The Persecuted Church

Snapshots of Persecution from Spain
By Chris Mills, IMB missionary to Spain

When we arrived in Valencia in 1993, we attended a wedding at a 100-year-old Baptist church there. What was so special about this wedding was that, in the church’s century-long history, this was the first legally recognized wedding ever performed there.

Justo (pronounced WHO-stoe), was a waiter in a café. God permitted me to lead Justo to Christ after dinner one Saturday evening at our house. The next day, Sunday, he shared with his manager that he needed to adjust his work schedule so he could go to church on Sunday mornings. When his manager refused, he resigned. Not to worry, Justo was well-connected. He started work right away at another place, but was let go because the manager heard him witnessing to a client. He was spiritually young and zealous at the time.

We met a couple from the Russian republic of Georgia. They had left because of the civil war; but they ended up in Chechnya. They escaped again when the Russians invaded. The wife was pregnant and wounded by shrapnel when the family arrived in Spain. When she eventually gave birth, she found that the nurse, a nun, had placed a card with the letter “S” on it by her bed. She asked the nurse what that meant. “Soltera (single),” was the reply. “Why, I’m a married woman!” she protested, but to no avail. The nurse/nun did not consider a wedding performed by a non-Catholic clergy to be valid. Their daughter was born with the stigma that she was illegitimate.

When our little mission point in Tres Cantos held a VBS in the plaza next to our store-front church building, a neighbor filed a formal complaint with the local police department for cultic activities. He wanted us to post a sign any time we would have a public event that would be something like a warning label on a cigarette pack. Fortunately, we had a member who was a police officer. He was able to handle the matter for us.

Another church member worked for the Spanish Civil Guard (think state police). His job was to investigate cults. As a result, he got to know all the different evangelical groups around the Madrid Community (a community is like a county) because his superiors assigned him to check them out. Angel took some grief because they wanted him to give the evangelicals a hard time and even testify against them. Instead, he was able to exonerate many ministries.