What can we say about Madrid, if you have been you will know what I mean, when I say it is beautiful. We have recently returned from a trip with Luther and Sandy Meier to visit the Sanchez family. Eli, Sherling and their two boys Matheo and Santiago who are originally from Nicaragua, where they have been training missionaries in a missionary school and have empowered many to follow The Lord in their calling to the nations. The MV Latin America office have helped the Sanchez’s locate and settle in Madrid and they are beginning to see The Lord bless their hearts, their lives and touch others lives through their ministry.
Eli and Sherling are passionate people, they love Jesus and this shines through them, their love for people is so real and genuine, it is nothing but inspiring. They are a wonderful couple and as a family are a great joy to be with.
They were telling us about how The Lord has led them to plant a church. They began by helping and having a meal with a few people and loving them, and before they knew it, their apartment was bursting at the seams. They had 50 people in a tiny living room. And I mean tiny, when we saw their home church on the photos we thought that looked great but when we visited their apartment we were shocked at how small the room was and wondered how on earth they managed to fit so many people in! Whenever they had ‘church’ they would have to move all the furniture out except for anything that could be sat on and they had a bracket for the television on the wall so everyone could see the words when they were singing to Jesus.
It was obvious they needed a building to use for everyone meet.
We saw the new church building they moved into and what an amazing amount of work they have achieved getting it ready to use – they still have much work to do though – their biggest challenge at the moment is their need to fit sound proofing particularly in the ceiling of the whole room.
They frequently get complaints from a few of the residents in the apartments above – who oppose the church being there – and unfortunately the police have to get involved, if they do nothing and the residents continue to complain and they could lose their agreement to remain renting the building, never mind the upset it causes for the people they are looking after. They want to be good neighbours so they are looking at soundproofing the walls and making better facilities for the congregation.
They minister to people from many nations and their church is called ‘House of Nations’ – in Spanish of course which is Casa de Naciones.
We had an amazing time together and ministered to the amazing people in their church, so passionate in their worship of Jesus, people who have many struggles and live apart from their own families while they earn money to send home and Eli and Sterling have become their new family, living and loving Jesus together, doing life together.
We saw Jesus touch a number of people with healing, physical and emotional, two ladies had their shoulders healed from long standing pain and a number of people were filled with Holy Spirit and experienced more of His love.
Eli and Sherling empower others, we met couples in their church who are being trained to be leaders and plant churches in Madrid. Eli and Sterling empower equip and send out others and they are excellent at connecting with and working with other leaders. We met Pastors and their families from Madrid and ministered in their churches too. It looks like Eli and Sterling through Jesus are making quite an impact in Madrid and it is obvious that God is using them to reach further and deeper into Madrid and Spain, the future is very exciting and a privilege to be part of what The Lord is doing with this missionary family. They have also been asked to help organise a big Mission conference in October where many leaders and missionaries will gather to be equipped, inspired and challenged in the mission of Jesus Christ.The Sanchez family are doing an amazing work with Jesus and they have recently announced some amazing news, there are expecting their 3rd baby – a miracle baby, a story that I’m sure will be told on here soon. They need a bigger vehicle, one for their family (they have sold their car to pay for starting in the church building) and a vehicle to help people get together and help with the work they are doing in different parts of Madrid. We are going to help them raise funds for these needs and we know that this family are great soil to plant seed in. They are multipliers and whether that is money or helping them on a mission trip in Madrid, they are a family to sow into and help.
