Our return to Madrid continued to be a blessing as we were able to share more with Fr. William and the St John congregation. Hugh was helpful in preparing a card for them to reproduce at the printers. It can be used by the members to give to Filipinos they meet around the city telling them about the Charismatic Episcopal Church and inviting them to a Filipino fellowship.

Our final weekend was on the island of Ibiza, a Spanish possession. Many of the Filipinos are caretakers of property owned by wealthy Europeans or Arabian Sheiks. Some work in restaurants. The church is small. It meets in the chapel of a Roman Catholic school. Our teaching was strictly Biblical on the Evangelical and Charismatic Streams of the Convergence Movement, teaching on what it means to be "born again" and what is the Spirit-filled life.

Sunday morning we concluded with some teaching on sacraments and celebrated an instructive Eucharist. When this group is without pastoral leadership they go back to Mass at the Roman Catholic Church so we didn't have the problem of anti-catholicism as at the other places.

We flew back to Madrid on Sunday evening and prepared for our return to America. The surprises on this mission were numerous, ranging from unplanned blessings with meetings we did not know we were going to have to experiences one would never dream of on the mission field.

There were surprises like the Ambassador's home in Marbella and the rich German's mansion we stayed in at Ibiza and the meals served us like unto royalty. It was a different Philippine outreach on which I could easily hear God call me again should the opportunity arise.

There were also heart breaking moments over the struggle of a "baby church" seeking to find its way in a strong Roman Catholic country. Spain might almost be described as "anti-catholic" because few of the people darken the door of the church.

When wearing my clerical shirt on the streets I sensed an attitude of disdain almost to the point of attack. In the struggle for leadership the Charismatic Episcopal Church in Europe has ordained men without having a clear call from God and with inadequate preparation. The church is small but has tremendous potential with hundreds of thousands of Filipinos working in Spain, France and Monaco.

Hugh and I praise God and thank Archbishop Thomas Hines and Bishop Elmer Belmonte for the opportunity given us to minister in the Confederation for Philippine Churches in Europe. I pray we were able to give to them as much as they gave to us.

Our assignment was to prepare these missions to be received into the Charismatic Episcopal Church, however, our assessment is that only one is ready but with follow-up work and a deacon or priest assigned for regular oversight, the others could be made ready soon.

The Church of St John the Apostle in Madrid was a surprise. It was not originally on our schedule. Fr. William Obedoza, Rector, met us at the train station. Our expectation was simply provision of a place to stay for the several days for which we had no schedule.

However, praise God, he announced seminars for Wednesday and Thursday nights April 29-30, and again for Wednesday and Thursday, May 6-7 when our return from Marbella would give us again two days with no assignment. Jehovah Jireh! During these four nights we did practically a full-blown Convergence Seminar. This was mostly review for the congregation since they are already received into the Charismatic Episcopal Church.

The weekend in Marbella was another surprise. The congregation was like the other missions but we had more time with them than we have had at the other places. This being a holiday weekend, some of their employers were away. As stated before, most of these Filipinos are servants to the rich.

For example, one day we had lunch at the home of the Ambassador to UNESCO. The Filipino servants in this mansion were part of our group. I praise God to be on the "ground floor" of their reception into the Church.

Filipinos are always fun to be with and these are no exception, but I feel sorry for them. Their labors here promote a "welfare" system in the Philippines and they feel trapped by it. Several expressed the pain of the guilt their families place on them forcing them to have no savings for their own future while sending everything back and knowing their families are not frugally using what they send.

We tried to advise those who are providing scholarships to brothers and sisters and how to protect themselves against abusive use of their money. Some live in denial. They listen but don't hear.

We had one of our best instructive Eucharists at Marbella. Music was lacking. Hugh and I have done this enough that we work well together; he reading the instruction and my doing the Celebration. I am astonished at the depth of Hugh's understanding of sacraments and symbolism revealed during this trip.

While his assignments are the Evangelical and Charismatic Modules and I deal with the sacramental-liturgical, there are still some times we get into each other's fields and he has given some really good and sound sharings on symbols and sacraments. These usually come out when he is teaching on Language and Culture or the difference between what is Mystery and what is Magic. We are a good team! I think I have taught him well :-) [I believe that the :-) symbol represents a cyber-smile.]

On our last evening in Marbella a beautiful young 23 year old Filipina became the answer to a prayer. I had prayed for her with her mother on Friday night. She had been missing but the lost has now come home. Hugh and I had the privilege to minister to this young mother and asked Jesus to free her from cocaine and help her to stay free in Him. Please pray for LillyBeth.

The single need with all these groups is solid Bible teaching. Some have received bad teaching on the Charismata and very negative teaching on Sacraments and Liturgy. The "how-to-do" of evangelism is missing. The lay leaders do their best but they know they are handicapped. As we near the end of this outreach, I am unsure how much good our short time with them accomplished.

We are back in Madrid and leave Friday for Ibiza, a resort island off the coast of Spain, and our final mission. In Marbella we saw the Rock of Gibraltar which I never dreamed of seeing. One more amazement at the creativeness of God. There have been too many experiences to recount. I praise God for each!

We are now getting reports from earlier meetings. God is using us for "sifting purposes." Bishop Belmonte reports some earlier meetings are resulting in people either strengthened by our teaching and looking forward to reception into the Charismatic Episcopal Church, or helping them to decide to leave because of the Convergence direction. The causes: Liturgy and tongues! Interesting opposites.

My natural self wants total acceptance with no one leaving but I know that is impossible. When Bishop Hines took the Filipinos in Manila into the CEC he devoted 20 weeks to teaching about Convergence and lost 3,000 members when the switch took place.

Our mission trip almost came to an abrupt end on Wednesday the 22nd. While waiting for our train to Barcelona, a man came up and asked something in French. We responded that we spoke only English. He kept repeating himself to get our attention while his companion took Hugh's computer bag from the seat beside him.

As the man quickly left, Hugh immediately became aware his bag was gone. "Go after him!" I said and pointed in the direction people were walking. Hugh began to run, the Lord guiding his direction. The men saw Hugh persuing and ran. It was only their running that allowed Hugh to know who the culprits were. They must have thought Hugh had identified them, dropped his bag and ran.

I was praising God when Hugh came back with bag in arm. It contained his computer, PASSPORT, over $2,000 and return airline tickets. The Lord was watching over us.

It is very expensive here. The Filipino community is providing us places to stay during our ministry time with them, but there are gaps of days when we are alone and on-our-own. The least expensive places in safe areas cost $150 upward a night.

I feel guilty allowing the Filipinos to pay for our lodging since they are on a servant-income themselves. They have given us offerings which I have found some way to return. Where their hospitality is not offended, and I discern we are a burden, I manage some way to absorb some of the expense.

In Spain we were met by Deacon Jojo Setila from the Barcelona CEC. We were taken to the apartment where we stayed the night. Later, we were met by Fr. Jeric Geronimo, the parish priest, and accompanied to lunch; then the train station to get departure schedules for future train trips. In Spain we must make advance reservations. Pain-in-the-neck!

We purchased round trip air tickets for our engagement on the island of Ibiza which comes at the end of the trip. That was not easy due to this being a resort island and heavily visited. We fly from Madrid to Ibiza and back to Madrid via Barcelona to connect with our home bound flight on May 11. This routing was less expensive though troubled with connections and long waits. A direct round trip would have cost almost what my international ticket cost. In-continent travel is costly; that is why trains are so popular.

Thursday night we had a meeting at St James the Lesser Church dealing with evangelism, followed by a prayer ministry and a pancit canton dinner. What we have tried to do is instill in the believers the fact that God "gifts" them to minister to each other. St James' has very beautiful stained glass windows. This Church has been in CEC for several years.

From Barcelona we had a 9 hour train ride to Bilbao and the Christian Life Fellowship mission - only several years old. Pastora Lucia Servillo graciously hosted us. She is from La Carlota in the Philippines where we have worked many times. It was like "ole-home-week" for us. We think she has relatives attending one of the churches in the Philippines where we have worked.

The ministry was different here. They have had teachings in liturgy but need teaching in the Charismatic stream. These members are servants to the wealthy Spanish along this northern coast and were available only on evenings. Our last evening we had Bible study at 11:30 p.m. after they finished work. We had rich fellowship with these believers.

We are the first missionaries to visit their church, and again I had the joy to celebrate their first Eucharist. The church meets in the downstairs of an apartment with the Pastora living upstairs. The choir sang from the upstairs. There was an opening in the wall through which they could see the altar below. The chapel is small but we filled it for the Eucharist Sunday evening. Such gracious people! Each place is difficult to leave!

From Bilbao we go to Madrid for one night's meeting in the CEC congregation, and then to Marbella on the southern coast. Our purpose is to encourage these believers, but this has worked both ways. Both missions thus far are anxious to be received into CEC and the lady pastoras in both places look forward to a priest being assigned.

It is my hope CEC-PHILIPPINES will soon devise an acceptable way of incorporating these faithful lady Pastoras into some official type ministry such as a restored Order of Deaconess. The Filipino ladies with whom we have worked both in Europe and the Philippines express no desire to be nuns, but seem favorable to some way in which their ministerial gifts can be utilized in an official manner without disturbing CEC's position regarding male leadership.

We have posted some pictures from this outreach on this page. Click here to have quick look at some of our activities thus far. Keep praying for us, and many thanks to those of you who have sent an offering during this outreach. My wife back home is keeping me informed.

Hugh Kaiser and I were met by Charismatic Episcopal Church's Bishop Elmer Belmonte at Paris' deGaulle airport Thursday morning April 16 and drove into Paris to the church's office. We were booked into a very nice hotel only a few doors from the office, and took the subway to the Champs Elysees for lunch, afterward a short walk to the Arc de Triomphe.

In the evening we had a gathering of "Men of the Church" during which Hugh and I shared in the teaching on Leadership. Following a time of very effective prayer ministry we had a Filipino dinner.

Bishop Belmonte has responsibility of Filipino work in Europe comprising seven nations [England, France, Netherlands, Spain, Monaco, Portugal, Germany] as well as oversight of the Paris Cathedral Church. A picture of him with Hugh and I can be seen on our Web Page.

This Man of God has the respect and support of his people who have moved to Europe for purposes of employment and brought with them their church. It is a ripe field of evangelism for CEC-PHILIPPINES with millions of Filipinos living in Europe who would welcome the Christian fellowship with other Filipinos.

Many of the Filipinos come from Roman Catholic background and many have left the church for evangelical and charismatic churches prior to moving to Europe. CEC embraces all three expressions. I suggested they print a calling card in Tagalog informing Filipinos of the presence of their church to be distributed whenever they encounter another Filipino.

Friday morning Hugh and I took an express train from Paris to Monte Carlo reaching speeds in excess of 200 MPH. We were met and driven to the church for an evening introductory meeting during which time I gave some history of the Church and showed how the Charismatic Episcopal Church fit into that history.

We took questions from the participants which would be the basis of our teachings that will follow. Monte Carlo is a beautiful city, and you probably feel no regrets for our laboring in such an environment, but someone has to do the "dirty work." To say the least, it is very different from the mission field in the Philippines.

Our job here is to prepare these groups for reception in the CEC. Questions of greatest concern as these believers come into the CEC deal with those Roman Catholic practices they discarded when they became evangelical charismatics. Now with "bishops and priests" and making the sign of the Cross they are wondering if they have to once again embrace the relics and images of the past to be Christian in CEC.

It is basically a "language" problem not unlike what we have had to deal with in the Philippines, and confusion due to bad pentecostal and evangelical teachings. Much of our teaching was devoted to answering concerns. Saturday's all day session ended with a powerful prayer ministry time, during which four received the baptism in the Spirit, and the Holy Spirit doing some intense ministry to others. I praise God for the opportunity He gave us to encourage and bless them. They were surely a blessing to us.

Sunday we concluded our time with them doing more teaching on God's Grace in the Sacraments, and ended with an instructive Eucharist. This was their very first Eucharist and the Bishop honored me by allowing me to be the Celebrant.

After the Eucharist, the majority of the congregation remained for another hour so we could pray with and for them. There were physical healings as well as comfort for homesick hearts. After the service a dozen of the members followed us to our place, and spent the evening in added fellowship. Near midnight we finally said our "goodbyes," but not before we had prayed with several more people.

Filipinos have a servant heart, and these in Monte Carlo surely expressed that to us. Most of those with whom we worked are servants of the wealthy. One man who serves a Prince was our "waiter" each evening at dinner, and the meals they prepared us were unbelievable. I now know how royalty eats.

We have a day and a half free and then it is off to Barcelona and Bilbao SPAIN for Thursday and the weekend. Thank you for your prayers, and especially, thank you for gifts and offerings during this time of need. Having had very limited USA engagements during February, March and April, our treasury is very low, and Barnabas is having to bear the expense of this outreach for both Hugh and I as usually is our practice, with the exception of the hospitality when we are with the Filipino groups.