work of fellow Extremeño Casiodoro de Reina. Now, in 1602 the definitive Reina-Valera translation was printed, equivalent to the English Authorised Version or Luther’s German Bible. The difference, of course is that as a “Protestant” Bible, it was banned in Spain until 1869 and again for some time under the Franco dictatorship. It did not, therefore, have such an influence on the develop-ment of the Spanish language and culture as, for example, Cervantes’ Don Quijote published in the same period. The Bible exhibition which will open to the public for four days, together with a variety of lectures, film showings and multi-media presen-tations, will be a big opportunity to present the Gospel to the people of Trujillo. A one-off international night presented by a team from the Logos II last year brought one lady to the Lord. Mari-Carmen is now doing very well and her faith is being streng-thened through the inauguration of the hall. Pray also for the results of the Madrid Gospel Choir concert which took place on April 13th. (More news on the web!) Pray that these events will help others to come to a living relationship with Jesus!