The work isn't easy here in Spain. It's not a country where you can successfully do street evangelism. The Spanish are surrounded by wealth, convenience, and luxury brands, so it's not natural for them to acknowledge that they need help or that they're not in control of their own lives. The pandemic, earthquakes, and the general unpredictability of this year have caused people to feel more vulnerable, but the process is still very slow.
I'm meeting regularly with around 12 women, 2 women almost every week, the other 10 at least once a month. Friendships have grown, and they're real. We have spiritual conversations here and there, and I ask good questions, but no one has accepted my invitation to church or given their lives to Christ. These beautiful, strong women act very self sufficient, and their need for Jesus just isn't clear. Of course, I've heard about the problems in their lives, from classes to men to family, but these women already have so much wisdom, and they're just not thinking daily about their need for Jesus.
Some of the difficulties of ministry here are very similar to the context of the US, but there are many striking differences that make the situation here so much more urgent. The US is inundated with Protestant churches; the average suburb in Minnesota has more churches than this whole province of Granada. American Christians often spend their 20s church hopping, and I don't think we realize how much of a privilege and luxury that really is.
Here, the evangelical church basically doesn't exist. When it does exist, the church community is shockingly small. While around 25% of Americans call themselves evangelical Christians, only 2% of Spanish do, and half of this percentage are Latinos from Central and South America who are living in Spain. Only 1% of Spaniards say they have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
Pretty much every single American has a friend of a friend that is a Christian. Here, no one even has a friend of a friend of a friend that's a Protestant Christian. The situation is urgent.
And that's exactly what keeps me hopeful and inspired in this difficult, often fruitless work. Now there are 12 Spanish women in Granada who directly have a Christian friend, and dozens more from their web of friendships that now have a Christian friend of a friend of a friend.
And if that's the only thing that comes out of our 10 months here, that's still a cause for celebration.
