Why Madrid?

We do media work out of Madrid, Spain. It's missionary work that reaches into at least 20 other languages right now and has been in as many as 50 languages at any given time. It's nice to live in Spain, but honestly I'd rather be back in KC with friends and family, but I know I have a mission from God to do this work.

So the most frequently asked question: Why Madrid? The group we work with International Media Ministries used to be in Brussels, Belgium. We thought we were going back there originally, but after we applied to be missionaries the police raided the building in Brussels. The story that I've heard is that they cracked down on visas and someone at the church nearby wasn't quite legal and somehow that spilled across the street to IMM and other ministries. Eventually negotiations opened up the opportunity for the church and school to continue, but the authorities didn't budge on the media people having visas.

So a search started for somewhere else to locate the ministry. We weren't part of this and don't know the whole story except they were looking a lot of places. The Spanish church offered some land and said they believed in IMM. Free land and support, a done deal.

Spain as it turns out is very arid and looks a bit like the lands Jesus walked on earth and so we are able to shoot a lot of things around the corner from our new offices in olive groves. That was an unexpected benefit. Our productions because of people and location, do not look American. That's important when we are sending it into a variety of places in the world, some of which are hostile to the US or don't want to be fed "western" ideas. It's a bit of divine serendipity that occured with the move to Spain.

We are also sort of mid-way in the world for working with people from other cultures on projects be they from Asia, Africa, or other parts of Europe. We are also at hand for the variety of broadcaster meetings and connections that are often made in Europe. This is how we get the products we make out on the airwaves, so the meetings are crucial to getting the good news out to people.

So it has been a blessing we never expected. The people have been very kind to us as foreigners in their land and we have learned a lot living there. We do enjoy our time in Spain, but it's certainly not Kansas.