Here is our group for the last town trip. Most of them you already know, left to right: Juan, Medardo, Cristina (a young woman visiting from Germany), Simona, Cesar, and Eduardo. With so many of us, and the small siza of the towns, we were able to tract 14 on this day!!



The population of Ayera is 2, one of whom you can see walking down the road in the picture.

One of the benefits of going on our trips to the towns is the people invite us to share their crops. Here Juan and Medardo are picking almonds in the town of Sipán, population 13.

Here we see Medardo talking to Pedro in the town of Loscertales, population 5. He told us that he continues to live in the town because, "Better to live alone than with poor company," a well-known Spanish saying.

In the town of La Almunia de Romeral, population 47, the majority of men live tending sheep. You can see a flock of them on the hillside opposite the town.

Here is an "olivar," a grove of olive trees just outside the town of Los Molinos, population 2.

These pictures in the town of Coscullano, population 41, show the state of the churches in the towns. The majority have been closed
for decades.

Not everyone is happy to talk to us. In the town of Aguas, population 38, this woman told us that she did not want our tracts. She then proceeded to sit down with her back to us, a huge insult in Spanish culture.

This is the view just outside Santa Cilia, population 9, which is know for its wild bird refuge, mostly consisting of vultures.

I have told you about Medardo's gift for evangelism. Here he is talking to the only person he could find in the streets of Panzano, population 25.

This is a wild pig, called a "jabalí" that we saw outside of the town of Bastarás, population 2!

Here is a blanket covered with almonds in the town of Yaso, population 17.

In the town of Morrano, population 46, Medardo and Eduardo are speaking to a man who is so old that he doesn't know when nor where he is born. We thank the Lord to be able to witness to this man before he passes on to the next life.

Here is a picture of Manolo, the father in the only family that lives in the town of San Roman. We were told not to bother talking to them, since they were very strange. Turns out they are a family who reads the Bible, which makes them strange in these parts.

Bierge is the last town that we went to, with a population of 235. The view to the left shows all the olive trees in the neighboring area. The area produces almost 2 million liters of olive oil each year!!!

Here are some pictures of the most recent baptsims that we had.

This first picture is of Adoración, the grandmother of the family in Cariñena that is slowly growing in numbers of saved members of the family.

Here is John Jairo, who we met through a business group. John was saved but not attending church. It was a great thrill to see him getting baptized, as well as seeing his two older daughters starting to attend the youth meetings.

This is Elisabet, who recently has experienced a revival in her life. Besides getting baptized, she has also been faithfully going out to evangelize with our group to the towns every week.

Antonio, along with his wife, Lucy have been encouraged in their spiritual walk by José Manuel and Belen from Cariñena, making them a kind of spiritual grandchildren for us.

Another Antonio is the grandfather of a couple of the young men from our youth group. Daniel asked is to go visit him when we were still not sure of his salvation. When he got baptized here, he clearly expressed his faith in Jesus Christ as his Saviour.

At the beginning of the month, we had a church excursion with our group from the town of Tauste. We spent the day at Moncayo, a mountain about an hour from Zaragoza. It was a great time of fellowship for the believers, and we also were able to meet some new people that Karina invited. In the picture to the left, clockwise from the bottom left: Antonio, Azucena, Diana, Juan, Feli, and Dunia.



Pictured to the left are Michel (Karina's daughter), Lucia and Lucas (Dani and Diana's children)

Clockwise from the bottom left: Cesar, Marimar, Jorge, Axel, Karina, Sara, her husband Miguel, Fabian and David. Sara, Miguel and Fabian are not saved; she has a brain tumor and is seeking God.

Clockwise from bottom left: Ben, Eduardo, Juana, Pedro and Sue. There was 25 of us in all that day, Praise the Lord!!

Here are a few pictures from a day trip that we took this summer to the French coast. The town is called Biarritz, it was a well-known resort town during the Franco years.

This summer has also been a summer of goodbyes for us. In the pictures to the right, you can see Sue with Sara Lindemann, a university student from Australia. Sue and Sara became great friends during the school year, and we were sad to see her go. We do, however, have an open invitation to visit her in Australia!!


You can also see a picture of Gary McGregor, who used to work with Campus Crurade here in Spain, and has since come back several times to work here with the youth. Plese pray for Gary as he attempts to secure his visa to come back and continue working with the youth of the city.

We also had to say good bye to two families who are very good friends of ours, the Fryes and the Tabiendos (in the picture to the left). The Fryes have been in Zaragoza for over 30 years, and the Tabiendos for a year longer than we have. That leaves us as the missionaries in Zaragoza with the most "seniority."

In July, we had another one of our all day excursions to the towns. Here is an impressive sight in the town of Lanaja. The building is an old wheat silo built to store and ration the wheat harvest. You can see more than a dozen stork nests, there are almost as many more on the other side. These nests can measure up to NINE FEET diameter and weigh several tons.

Spain is one of the world leaders in alternative energy. Here you see a field that used to grow crops now being used to "harvest" sunlight and turn it into energy. The governement subsidizes both solar and wind generated energy, and they are being a significant source of income for many of the outlying towns.

I have told you in the past that many of the towns are decreasing in population as the people move to the cities and larger villages. However, many of them do not forget their roots. They take the money they earn in the city, and use it to fix up houses in the towns, to be used as a vacation property, like the magnificent bulding to the left.

The province of Zaragoza is very dry, and the countryside very barren. Teruel, the province to the south, is mostly mountainous, with many springs and rivers and much more rain. You will find many of the houses in the villages there with wonderful flower gardens growing out front.

In the 1980s, a plague swept through the region, killing most of the elm trees in the area. In this particular town, the people have left the trunk standing of the last elm tree that grew here

In the month of June, our son Jon came to visit us along with his girlfriend, Stephanie Wicks. While he was here, we tried to do some of the things that Jon misses doing since he went back to the States. One of the things we did was drive up to the French border. You can see a picture on the right of the Pyrenees Mountians.

In the town of CanFranc, there is an abandoned train station where rail pasengers used to transfer from French trains to Spanish ones. In the pictures above, Ben is playing with an old crane used to move cargo on and off the cars, while Jon, Ben and Steph try to switch the tracks. Obviously, none of this machinery functions.

There are lots of abandoned train cars as well, which the three of them loved exploring, looking for old documents which are scattered throughout the grounds. It is reported that during the Second World War, Spain shipped hundreds of tons of material used for armored vehicles in exchange for gold through this very station. The gold has never been found.

At the end of May, we held a special service in one of the Zaragoza churches for David Fuertes, seen here on the left in the picture with Juan. After ten years of faithful service in the towns, David has found himself with many physical problems that prohibit him from going out with us. We praise God for this faithful man who He called to work with us in the mission to the towns of Aragón.


The event was a surprise for him and his wife, Alicia. We showed pictures of him working in various aspects of the ministry. Then Juan and I presented him with a plaque, and his wife with a quilt that Sue had made for her.

We invited our group in from Tauste for the morning service, which was a great time of fellowship. It was also very good for the Zaragoza church to get to know some of the brethren from Tauste better.

Here is a picture of some of our faithful folks in Tauste. Left to right: Azucena, Juan, and Pedro. We would appreciate your prayers for the salvation of Juan and Pedro, and for the growth of Azucena.

These pictures are taken in the town of Tauste. They had an entire week of fiestas the second to last week in April. To the left you can see some of the religious items waiting to be carried throughout the streets for one of their processions. On the right, we can see the gates and fences erected in the streets for their version of the "Running of the Bulls." Both events are pretty common in the town festivals. Obviously, the people were pretty distracted that week, and it was hard to evangelize. The weeks afterwards, though, are usually very productive.

To the left is a picture of the town of Albalate del Arzobispo. We went to this town, as well as two others on the 28th of April. Albalate marks the 600th town that we have been to since we started passing out tracts in the various pueblos of Aragón. The town is well known as part of the "Ruta de Tambores," several towns in the province of Teruel that feature extravagent processions during Holy Week at Easter time. We hope to give them something more to hope for than religion.