The Church
The church here was begun in 1924 through the testimony of one family in the town, Over time the church began to grow both in size and influence and also affected the spiritual life of the nearby towns. During the difficult years of the Dictatorship the members suffered for their faith and the church was only legally recognised after a long period of repeated applications to the local authorities.
Once again the church began to grow and it became quite strong. However, in the 1970s it began to suffer in the same way as other rural churches. This time the problem was migration to find work. Many people moved to the big cities in other parts of Spain. In just one year the church lost 13 families when they moved out of the town.
There are now 12 members with a regular attendance on Sunday mornings of 12-15 people. A smaller number meet for the mid-week meeting. However there is a lively children’s Bible club which meets weekly in term time. There is also a fortnightly women’s meeting.
Whilst the town is not big it does have a strategic importance in the work of the Kingdom of God. In the surrounding area there are 13 communities where there is no evangelical church. There are 15,000 who live in the area and for them their nearest church is in Santa Cruz de Mudela
The Workers
Jennifer
Sergio and Chani began their ministry with the mission in September 2011. Their two older children, Elizabeth and Sergio Pablo, are both married and live in the Canary Islands and Sevilla respectively. Jennifer is 12 years old and is the youngest member of the mission family. They also have four grandchildren (two girls and two boys).
They are from the Canary Islands, where they were involved, full time, in the ministry of their local church and in a rehabilitation centre for drug addicts. After this they helped a church in Oviedo (Northern Spain) part-time, being involved with the preaching and teaching both adults and children. They also participated in the therapy group for Alcoholics and drug addicts.
At the present time they have the responsibility for the pastoral work in the church in Santa Cruz de Mudela. There, evangelistic work consists of an after school English club held on the church premises and a Children’s meeting which up to 20 children attend. They also help with the Alcoholics Anonymous group in town.
Chani is very actively involved in the local parents-teacher association at Jennifer’s school in the town.