News from the Hodgsons.

Dear friends, 

We had a great night at the youth alpha. Great conversations and building up relationships. Please pray for Clare, Rachel, Benji and Joe. Laura and Atem couldn't make it this week. Next Sunday we are going ten pin bowling. 

This Tuesday Naomi and I are hosting a pastors meal at our house, with pastors up and down the coast. Please pray that God blesses this time and that relationships can be built up. 

The Church helped a homeless couple today. We paid for food and pointed them in the direction of the polish consulate in Malaga. Thanks to Cathie and Matthew who helped them. 

December the 14th is our Carol service. 

May God bless you this week.

Pastor Dave

Exert from our latest church bulletin

A message from your pastor, 

Christmas is on the way and the goose is looking scared. I won't go on about Christmas too much just yet, as I will send a Christmas message around nearer the time. 

Welcome to our church, we love it here and we hope you will too!

September and October saw a busy period in our church, we looked at the five core values of our church. Can you remember them? We also started a Sunday school and crèche to which we are indebted to Cathie for her expertise and service (if you would like to serve in the Sunday school speak to me please). We also started a youth alpha course which is on every Sunday night at the vicarage between 7pm and 9.30pm, 6 young people are enrolled on that course, please pray for them. We are continuing to look at the end times in our Wednesday night bible study. A big well done to our money mini choir who took part in the recent festival alleluia in Fuengirola, you made us proud. 

We had our first Church meal together since I arrived, which coincided with Sonyas 90th birthday celebrations. Where the church blessed her with a gift and some flowers. Wow it's been a busy but worthwhile period. 

A big thank you to all those who serve in the Calahonda church, it doesn't go unnoticed and it's much appreciated by me and the rest of the church council. 

We are looking forward to some special services. Remembrance Sunday, our missions gift day with Steve Norman guest speaking and of course our Carol service in December.

Please keep on praying for all at the Calahonda a Church as we endeavour to tell all about who Jesus is and what he means to us.

May God richly bless you and yours in these coming months.

Rev. David J Hodgson

Youth Alpha starts

Last night we had 5 young people turn up for an alpha course in our house. Great discussions had and great pizza too. 

Praise God

Yesterday another young person gave there heart to the Lord. We have four young people who have become Christians over the summer altogether. We are now starting a youth alpha course next Sunday evening. Praise God for all he is doing here. 

News from Spain

Dear friends thank you for ongoing prayers and support. We have had a very busy summer and a productive one too. Although many at the Calahonda Church go back to the UK over the summer, we saw some new people come in as well. We saw three conversions from 3 young people. Two of them are entertainers on cruise ships around the world. The third is a young girl who is from London and is currently looking after her grandma. 

Please keep us in your prayers, we thank God for those who are supporting us finsncially. As a missionary I can tell you we would not be see this without your help. 

Melissa has started pre-school and is loving it. She is at the ark Christian school in Fuengirola.

Please like our calahonda church facebook page for more info on all that is happening. You can also listen to sermons from me and guest speakers. Click here http://www.calahondachurch.com/downloads.html

Thanks again, may God bless you as you support our ministry.

Great to see the Skeltons.

Pastor Jonathan Skelton from Kingstanding Elim in Birmingham paid us a visit this week. 

Naomi's grandad

Last night Naomi's grandad passed away. He was in his eighties please can you pray for Naomi at this time. She maybe traveling back to the UK for his funeral.

Two new people

Yesterday we had two new people come to church (non tourists), pat an older woman and Rachel (23) her granddaughter who is caring for her. Both are from a non church background and both said it was the best meeting they have been in. Both were moved by the message preached by Naomi. Praise God for this and please keep praying for them. Joe and Laura (cruise ship entertainers) came again too! They are both in their twenties and made friends with the aforementioned Rachel. Please keep praying for us at the Calahonda Church.

Starting to settle down

We are starting to settle in our new home now. We have lots of places to visit to change our address though. 

The weather here has been unusual for Spain. Nice but cooler and windy. 

In these conditions it's easy for the slightest spark to set off a forest fire. On Sunday it took us an hour to get home from church. It normally takes 10 minutes. There was a fire just the other side of our urbanization, thankfully the wind was blowing away from our house. If it had been the other direction, we would had been evacuated. 

Coming from Derby and Cov I haven't had much experience of this kind of thing in the past. 

Please pray for us this summer that we won't get caught up in anymore of these fires. 

Although Melissa enjoyed watching the helicopters fly over our house.

Thank you for your ongoing support.

The Hodgsons.

Lots going on.

Where to start?

Well the best place to start I suppose would be with salvations. 

Following my induction service, we have settled into the church in Calahonda quite quickly. 

Naomi is heading up the worship side of things which she is enjoying and I'm enjoying bringing the teaching series. 

Enough of that, what I am so excited about is that 2 young lads, Sinclair and Sean who seemingly came in to mock what was going on, got so touched by the message they were seen crying during the message. Now I have had that before in my sermons, but for very different reasons. To cut a long story short they both responded to the salvation appeal at the end. They were not here this week, but nonetheless the journey has begun. 

This Sunday, we heard a testimony of Doug an Elim pastor from dunstable who was recently diagnosed with Cancer, following much prayer from our Calahonda Elim church, he had a very successful operation and is recovering very well. He gave testimony to Gods healing power yesterday.

Laura and Joe. 

Laura and Joe are professional entertainers on the coast. Joe does a tribute to Sammy Davis Jnr amongst others, he is a musician, tap dancer and singer. Laura his wife to be is an outstanding singer. I am marrying them in September. They came to church yesterday and both gave their lives to The Lord. We had a very enriching conversation with them afterwards and prayed with them both.

Please pray for them all, that they continue on their journey of discovery. 

Thanks for your ongoing prayer and financial support. 

Every blessing,

Dave

Great weekend.

What a great weekend! Induction service Friday with Elim missions director Paul Hudson and a very emotional farewell service, for Peter and Annette yesterday.

New church

Tomorrow is my first Sunday as Pastor of the calahonda church. Pray for me but more importantly pray for them lol.

On the mission field

Sometimes it can feel quite lonely on the mission field. You miss your family and friends in the uk and your colleagues. But every now and then God brings friends your way, he did today. It was great having lunch with a lovely family who are supporting our ministry. We are so blessed to have friends who believe in us and Gods ability to use us for his kingdom. Praise God for friends.

36 percent unemployed

The news today that andalucia is the region of Spain with the highest percentage of unemployed is no surprise to those of us who live here. 36 percent are claiming benefits and there will be a big percentage that are no longer entitled to benefits. It's not unusual to meet people who have been unemployed for more than 5 years. Some how we need as the body of Christ to be able to help people set up businesses and make a living in Spain. Please pray for us.

New church

Yesterday we bid a fond farewell to Kayleigh our American friend who was part of out TNT group. She moves back to New York State this week. 

I preached at the Calahonda church yesterday and I think it was well recieved. Naomi and I take over the pastorate in May. 

Please keep us in prayer.

Visit of Paul Hudson

We have just had a great weekend with Paul Hudson missions director of the Elim movement. Paul brought humour, inspiration, insight and most importantly he poured out his heart for mission to us.  I feel very positive about the future of Elim missions under the leadership of Paul and his great team. Please keep them in prayer along with us of course.

Visit of Paul Hudson

We have just had a great weekend with Paul Hudson missions director of the Elim movement. Paul brought humour, inspiration, insight and most importantly he poured out his heart for mission to us.  I feel very positive about the future of Elim missions under the leadership of Paul and his great team. Please keep them in prayer along with us of course.

Working together

Last night Naomi led worship at the ark Christian fellowship in Fuengirola for the visit of Roger Forster. It's great that the churches no longer feel threatened by each other but are now working closer. 

This week we are inviting them to our church in Benalmádena for the visit of Paul Hudson the missions director for Elim. We are looking forward to hosting Paul. 

Please pray for our non Christian friends Laura and Jorge they want to be parents and start ivf next week. They would count it a miracle if God was to bless them with a child. 

Thanks for your ongoing support.

Preparations for the new church.

Well it's very exciting times ahead for us as we prepare to transition to our new church in Mijas costa.  Please keep us all in prayer, also please pray that we get accepted for finance on a car as we need desperately to replace the one we have now. Thanks 

Family time

Last week was a half term week here in andalucia, Spain. It's called semana Blanca, it fell nicely on both mine and Melissa's birthdays, also my parents came out for the week, so I booked some time off from my tent making on the radio and spent some quality time with Naomi and the family. My parents paid for us to spend a couple of nights in the hotel with them which was great.

Prayer request, please pray for my mum as her health is non too good with the ms. 

Also please pray, as our existing car has lots of pending problems. We were all due to pick up a new car with finance when at the last minute we were refused credit. Due to the fact that Naomi's work place had not placed her on the social security system which means she is technically unemployed. It is difficult to back date this, so we need prayer and the solicitor is not very helpful either. He keeps saying he has rectified it but he hasn't. 

Please keep us in prayer. Thankfully the radio station have loaned me a car, praise God.

Pray for Laura

Last week I met a girl who wants me to marry her and her fiancé in September. I was able to explain a little of what we as a church are doing here and she and two friends turned up at church this Sunday. 

They all enjoyed the service and were challenged by the gospel message. 

Praise God for these opportunities.

Busy Sunday

We had a great service in Benalmádena, we then went on to minister the word at the church we will be taking over in May, it was well received from what I could tell. Later we took the young people out for a social time. Playing pool and eating, Melissa is doing really well coping with all we have to do in our heavy schedule.

Please pray as we may have to exchange our 6yr old peugeot for a new car. We were given a 1500 euro estimate. Even though we would have to pay the new car off monthly it maybe worth it because of the amount of times we use it. We need a reliable car. Please can you pray that God will guide us in this.

Thanks for your ongoing support.

Every blessing

The Hodgsons 

New year, new era!

From May this year Naomi and I will be taking on the pastorate of the calahonda church. After 5 yrs at the eff in Benalmádena it will be hard to leave but exciting as we look to the future. Please keep us in prayer.

This Sunday

We will be holding a vision casting Sunday in the Benalmádena church. Lots of new things on the horizon, watch this space.

Three kings

Well we haven't quite taken down the Christmas tree just yet. Tomorrow evening the three kings arrive across Spain distributing gifts to the little ones. There will be parades in most towns and the kings will throw hard boiled sweets at the crowds waiting for an injury. Feliz Navidad a todos!!!

New year and the mission continues.

Its a new year in Spain, but still many of the problems continue. The unemployment rates are very high and many families are struggling. Last night we were in Benalmádena town centre celebrating the new year and one of the band members on stage got on the mic to critizise the government in Madrid. Encouraging people not to vote as all politicians are corrupt. 

We can however do all things through Christ, we are believing that God has a plan for Spain. Please continue to pray for Spain this year, and pray for us as we continue to minister to the beautiful people of Spain.