The Garcías’ Story
E & K have a combined 30 years of cross-cultural ministry experience. They have 3 daughters and live in a culturally diverse area with +120 nationalities. They love using their home for hospitality and using their gifts of teaching, discipleship, and evangelism to build up the church. God has granted them experience in church planting, church replanting, discipleship, teaching, evangelism, serving as Team Leaders, multiple language acquisition, and they are now applying their seminary studies to ministry.
K is studying a Masters in Counseling at Westminster Theological Seminary and serves on a team that cares for and helps provide crisis-management for workers in unreached regions of the world. E is studying a Masters in Divinity at Southern Seminary and also teaches in a residential training program for Spanish-speaking workers, run by their team, preparing workers to serve in unreached areas. He also serves as a chaplain in their community by sharing the gospel in hospitals and nursing homes.
Together, the Garcías serve as the Avant Ministry Directors for the Iberian Peninsula and help care for and provide leadership for nearly forty workers seeking to plant churches among the least reached and unreached. The Garcías live in a strategic location to be able to build relationships and share the Gospel to build up the church in their local context and also to help support church planting movements among unreached people groups. Please email the Garcías to learn more about how to partner with them.
About Spain and Portugal
Major cities in the Iberian Peninsula are becoming more secular. Since the end of the 70's (and especially since the end of Francisco Franco’s regime) Roman Catholicism has been losing power and influence in the families, education system, and government. More detailed research reveals that almost 64% of 18-24 year olds claim to be agnostic or atheist. The religion of rites and tradition has been replaced with the religion of secularism and humanism. This is especially true in urban centers like Madrid, Barcelona, and Lisbon, where global trends towards progressive ideology are more evident. These cities need gospel-centered churches that will boldly proclaim the good news and bring fresh light into the darkness of secularism.
There are many towns Unreached by the Gospel in the Iberian Peninsula. If you want to travel back two decades, visit a town in the interior of Spain or Portugal. The rhythms of life are still “old school.” There are over 8,000 towns like this in Spain. We need church planters who will plant healthy churches, where the gospel of the cross will be in full display; who are willing to be patient and invest the rest of their lives there.
The nations are coming to Spain and Portugal. Over the past four decades, urban areas of Spain and Portugal have become melting pots. When we walk around our neighborhood we are surrounded by people from Morocco, Senegal, and Pakistan. This immigration phenomenon has also brought Muslims to Spain and Portugal, producing a tenfold increase of the Muslim population. The majority of the Muslims come from Morocco and have not heard the gospel. The churches in Spain that are actively and intentionally reaching Muslims are few. North Africa is our most natural mission field. The Iberian Peninsula and North Africa are separated by the 14 kilometer-long Strait of Gibraltar. Because of Spain’s immigration influx and vicinity to North Africa, Spain is a strategic missions hub where the gospel can be preached to people from unreached nations who could be trained and sent out to proclaim the gospel to their people in Spain and around the globe.
For these reasons, Spain is in great need of the gospel, not just for the sake of Spain, but for the sake of the many unreached people groups that are living and immigrating into Spain. Yes, we still need the gospel in Spain: and we have an incredible opportunity to take it to our neighboring nations.