Latest news from Cordoba
March 2026
Life is full of challenges and opportunities, but what changes how we see things as followers of Jesus is our idea of who he is and keeping our eyes fixed on him at all times.
We are facing a number of challenges at the moment, for which we would appreciate your prayers. Cristina is still struggling with pain in her arms and feet (although we thank God that her vertigo has gone). She is having daily sessions of physiotherapy for her feet and the doctors are still running tests on her arms (this week they discounted nerve damage).
We have also had another Christian family move to a different church, as we don’t have any other young children and they were struggling to let their children go with any of the members of the church during the Sunday meetings. We have lost a lot of Christians in the last 2 years, but none because of disagreements on theological issues or vision or broken relationships. They have either moved to another country or moved to a larger church with people their own age. This is hard as we are really left with older believers who can’t be involved in later night activities (which is most of our outreach). We continue to support the elderly believers as they reach out to people their age.
The third challenge came yesterday as we received a message to say that Peter and Sue (Cristina’s parents) have had their Visa renewals rejected. We have 9 days to provide an updated Marriage certificate and a letter from their UK bank with their average account balance over the last 6 months. Both of these need to have a Hague Apostille (Government validation of their legitimacy) and a sworn translation. As you can imagine, 8 days (from tomorrow) is not very long to get all of this together and sent off. We are waiting to hear from a solicitor if there is another way around it (as neither of the documents were on the original requirements list and we provided the evidence needed for financial stability) and also to tell us if digital Apostilles and translations will be sufficient.
At the same time, we have had some really good opportunities to talk with people about God and Jesus. On Saturday evening we were with our friends Lara and Fernando and the question came up as to why God allows suffering and what is the point of struggles in life to which we were able to respond. On Tuesday, at the English exchange, Cristina asked the question “Describe the God you have rejected. Describe the God you don’t believe in.”
It was great to hear the different answers that came back but Cristina was also able to give her answer saying she didn't believe in a God who doesn't know her or who is distant or has no compassion with suffering or who doesn't want the best for her or a God that wasn't just. Given many of those things are what people's complaints about God were, people were surprised that they agreed with her.
Tonight Cristina has just had a conversation by WhatsApp with our Russian/American friend Alec (who put us in touch with the solicitor) about her trust in God. He was concerned for the health coverage for Cristina's dad with the visa issue so Cristina said that she could only do what was in her hands to do and that everything was in God's hands as he's 100% faithful and always had been.
He then shared about some of his thoughts and doubts and questions and she was able to explain the gospel and challenge him about the logical conclusion of there being no point to life. His response was to say he needed to think more about it and thanked her for sharing with him. He then shared about a mutual friend (a class mate of Joel's) had recently asked him the question "What's the point of life?" and that he shared the hypothetical response of "no point" but said it was "chilling" to consider that as true. Praise God for WhatsApp!
We will also have 2 great opportunities this weekend with a meal with 5 Americans, 1 Spaniard and 2 English people coming for a meal on Friday evening where we will repeat the Chat GPT questions about life, but this time in English as most of the people are much more comfortable in their mother tongue.
On Saturday, Cristina will have another women’s breakfast, looking at the invitations of Jesus (this week from Luke 14 and the wedding banquet). Please continue to pray for Lolo, Nina, Jordan, Cristina and Carmen but also for Alec, Fernando and Lara and Isabela in whom God seems to be working clearly at the moment. Please pray also that we will keep our eyes firmly focussed on Jesus, with all the challenges we are facing and be open to all the opportunities he provides for us to share something of him and his Kingdom.
With love in Jesus,
Terry, Cristina, Peter and Sue.