Episode 243

In the Basque Country of northern Spain, Missionary Daniel Darling and his family are faithfully serving the Lord. Saved at the age of four, Daniel Darling went on a missions trip to Bilbao, Spain as a young married man. He returned to the states, but the Lord was already hard at work on his heart about returning there to serve. He and his family obeyed the Lord and are now living in southern France near the Spanish border of Basque Country. There are many cultural and religious elements that play into his work of sharing the gospel; some elements are significant barriers to salvation while others are might be considered mere inconveniences. One thing is consistent, however: there are many souls in that country that, despite the permeation of Catholicism into almost all areas of life, have no idea what the church really is and how Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross made full payment for sin. Daniel’s work there seeks to change that. Join us as we learn about his mission field and the needs thereof, and what God is doing to draw lost men to Him through the Darling Family’s obedience to Him.

[Missionary Daniel Darling]

You can share the gospel without even mentioning the Catholic Church. You can talk about God’s love, man’s sin. You can talk about Christ and his death and what it does, how you attain salvation through believing. And I think one way around it is not making your first stop to show where theologically the Catholic Church is wrong, but rather showing where the gospel is right.

[Jay]

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

[MCG]

This is episode 243 of the Removing Barriers podcast. And this is a 32nd in the series of On the Mission Field. And in this episode, we’ll be going on the mission field with missionary Daniel Darling to Spain.

Briscoe, sorry, Daniel, it is indeed a pleasure. Welcome to the Removing Barriers podcast.

[Missionary Daniel Darling]

Thank you so much for having me. It’s a pleasure.

[MCG]

Thank you for placing us in a 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, Daniel, before we jump into this, you need to tell me how often have you heard this?

[The Andy Griffith Show]

Believe me, the thought never entered my head. Just see that it don’t. Take my word for it, Mr. Darling.

Briscoe, darling. Oh, oh, Andy Taylor.

[MCG]

How often have you gotten that?

[Missionary Daniel Darling]

No one has played the clip for me, but there have been many references to it.

[MCG]

Okay. All right.

[Jay]

I like how he tried to slide a Briscoe darling joke right at the beginning, act like no one was able to hear.

[MCG]

All right, well, you’re not Briscoe and you don’t have any mountain people in the family. You don’t play the jog.

[Missionary Daniel Darling]

No jog in the trunk of the car.

[MCG]

All right, well, let’s get into it. Well, why don’t you tell us about yourself, your family, your calling, whatever you feel comfortable sharing with the internet.

[Missionary Daniel Darling]

Sure. So my name is Daniel Darling and my wife, Michelle, and I’ve got three kids, Hannah, Isabella, and Liv. And we’re just a normal everyday family. Nothing special about us. God in His mercy and grace has guided our footsteps in a unique way where we’ve been able to work on the mission field, be involved in pastoral ministry in the States, and now we’re back serving the Lord in Spain and living in France.

[Jay]

Wonderful. Can you tell us a little more about how the Lord brought you to serve in your current mission field?

[Missionary Daniel Darling]

Sure thing. So I was pastoring a church in Texas. And there was a unique situation where my parents were involved in a church plant in Logronio, Spain. And a sad situation was happening. One of their co-workers, their son had a DIPG. It’s a tumor that’s found in the brain stem and was in their son. And so they had to leave rather quickly to go back to the States. And then there was another co-worker and they were in the States as well. And so it was just going to be my parents and they were doing a evangelistic Thanksgiving meal and they thought There’s no way that they could host this whole Thanksgiving meal just themselves. And they were sharing that with the church I was pastoring in Texas. And we had an individual come up, one of the deacons said, Hey, we should send a team. And I said, Let’s do it. And through different circumstances, I ended up on that team and we flew into Bilbao and I was waiting to rent the car and I was looking to see what churches were around us and the vast country of Spain. is very, there’s not very many churches, evangelical churches. And so what’s the good Christian thing to do? Pray, Lord, send forth labors to your harvest. And I thought I washed my hands of it. And we did the missions trip. We cooked the Thanksgiving meal. We went back to the States and that was in November. And then by January, God was really tugging on my heart and Kara’s heart, Michelle’s heart. And we, by March, ended up resigning the church and We were sent out of church and started raising support to come to Spain.

[MCG]

Oh, wow. Yeah. I truly affected your heart.

[Missionary Daniel Darling]

Yeah, it was a unique situation where there was something terrible happening. You know, having a child with a brain tumor is not a good thing, but God used that to get us back into Spain and to be praying for Spain. So.

[MCG]

Well, why don’t you give us a little bit about your salvation testimony? How long has the Lord known you? How did you get saved? Stuff like that.

[Missionary Daniel Darling]

Yeah, so I was saved very young. I was four years old when I remember hearing the gospel and understanding how my sins separated me from God. And I put my faith in Christ’s work on the cross to save me my sins. Of course, you don’t have a lot of sins to be confessing at four years old, but still I understood that there wasn’t anything I could do other than believe in what Jesus Christ did on the cross to save me as a substitute. And so I did that. And salvation is a thing where you believe in Christ’s work and you’re continuing to believe. Daily you need that grace to remember you’re a sinner and Christ came to save sinners and you need to believe in what Christ is doing, not as an ongoing bringing salvation, but it’s that gospel message that you need for living, for sanctifying. So when I was four years old, that’s when I accepted Christ as my savior.

[Jay]

Many of the people that we interview describe receiving Christ as their savior very early on, and then later on they kind of either… are not living for the Lord or maybe they have some doubts or they’re living in the way that they want. Did you ever struggle with that early on in your walk with the Lord where you kind of, you know, weren’t living for him and then you realized, okay, this is the right way and then you came back or were you always in lockstep with the Lord’s leading in your Christian walk?

[Missionary Daniel Darling]

I wish it were like that, that it’s just been one straight line upward of sanctification. There came a point in my youth, not that I doubted my salvation or that I doubted God or anything like that, it’s just I was incredibly selfish and I wanted to do my own thing and I did not want to be living for the Lord. I wanted to do my own thing and I wanted to live my dreams and I had this dream of being a chef and I thought I could do this, I could cook and I could be a really great chef and so I didn’t like how my parents were dependent upon churches and individuals. I wanted to be somebody who I thought was going to be independent, right? And so I thought being a chef, owner of a restaurant, I could do that. I’d be the boss. People would be depending upon me. So that happened during my teen years and I graduated from high school and I was planning on going to culinary school and it was culinary school is very expensive. And so that year, the magazine Food and Wine came out with 10 best chefs in America and eight of the 10. were self-taught. They had worked in restaurants and they just read a bunch of books. I thought, that’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to just self-teach myself and start working in restaurants. I didn’t go off to culinary school and a friend of mine called me up and asked if I could go on a missions trip. On that missions trip, I really didn’t want anything to do with the Lord, but it was a free trip and I wasn’t off at culinary school. God used that time. I was translating for the preacher and he was preaching and God used his word. I was reading through Ecclesiastes. And here’s the guy who’s most independent, self-sufficient you can think of. And he says, it’s all vanity in Ecclesiastes. It’s all like chasing after wind. And so God used that in my life to get my attention. And while he had my attention, I was seeing individuals getting saved, but not getting discipled because that mission team was going to be leaving. And so those people had made a decision, but they weren’t growing. So it was during that time that also felt a call to be investing my life in the life of other people to help them grow in their walk with the Lord. So it wasn’t ever a time of doubting my salvation, but there was a time of pure selfishness and pride that said, I can dictate my own life. And God used gentle and people in my life to bring me back.

[MCG]

Amen. Amen. Well, why don’t we jump into Spain? Tell us where in the globe is Spain, or at least you said you’re on the border of Spain and France and the Basque Country. Tell us about that region and everything. Where can we find it on the map?

[Missionary Daniel Darling]

So if you fly out of Delos, go east to Europe, you’ll find on the Iberian Peninsula, Spain. And its capital is Madrid, and it has different autonomous communities. We’re up in the autonomous community of the Basque Country, which has a very complex and interesting history. Its capital is Vitoria Gasteis, but we actually live in France, just right across the border. The Basque Country extends itself from northeastern Spain and southwestern France, and so we live in the southwestern part of France.

[MCG]

Oh, wow.

[Jay]

Can you tell us more about the population there in terms of perhaps their religious breakdown, the people groups? Do you find that there’s a historical element to how you share the gospel in that area? Could you give us more information about the religious breakdown of the people?

[Missionary Daniel Darling]

Yeah, so Spain has around some 49 million people and the vast majority would consider themselves in some fashion or the other, maybe Catholic. There’s a growing atheist group. The last figures I saw on Muslim population, they’d be around 8 to 10%. And in the Basque Country, it’s a little bit complicated because the Catholic Church were for the Basque people, but they were also for Franco the dictator. who made being Basque very difficult. So in Spain, sharing the gospel, talking with individuals, I would say one of the biggest barriers is not being Catholic per se. Catholic is the norm, and if you’re not Catholic, then you’ve got to be some weird. cult that drinks goat blood, right? There’s got to be something weird about you. So there is a lot of immigrants, like myself, but there’s a lot of immigrants from South America, and they’re usually more aware of the gospel. They’ve heard it. They’ve been to evangelical churches, whether they be Pentecostal or some cases Baptist. They’re probably the easier ones to reach with the gospel. There is a North African population from Morocco especially, and that is a harder Muslim group of sharing the gospel with them.

[MCG]

Okay. How about the people group in the Basque Country? It seems like their identity is different from that of a Spain identity. Are they the same people group? Is it a different people group? Dive into that.

[Missionary Daniel Darling]

Yeah, so There are some early political leaders that were a bit racist and so they made some remarks that Basque people are hard-working people, Spaniards are lazy people, you know, God has to give extra grace to the Spaniards because they’re just so lazy. And they’re honest people. Their language has no curse words, and so they feel that they have a good language. They’re hardworking people, so they’re just very special. They look like Spaniards, like Europeans. There’s a little bit, some say the typical Basque person has elongated earlobes and a longer nose with a little hump on it. And that distinguishes the Basque person and they’re very proud of that. But they typically are very reserved individuals. Unless you start talking to them, then they’ll just kind of open up. But for the most part, they’re very quiet and they walk around and they don’t make a bunch of noise.

[MCG]

Okay. What language do they speak? Is it Spanish?

[Missionary Daniel Darling]

Yeah, so they speak Spanish because during the time of Franco, he made it illegal or put a lot of barriers for speaking Musquera. Usquera is a language that’s very ancient. It’s an orphan language. It predates European languages. And there’s a lot of mystery about Usquera. When there’s mystery, they come up with different stories per se. And so one of the stories is that this was a language given by God at the Tower of Babel.

[MCG]

Oh, wow.

[Missionary Daniel Darling]

So it’s that ancient?

[MCG]

So curious question. You said they don’t have any curse word in their native language. What did they say when they hit their finger with a hammer?

[Jay]

We don’t want to know what they say. I have a quick question on this topic as well. Not necessarily on the language, but in terms of where you’re serving. You mentioned earlier that you went on a mission trip to Bilbao, and that’s where the Lord opened your eyes to the need and kind of drew your heart even after you came back to the States. Is that where you’re serving now, even while you live in France, or are you serving somewhere else?

[Missionary Daniel Darling]

Yeah, so it’s an interesting situation where our desire was to go to Bilbao. And to come to Spain as a missionary, you have to have a religious entity that is recognized by the Spanish government invite you. Not all churches go through all the paperwork to become recognized. And so we did find a church that was recognized by the government. They had done all the things, and that church happened to be in the province beside Bizcaya, where Bilbao is. It’s in Guiputcua. And so they wrote us a letter and gave us a letter of invitation. And interestingly enough, when we got our visas approved, we were limited to living in the province of Guiputcua, right beside Bizcaya. So God moved us a little bit further east than what we found. And so we haven’t ministered in Bilbao yet, even though that’s what originally drew us there. Once we got to Giputkwa, we started helping some churches there and got stuck just serving the Lord in Giputkwa.

[MCG]

Great. Cool. What are some things that folks should keep in mind if they feel led to serve the Lord in the Basque Country or similar to what you’re doing?

[Missionary Daniel Darling]

So in the Basque Country, there’s associated a certain amount of, for a while there was a terrorist organization called ETA and they were using different terror tactic as a way to pressure Spain to let them separate those are certain topics about ETA certain topics about Franco about the Spanish government are kind of not topics you want to just start off with you know it wouldn’t be it wouldn’t open doors you know in fact if you go in the rest of Spain you’ll see a lot of Spanish flags flying from different windows and places but when you get to The Basque Country, you’ll only see a Spanish flag in a federal building.

[Jay]

Oh, wow.

[Missionary Daniel Darling]

All the rest of the flags are Basque flags. So you wouldn’t want to start with that. You’d want to take some time to get to talk with them and ask lots of questions, and especially to find out what they’re believing, what they’re putting their faith in. A lot of times they’ll say, well, I’m Catholic and that’s great. What are you believing that will save you? And that’s where you can have a fruitful conversation.

[Jay]

Now, this question may sound long-winded or roundabout, but I’m going to bring it all together because this has to do with culture and how it affects your ability to share the gospel. You just talked about certain things that you probably shouldn’t lead with because it doesn’t open doors. You talked about Francisco Franco’s Spain, the languages that he banned, and the feeling between people in the Basque Country and how they feel about Spaniards. Oh, those guys are lazy. And you talked about Moroccans and other immigrants from South America that are living in the country. And it’s just this of different cultural elements that I think perhaps might have some effect on your sharing the gospel there. Can you talk about some of the cultural things, the cultural differences that you have to handle in your particular area or perhaps throughout Spain that you notice as a missionary that may create barriers or perhaps bring down barriers?

[Missionary Daniel Darling]

Yeah, so one of the biggest barriers is Usually people want to find out if I’m Catholic. And if I’m not, then that automatically puts a barrier out. And what I try to do is I’m talking with individuals is to go back to the Bible. What does the Bible say? And because the Catholic Church is supposed to be getting their authority also from the Bible, so it seems like that would be a good starting point. Other barriers that I think is a huge barrier in this area that we’re living. So we were living in the city of Donostia San Sebastian, and now we’re living in La Ben, France. And I think a huge barrier that I see is that there’s a lot of comfort and there’s a possibility of living a comfortable life and there’s a pursuit for that. And so people aren’t coming here looking for spiritual peace. They’re not looking for peace with God. They’re looking to work. They’re looking to escape something from where they were living. And they’re coming here almost thinking like they’ve made it. It’s a coastal area. It’s a very beautiful area, low crime. And there’s the idea that, you know, this is the life. And so I think one of the big barriers is to say, This is all beautiful, but this is not worth living for. It’s nothing. compared to a relationship with God. So that’s a huge barrier, just the affluence and the comfort, I guess.

[MCG]

How would you say you handle those differences when they come up, especially you being an American with your family and seem like you have to juggle many cultures, you know, France and Spain and the Basque Country people. Is there any clash between your culture and their culture?

[Missionary Daniel Darling]

So it’s very Western here and you don’t really feel a whole lot of culture shock. It just takes little tweaks to kind of not be offensive, you know. If you go into a French store, you want to say good morning or good afternoon to the workers. And, you know, it’s very little tweaks. In fact, probably in Spain, the biggest culture shock for Americans is the times that they eat. Lunch is usually around 2 to 3 o’clock in the afternoon. Supper is after 9 o’clock, and people stay up really late. I mean, really late. But for the most part, there’s not a lot of in your face. It wouldn’t be like if we were in the Middle East or something, which are very similar to the Americas. But I think one of the hardest things to do is to listen. In Spain, I had this experience where I was talking with somebody and they said, you know, we discovered you people. And I said, well, thank you for doing that. Very kind of you to discover us. And that went with the statement of, you can’t really tell me anything because we’re more sophisticated. We discovered you people. And so it takes a lot of listening and looking for where there’s holes in what they’re saying and then asking a question and then listening. And it takes time and usually takes several conversations. I’ve yet to have a conversation where I just start from finish is just the gospel. And you know, it’s several conversations, asking questions, want to come back with something else and we get back together again.

[MCG]

Yeah. We had a missionary on by the name of Dr. Henry Barnock and he wrote a book entitled Go to Learn. And he has that definitely same method of approach, ask questions and listen and ask more questions before you get to the gospel. Would you say that the culture in Spain is more of Acts chapter 2, where you find a lot of people who have some sort of spiritual background where you can start at the gospel? Or would you say it’s more of Acts chapter 17 where they have maybe no little spiritual background and you have to go all the way back to creation?

[Missionary Daniel Darling]

Okay, so the typical Spaniard would have a background of Jesus, of Mary, of God, of the Ten Commandments, you know, they would already have a framework of those things. Christ died on the cross, the church, even though not really sure what it is, there’s church and it has services and so forth. So there’s already a certain amount of understanding. And for the immigrants that are come from South America, they would have usually more. So they’ve maybe been encountered with some type of gospel preaching church, whether it be a Methodist, Pentecostal, assemblies of God, something that has hinted off at the gospel more. And so I would say that there’s already a foundation. And it’s kind of, I think, wading through that foundation that they have and saying, well, this isn’t any good, but this is good. Especially having a conversation about the gospel and finding out what they’re putting their faith in. If their faith is putting Christ’s work on the cross, Then at that point, what they need is discipleship. They’re already believing. If they just have these different notions, but they’re believing in their works, well, we got to start with the gospel. And we got to say, well, those works, they’re not going to get you there. It’s not going to be enough. You need to believe in Christ’s work on the cross. So there’s already a foundation. Sometimes their ideas can get in the way, but listening and talking and finding out what actually they’re believing. I’d say in Acts 2 then.

[MCG]

Yeah, do you find the non-religious easier to witness to other religious?

[Missionary Daniel Darling]

Well, so we’ve had a ministry on with different like college students and that’s a little bit more interesting because there are some, as I’m sharing the gospel, you can tell it’s like the first time they’ve ever heard this, Christ came and died in your place, that believing in him and accepting his death in your places will bring you peace with God. And it takes them a while to process that. And not that it’s impossible because that’s the work of the Spirit in them, but you can tell that it’s quite the work. They’re processing this and they’re like, huh, I don’t, I’ve never heard this before. And it’s crazy with all the Catholic churches and all the religious things that happen in Spain that there’s individuals that just do not know, but it’s a growing amount of individuals.

[Jay]

What are some needs that you have that if they were filled would make your job of sharing the gospel in that area easier?

[Missionary Daniel Darling]

Yeah, so there are in Donostia, there are four university campuses and it’d be neat to see a couple in each of those campuses, sharing the gospel, doing Bible studies. In Irun, we’re the church that invited us. There’s also a university campus. It’d be great if somebody was there helping out. And I think that in Irun, this person could be somebody who would take people from the Irun church and disciple them in reaching college students having Bible studies. So it might not be a career type ministry, it might be something where they spend four years or eight years developing leaders to work in a university setting. I came across talking with an individual who wants to see surfers come to Saving Faith. And I asked him, is that a thing? And he said, well, there’s a lot of surfers that come from all over. I didn’t realize we’re in the capital, the surfing capital of Europe here. Oh, wow. And he said people from all over Europe come. And he’s wanting to open up kind of a surfing hostel. I didn’t even know what that was. but where people come and stay. But I don’t know anything about surfing. But if there was somebody that wanted to reach out to the surfing community, I think there’s gonna be also a need for something like a training, wanna be involved in theological education. There seems to be a hunger for wanting to know more about the Lord. And so I think helping train leaders, somebody along those lines.

[MCG]

Do you find that the language make it a little more difficult to see more people coming to Spain from the US, from Canada?

[Missionary Daniel Darling]

Well, the States has a ton of Spanish speakers.

[MCG]

That’s true.

[Missionary Daniel Darling]

And I pastored a church in Texas that I started off as the pastor of Spanish ministries there. So there are a lot of Spanish speakers in the States. And in Spanish is easy. French. Oh my word. French is really hard. We’ve started learning French and it has so many silent letters. It has so many. It is crazy. That is a crazy language. But see, Canada has Quebec that speaks French. So I don’t know. I’m 45 and I’m learning French. So if I can do it, anyone can do it.

[MCG]

Yeah. they say that the church in the US are kind of holding the rope for the missionaries. Do you find that the churches in the US are doing anything that make your task a bit more difficult in Spain or in the Basque Country?

[Missionary Daniel Darling]

The churches that have partnered with us have been fantastic churches. They pray, they come on missions trips, they try to help out. I don’t know other churches, and I don’t read much and see about much that goes on, but We praise the Lord for those churches that have partnered with us. They’ve been incredible churches that have just loved Spain. I’m guessing they love every other country too. But for us, it seems like they love Spain and now they’re getting to really love France. Amen.

[MCG]

Amen. Well, you’re listening to the Moving Virus podcast. We’re sitting down with missionary Daniel Darling, and he is in the Basque country of Spain. We’ll be right back.

[Jay]

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[MCG]

All right brother Daniel let’s jump into a little bit of a fun section and find out some of your favorites let’s start with your favorite script verse.

[Missionary Daniel Darling]

So there’s a text that I’ve been really thinking about so it’s not just one verse but it’s Colossians chapter 1 15-20 And specifically verse 18, where it talks about where God has made Christ to be preeminent. That aspect of preeminence has been really, I’ve been mulling that over for a while. And it’s kind of been the focus of our ministry here in Spain and France is to make Christ preeminent. And in some cases that’s sharing the gospel, in some cases that’s discipleship, sometimes that’s biblical counseling, but the aspect of making Christ preeminent. Colossians 1, 15 through 20.

[MCG]

Yeah, I heard a message once where a preacher was saying, some people give Christ a place in their life, some people give God some kind of prominence in their life, but that’s not what God called for. God called it that he was nothing above. That’s definitely convicting.

[Jay]

What would you say is your favorite historical biblical account?

[Missionary Daniel Darling]

Well, like a story.

[Jay]

Well, we typically don’t use the word story because, you know, some people hear story and think, oh, you know, it didn’t really happen. And so we, but yeah, basically your favorite Bible narrative. There you go.

[Missionary Daniel Darling]

So it’s an odd narrative. It’s found in Judges chapter 17, one through six. Judges chapter 17 is an epilogue and it has the famous there was no verse six says there was no king at that time and everyone did what was right in their own eyes so verse one starts in the hill country of Ephraim and there’s this mother that has a silver for an idol and her son steals the silver and she places a curse on whoever stole it and the son hears the curse and he brings the money back and he says I stole it I stole it and then she says you know bless the Lord and of course she used the silver to make this idol so here’s a person that’s living in the Holy Land It’s a Jew who’s in covenant with God. And they have religious terminology, you know, they say praise the Lord, you know, but they’re making idols. And I think about that, that a person can, if we want to apply it to our time now, you can be going to church, you can have a theological vocabulary, and yet in your heart, you can be far, far away from the Lord. And so it’s a story that just encourages me to look at my heart. Absolutely. What good is it to have a religious vocabulary? What good is it to be going to church? Both of those things are great, but if your heart is far away from the Lord.

[MCG]

What would you say is the most conflicting passage for you?

[Missionary Daniel Darling]

So Jude chapter 3, chapter 3, Jude 1, verse 3. It talks about how it only has one chapter. So Jude verse 3 through I think verse 6, it talks about how Jude is wanting to write about their common salvation, but there’s crept in these people who are using the grace of the Lord as a way to sin. And I think about here’s individuals who know the Lord, who have ministered, and then for some reason they have walked away from the Lord and they’re leading others to do that. For me, it’s very convicting to think about How terrible would that be to fall into that? I would lead my family astray, that I would lead other people astray. So that’d be a very convicting passage.

[Jay]

Which scripture would you find to be the most comforting for you?

[Missionary Daniel Darling]

So we live in a day and age where… sometimes things happen that we have no control over. And I think we think we have control, but we really don’t. And there’s a passage in Romans chapter 12, verse 19, where he says, dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath for it is written, vengeance is mine. I will repay it, says the Lord. And then he says, Verse 20, Therefore, if thy enemy hunger, feed him if he thirst, give him drink for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. You can’t control situations, but you can control how you react. And so we went through a situation where my wife and kids, their visa should have been renewed and we should be living in Spain, but for some reason it didn’t. And we could get mad and we could get angry and we can, you know, say whatever we want to say. But at the end of the day, it’s better to just leave things into the Lord’s hands and continue living for him. Amen.

[MCG]

Yeah, definitely. And at the danger that we might ask you to sing this one, what is your favorite hymn of the faith?

[Missionary Daniel Darling]

So there is an old hymn by John Newton, which is I Ask the Lord That I Might Grow. And I’ve never seen it in a hymnal, but I heard a group of men singing it. And it talks about this desire to grow in grace and in God using difficulties in situations to purge his heart to help him grow. And he gets to a point where he feels like he’s going to die. He’s just this worm in the ground and he’s going to die. And he’s like, why is this happening? And God replies, this is how you grow in grace. And so that’s been, I think about that song.

[MCG]

Yeah, I’ve never heard of it. I’ll look it up.

[Jay]

Yep. And who is your favorite giant of the faith?

[Missionary Daniel Darling]

I’m assuming you’re not asking like Goliath, right?

[Jay]

Definitely not asking. More of a Hebrews 11 type giant.

[Missionary Daniel Darling]

Yeah, So there’s a section in Acts chapter 16 where Paul is trying to figure out where the Lord is leading them. And in Acts chapter 16, he tries to go to this one place and that door closes. He tries to go to this other place and that door closes. And then he gets that Macedonian call and off to Philippi he goes. And then in Philippi, if you read the narrative, he gets put in prison and so forth. That aspect of Paul’s life, that chapter that narrates, you can see him struggling to figure out where does God want him. He’s willing to go, and you think, well, God’s just going to lead him to paradise in some wonderful five-star resort place, and he ends up in prison. And I think that’s a neat narrative. There’s times where Paul isn’t maybe the best. I think about the whole situation with John Mark, and then Barnabas in that discussion that they had. But Acts chapter 16, I think, is neat of Paul’s life.

[MCG]

You alluded to some of these before, talking about the biggest barrier to the people of Spain and the Basque Country. Remind us of those and tell us, how can those barriers ultimately be removed?

[Missionary Daniel Darling]

So there’s the barrier of not being part of the Catholic Church. I think one barrier of that is you don’t have to start by criticizing the Catholic Church. You can share the gospel without even mentioning the Catholic Church. You can talk about God’s love, man’s sin. You can talk about Christ and his death and what it does, how you attain salvation through believing. And I think one way around it is not making it your first stop to show where theologically the Catholic Church is wrong. but rather showing where the gospel is right. And I think in discipleship, there’s a place for that. And then there’s also, I think, another barrier is just the pursuit of comfort and looking for it in maybe better jobs or whatever, but showing them that ultimately you find it in the gospel.

[MCG]

Amen. Well, Mr. Daniel Darling, it was indeed a pleasure. Thank you for joining us on the Moving Barriers podcast.

[Missionary Daniel Darling]

Thank you very much for having me.

[MCG]

Amen.

[Jay]

Thank you so much for listening to the Removing Barriers podcast. Make sure to rate us everywhere you listen to podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or Stitcher. 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.