THE STEINFIELD FAMILY: Global Workers in Spain

Hi, kids! We’re the Steinfields – Mark, Kim, Alyssa, Maddy, and Caleb. We live and work in Madrid, Spain! Alyssa is 13 years old, Maddy is 11, and Caleb is 8. And we have a super cute dog, Zoe, who is 4 years old. She’s a boxer, and we have lots of fun with her!

We are global workers in Spain and we’re here to train pastors and leaders through the Salem Bible School. Did you know that very few pastors in Spain have any Bible training? When young people here choose what they’re going to be, they go to university to become doctors, lawyers, teachers, and business people. But very few people think, “I’m going to become a pastor, so I should study at a Bible school.” That’s why the Bible school is so important! We are here to help Spaniards reach their country for Jesus and give them the tools they need to do that.

There are a lot of joys that come with teaching students! One of those joys is hearing them say, “I never understood that verse, or that book of the Bible, or the Old Testament. But now I get it!” Another rewarding moment is when they say, “I didn’t know what God’s purpose was for my life, and now I know.” Other times, students say, “Thank you for teaching us! I’m so excited about what I’m learning that I go home and share it with my family!” And just yesterday, one student told us, “I’m learning a lot about the Bible, but best of all is that I am changing from the inside out as God speaks to me.”

These are all wonderful words of encouragement that help us see that the Bible school matters and is making a difference. But sometimes as global workers, there are really hard moments too. One such moment was earlier this year when we were trying to get our residency cards renewed. Did you know that when we go to a different country to live, we need permission to live there? Well, we were trying to get the papers that give us permission to live in Spain.

We had handed in all our papers and everything seemed to be going smoothly. Two months later, Mark got a letter saying he could continue to live in Spain…but the rest of us also received four other letters saying that we could not live in Spain unless we showed them more documents. That was a scary moment because we didn’t have all the documents they were asking for. We started to wonder: What will we do if they say no? What will happen to the Bible school? Where will we go? All sorts of questions flooded our minds. What do you do when you’re scared and nervous about something? Well, we did the best thing we could do. We prayed! As I tucked Alyssa and  Maddy into bed that night, we asked Jesus what He wanted to say to us. And do you know what happened? The three of us all heard the same thing: Jesus said we didn’t need to be afraid because He was going to fight the battle for us! Isn’t it wonderful when Jesus reassures us of His goodness?!

We drove to the foreign affairs office, waited our turn in line, and handed in the documents we did have. The next morning, we got a phone call saying there was a problem with our papers, so we had to go in again! When we arrived, they said they had forgotten to hand in Caleb’s documents, but now the director had the papers. When we asked if we could speak with the director to explain our situation, the answer was a firm no. All we could do was trust that God was going to fight the battle for us.

A few weeks later, we got the letters saying that we were all approved and we could keep living in Spain! Yeah!

But the battle wasn’t over yet. We still had to do the finger printing and wait another month. Since the whole process had taken so long, we were running out of time. We had already bought our tickets to return to Canada and we needed our residency cards before we could fly.

After the month passed, we drove all the way to the office, and when we got up to the counter, the lady said our papers weren’t ready yet! She told us to wait a few minutes while she checked again. When she called us up, she said, “The papers just arrived!” What a relief! We were finally finished with the process of renewing our residency cards! We were full of thanksgiving because Jesus had helped us!

Do you know what we learned from this challenge? We learned that God still wants us in Spain and that He still has purpose for us here. We also remembered that when God calls us to a place, He fights on our behalf so that we can keep doing what He has called us to do. Our job is to trust Him and be faithful. God has a special plan and purpose for your life, too. Remember to obey Him and trust Him as He guides you!

Prayer Requests:

• Pray that God will show the Bible school students what He has called them to do.

• Pray that God will give us wisdom as we work with the pastors and Bible school students.

Please join us in praying for the Steinfield family. We invite you to connect with them by email/mail and social media too. Here’s how you can stay connected:

mark.steinfield@paoc.org | Facebook.com/MarkandKiminSpain/

Calle Intergolf 140  Senorio de Illescas Toledo, Spain 45200