Mission Update: Trinity Fellowship, L’Arcada, Spain

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This story comes from Trinity Fellowship Evangelical Free Church in Michigan about their mission work at L’Arcada, a Native American-style youth summer camp developed to reach the people of Spain! Here’s an update the team will share with their church family this coming Sunday:

Our team of ten people that returned April 20 from Trinity Fellowship’s mission trip to L’Arcada in Spain is grateful for the support that made this possible. We had a profitable work time making the camp into a better place for the campers as well as those who serve there. [We participated in] a wide variety of small projects that we worked to build such as shower doors, operable windows in the dining facility, roofs over laundry and garbage areas, clotheslines with a visual barrier, a camp sign, a bridge walkway, platform tent flooring, sewing canvas on housing units, and steps or stairs in various locations. Along the way we also captured photos that depict old world and natural beauty.

What [our] photos and list of accomplishments do not show are the spiritual and financial needs in Spain. Europe has largely been ignored by the Christian community in the United States, sending a large portion of its mission dollars to third world countries. At this point, only .3 of a percent of the population is considered to be an evangelical, protestant Christian (one of lowest in the world). 6% are practicing Catholics, although not normally as Bible-believing as those in the United States. 25% are Muslims with the remainder being unbelievers with no religious affiliation even though they may say they are Catholics. Spaniards are having 1.5 children per couple (a majority of whom are now failing to get married). The Muslims are looking at these same figures and are capitalizing on their opportunity to take over Spain by having large families. They are often illegal immigrants who take advantage of the socialist environment of government provided assistance. This, in turn, is one of the reasons the Spanish government is in a financial crisis as well as the fact that 25% are unemployed. Service providers are often scared of these people and give them preferential treatment over the native Spaniards. Corruption and thievery is a real problem. Police usually fail to go after the thieves. Taxes take 50% of the working person’s salary. As a result, financing missions in Spain is more expensive than in third world countries, and the dollar does not go as far. The staff at L’Arcada envisions the strong possibility of a Muslim mayor in Banyoles within ten to fifteen years. Although there is religious freedom in Spain now, Muslim countries are not known for granting its citizens religious freedom. Thus, there is a real urgency to spread the gospel in Spain where few towns have an evangelical church.

L’Arcada is a bright spot in this dark country. It naturally draws unbelievers much more readily than the churches do and thus has seen a greater response. The camp’s goal of following up with the new believers and getting them into a church along with training and equipping summer staff to minister in the local church spreads its influence. L’Arcada and its staff also serve to train and encourage other Spanish camps that are much smaller to reach out to unbelievers. L’Arcada started in 1991 but already has native Spanish leadership and most of the staff. Few foreign mission locations have seen this happen in such a short time. Currently there are six families representing the full time staff and two retired couples that volunteer on a regular basis. In a country where very few of the pastors work full time in their churches, the Spanish staff at L’Arcada are able to obtain just a minor portion of their support from Spain. This necessitates them raising support in the United States. This has become increasingly more difficult when most churches here prefer to support their own local people going into mission work, limit their support to their denomination’s mission organization, or are feeling their own economic crisis. Our church is now giving some support to Rafa Villalba and Jeremy and Sylvia Frank. Jeremy and Sylvia, along with two-year-old Shania, appreciate the time they were able to spend with us in Big Rapids while raising their support. They are at just 53% of what they should have. The Villalba family’s only church connection in the United States with regards to financial support is Trinity Fellowship. If you know of another possible contact that you could pursue for Rafa, it would be appreciated. He works tirelessly and cheerfully with his wife Yoli’s financial assistance to maintain the facilities at L’Arcada. Yoli also volunteers much of her time to help the camp. Both families have sent their love to their supporters back here in the States and cherish all the prayers that go out for them.

Satan has worked hard to keep the ministry of L’Arcada going forward by having the local government official who is not known for following the laws to keep the camp from building needed facilities. This, in addition to exceedingly great governmental red tape, has made obtaining permits next to impossible. The director, Pere Gonzalez, now feels that it will be possible to start building much needed winterized cabins/bungalows in two years. He is hoping that about six of the ten could be funded and built then. With the experience our team has had, he would like to see us be able to take on this task when we return in 2014. We would need a larger team and a couple weeks (which could possibly be broken down into one-week time periods for some). Along with the building supply funds raised by each team member, it would be helpful if Trinity Fellowship could commit to supplying the rest of the approximately $12,000 needed for one of them. We see this as being an encouragement to other churches and individuals to contribute as well.

For more information about Trinity Fellowship’s L’Arcada summer camp in Spain, or to get involved financially, please visit their websites:
Trinity Fellowship Evangelical Church
L’Arcada