Raising a Tower in Spain

We are Derek & Ashley, dedicated to sparking and stoking in you the full life Jesus wants for you. That life is meant to be lived in community. We dream and work for the day that Jesus’ people shine as a beacon of love, hope, freedom, and joy.  When the church looks like Jesus because it is made of people who radically love and live like Him! Our mission is simple. We love our neighbors by just being ourselves, finding ways to serve and care for them. We take part in one-on-one teaching and modeling of what it means to follow Jesus. We help disciples mature in the context of strong community, and we do all of this while pursuing growth ourselves.

Our lives are dedicated to sharing the life and love of Jesus with a people who know almost nothing of Him. We are committing ourselves to bring his love and truth to the lost, encouraging the local church, and equipping followers of Jesus to turn their context upside-down with the love of Jesus. It is our greatest hope to see a mighty movement of God’s Spirit as He brings lost sons and daughters to new life in Him.

This year has been a significantly challenging one for us, with our visa denial in February, the subsequent re-establishing of life and pivoting to a new approach to ministry mode, and all the while waiting and assessing the right time to re-apply for our visas to move to Spain. It has been a year of challenges, big questions, trial and error, uncertain waiting, and even still progress.

This year we have been able to work on projects that will minister to people from wherever we are, while at the same time continuing our focus on the Catalan people. We have recently completed the 5-part video study TO RAISE A TOWER: COUNTING THE COST OF FOLLOWING JESUS, and now we are busily developing ways to promote it. Jesus tells us that before we follow him, we have to count the cost to be sure we know what we’re getting into and if we can finish. But counting the cost not only means looking at what I have to give but what it takes to build. How do I build the foundation, lay the bricks, mix the mortar, support the structure?  Beyond that, what is this tower even for? What is its purpose, and do I even want it? Our 5 session video series digs deep into the cost and value, the joy and pain, the life and death of discipleship so we would truly know that we are willing to give what it costs to follow Jesus. To raise a tower is costly indeed. But it is the only thing worth everything. Currently, we are planning to host the course online in a couple of different formats, first in English, and in the future among Catalan speakers in Spain. We’re excited to help people work through counting the cost of following Jesus as we think it will be so encouraging and building for many. If you’d like to go through the course on your own, or with your small group, you can do so here.

In the more personal realm, because of the visa denial and delays, we have been able to be present for Ashley’s mom in what is increasingly seeming like the end of her long battle with breast cancer. As I write this, she is in hospice care at home and Ashley is there assisting and comforting her as much as she can. Ashley has been busy these past several months helping her mom by preparing food, running errands, helping connect with friends and family, and just being present. It has been an incredibly emotional and difficult journey for her as well. Please pray for that whole situation, especially for Ashley, but we’re thankful to still be here for it. Ashley’s presence has been invaluable to her mother, and it’s been an incredible blessing for Ashley as well. This is just one of the many ways in which we have seen the Lord’s purposes in our delay, and we are thankful for it.

In addition to caring for her mother, Ashley is preparing to launch a health and lifestyle resource site entitled BONAHAVAH, through which she will be equipping others to seek spiritual and physical health through biblical principles. We’ll be sure to send you info on that once it’s ready. Lord willing, this year we will move to Spain with finished tools in hand to begin making disciples in Barcelona.

As you can see, this is quite an intense and active time of waiting full of eager, hopeful anticipation mixed with fear, doubt, and questions. It has been an incredibly challenging but faith-building season. Our prayer is that the heat and pressure would refine us and build us. Please pray for us in this time, for clarity and discernment in our new potential partnerships abroad, and that our faith and trust, and joy would increase as we wait on our good God.

As we close, it’s incredibly hard to express God’s goodness and our gratitude to those who continue to support us. Even through challenges, hardship, discouragement, and delay, we are doing all we can to faithfully persevere in this calling that the Lord has given us, and their partnership and encouragement have often been water in the desert, helping sustain us and keep us going. We are so incredibly thankful for them and are overjoyed that every seed planted, every soul served, every foot washed (or massaged), will have their fingerprint on them along with ours.

If you would like to join us in our ministry efforts, whether through support or prayer, please email us. You can also visit our support page. Also, don’t forget to check out To Raise A Tower.

May the Lord bring you so much joy and a growing sense of His presence in 2022!

Derek and Ashley Jenkins