The Pinyol Family

You may have heard through the news the political situation in the country of Spain. The complexity of the issue goes back to the times of Isabel and Fernando, the Catholic kings that united the Kingdoms of Catalonia and Castilla in the 1400´s. Since then the Kingdom of Catalonia has been trying to recuperate her independence. 1714 will be a historical hallmark as Barcelona fell into the control of the Borbones dynasty and we lost the possibility of our independence again.  During the 1930 Catalonia was given the possibility to rule herself as a “Republic” under Spain, but the Civil war with Franco ended the Catalan Republic and for 40 years the Catalan people suffered under the dictatorship of Franco. Of course this is a very fast and simplistic view of many years of history. 2014 will be a key year for Catalonia as many independent political parties are trying to vote for the independence of Catalonia. The key, of course, is the economical situation. But even more than that

HOW THE ECONOMICAL CRISIS HAS AFFECTED OUR MINISTRY God´s providence rules over all the works of men. Even the economical crisis is under God´s control and sovereignty. It is without a doubt that we have suffered the “consequences” of the economical crisis. Yet, we know that we can rest in the everlasting arms. Many families in our churches are suffering badly. Unemployment reached an astonishing 27%, as a result many of the unemployed could not find a work for months (even more than two years) to a point that they lost the economical help the government was supplying. In our congregation we had families that had to return to their countries. Those that came to Spain looking for new opportunities and a better life now were forced to return to their countries. This produced a decrease in our church attendance. We had families that could no longer came to Castellbisbal as they could not afford the price of bus or train, or even they lost their car and could not buy a new one. We