On June 22, over 300 people met to praise God for 36 years of gospel witness and gospel progress in the Spanish seaside tourist town of Salou, south-west of Barcelona.
Thirty-six years ago, an English missionary and his Spanish wife began to pastor a small group of believers in a town of 2,000 inhabitants on the north east coast of Spain. Little by little the town (and the church) began to grow and the fellowship decided that the best thing would be to buy the small hall (which was a disused garage, under a block of flats) as a permanent home. This seemed to be confirmed when the church was given a piece of saleable land on the outside of the town.
Ten years of prayer
A long process of prayer pleading for a buyer for the piece of land seemed ‘in vain’. Ten very long years went by with no answer. ‘We even tried to give the land away but without success!’ Then suddenly the Town Hall offered a ‘swap’ and the church was given a larger piece of flat land in the middle of the town. The pastor said: ‘How grateful we are that the Lord did not answer our ten-year long prayer! Or perhaps we should say he was answering our prayer, just saying: “Wait for a little while; I’ve got a better plan for you” ’.
