By a Team Expansion worker
This past week I had the chance to meet a Spaniard, Marta, who I had been praying for and following her story for about 3 years. A missionary couple in Madrid had meet her through their children’s school, and since then, they had been asking for prayer.
Marta’s initial search for spiritual things started because her daughter was asking her questions about prayer that she had no answer to. Wanting to be able to answer her daughter’s questions, Marta engaged in conversation with the missionary couple, making it very clear that she personally had no intention of changing, converting, believing, (you get the point!).
Months passed, the missionary continued to sow seeds, and finally last summer, the Holy Spirit began to do a powerful work in Marta. Marta began to understand what she was reading in Scripture, and she became hungry for more of it. Her journey has had highs and lows, and because she has MANY questions, and doubts, and baggage, there were times when Marta would stop reading her Bible.
On one of these occasions, she had left the Bible aside for several weeks because of anger and confusion, but decided later on to pick it up again. She picked it up and opened it to whatever page she came to first and read these familiar words… “Martha, Martha, you are worried and anxious about many things. But there is only one thing that is important.” She couldn’t believe it.
Her pursuit of Truth is palpable in conversation. She’s been sharing her journey with a Catholic priest she maintains friendship with. Watching her journey, her understanding of Scripture, and her capacity to share this with others, the priest has been sending people to her so that she can teach them how to read the Bible, how to pray, and essentially giving her disciples!
She recently turned down her dream job offer because when she saw what it would require of her time, she realized, “If I take this job, I won’t have time to disciple others!”
Meeting Marta was a breath of fresh air. The Lord is raising up Spaniards who are doing the hard work up front to develop a deep conviction of the faith they are leaning in to. I pray and believe that their testimony to other Spaniards will run laps around our (the foreigner’s) capacity to reach Spaniards – may it be so!
