Bethany Church of Sierra Madre - Jerry & Elizabeth Dirks

September 9, 2011

Hi Everyone,

So sorry that is has taken SO LONG to get this message out to you. But we have had no end of trouble with our internet access. We lost our prior internet that we had before we left and since coming back to Spain we have had a new provider with EXTREMELY SLOW service. They say it may take a month to get the regular high speed service back, but remembering what we went through to get internet when we FIRST arrived here four years ago, we totally expect that it could take up to a year before they actually get that high speed service in. So if you don’t hear responses from us very quickly, you know why. Between trying to write a “quick” email with four small kids constantly needing attention and having extremely slow internet, well, that is why. We usually can get slightly faster service late at night, but not always. Would you please pray that the high speed service comes in quickly as email is our main means of communication with just about everyone.

We are so thankful to report that we arrived back to Spain safe and sound with ALL our luggage. I often say that we never feel like we are "suffering for the Lord" as missionaries, but that plane ride with four small girls came really close! The flight TO Canada from Spain back in May was ok but the return trip was much more rough. Naomi just wouldn't sleep and then the screaming and crying and trying all positions to get her to sleep…even Gravol…nothing worked. You can just feel the angst from people when they see you walk on the plane with four small kids, and you can almost hear them say, "Oh, please please PLEASE may your seats not be next to mine!" Well, we survived. We are still working out the jet lag, but today the girls woke up at a normal time and each day gets better. Thank you soooo much for praying for us!

We have one huge prayer request for this weekend. We arrived back in time for our town's fiestas. Many of you have prayed about the peña that is across the street from us. Well, we came back to find out that our closest group of friends (Ana, Raul, Lidia Ismael, and MANY others) have started their own peña and we are part of that group. So we are now officially involved in another peña doing all the activities together with them. Tonight we are part of the town parade and then Friday and Saturday nights will be late ones for us as we spend the evening having BBQs and get-togethers. We also have interaction with the other peña in front of our house, but more closely with the one we are part of. This week is such a great opportunity to mingle closely with our Spanish friends, We just ask that you would pray that God would do what He wants to do this weekend and that people's hearts would continue to soften towards Him. We are praying that if He wants, there would be natural opportunities to verbally share the Gospel with our friends, and that above all, Christ would shine through us. Thanks for your prayers!!!!!!

Love, Elizabeth for all of us

September 14, 2011

Dear Friends,

Wow, it is so neat to be able to share how your prayers were answered and how God worked this weekend. It came about so fast and unexpectedly that I can’t wait to share it all with you! It has been three days that I have been trying to get access through our super slow internet service, and just tonight, it is letting me in. Please keep praying about our internet! Thank you! Here is the story about the weekend.

On Friday night, just a few hours after most of you would have received my email asking for prayer, I had a neat opportunity to share with a friend. Our whole family had gone over to spend time at our peña. After about a couple hours, our girls were getting quite tired and “squirrely”, so we took them home to bed. Jerry decided that he would stay with them and I could head back to the peña until they ended, which is often around 1 or 2 in the morning. I was tired, but the whole idea of being in this peña is to BE with the people and share our lives with them. So off I headed.

Well, long story short, I got to talking with one of my friends named Cecilia. She was casually sharing how she likes to meditate and mentioned a tiny something about going to a mass now and then. I had heard before that she liked to meditate, and this finally felt like a good time when I could ask her what that entailed for her. She shared how she likes to “free her mind” and very timidly stated that she likes to talk to “the God of the world”. She mentioned that she liked to talk with her four year old daughter about the “angels and God” sometimes. She shared a couple of times how she has “never really found anyone that she could openly talk to about her spiritual life” and seemed quietly excited that I was one she could talk to! She mentioned how she viewed people from “my land (USA/Canada) as being really open about faith matters –probably seen it on TV, but not quite sure HOW—but that here in Spain, people are VERY closed to spiritual things. It seemed like she was breathing fresh air as she talked! As we talked, she said how she had noticed when she joined our mom’s theater group that there was some kind of “light” about me, a light that she felt in her own life, and she just knew there had to be something about me that she had in common.

I began asking her if she believed in one God alone. She said yes. Then I asked what she felt about Jesus Christ and His dying on the cross to save us from sin. She said she did believe all that to be true but was a little vague about what sin was and that it seemed to be a bit “harsh for this day in age”. But she seemed VERY interested in talking about all this and also wanted to continue talking even when we were interrupted a few times by other kids! We stood talking for about an hour on the whole subject until about 1:00 am. As the group started to break up and head for home, she just kept eye contact with me talking about spiritual matters. As her husband sat in the car waiting for her with her reluctant to get going (!!!!), I ended by asking her what she thought of life after death. She told me she did believe in life after death but that one could be reincarnated on this earth. I did not agree at this point but gently expressed how the Bible states that we can have eternal life in heaven with Him and that I felt incredible peace when my parents passed away this year knowing that I would see them again IN HEAVEN one day.

The next day, she came over to where I was sitting and just sat down and stayed. At one point she talked about how when she doesn’t meditate, her day just does not go right. SO……please pray for Cecilia. I see a person very sensitive to God and wanting to practice a life of faith and know God a bit more—whoever that God is for her. I don’t think she has really ever read the Bible. Please pray that she would REALLY and TRULY know Jesus as her Saviour and that she would come to understand that she can have eternal life in HEAVEN with Him one day.

Thank you for praying,
Elizabeth Dirks