Ephesians 2:20-21

In this letter, I’d like to provide a few ministry and family updates, some prayer requests, as always, but also share a little of what it means to plant a self-sustaining church as missionaries.

Bible Studies

A while back, I updated our church website with some information to help emphasize what makes our church different from Catholic churches (and many Protestant ones as well). Specifically, I wanted to highlight our focus on studying the Bible. While this may seem obvious to someone who has lived in a healthy Christian atmosphere for many years, it really is different from what people expect when thinking about a church here. Jehovah’s Witnesses and other cults have psychologically scarred the nation. To this day, despite our efforts, many people assume we are JWs or some other cult preying on the possessions of weak minds. “We believe the Bible, study it, and apply it to our lives”—is what I constantly repeat to people.

In January, we were contacted by a woman who had received one of our Christmas postcards. From there, she visited our church website and saw that we offer Bible studies. She asked about joining one, and so Raquel met her and started going through the Gospel of John. They and another woman have met once a week since January. The two women have never been to a church service, but they are very fascinated by what they’re learning so far.

I am still working through the book of Ephesians with two couples from church and a few others who come inconsistently to the Bible study. I’ve encouraged them to continue the study without me while we are away in the USA, as my goal for them is to lead Bible studies of their own. I’ve explained that leading Bible studies isn’t a pastoral thing, it’s a discipleship thing!

Training replacements

My pastor used to say: “Missionaries are like scaffolding. They help get the job done, but they’re ugly, distracting, and not meant to be permanent!” I’m in the interesting business of trying to work myself out of a job. Realistically, a self-sustaining church in Spain is a difficult goal, for a variety of social, historical, and economic reasons. Part of achieving that goal is instilling the Biblical values of membership, service, and investment in one’s church. It’s exciting to see church members grow in those areas. In God’s providence, last fall I had a medical issue that limited me from doing everything I normally did in a church service. Benjamin was born during that time as well, so I asked church members for extra help in church. Quite a few responded and helped out, and it’s been exciting to see them exercising their spiritual gifts.

This Wednesday, we leave for the States, and we’ll be gone for two and a half months. We don’t have co-workers serving with us, so I’ve made arrangements with other missionaries to lead our services while we’re gone. But it’s wonderful to note how much more self-sufficient the church is than it was a short time ago. We have members opening the doors, preparing breakfasts, doing cleaning/maintenance, leading music, running media, and more! Raquel and I were doing all of that ourselves just a couple of years ago.

USA Trip

We will be in the USA from March 25th to June 9th. I’ll be speaking in about 20 churches during that time. In at least 7 churches, we’ll present the ministry for consideration of support. We’re trusting the Lord to lead some of these churches to partner with us as we try to stabilize financially. One of our churches donated the funds for the transatlantic flights for the whole family, and a friend has provided a vehicle for us to use for the stay. God always provides, all glory to Him!

Please pray for safety and sanity as we drive around 5,000 miles and fly another 5,500 miles while in the country! Thankfully, the kids love visiting new places, and we expect the trip to be fun and exciting for everyone involved. There are many, many friends we’d love to see as we travel, so if you’re near one of the pins on the map below, please let me know and meet if possible!

Thank you for your prayers! God bless,
David
Psalm 34:3

Luke 14:23

Welcome to the family, Ben!

Hello everyone, thank you as always for your prayers. There’s a lot to cover in this update, so here’s a breakdown:

1. Birth of our 4th child
2. Christmas postcard project (expanded)
3. Discipleship updates
4. USA trip in 2026

On November 16th, Benjamin Emil Bonikowsky was born. He came two weeks early, weighing in at 7lb 13oz. Raquel was more than happy for him to come early, though he gave us very little warning time! It was an early Sunday morning— we left the house at 4:20 and he was born at 5:35 with no complications. We made it back to the hospital room with enough time for me to make arrangements for the Sunday service that morning. Just a few years ago, I’d have almost certainly had to cancel our church services, but now we have several members willing to help with leadership, so I decided to modify the order of service enough to where 3 men could conduct the entire service without me. There was no sermon, but one man led a study he had prepared on the names of God, another led the music and read a scripture passage, and a third read a catechism. They were nervous but enthusiastic, and did a great job. We watched the service on livestream. It felt like a real milestone in church!

Leire, Sofia, and Aiden love their baby brother!

Each year for Christmas my dad and I design and print gospel postcards to send to our respective regions. 2025 will be the 4th year that I send a card to every home in our church city of Errenteria. The postcard has a gospel message on the back in Spanish and in Basque, and contains an invitation to church. I believe it’s an effective way to both share the Gospel and help seeking souls find our church or contact me for Bible studies. This year, provided we have the funds, I would like to expand the region we cover to include several towns adjacent to Errenteria. If you would like to learn more about the project and consider praying for or donating the cost to send cards to a single neighborhood, please visit the project page!

Each neighborhood will turn green as funds are raised to cover it. Tapping on it will show its size, cost to cover, and a photo.

Meal with believers at church

I mentioned my discipleship classes in my last update. I finished the book we were going through on Bible doctrines, and we are now doing a weekly verse-by-verse study of the book of Ephesians. We now meet in the home of another church family, and the husband and wife participate in the Bible study as well. My goal as we go through the book is to teach these believers how to dive deeper in their own personal study of the Bible, and I’m hopeful this will lead to homiletics and the men’s first preaching opportunities in church.

There’s another elderly lady who regularly attends our Wednesday prayer services. She works on Sundays and currently cannot come to regular services. She was in the Orthodox church in her homeland, but is very sensitive to scripture and the Gospel. We are currently going over baptism and the rest of the Gospel, and she’s enthusiastic about being baptized soon.

I’m solidifying plans for our trip in 2026. We are praying the Lord would help us raise support to be more financially stable. To that end, I’m communicating with several new churches to visit, and I’m hopeful the Lord will continue to guide us to new ministry partners. We plan to fly to the USA the first week of April (after Easter Sunday) and stay two months till the beginning of July. We do not yet have a vehicle for our stay, and we’re now a family of 6, so we will need a van. We will likely be driving all up and down the East Coast.

November 2025

If you’d like to receive more regular updates and prayer requests, please join my ministry update group on WhatsApp, where I communicate (a bit more) regularly. You can sign up on the Subscribe page.

Thank you for your prayers! God bless,
David
Psalm 34:3

Singing at a workers’ retreat at Aierdi

Family photo that turned out nice, but got outdated

Youth retreat at Aierdi, two young people from church

Church fellowship lunch

Jeremiah 32:39

Raquel and I chose this verse as the theme for our marriage while we were still engaged. In context, God is promising that though the current outlook in Jerusalem is bleak—after all, the city is besieged by the world’s superpower—the nation will unite in submission to God and enjoy His blessing for eternity. Perhaps that was a dangerous verse to claim! Our marriage began with a series of early miscarriages, followed by the news that we had almost no chance of having children. Yet after 4 years, by God’s grace, Leire was born, and today we have 3 precious children, with our 4th (a boy) due in November. Our God loves us so much more than we deserve!

Thank God for the strength to lead our growing church and family. As the church ministry ramps up in depth and complexity, we learn to lean more on God’s strength and less on our own understanding. I’ve thought often about how strange it feels for me to advise people with lives tangled and scarred by decades of ungodly choices. Thankfully, the Bible not only identifies problems but also provides hope. It’s humbling to see people with more life experience than I possess show deference to Biblical counsel.

There’s a couple in church who started coming in July last year. They were both divorced, and both of them have adult children from previous marriages. When we met them, their marriage was in a critical state. But over the past year we’ve seen them grow spiritually. They are very happy to serve in church and are helping a lot with cleaning and maintenance. For the past 3 months, I’ve been doing discipleship classes with the husband, who’s an avid student. He has struggled with a smoking addiction for a long time, but with the Lord’s help, he’s now gone a month without touching a cigarette.

We’ve reached an exciting new chapter in church. We’re now holding youth group meetings every other Saturday! We have a core group of four 12/13-year-old boys in the congregation, and they’re happy to meet for a time of Bible study, singing, and games. They’ve even brought several unsaved friends to the meetings! Pray that the current excellent spirit will continue, and that the Lord would work in the lives of these kids. Incidentally, every one of them comes from a single-parent or broken home, so they desperately need love and mentoring. We’ve started out by studying the Fruit of the Spirit in the Bible lessons.

We are praying about making a trip to the USA next year, sometime in the spring or fall. We want to visit our supporting churches, some of which we’ve never even met! We would also love to raise our monthly support by visiting new churches. Our expenses are significantly above our budgeted income every month, but thanks to unbudgeted donations from friends and churches, we get by without having to work extra part-time jobs. We’re trusting the Lord to help us with upcoming expenses.

To our supporting churches, if you would like us to come and present a ministry report, we would love to do so next year with the whole family!

If you’d like to receive more regular updates and prayer requests, please join my ministry update group on WhatsApp, where I communicate (a bit more) regularly. Thank you as always for your prayers for us and for the ministry!

Thank you for your prayers! God bless,
David
Psalm 34:3

How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?
Romans 10:14

Hello to all our praying friends. In this update, I’ll talk about some of our outreach efforts here on the mission field. Many of you pray with us every day that the Lord would save souls here in the Basque Region, and we believe God will accomplish this through the growth of local, Bible-based churches throughout Basque cities and towns. My goal is to train our believers to be disciple-makers and leaders in our church or in future churches.

Many of you have been following the Christmas postcard project. When I was kid growing up in Spain, every week we would canvas basque cities, placing tracts in mailboxes (perfectly legal here) and handing them out to people in public. I would love to know how many hundreds of hours I spent distributing tracts as a kid! Gospel tracts served two main purposes: sharing the Gospel and spreading awareness of the local church. Times have changed a lot since then though. People mostly respond negatively to what they would call “propaganda,” and it is much harder for people to stop and talk with a stranger in public. I still look for every opportunity to share the gospel with people I meet, but for years now, instead of distributing tracts, we send out a full-color Christmas card each year with a Gospel presentation and information about church. 2024 was the first year I reached out to our supporting friends and churches to cover the cost of sending a card to each of the 14,388 homes in Errenteria. We were overwhelmed by the enthusiasm and generosity of everyone who sent gifts and prayers, so, Lord willing, we plan to expand the area covered by the project for next year.

Postcard coverage map

In December we hosted a Christmas concert at church. The choir of the Irun church prepares two musicals each year primarily as an evangelistic ministry. Many who are too terrified to come to a non-Catholic church service will happily come to a free concert held in a church building— even if said concert includes a gospel-based story and a message from the Scripture at the end! Raquel and I have always been involved in the music ministry at our churches, and we love working with the Irun church to prepare these concerts. We will be hosting another concert next month for Easter.

At the beginning of each year, our church orders personalized calendars to use as gifts. I visit all the apartment buildings in our church neighborhood to give calendars and homemade cookies to the church neighbors. Since churches in Spain are usually inside neighborhoods, often with people living directly above the ceiling of church, it’s very important to do our best to have a healthy relationship with the neighbors. As Paul puts it even better: If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men — Romans 12:18. If Errenteria is our Jerusalem, then our church neighborhood is the epicenter of our evangelistic mission!

Our circle of unsaved friends has expanded a lot since Leire and Sofia started going to school. We meet with the parents of their classmates often on Fridays, as most weeks someone in one of the two classes is celebrating a birthday party. We see the birthday events as opportunities to make friends with and give the Gospel to other parents who need to be saved.

Lastly, on an individual level, I’m witnessing to one of my Basque friends. We met in 2020 before I had children. He practices English with me and I practice Basque with him. We both love mountains and hiking, so we get together a few times a year to climb a mountain somewhere. Last month we managed to find some snow on a mountain not far from us. He is somewhat receptive to the Gospel, as he believes in God. But he’s not at all interested in abandoning his Catholic background yet. Please pray for him and for me as I share the Gospel.

Thank you for your prayers! God bless,

David
Psalm 34:3

Numbers and statistics are not a reliable metric for evaluating the effectiveness of a ministry. From our perspective, we often won’t know whether we are planting like Apollos, watering like Paul, or reaping God’s harvest in the moment. But of course, like all disciple-makers, we passionately hope to see many people saved and transformed by the Gospel!

We are so grateful to see steady growth in church, both in numbers and in spiritual strength. 2 weeks ago we had the largest group of people we’ve seen in a regular service: 34 people! We can’t claim any credit for what the Lord is doing, we’re just thankful for the privilege of serving Him, and for the faithful servants here who labored before us.

Since our last update we have started a choir practice! We have about 10 people signed up. In its current form it’s realistically a very basic voice/music theory class, where our first goal is to help everyone understand pitch and learn to sing on key. We’re working towards singing our first choir number during a church service. I don’t know how long it will take us to prepare for that, but we’re working on it and making steady progress! I continue to give guitar lessons to a couple of people as well.

Those of you who are in my WhatsApp update group have heard about the friend I’ve been able to reestablish contact with. He made a profession of faith with me over 11 years ago (check out this Instagram update from way back!). He went through a very difficult period following his sisters’ death about 7 years ago. He left the church and let his life go way off track. I’ve been reforming the connection with him, and in June we met for coffee and a long talk. We’ve been in touch since then, and for the past two months he has been back in church. He now lives an hour away from us and has been attending my parents’ church in Lazkao with his family. This past week I learned that my mother had the chance to help his wife make a profession of faith! It’s very exciting to see the Lord welcoming back a sheep that was lost.

There is a new elderly lady who has been coming to church for about 6 months now. Many of you have been praying for her and her family. She has gradually opened up and shown increased spiritual interest recently. This week I had the privilege of helping her to understand the Gospel, and she prayed to accept Christ as well! She hopes to be baptized as soon as possible, along with her grandson.

Some of you are familiar with the Christmas postcard ministry we organize each year. For many years, my father Andy has printed and sent Gospel postcards to each of the homes in the towns surrounding his church. Since 2022, our church in Errenteria has also been a part of the project, and we’ve sent postcards to all the neighborhoods in the city. Our city has almost 40,000 inhabitants, in just under 15,000 homes. Please pray for this outreach project. We want to share the Gospel and let people in our city know we’re there to help them learn about God and the Bible. So many people searching for answers have no idea that there’s a church near them where they can learn, and this is one way to reach them.

Last year’s postcard

I have mapped out the different neighborhoods in the city, and we want to raise funds to send postcards to every home. The 19 neighborhoods range from around 100 to 2,000 homes in each, and they will likely cost between $10-$200 per neighborhood. I’ve set up a map with the names of each along with a picture for each, and it would be wonderful if any of you decided to adopt a neighborhood and commit to praying for it by name as we head into the end of the year. Once I have more specific info for each neighborhood, I will prepare a prayer card for each one. Hopefully, they’ll be useful for printing out as reminders for you and your Sunday School or life groups.

Right now each neighborhood is in red, but as we raise funds for neighborhoods the zones will turn green.

Please write me if you’d like to learn more about the project, or if you’re interested in donating to help cover the printing and mailing cost for any of the neighborhoods. You can also join the new WhatsApp group I’ve created to follow the project in real time.

For some updated topics to keep in mind when you pray for us, contact me and I’ll send a prayer card to your home every few months with current requests.

Thank you for your prayers! God bless,
David
Psalm 34:3

May the Lord bless you all, thank you for your prayers for us! Reflecting during our recent visit to the States, we were humbled by the generosity and intense love demonstrated by those who hosted us. It is truly a privilege to serve the Lord with the support of so many believers.

In the church ministry, it feels like we have recently crossed an exciting milestone. Raquel and I have until now done everything ourselves in the church ministry. I often have to laugh with a bit of embarrassment after trying to vocalize, play the piano, and advance the PowerPoint slides during our congregational singing. And things really start to go south when one of the girls breaks away from her seat and attempts to climb on my lap during the singing!

The kids really want to serve in the music ministry

But in the last few months, partly in connection with us recruiting helpers for our absence while we visited the USA, a few of the families in church have shown a desire to step up and begin to serve in the church. A point I’ve made repeatedly during our current series in the book of Romans is that serving in the local church is an essential part of the Christian walk toward God. And I believe equipping our believers to serve God is one of the primary goals as I disciple our individuals. As you pray for us and our ministry, pray for those who we’re encouraging to serve alongside us.

One family volunteered to handle all the cleaning at church

In our 7-week trip to the USA we were able to present the ministry in 11 new churches, as well as give updates to 5 supporting churches. Almost all of these churches were Hispanic-culture churches, and it was really a blessing to see what the Lord is doing in these ministries. The churches we visited were gracious and exuded love for missions. We were challenged by the example of many young Hispanic pastors who are putting tremendous energy into their growing churches. Many of these pastors were busy planting 2nd churches in addition to their primary ministry, at tremendous personal sacrifice. We met many who will be partnering with our ministry in prayer, and we trust the Lord will direct some of these new churches to partner with us financially as well.

Ministries visited on this trip. You can click the map to interact on Google Maps

As we head into the summer period, pray for us as we will be busy organizing as many church activities for youth, couples, and families as we can. There are always more things to do than time to do them, but we’re excited to see the church growing in each of these demographics!

Our auditorium is starting to fill up, praise the Lord!

Thank you for your prayers! God bless,
David
Psalm 34:3

A recent church lunch

I’m increasingly emphasizing exercise as a component of spiritual health. Here I’m running with a man from church

In the USA, the kids arriving at home after one of many trips to churches

I send short-form updates and pictures on the messaging app WhatsApp. Hope to see you there!

A lot has happened since our last email update. There were a couple of first experiences for me. I officiated the funeral of an elderly lady from church (which resulted in around 30 unsaved family members visiting church for the following Sunday morning memorial service). I also officiated a wedding ceremony for a couple from our church. I began scheduling regular office hours at our church building three days a week. And while this allows me to get more work done during the hours the kids are awake at home, the main benefit is simply having the church doors open so that the neighborhood sees daily movement and extra activity in church. Unlike church buildings in most of America, our church is in a fully residential neighborhood. I try to take every opportunity I can to interact with church neighbors.

Our highest-attended church service to date for a memorial service.

Speaking of neighbors, in the days before Christmas, Sofia and I went door-to-door through all the apartment buildings near church, and we handed out cookies, calendars, and invitations to our Christmas cantata. Thankfully our neighbors are, for the most part, friendly towards our church. This is sadly an exception to the rule, as it is fairly normal for evangelical/non-catholic churches in our culture to be somewhat odious in their communities, for the simple reason that their music style could be described as clamorous. On Sunday mornings with just thin walls between them and sleepy neighbors, many nasty things get said about these churches. In our case, we have thick soundproofing in place, and more importantly, our music style is, I believe, appropriately joyful and respectful to our community.

Sofia and I going door-to-door, handing out cookies, calendars, and invitations to our church neighbors

The biggest recent change, on a family level, is that our oldest, 3-year-old Leire, is now going to school. Raquel and I have spent a lot of time in prayer and thought about how to approach the education of our children, and we’ve decided to start by sending them to a private Catholic school in our city. One thing that many don’t know about Spain is that, despite its very strong Roman Catholic history, the nation as a whole is extremely secular. In our region especially, it is very difficult to find anyone who actually practices the faith in any significant way. Catholicism is almost entirely a cultural backdrop, not something that influences people’s thoughts or actions. That being said, the Catholic church still exists, and this school is run by devout Catholics. This means two significant things to us. Firstly, the school takes a strong stand against modern ethical trends like the deconstruction of gender identities, issues like extramarital sex and abortion, and dangers in modern child psychology. Secondly, and perhaps more significantly, it brings us as parents into contact with other parents who share some of our concerns and values. The school is small enough that we parents form a social group that will bring many opportunities to share the Gospel. Through birthday parties and school events, we are now getting many chances to have conversations about important spiritual topics.

Leire racing in a school activity. After the races, we had lunch with the other parents from her class.

Remember you can always join our email list for a lot more photos, details, and prayer requests.

Thank you all for your prayers, as always. God bless!
David
Psalm 34:3

Combined church fellowship activity with a new Baptist church plant in Hondarribia

Teaching at the Missionary Teen Retreat at the Aierdi farmhouse

Raquel and her father this Christmas in Gandia

Me with 3 church members at a regional Bible study (Intensive Institute)

I actually started writing this update in May. However, I was unable to finish and send it out before things got too crazy with the birth of our 3rd child. Aiden David Bonikowsky Rodriguez was born June 2nd in Donostia, Spain. He was our biggest so far, weighing in at 7 pounds, 15 ounces. Both he and Raquel are doing very well, and we’re so grateful to the Lord for the privilege of raising him alongside Leire and Sofia. It has truly been a chaotic month for us though! Apparently, it requires a lot of energy to keep up with 3 children under 3 years old, and that’s a commodity that runs dry quickly these days! But God’s grace is sufficient, and we’re grateful that Aiden’s 2 sisters love him to death (we do have to keep them from smothering him with hugs). It’s also such a blessing to have my parents close enough for us to see them every week, as they’re also a huge help. That’s not a usual case for missionaries!

In February I was contacted by a very young couple with a newborn baby. They were looking for a church where they could come and dedicate their baby boy. I told them that while I wouldn’t do a ceremony per se, I would be very happy to pray with them for the child (and parents) at the end of a church service. They have been coming to church regularly since then, and we’re additionally doing a Bible study in the book of John every week. They are simultaneously very needy and very hungry spiritually. They have a terribly unstable living situation which they’re trying their best to get out of. Please pray for me as I try to counsel them through complicated decisions. And pray for their spiritual growth as well.

We continue to see new people in church fairly regularly, and some of them stick around. We’ve also seen families who were faithful last year significantly cool down spiritually. It’s impossible for us to predict who will be faithful and, eventually, a productive church member. Raquel and I spend as much time as we have available in one-on-one or small-group discipleship. We both believe the best we can do is invest time primarily in those who are most hungry spiritually and pray for those who are weaker. I’m also trying to cultivate a culture of communication and prayer within our church so that each believer can be encouraging each other. A month or two before Aiden was born, Raquel started meeting with some of the women in church for a time of prayer and a book study. The response has been very positive.

In April we held our third annual apologetics retreat during Easter break. We had a great group of believers come from different parts of Spain for 3 days of sessions about being prepared to explain our faith in a world that scorns faith. The topics have varied a lot in these three years, and in my session this time I spoke about the supposed tension between the theologies of Jesus and Paul. Virtually everyone in Spain studies in a totally secular environment where the Bible is under constant attack via arguments like these. We hope these apologetics sessions are helpful for people who have rarely had chances to study these topics. My session can be found on Youtube (in Spanish) here.

I’ve been sharing ministry updates here on my website every few months for the last 12 years or so, and I don’t plan to change that at all. Social media is also helpful for communicating. But recently I have been thinking more and more about a better way to share our ministry with friends who are following the ministry. Emails are long and far between. Social media updates are at the whim of an algorithm. But recently there have been multiple situations when I have appreciated having a few friends praying for me in a critical moment on short notice.

So I have created a community on the messaging platform WhatsApp where I can send out short-form updates of different types. I have a few groups for different purposes where I’ll share quick updates, prayer requests, and pictures. I realize that WhatsApp is not used much in the United States, but I’m convinced it’s the service that best matches my goals. I’ve set up 4 groups to begin with, and I’ll probably add more in the future. Most of the groups are read-only, so my wife and I will be the only ones with the ability to send messages. But there is also a discussion group and anyone can message me directly in the app as well. While it won’t be for everyone, if you’re interested in receiving more info from our ministry, you can join any of the groups below.

• Prayer requests/updates (read-only) – https://chat.whatsapp.com/EvsUxrY3i1TLEsqOXO7pfn
• Cultural/interesting things (read-only) – https://chat.whatsapp.com/JbspniBVhuM8KWhhiwTSNO
• Family pictures (read-only) – https://chat.whatsapp.com/FkevxCVX6NFLTRBO8SuzN1
• Chat room – https://chat.whatsapp.com/F3FNTZxtrKK2atZBObDYp5

Those links will prompt you to download the app on your phone if you do not have it, but if you have any difficulties or questions, I am glad to help anyone get set up on the app. Also, for those of you who are in time zones far away from Spain, I can help you turn message notifications off during the night or entirely, because morning here is nighttime in America, for example.

Thank you all for your prayers, as always. God bless!
David
Psalm 34:3

Soon after the war broke out, we learned of a group of special-needs orphans from Ukraine who had been brought to Spain. We’ve been involved in praying for and helping them throughout the year, and for Christmas, we organized a project where every child was “adopted” by a believer who committed to praying for them by name throughout the year. We prepared cards with some info and requests for each child, and we trust the Lord will work through the prayers of His people. We also prepared Christmas packages for each child with their favorite toys, and a note addressed to each one with the name of a person praying for them. Please pray with us for these kids, especially that those who are visiting them would be able to reach them with the Gospel.

After having to cancel it for the past two years, we finally had the 17th MTR (missionary teen retreat) at the Aierdi Farmhouse in December. I enjoyed helping with the teaching and getting to know new missionary teens from around Europe. Teens who grow up on the mission field experience many unique privileges and challenges, and the retreat was a blessing to everyone involved.

Another ministry that came back after a few years of hiatus was our evangelistic Christmas cantata. It’s exciting to see more and more of our church members getting involved in the choir ministry (we join the choir practices of the church in Irun). The week before Christmas we presented the cantata in the 3 independent Baptist churches of our province (Irun, Lazkao, and our church in Rentería). I was very happy that after many years of inviting him, one of my friends came with his wife and two children. This was the first time he’d ever come to church, so this was a very important first step for him.

Church attendance has been all over the place for the past month, as most of our church members (including my family) have dealt with illness this winter. I was quite sick for two weeks this January, and many others have had to deal with a very nasty flu season. However, our church services have been exciting as we’ve had several visiting families come recently. Pray with us for two new families who have joined the church (both with two children). Both families have recently come to Spain and have been looking for a doctrinally-focused church.

The last bit of news, though certainly not the least, is that our family continues to grow. Lord willing, in June, we’ll be having a baby boy. He’ll be the third child in three years, and we couldn’t be more grateful to the Lord!

The family keeps growing!

Thank you for your continued prayer for us, we certainly need it! God bless,

David
Ps. 34:3

I apologize to those who read this on my website or on social media. This report will be more people-focused, so I won’t be sharing many specifics on the internet. Most of the update (along with all the prayer requests) have been redacted so I can post this online, but as always I encourage you to sign up for emails if you pray for us and want to be more informed about the ministry. You can sign up for emails at https://bonikowsky.org/subscribe/.

This past year has been very exciting for our church. We are seeing a greatly increased number of visitors. Some of them just pass through but others have stayed. In this update I’ll mention a few of the newer people in church and share how you can join us in praying for them.

In the summer of 2021, a young couple came to church for the first time. They were very young (recently married in fact) and it turns out they were looking for a place to grow spiritually. They had both come to know the Lord the year before in a more charismatic church in the area, but they had left as they were looking for a church that was more serious about discipleship. This was the first time I’d ever heard that from visitors! They are now in church every week, wanting to participate in everything. It’s wonderful to see their genuine desire to grow.

In late 2021 a man and his wife came to church for the first time. They were also already believers. On the Sunday when they first visited, he told me that since Spanish was not their primary language, it was very helpful to find a pastor who spoke more slowly because they could much more easily understand me! I think in some of the churches they’d been in, enthusiasm was prioritized over nuance! Ever since they came they’ve been a huge blessing in our church.

This year, two other couples came to church for the first time. They come from a Christian background, but once again it seems it was a Christianity-lite sort of church history. They haven’t been with us for long, but they’ve impressed us with their optimistic attitude in challenging living situations and their motivation to work diligently. We’re happy for the chance to serve them.

Please keep praying with us for the growth of our church, both spiritually and numerically. It is of course exciting to see new people coming to a church that is still very small, but our goal is as always to make disciples and equip them to do the same.

And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.

Acts 2:46-47