We’re travelling to Spain today, as Jesús Ortiz shares his testimony. Mission partners Jesús and Helen work in Spain, where their outreach includes Bible teaching, discipleship of women, English conversation classes, evangelism and camp work and a charity clothing ministry.
I was born in a very Catholic home. I liked to go to mass and I became an altar boy because I wanted to please God. But I never felt satisfied in my heart and, as I planned out my future, I thought of the examples around me: study, do military service, get married, have kids and grandchildren…and in the end die…and what then? These thoughts oppressed me a lot.
At 12 years of age I became very ill and was sent to my sister’s house in Barcelona. At that time, I did not know that my sister and brother-in-law had found Christ. He was a taxi driver and he took a client to some conferences. The client was a believer and left him a tract to read and through the tract he believed in Christ. My brother-in-law then led his wife, my sister, to Christ.
But I never felt satisfied in my heart…
When I was in their home, they told me about Him although, at first, I was opposed to it all. They gave me Christian books to read and then I realised Christ died to give us hope of eternal life, and that the fear I had of death was irrational in the light of what He had done.
I went with them to church and John 3:16 gave me the certainty that I had eternal life in Christ. I returned to Soria and became one of the first members of the church there and this has been my spiritual home until today.
Pray:
- for mission workers, like Jesús and Helen, who are sharing the gospel through Bible teaching and evangelism, and caring for the community through charity clothing mission
- for opportunities in Spain to witness to minority groups, such as Basque, Muslim and Chinese communities
- for the gospel to shine through in the midst of current spiritual confusion, traditional Catholicism and secular materialism.
