McKinstry E-News … Fall 2019

By McKinstrysInSpain | October 21, 2019

“I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 15:13)

We are learning to TRUST HIM MORE.

  This may surprise you about us, but as people who have left family, friends, jobs, and comforts for the mission field, to follow God’s call on our lives, we are continually learning to trust Him more. This beautiful journey we are on as followers of Jesus is a lifetime process of becoming who God is calling us to become and doing what He is calling us to do.

Trust is defined as 1) reliance on the integrity, strength, ability, surety, etc., of a person or thing; confidence, and 2) confident expectation of something; hope. I wish we could say that our confidence is always and absolutely unwavering, but, like many of you, we battle anxieties, doubts, and fears. We get impatient and we feel pressure to perform.

In those moments, we lean into God and choose to surrender our feelings and fears to Him and here is what we find: His presence in our lives is powerful, His grace is truly amazing, and He is absolutely TRUSTWORTHY.

We see His work unfolding before us as we continue to move towards planting a new church in Malaga, Spain. To our partners who pray for us and invest in this effort, we say THANK YOU because we could not do this without you! You are God’s hands holding us up.
BIG QUESTION: How do I know if I am trusting God?
Paul writes that our trust in Him will produce PEACE, JOY, and HOPE. If you’re struggling in any of these areas, if you sense a need to TRUST HIM MORE in ANY WAY, we invite you to listen in on a message Mark shared at the International Church of Barcelona entitled,
This message reveals more about how God has been teaching us to TRUST HIM MORE and WHAT TRUSTING HOM LOOKS LIKE. We also invite you to pause and pray for the TWENTY-THREE people who committed or recommitted their lives to Christ that morning – and we thank you for that!

Pictured left to right, top to bottom: Pictured with some from our Couples Community Group…Every week, we eat together, pray together, play together, support each other, and serve together. The international community is quite mobile, people and come and go rather quickly. We are learning to love people deeply so that they might see Christ fully.  English Youth Camp with the Team from Oak Creek, WI…We had an amazing week of camp with over 60 campers! We taught the teens english using the story of Joseph, played lots of games, and made tons of memories. Heather preached an incredible message and God touched many hearts. Thank you, Oak Creek AG, for loving so well. What a week!  FIRST EVER AGWM USA All-Missionary Gathering…In August, the first ever all missionary gathering for the Assemblies of God took place in Orlando, FL over four days. It was refreshing, inspiring, and historic. We are grateful to be a part of such an amazing mission family! BASIC Discipleship…Every Sunday, at the International Church of Barcelona, we offer a discipleship course for those who are searching or are new in their faith in Christ. The class is almost always full and features people from all over the world. Out of this last course, we baptized those who were formerly Muslims, Atheists, Agnostics, Secularists, and Animists. Each of them found real life in Christ.

Your partnership makes all of this possible!

International Church Plant … Malaga, Spain

We have been taking many trips to Malaga over the last nine months to pray over the city and get a feel for what God is doing there. We have met many people, some of which desire to be a part of the new church. Please pray with us for timing, favor, and resourcing. We love this city and believe that God is up to something marvelous there!

According to a recent demographic study in Spain, over the last three years, Malaga has attracted the third most international businesses, just behind Barcelona and Madrid. This growing city numbers 600,000+ people with a greater metro area of 1.5 million. There is only one Spanish Assembly of God church and just a handful of evangelical churches; an injustice that we believe must be rectified. Everyone, everywhere deserves an opportunity to hear and understand the gospel of Jesus Christ. Please join with us in praying for Malaga and for the wonderful people who live there.

 

We Need Your Prayers … Here’s How:

1. For Jesus to be lifted high in Malaga, Spain. For existing churches to be encouraged, new churches to be started, and for a movement of people to follow Christ.

2. For the new International Church plant in Malaga. For people we have connected with there, for God’s timing, and for the necessary resources. We’ll be coming back to the states for an extended time of sharing beginning in June of 2020.

3. For God to call people to come be a part of the church plant team. If you are interested or you know some one who may be interested in being a part of the team please contact us at our email: Mark@McKinstrysInSpain.org  We believe God is calling others to step into this with us.

4. For friends in Barcelona that are new in Christ. Please pray that they will grow in their faith, walk in community with others, and share their faith with friends.

5. For our family. We will gather together over Thanksgiving weekend to celebrate the marriage of our daughter, Allie and her soon-to-be husband, Joey Mendez. We could not be prouder of them nor more excited for their future together!

The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective (James 5:16).
We are super proud of our girls!
In July, we came back to the midwest for just a few days and we were able to throw a bridal shower for Allie and attend Ashley’s induction ceremony to medical school. When we left for Spain they were 21 and 19 years old…at times, we wondered if we were making the biggest mistake of our lives, but we chose to trust God’s leading. It hasn’t been easy but God is clearly with them. Thank you for praying for them.
Posted in Mark's Posts