Episode 172

This episode of the Removing Barriers podcast is a continuation of the On the Mission Field series where hosts Jay and MCG interview missionaries to learn all about what God is doing on their mission fields. Today’s episode features missionary Kent Albright, seeking to win the lost in Spain. Though teeming with fascinating history and amazing culture, Spain is a spiritually dark nation with significant barriers to the propagation of the gospel. We interview Kent to discover the challenges of evangelizing in Spain, the cultural and religious dynamics that shape his mission, and how God has been faithfully removing barriers to the gospel in the Spanish mindset. Join us as we learn about the unique barriers to faith in Spain and how they can be overcome through persistent faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ who would have all men come to repentance.

[Missionary Kent Albright]

And so you’re right, we’re dealing really with two kinds of people and all the gray areas in between. So a lot of what we do is just perceiving, finding out where people are right, how do we remove their barriers so that they can see the cross.

[Jay]

Thank you for tuning in to the Removing Barriers podcast. I’m Jay and I’m MCG and we’re attempting to remove barriers so we can all have a clear view of the cross.

[MCG]

This is episode 172 of the Removing Barriers Podcast, and this is the 16th in the series of on the mission. And in this episode, we’ll be going on the mission field with missionary Kent Albright to Spain.

Kent, it is indeed a pleasure and welcome to the Remove Barriers podcast.

[Missionary Kent Albright]

Thank you very much MCG and Jay. It’s a delight to be with you.

[MCG]

All right. Thank you for placing nothing your busy schedule.

[Jay]

Hi, this is Jay. MCG and I would like for you to help us remove barriers by going to removingbarriers.net and subscribing to receive all things, Removing Barriers. If you’d like to take your efforts a bit further and help us keep the mics on, consider donating at removingbarriers.net/donate, Removing Barriers, a clear view of the cross.

[MCG]

All right, Ken, let’s jump into it. Tell us about yourself, your family. You’re calling whatever you feel comfortable sharing with the Internet.

[Missionary Kent Albright]

OK. Well, thank you. Actually I have to begin by saying I’m just the lesser half of a team. And so my wife Belén is is here with me listening in. But I’ll have to say that without her, you know, our ministry would probably not have existed, or at least have been severely truncated. But the Lord called us both really to be missionaries in the country we serve in in Spain, my wife is a Spaniard, and I met her about 44 years ago. I’m trying to think. Now we’ve been on the field about. 32 years as full-time missionaries. Although as I said before, my wife was born there grew up there, and except for about nine years in which we lived in the states, has lived in our country of adoption all this time. So we were approved as full time missionaries with baptism admissions 35 years ago. We just got our 35 year. But it just seems like time has flown. We were just new missionaries with our two little. There’s one was not starting school yet, the other was in first or second grade and the middle of the summer. In fact, it was right On this date 35 years ago that we flew to Spain at an 8 hour layover in New York, exhausted to the bone, and began our ministry that way. So. I grew up in a Christian home, so my story is not that spectacular, but my parents let us in the faith and family altar. We were always in church. Dad was a Deacon, mom and dad both were Sunday school teacher. There. So I had a very privileged upbringing, for which I’m very thankful and found Christ when I was just young boy and I was in my early teens and I felt God calling me to the ministry and I was only about 1718 when I felt him calling me to the country of Spain. So those were major early decisions in my life. That they have kind of charted the past for us all these years. Now my wife was saved at about 20 years of age as she moved to a new neighborhood and met some young people who invited her to chat. Church and the first time she heard the gospels, when she stepped into a Little Baptist Church in the Palermo St. of Madrid about three years later, she received Christ was 20. When she received Christ, and so she began training herself and active in the church and and not long after that. Failed to call to serve her own people. We met a few years later on a couple of summer trips that I made, and in 1983 I hardly could speak Spanish and she didn’t know a word of it. But I knew she was the one, and so I looked up in the dictionary how to translate. Will you marry me? And here we are, 40 years later with seven grandchildren.

[MCG]

Ohh wow. Amen. Y’all, speak the language of lava.

[Jay]

Ohh wow.

[Missionary Kent Albright]

Yeah, it was literally the language of love because we could barely communicate.

[MCG]

Ohh wow. All right, tell us a little bit more about Spain, the capital city, the population, maybe the area you’re at since Spain is a big place.

[Missionary Kent Albright]

OK. All right. Yes, you say Spain, you said it several years ago and we often got confused with Mexico and some people because it was just not a country that people knew much about, would even ask us what language do they speak in Spain. There was a lot of eggs. Yes, we’ve had that. But as the years have gone by and Spain has gained prominence in the European Union and has had some soccer victories and so forth, people know more about Spain, at least the draft Madrid soccer team and Barcelona and messy and all that, right? Yeah. But Spain is part of the continent of Europe.

[MCG]

Yep.

[Missionary Kent Albright]

Although along with Portugal makeup, what is known as the Iberian Peninsula, so we stick down below the continent heading southwest and really for all practical purposes, are the extreme southern border. Of Europe, which makes us and Italy’s prime countries for immigrants from Africa, Saharan and sub-Saharan Africa, that try to cross in a lot of ways, like they cross from the Mexican border but actually are coming from Central America or even farther down. And so we have have a lot of immigration. Now and and irregular immigration, which makes it difficult, but it has really caused our country to become more plural, as that has happened in the last 30 years or so, we’ve gotten a lot of. American. So actually Madrid’s on the same latitude as Cleveland, you’d think. Well, Cleveland has really cold and icy weather, but we don’t. Since we’re a peninsula, we’re surrounded by water, the Mediterranean coast, they actually call our climate subtropical. And so we have a similar we’re in Texas right now, and I’d say. In a lot of ways, our climate matches Central Texas as far as size goes, we’re about the size of Texas.

[MCG]

Oh wow.

[Missionary Kent Albright]

We’ve got about a third over more population, but there is an incredible variety in Spain. We’ve got mountains and beaches and hot plains. The city of Seville will get 120 hundred 25 in the summer, so it’s the frying pan of our country. But we’ve got beautiful snow capped mountains that keep their snow all year round. And a lot of people think, oh, Spain and Spanish go together, but we have 4. Five regions that have their own, not just dialect, their own language, like the Basque language, has no relationship to Spain and some of these regions actually want to gain independence, become their own country. So there’s enormous variety in a small amount of geography and just terms of ethnicity. And background and language and outlook on life.

[Jay]

Wow, I had no idea that Spain was that diverse. I always thought of it more of a homogeneous sort of culture. I didn’t realize it had all that going for it. So what about the religious breakdown of Spain? Is it predominantly a Catholic country? Maybe people aren’t religious at all.

[MCG]

Oh.

[Missionary Kent Albright]

Good question. They are less religious all the time. I remember whenever we were on deputation 4 decades ago, I was telling people that 97% of the country was Catholic and that was true for about four centuries. 99% of the country was Roman Catholic. However, with the coming of the democracy, Spain suffered a 40 year dictatorship under a general called Francisco Franco, who saw himself in a lot of ways as A and reincarnation of Philip the second, who gave power to the Inquisition. So some people will remember the Inquisition. Was a witch hunt for Protestants, mostly throughout southern Europe. But also in other parts of country and in the new world. So they wanted to eliminate this plague. And Franco saw himself as bringing Spain back to its roots. So by the end of the war, there were only about 50 very small Protestant churches. And his dictatorship lasted 40 years up into the 70s. And that kind of conditioned Spain for what it became today, but where a New Democracy 1978 and that was the first time we have religious liberty, first time in five. 100 years and it didn’t create a religiously plural country right off the bat, but it did start to grant liberties that we have been working and struggling to gain and legislate. So as a result of that and the openness now with the New Democracy and the European Union and their requirements of Spain. I think only about I read 5556% of the people would actually claim to be Roman Catholic. And a very smaller percent of those would be practicing. So you will go to a church on Sunday morning and four or five actually, not Sunday morning and Saturday evening. Or they mostly go four or five older ladies. Hardly anybody goes to mass. However, that doesn’t mean we’ve grown as a Christian, as a Bible, believing Christian people. I think we’re approaching 1% now. 1%, which puts us in the cellar of all Spanish speaking countries in the world, far as numbers of Christians, but that is everyone who claimed to be Protestant or evangelical, which are synonymous in our country. So at the same time, I’d say a good half or maybe even more, 65% maybe of those who would. Claim to be born again Christians. Would be of immigrant origin either first, second, or third generation immigrants. We’re still really kind of at a standstill of actually reaching Spaniards. For Christ, there’s been some headway, but the Colts have come in. We have a lot of immigration that is Muslim. So Islam has grown and that. Also makes up a cut of that pie. That’s non Roman Catholic.

[MCG]

Yeah, I remember we interviewed another missionary to Spain, and I think he’s your good friend, Jay Loveday. And I remember he saying that it takes pretty much a generation to see someone save…

[Missionary Kent Albright]

Yeah.

[MCG]

In Spain.

[Missionary Kent Albright]

Yes, yes, it’s true. But love, these are very good friends. And his wife, Joy. We’ll be working with them in August. I’m helping direct the singles camp to that. They spend a lot of time working it, but it’s true. We sometimes use the metaphor of carvings, people out of a rock quarry and really to see someone. Pay often takes many years of ministry and various. Kinds of medium. You know? Books witnessing. Listen to something on Internet or the radio or. And for a Spaniard to come to Christ, it is really amazing and others from immigrant countries in Spain seem to be more open to the gospel. But I’m not necessarily saying that’s a virtue or a defect. It’s just oftentimes when you leave your home country and you’re often another country world, you’re more vulnerable. Sometimes at the end of your rope, you’re looking for answers and kind of desperate. And by nature, you’re going to be open to someone who would share hope with you, right? And eternal hope. But it is it is a struggle nonetheless, with patience, perseverance and getting the word out, God gave us a special experience. When we first moved to Salomon in 1996, we started meeting in our apartment living room. Our two little girls and us, four of us a year and a half, went by before someone dared to show up, and we got a phone call as was from a 62 year old lady and she said I’ve gotten tracks and brochures from you and both of my apartments. You must have something that I don’t have. She asked to come over. Well, Gloria got saved. But Gloria’s story was that she had formerly been a nun. A Catholic nun for several years of her life. And she was.

[MCG]

Hmm.

[Missionary Kent Albright]

A very wealthy woman, a professional musician, she was a child psychologist, and so it’s not the kind of person you would have expected to come and make a profession of faith. But in that I think second time at our living room table, sheep out her head and receive Christ. What a change. What a change she read the Bible in four months. That the whole Bible. So this was kind of a not an omen, but just kind.

[Jay]

Wow.

[Missionary Kent Albright]

Of a little. Glimpse of the fact that although our city is so gathering in our countries that way, God still has a people for his name and he is saving people and taking the blinders off.

[MCG]

Member.

[Missionary Kent Albright]

So to speak.

[MCG]

Why do you think it’s so difficult for the Spaniard to come to Christ?

[Missionary Kent Albright]

That’s a good question. What I have said often, and to answer that question, is the Spanish pride. A lot of people in different cultures have a kind of a deep seated arrogance or pride about their ethnicity or their nation. But there are few that equal the Spaniard. So they are taught from their. Altered the Golden Age of Spanish conquest of the world. They were a worldwide empire like few other countries. England had something similar, but Philip the second I mentioned in the 16th century, they called his empire, upon which the Sun never set, and so the sun was always shining on some part of the. Spanish empire, the Philippines were there great portion of Europe, even Africa and and most of the Americas. And so they remember that with enormous enormous pride and also.

[Jay]

Hmm.

[Missionary Kent Albright]

Their ethnicity, of course, their ethnicity has really mixed through the years. The pre Iberian tribes and then all of the migration from Africa and all over Europe make up the kind of the Spanish ethnicity. But they used to celebrate a day of the race. This was part of Franco’s language, and so. They have a day when they celebrate Spanishness. Not just culture, but literally blood, racial pride. And so they’re taught this from children up. And besides that the Catholic Church is the best. It’s universal, it’s, you know, it’s the only way and so forth when they’re ingrained this way, it is often difficult to break that barrier that’s you’re talking about barriers.

[MCG]

Hmm.

[Jay]

MHM.

[Missionary Kent Albright]

Our Latin American friend. When they come to our church or come to, we live in a college town, right? So a lot of especially in the Masters doctoral programs, they come with scholarships from various Latin American countries, but they’re generally more humble and just, you know, just more introvert and submissive in a general way. And whenever they come and face. The Spaniards, they’re very taken aback because they are so direct and they just in your face they’ll speak loud to you. Get it right in your space, kind of spit at you whenever they’re talking. What do you want? Why did you come in my store? Yeah, here it is. Here’s your product. Get away. Go. And that’s what it seems. Like and. So that’s really hard to come sometimes. Swallow just to get to first base and create friendships with them, yeah?

[MCG]

Yeah.

[Jay]

So you said earlier that the Lord burdened you about the souls in Spain when you were a teenager, around 17 or so, and that you met your wife. Can’t remember what you said. She was 20 when she got saved.

[MCG]

OK.

[Jay]

And the Lord was working on her heart. And you all met several years. Later so could. You go through that again real quick because what I’m asking is so when he burdened you for the souls in Spain, was that something that you knew when you all got married or was it something that you were already married? And then you figured it? Out how did that work?

[Missionary Kent Albright]

That’s a good question. I kind of muddied the chronology there a little bit.

[Jay]

Oh sorry, I got it wrong. Then OK.

[Missionary Kent Albright]

No, no. Yeah, more or less. You do have it right, but I’ll just back up and mentioned so that whenever I was an early teen, I felt God’s calling me. And so I just surrendered to whatever he wanted me to do. And it was at a maybe 15. I felt felt God calling me to missions, but I was very timid, so I wanted to be a missionary pilot so I wouldn’t have to talk to anybody. But then eventually I realized, well, I need Bible training. I went off to Bible. School. But because of my age, I actually arrived in Bible College 17 right? And it was in that first semester where I felt not calling me to preach. My father was in the ministry by then, so I went home at Christmas and I said, Dad, I think God’s calling me to preach. Would you let me preach in the church? And he was astounded. He wasn’t expecting that.

[]

Oh.

[Missionary Kent Albright]

And so from there, I felt like God wanted me to be a church planter, a preaching, you know, kind of missionary. And so. And I knew it should be in a foreign field, not in America. We have so many churches, so many. Christians. And so I was deeply praying where the Lord would want me to go, and we had at that time a missionary prayer band in our school and just maybe 10 or 15 of us, and we would invite visiting missionaries to talk. And a couple came in and spoke about Spain, and they described the needs there. It was a short presentation I’ve seen and heard missionaries. All my life we’ve had them in the home like you folks do. But that little presentation just drilled a hole in my heart. So I’ve been praying earnestly and I surrendered it then announced kind of made public God’s call me to Spain and about 2 1/2 years later, after I finished Bible. Who actually those same missionaries invited me to spend the summer with them, and so I stayed in their home, helped them with church and ministering camp, and Berlin was a new Christian in their youth group at that time. So I was, I think, 21. She was 22 or so and fairly new Christian, but on fire for the Lord. Well, I came back and went to seminary, and after seminary. I win again. They invited me again. And by then I knew a little bit of Spanish, but Berlin had just prospered so much in the Lord, and I was looking for that kind of a wife, right. Someone that loved the Lord serve the Lord. And as she was a Spaniard herself, I mean, and besides that she was a ravishing beauty. How can I go wrong? Right.

[MCG]

And then.

[Missionary Kent Albright]

And so I arrived in Spain, hardly know the summer was going to, you know, bring about. But we started talk. And by I think 6-7 weeks later, I asked her to marry me and we got married. That December. I flew back in December, got married. So yeah, we came back to Denver. My father was starting a church in Denver, and I felt so sorry for her. She didn’t know any English, and I just threw her into total immersion, but he survived and does really well English now. She’s she’s smiling at me. But it was hard for her. And then just, you know, cross cultural transcultural. Kind of marriage and conflicts, of course. Those. There. But since we couldn’t talk very much, we didn’t argue either.

[Jay]

That’s what I was trying to get at when I was asking you about that, because if the language barrier was there but she was a fairly new Christian on fire for the Lord ready to attack Hell with a water pistol, just ready to do whatever God would have you to do. And you knew that the Lord was calling you to Spain to be a church planter. US has too many Christians. We need some.

[Missionary Kent Albright]

Yes, yes.

[Jay]

Fraud. Were you surprised by anything when you went to plant churches in Spain, and if so, what are those things that surprised you or that you weren’t anticipating? And what are some of the things that people, perhaps the Lord has called to the mission field in Spain? What are some of the things that they should keep in mind when serving as a missionary in Spain?

[Missionary Kent Albright]

Yes.

Right. Well, it’s a solitary life. As some money gets saved in Spain, I suspect half of our church is Spanish and most of those are from Salamanca. But those who are Spanish are often like Berlin, the only family. Member that are evangelical Christians and it’s kind of like what Jesus said of prophets without honor in his own country. And when somebody breaks rank, there’s such a strong hegemony. I’m not sure if I’m saying that word right or monopoly of control of society that when you break rank like that.

[Jay]

Mm-hmm.

[Missionary Kent Albright]

It’s similar in a way to Islam, maybe not quite as strong, but your family will just us to. Besides you and so it helps define you. But Belén had to be certain of this was what she wanted, and she was willing to face the rejection of her family, which she has for many years. She came home and told her parents. She said, I don’t know really all about it, but I’ve accepted Christ as my Savior and her father like her mother. And and he said we. Have just lost our daughter just like that.

[Jay]

Yeah.

[Missionary Kent Albright]

And then a few days later, her mother, you know, put her hand on her face. And she said, oh, no, honey. Now, where are we going to bury you? Because there were only Catholic cemeteries. And they had a family cemetery. So, you know, here our daughter’s gone off with a colt. This is what, you know, she went off the deep end. Well, times have changed a little bit and.

[Jay]

Oh wow, yeah.

[Missionary Kent Albright]

Turned up. A little bit since then, but there is still the strong control of conforming and staying. I mentioned that people identify as Catholics has dropped from 97 to 56 or so percent, but that still doesn’t. The inertia of culture, you know, first communions, baptisms of babies and a lot of people are atheists. They’re still culturally Catholic, but they’re atheists, but they still do these things, and they just fit into the family and the traditions and the ways of living and to break rank even with that really takes and makes a sacrifice.

[MCG]

Mm-hmm.

[Missionary Kent Albright]

Somebody really has to know what they’re doing and it’s. But to this, like I said, it helps clarify your call, and Mullen was certain and something that drew me to her was her conviction that come hell or high water. You know, she was going to serve the Lord and she was. Burning first City of Salamanca was where she was born, although she grew up in Madrid and I began asking her about that city and the city of Salamanca is called Roma Latika, which means the little Rome. So perhaps of all of the city. East significant large or mid sized cities in Spain. So among us the most Catholic is like miniature Rome, convents, monasteries, training, Jesuit priests right everywhere. And so to go into a place like, you know, the Spanish Vatican, she was burdened for her family. She had 40 or 50 direct family members there.

[MCG]

Wow.

[Missionary Kent Albright]

This bird in me, and there was only one small church. Fearful after our first term, we decided to ask God to let us go there and we just started cold Turkey from scratch. We both felt like this is where God wanted us, and so we were going to just dig our roots in and do our best to reach not just the Lynch family wanted to witness to them, but to reach the people of our city.

[MCG]

Hey, man, we just did an episode called Richard Dawkins and Cultural Christianity, and it’s interesting that you say that a lot of folks are cultural cattle because Richard Duck and we know is not a Christian, but he claimed to be a cultural. Stan, how do you handle that difference in culture? I know you’re married to a Spanish, so you probably may be a little bit easier for you than others, but how did you handle the difference in culture between your American culture and the culture of Spain?

[Jay]

MHM.

[Missionary Kent Albright]

Right. Well, for one, I don’t use the word missionary, right? For Spaniards and people in Spain, missionary goes, you know, through primitive cultures, he goes to the Amazon jungle or Papua New Guinea or the center of Africa. Right. So I’ve always called myself a pastor, Mangel pastor. They have a general idea of what that is. And so. And I said, well, why did you come here? You must like it here. And I said, well, no, I do feel like I’m here because I chose to be here. But I feel like God has called me here because I want to talk to people about Jesus. Well, I’m a Christian, of course. In Spain. Practically believes they’re Christians, right? Because if you’re Catholic, you’re Christian. But we use that. Kind of squeeze our way in a little bit to the oh, well, that’s interesting. Well, yeah. If you believe Jesus. Now have a crucifix hanging, you know, in their home or from their. So what do you believe about Jesus? You know, when were you born again? When did you become a Christian? Oh, when I was baptized. That’s when you were born again. Oh, I don’t know what that means. So there’s Bible ignorance, total Bible ignorance. And so when we get them to open the Bible, most families have a Bible open the Bible and go to John 3. This is what we did with Gloria.

[MCG]

MHM.

[Missionary Kent Albright]

And she read the verse, you know, and unless you become born again, you can’t go to heaven. Jesus said that it wasn’t some prophet. It was. Jesus has said that. So when were you born again? Well, I’m not sure. Maybe when I was baptized. No. Here’s here’s Jesus talking to a grown man. And so we play on the fact a little bit. Well, I’m a Christian and I’m here to talk about Jesus. I’m a Christian, too. Well, tell me what your differences are. That’s a great question. What’s? Difference between what you do as Protestants and what we believe. And so it gives us a little bit of an in Rover not dealing with a totally secular society. However, that segment of Spaniards and Spanish residents is growing. And for the first time in Spain’s history, we have an. This president. And so he’s just, you know, giving a feeding and facilitating ending. Everybody who just wants to reject religion and God. And so it becoming an almost popular to become an atheist communist and they’re forming political parties in that. I’m not sure if I answered your question about that but.

[Jay]

It sounds like the culture. No, no, no, it’s good because it sounds like the culture is at once and acts 2 culture and in act 17 culture at the same time. So when you talk to people, they do understand, they’ve heard the name God or.

[Missionary Kent Albright]

I tried.

[Jay]

Visas. There’s a familiarity there. Families have a Bible, and folks go to go to mass. I was gonna say church, but most likely they go to mass. And so their religiosity is there. The verbiage is there, the vernacular is there, but they don’t have an understanding of the sin that made it necessary for Christ to come and die.

[Missionary Kent Albright]

Right.

[Jay]

Lacrosse and that sort of thing. And so it sounds like it’s both at the same time. They have a familiarity with Christianity, but they’re also completely ignorant of the truth of it. And you’re there and you’re having to navigate these things when you’re talking to people witnessing to them and doing all those things.

[Missionary Kent Albright]

Yes, you hit the nail on the head, Dave, really. Acts chapter 2 with all the plurality of nations and cultures. And Peter’s preaching base preaching in a Jewish city, and most people would have some relationship to Judaism or know about it. But in Acts 17, Paul is dealing with total Pagans and Gentiles that have no knowledge of the Scriptures or. And so you’re right. We’re dealing really with two kinds of people and all the grey areas in between. So a lot of what we do is just perceiving, finding out where people are right, how do we remove their barriers so that they can see the cross. We’ve got to understand their worldview, their point of view. And everybody has a very particular personalized point of view. So. Into their mind. And so we’ll try to learn and ask questions and penetrate and try to understand and find out where that weakness in their arguments and that empty place in their heart is that we can. Week 2 You talked about culture, the differences in. It’s also true now that we’ve had about 3035 years of waves of immigration, not only from Eastern Europe. We have a number of Ukrainians now, Romania, when the iron wall fell, they came. And then we have Poles. The first person we lived to, the Lord, was a Polish man. He had finally gained access to leave his country. And filtered himself down to. And in our church, we have this hodgepodge a lot like your church there in Fairfax of African Latin Americans, N Africans, Continental Europeans. And we even have had titanian to Koreans and Malaysians. We’ve had Iranians. And. Church. And so you go beyond dealing with versions of the Catholic Spanish mindset to trying to get into the mind of someone. And if they come from Latin America, you say, ohh everybody in Latin America is the same? No. The Bolivian, the Peruvian, the Equatorian, the Panamanian, they all have.

[Jay]

Mm-hmm.

[Missionary Kent Albright]

A different outlook on life. So it’s it’s a challenge, but at the same time it’s just a joy. To see such a. Colorful congregation united in Christ and worshipping the Lord together.

[MCG]

Hey man, what are some needs? Of course you in missionary missionaries. Do you have some needs that are unique to their field? What are some needs that if they have failed would make your tasks of sharing the gospel less pain? A little bit easier.

[Missionary Kent Albright]

Well, good. I’d maybe like to turn that question on its head. The needs that Glenn and I have to make our sharing the gospel easier would. Beat to train and raise up Spanish nationals so that they can reach their own people. And so that’s how we really gradually more and more see ourselves, right? Yes. We’re evangelizing. Yes, we’re reaching out. Our current pastor. We graduated our church about a year and a half ago. And our Spanish.

[MCG]

Hey man.

[Missionary Kent Albright]

Pastor is very burdened about getting out on the street, and so we have every couple months we’ll go out and find a park, find a crossroads and place sing songs and have little 3 minute sermons and testimonies and engage people out on the street. And. Thrills us really because. God didn’t call us to sit in our church view and unsaved come to us, right? We need to go to them. So what? What would I say that we actually need? Well, we really need a a small army of Christian workers. Yes. We need more foreign missionaries. But our prayers that God would raise up workers among our own people, that would. Truly understand the priorities of missionary life and what are the priorities? Evangelism, discipleship, that basic training and their first walks with the Lord Church. Planting and leadership development. So in our 35 years on the field these have been priorities, but they’ve been kind of progressive, so at first got to Salamanca. It’s just nobody say we’ve been dealing with with unsaved people. A lot of evangelism. Then we developed our own discipleship program. Then we began teaching our disciples and believers to disciple them. Cells. And then we began structuring the church and training leaders. We’ve recognized several deacons through the years and out of our church we’ve started four or five other churches. One of our greatest joys is seeing young people have grown up in the church now are on the mission field in foreign countries sent out from Spain.

[MCG]

No.

[Missionary Kent Albright]

And then leadership development, so at our age and stage in life, we see ourselves as the accumulative experiences that we. Gained as best dedicated to training in a Bible College Bible Institute, formal and informal, our upcoming workers Glenn and I both teach. We’re actually in two different seminaries and a number of different classes, and so I see that as our role now coaching and what do we need? We need God to send us more and God’s done that really exciting. We were about 20 students in our Bible school three years ago now. We just crossed 250 in God’s answering that prayer, but we need really a small army that should be 2000, but we’re rejoicing with what we have and always, always we love and need more missionaries. As I said before, Spain is the least evangelized Spanish speaking country.

[MCG]

Oh, wow. Amen.

[Jay]

Yeah.

[Missionary Kent Albright]

In the world.

[Jay]

Wow, So what are some things that you see the church in the US is doing that hinders your efforts or at least makes it more difficult for you to share the gospel and plant churches in Spain?

[Missionary Kent Albright]

That’s a good question too, and I hate to be critical. You know, the church that have supported us for so many years are just great. That mission hearts. And our sacrificial they’ve sent us teams and so I can’t criticize them. But as you look broadly across the evangelical spectrum, what I see today is that churches, as they grow, become kind of a more contemporary version of churches. Missions gets lost in the mail. The idea of supporting career missionaries financially and not just financially, but allowing them to have an audience in the church. We’ve been to a number of contemporary churches. They just don’t have missionaries up in the pulpit. They’re not recognized when they visit. I haven’t seen presentations, so it just falls in the crack. And if we don’t bring a greater awareness to our churches of the missionary challenge endeavor, the Great Commission, we’re not going to see our children, young people surrounding the mission.

[MCG]

Mm-hmm.

[Missionary Kent Albright]

We’re not engaging them about this, so this is where I feel like a broad sense and I want to be critical of anyone in particular, but in a broad sense, we’re fading. Let me just mention this one statistic. We’re approved as missionaries in 1989, there were 1200 active missionaries with our agency. Right. We just got our 35 year pin. There are a little over 500 now, so 3 decades later we are almost less than half of the mission force that we were. And our agency really is reflective of many agencies similar to ours. They’re just not the new candidates.

[MCG]

Wow.

[Jay]

Wow.

[Missionary Kent Albright]

Not coming out there and the Bible schools, Bible schools are closing many of them, and the ones that do have missions program have small number of mission students. And so it’s a an area that I think pastors and churches need to address. We’re we’re missing the boat here.

[MCG]

Wow. I didn’t know that statistics. Yeah. Alright, brother. Well, let’s go into a little bit of break, then we’ll come back on the other end with from favorites. You’re listening to the Removing Barriers podcast. We’re sitting down with missionary Kent Albright to Spain learning all about his mission field. We’ll be right back.

[Jay]

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[MCG]

Alright brother let’s get into a different segment and learn a little bit about your favorites. Let’s start with your favorite scripture verse.

[Missionary Kent Albright]

Well, let me start with my wife and the Lord impressed upon her many years ago this precious verse in Lamentations 324, and it goes. The Lord is my person. Says my soul. Therefore, I hope in him, and so her portion.

[MCG]

Amen.

[Missionary Kent Albright]

As the Lord and she has a group, we use WhatsApp a lot over here and she has a group of ladies that’s been growing through the years, and it’s called my portion in Spanish obviously and that versus sustained her. The next verse is precious. Who the Lord is good to those who wait for him to the soul who seeks him. And there’s a lot of sermons in that. My favorite verse as early teen I chose Philippians 310 especially because of the first part of the verse. It says that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being conformed to his death. And really what is Christianity is not rights and creeds and ceremonies and formal ritual.

[Jay]

Hmm.

[Missionary Kent Albright]

It’s it’s knowing personally the savior and getting to know him better and more, imitating his life day by day.

[Jay]

What is your favorite biblical account in the scriptures? Some people call it a Bible story, but we like to call it a Bible history so that it doesn’t have that connotation of being a myth or fable. What’s your favorite?

[Missionary Kent Albright]

Sure. Sure, that was a tough one that is a. Tough one.

[Jay]

Yeah.

[Missionary Kent Albright]

But as I reflected the one that just jumped out of my mind was the story. Joseph Stir Joseph in Genesis that takes up the last 13 chapters, not just one little anecdote, but the moment that Joseph, having been cast into the pit prison and he rises and he goes again. We felt that up and down of life so often. And then when he. Reveals themselves to his brothers is one of the most emotionally charged experiences in the scriptures. I think similar to when Jesus, you know, reveals himself after the resurrection to his disciples. And they finally realized, well, they’re shadows of Jesus. Resurrection in the story. Right. The evil he endured in the life of Joseph. So does he lived out in several different chapters? What verse 20 says in Genesis 50 is to me so precious. He said, you know, you intended evil against me, but God meant it for good. In order to bring about as it is this day to save many people alive, so God uses the evil of man for his benefit.

[MCG]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Joseph is one of my favorite character in the baby as well as a teenager. I listened to a series of sermons. The series was living a functional life in a dysfunctional. World and he was going through the life of Joseph.

[Missionary Kent Albright]

That’s a great way to describe it, yeah.

[MCG]

And to this day, I still remember that. All right, what is the most convicting scripture passage to you?

[Missionary Kent Albright]

I would probably choose. There’s so many. I often feel so feeble. My walk with the Lord and so tainted and tempted. But Salem, 1914 is one that just convicts me to the heart, to the bone, it says. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your side, O Lord. My strength and my. Redeemer. So it’s not just what we do and say and other people here and see it’s the intentions and the meditation of our heart that God sees and he can just go right through our schools, right. He can read our thoughts. Yeah. And that’s what I want to be acceptable to the Lord, not just what I do and see in other people see.

[Jay]

What is the most comforting scripture? How are you?

[Missionary Kent Albright]

I love second Timothy, Chapter 4, verse eight. That reminds us that even though we suffer so many injustices in life, God’s still on the throne and he’s still in control, and he’s the righteous. That’s what it says. Finally, there is laid up for me the Crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give to me on that day and not to me only. But also to them, who have loved his appearing. And so, you know, we suffer reverses and setbacks and just. Enable losses, tragedies. How can God allow this? But he is the righteous judge, and he’s in control, and we can be certain that he will honor those who persevere. There are crowns there are, as we say, in Spanish recognition for those who are faithful and persevere. So many unsung heroes are going to be in heaven. Nobody really. About that, we’re faithful to the end.

[MCG]

Amen. That’s interesting. What is your favorite hymn of the faith? And you can sing it if you like to as well.

[Missionary Kent Albright]

I’m not a singer. There’s so many. You asked me this before and I started thinking to him that’s also convicting because I think it exposes what we’re really living in 21st century America and prosperous Western world. It’s called am I a soldier of the cross.

[MCG]

Hmm.

[Missionary Kent Albright]

I can’t tell you who is the author, but I just jot it down a couple of the stanzas here. Can I? I’m not going to sing them, but could I put them the hymn writers hit?

[Jay]

Sure.

[MCG]

For sure.

[Missionary Kent Albright]

The hymn writer said. Am I a soldier of the cross, a follower of the land, or shall I fear to own his cause and blush to speak his name? Must I be carried to the skies on flowery beds of ease while others fought to win the prize and sailed through bloody seas?

[MCG]

Mm-hmm.

[Missionary Kent Albright]

Are there no foes for me to face? Must die, not stem. The flood is this vile world a friend to grace to help me unto God, since I must fight, if I would reign. Increase my courage, Lord, I’ll bear the toil. Endure the pain supported by thy.

[MCG]

Yeah.

[Missionary Kent Albright]

Convicting words for me.

[MCG]

Yeah, definitely. You know, the artist just slipped my mind, but he said it’s time for us to put off our tourist mode of Christianity. And I think in the West, a lot of time we are tourists, we are enjoying our ride in the West. We for most part are free of prosecution, at least prosecution for us is someone who.

[Missionary Kent Albright]

Yep.

[MCG]

Picking us at the door, slam the door in our face. Tell us they don’t want to hear and we have been on a smooth ride for so long. And that I wonder, I wonder if I would stand when the prosecution comes, because I think the prosecution is coming. Yeah, that’s definitely convicting brother.

[Missionary Kent Albright]

If I could share this, we were just in a church here in a smaller town in Central TX for the pastor who we had crossed. Path was many years ago, and that church in Colorado. And he was telling me he was in charge of an addition to the church and building the church was taking kind of the lead on that. And he said, you know, I think this color for the roof would really blend into the natural, he said. Well, brother, if you’re doing all the work. I’ll just let you choose the cover. Said that, almost created a church split the color of the metal roof on the addition to the church, and I thought of all the things that we need to be getting upset about is not the color of the pews, the curtains, the carpet. We need to be burned for soles and then some of the little hemp sacks of…

[Missionary Kent Albright]

Which is I was able to go on a trip to Romania. And on one Sunday, in the middle of the winter, I was in four different churches that didn’t have their own buildings. We met in people’s homes, but one of them didn’t have a place to meet. So we stood out on the street in 10° below weather on the ice. Somebody still played the accordion. We had a 2 hour service. In 10° below 0 standing outside. But these people love the Lord. They are new Christians and I thought my we have such kind of a distorted view of what Christianity really should be about.

[MCG]

Yeah. So true. I just read an article. The Christian Post, and it was a church in Nigeria thing and there’s some civil war going on over there and they burn their church. And, you know, these people went and meet in the patch building. No roof, nothing. Just the burnout shell. And they went there and they met and have service because they didn’t want to be deterred. I’m like, you know, when I see Christianity like that and I look at myself, a man, I’m wonder.

[Jay]

Hmm.

[MCG]

I wonder.

[Missionary Kent Albright]

Yes, yes.

[Jay]

Who is your favorite giant of the faith?

[Missionary Kent Albright]

If we limit ourselves to the scriptures, I’d probably pull out a kind of a behind the scenes guy and I’d choose Doctor Luke. I’m just impressed by him. A man who really was not a key player. He joined the apostle Paul, right? He was his friend. He was his faithful friend. When other people would leave him.

[MCG]

Hmm.

[Missionary Kent Albright]

He was by his side and he was kind of Paul’s errand boy, you know, he started church. Could you stay here and watch the church for a while? He’d do anything to. Oh, but he was a top notch accommodation and historian. And in terms of words and sentences, God used him to write a third of the New Testament and a lot of us don’t realize how God used a humble man like Luke. So he was the beloved Dr. And I love the phrase and second Timothy.

[MCG]

Hmm.

[Missionary Kent Albright]

Where Paul says only Luke is with me, everyone else is left. Yeah, poor guy. I just love it. Yeah.

[Jay]

Everyone else.

[MCG]

Alright brother, I think we touched on this a little bit earlier, but what would you say are some of the biggest barriers to the people of pain from receiving the gospel now we talk about the pride that they have and there’s national pride that they have. Hey, I’m a Spaniard, you know. Do you have anything else to add on that?

[Missionary Kent Albright]

Well, the the Pride is a big one, but a lot of it too is their ignorance of the scriptures and they disassociate the Bible from Christianity. One of the first things I did when we got to Salamanca. Somebody giving us a sack of bats and gloves and softballs. Baseball. Softball is an unknown, right? So it it was brought kids out. Our kids were in elementary school at that time and started to get them. And after we were done, I would give them a little gospel tract or a booklet or sometimes a New Testament. One day, one of the parents, fathers, was standing there. Liveth angers he could be, and he said, come here. You know. What are you doing? Passing out Bibles to our children? Don’t you know we’re Catholics. And I thought, well, that’s an excellent illustration of how far the Christian Church in Spain has gone from their anchor in the scripture. So it’s a barrier, but it’s also a joy.

[Jay]

Mm-hmm. Right.

[Missionary Kent Albright]

Whenever we talk to somebody, what do you know what the Bible says? Well, yeah, I’ve read. The Bible. But they haven’t. They quote the Lord’s Prayer, maybe, but to actually get them to see their Bible, that very that ignorance factor turns into a joy of discovery. Whenever they find out what the Bible actually says, there’s the racial pride, national pride. But you know, if you boil it down to one thing, where does pride? Come from it comes from sin. It comes from our sinful, selfish nature. And so it’s rooted right there in our desire to self exalt. We all have it. Other people manifest it more like in Spain and Italy and Portugal.

[MCG]

Mm-hmm.

[Missionary Kent Albright]

Well, maybe, but they need to recognize that their sinners. And that’s a tough swallow. It really is. You know, I’m a good person, you know. I don’t smoke or drink very much, you know, and I don’t curse very much. And so they think they’re pretty good. And are you going to heaven? Well, I think so. Is the coming so. That barrier is seeing that they’re Sinner. And you. You have to be careful because you can really turn someone off. I said no. God says you’re a vile Sinner. What? I want you insulting me. Yeah. Take a hike, bud. So we need them to see that in the scriptures. And we have to watch our language. But that’s that’s the key. They have to see themselves as bankrupt spiritually.

[MCG]

Hmm.

[Missionary Kent Albright]

And in need of eternal salvation.

[Jay]

And and those barriers that you described, how can they be removed? And if you were to share the gospel with the Spaniard, what would it sound like and how can those barriers be removed?

[Missionary Kent Albright]

Well, we share the gospel in a simple, basic way and we try to make it as simple as possible when it starts right there. And the Bible says all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And that means you are you a Sinner. Oh, no, I’m not a Sinner. Well, wait a minute. Let’s look at this verse. The Bible says for all have sinned and how many is all right. Can you name a sin? I’ve never sinned. Well. Have you ever told a lie? Have you done this or try to? Help them see that. Yes, they have violated and and James that says if you have broken one of God’s laws, you’re guilty of all of the.

[Jay]

Awesome.

[Missionary Kent Albright]

And so God tells us that even if we’re nuns like Gloria was, even if we are live in a church, sometimes we say that, you know, if you lived in a garage, it wouldn’t make you a car. And if you’re living in a church or in a monastery, doesn’t make you a Christian, you have to see yourself as a Sinner. But the precious. Thing is that God made payment for our penalty. Sin requires the penalty. Of death, spiritual and physical death, and that death is determinant, nor is going to escape it, and it just as God has established that men will die and then face judgment in Hebrews 927, we’ve got to kind of paint a blank picture there. But then we bring them to Romans 5:8 and we say, you know. The God provided aw. Because somebody had to pay for your sin and for mine. And Jesus did that. He didn’t do it. Thinking about it, he did it for us in our place as our substitute on the cross. And so I’ll say, if you will humble yourself before God and ask his forgiveness for your sins and merits of Jesus death on the cross, you can be saved. Forever. I always include that last word because the Catholic never knows if he’s in or out. Right. You’ll be saved forever. And the Bible says that I didn’t write the Bible. That’s what the Bible says.

[MCG]

Missionary Kent Albright. It was indeed a pleasure. Thank you for joining us on the removing Barrett podcast.

[Missionary Kent Albright]

It’s our pleasure. But Belén hears with me too. Thank you so much for inviting us to your program.

[Jay]

Hey, thanks so much for listening to the Removing Barriers podcast. Did you know that you could find us on Twitter, Gab Parlor, Facebook and Reddit, go to removingbarriers.net/contact and like and follow us on social media, removing barriers, a clear view of the cross?

[MCG]

Thank you for listening. To get a hold of us, to support this podcast or to learn more about removing barriers Go to: removingbarriers.net. This has been the removing Barriers podcast we attempted to remove barriers so that we all can have a clear view of the cross.