Letter from Bryce and Phyllis Little
September 2004
The Reverend Alfred Aba Heras (center), local pastor and General Secretary of the Spanish Evangelical Church visiting in Northern Kansas Presbytery, June 2004. With Alfredo are Peg and Ed Lakin. Peg is chair of Northern Kansas Presbytery’s Mission Project Committee, which is responsible for the presbytery’s partnership with Spain.
Dear Friends,
In November and December 2003, we visited both Spain and Portugal. We met with the general secretary of the Portuguese Presbyterian Church, and made plans for the Presbytery of Northern Waters to visit Portugal in May, 2004. We also attended the Spanish Evangelical Church’s bi-annual synod meeting in Zaragoza, Spain. We met many local pastors and lay leaders.
On March 11, 2004, the Madrid, Spain, train-station bombing created new challenges for the churches and people of Spain! Plans are being developed between the PC(USA) and Spanish Evangelical Churches to partner in dealing with the spiritual and psychological impact of the bombings upon the churches and people in their respective countries.
In May, 2004, we brought a team of four persons from the Presbytery of Northern Waters for a ten-day visit to Portugal. We met church leaders and visited projects of the Presbyterian Evangelical Church of Portugal. They identified many ways that they could partner in mission. In Spain we met with the Reverend Alfredo Abad, local Madrid pastor and general secretary of the Spanish Evangelical Church, and finalized plans for his June 2004 visit to the to the Presbytery of Northern Kansas and the Presbytery of Wabash Valley (in northern Indiana).
We also met with PC(USA) missionaries in Spain: the Reverends Melanie Mitchell, Donna Moros, and Edgar Moros.
In June 2004, we accompanied the Reverend Alfredo Abad from Spain on a successful trip to explore potential presbytery partnerships with Northern Kansas and Wabash Valley. Both Portugal and Spain are heavily impacted by new immigrants. Spain is receiving South Americans, Spanish Guineans (from Equatorial Guinea, the only Spanish-speaking country in Africa), and Eastern Europeans. Portugal has immigrants from Angola, Brazil, and Eastern Europe.
Right to left: Stephen Kilderup, partnership committee chair for Wabash Valley Presbytery; Alfredo Abad, general secretary of the IEE; a
Portugal
The Brazilian population in Lisbon, Portugal, has increased from 10,000 to over 45,000 persons in just the last two years. There are also many recent immigrants from Angola. The IEPP (Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Portugal) leaders want to develop new evangelistic patterns to reach these new groups of people.
Spain
The theme of the 70th bi-annual synod meeting of the IEE (Spanish Evangelical Church) was, “Responding to New Immigrant Groups in Spain.” The IEE was challenged to reach out to newcomers from South America, Central America, Spanish-speaking Africa, and Eastern Europe. Several presentations focused on moving from a “survival” church to a “missional” church—by honoring other languages and worship patterns. There is a strong similarity between this challenge in Portugal and Spain and other urban areas around the world!
We encouraged some of the leaders to honor first-eneration languages as a way of building bridges to immigrant groups. Languages such as Korean, Taiwanese, Mandarin, English, d African dialects are used in Spain and Portugal.
Gibraltar
We visited Gibraltar and met the pastor of Saint Andrew’s Church (Church of Scotland, European Presbytery), the Reverend Stewart Lamont. Rev. Abad is very interested in working with Rev. Lamont to develop English-speaking congregations in eastern and southern Spain.
Bryce and Phyllis Little with their 10 grandchildren (2004).
Change of address for contributions
Should you be moved to contribute to our ministry, checks from individuals may be sent to: Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Individual Remittance Processing, PO Box 643700, Pittsburgh, PA 15264-3700. Write the title (support for Bryce and Phyllis Little) and the ECO number on the subject line (ECO # 074383) of the check and put it on your cover letter, too. Send a copy of the cover letter to the Area Office for Europe and the Middle East at 100 Witherspoon St. Louisville, KY 40202-1396.
Should you wish to support our program work, the appropriate Extra Commitment Opportunity is: 051727, and it is simply called “Program support for work in Spain and Portugal. To contribute online, click the "give" button below.
Sincerely,
Bryce and Phyllis Little
The 2004 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 342
