God Chose the Foolish
By Lindsay & Myk Mckenzie
In the early 1980s, we were part of a small missionary team led by Elliott & Mary Tepper, who sought to plant a church in one of the eastern suburbs of Madrid called San Blas. While we were aware that it was a low socio-economic population of approximately 160,000 with no evangelical church, we were not conscious of the fact that San Blas had the reputation of being the suburb with the highest percentage of drug addicts in Spain.
Very soon after commencing street evangelism there, we realised that we were dealing with a community devastated by drug addiction and its effects. Every family, it seemed, had at least one drug addict son or daughter. Some had multiple addicts in the family. Our immediate response was to pray that God would send workers who were qualified to deal with drug addicts, as we were convinced that they were not our brief. God did not answer those prayers as we imagined he would. No expert worker arrived! Instead, the Lord spoke to us, “You do it!”
Far from being convinced, we kept on going as before, hoping to send any addicts that were serious about changing their lives to an already existing Christian rehab four hours to the north in Basque Province, while we focused on evangelising “normal” people.
At the same time, a small, embryonic church regularly met in the Tepper’s lounge-room. The group consisted of drug addicts looking for help, as well as their desperate family members.
One day, on the spur of the moment, I invited a local heroin addict named Raul into my small, high-rise apartment for an agreed period of two weeks, as he had no alternative. When, a week later, Raul received Jesus into his life, his desire to take drugs disappeared, and God gave him a passion to share his story with all his drug-addict friends.
Soon afterward, Raul suggested that we take another addict into my small apartment. Why? Just as he had been discipled by us, he wanted to disciple another man. I immediately said, “No,” as, in my mind, Raul was the exception to the rule! Nonetheless, due to his insistence, Paco came in. Raul discipled Paco.
Raul and Paco soon asked if they could take in another man – each! This led to not just Jose but also to Manolo joining the crowded high-rise. Soon after that came Vidgi, Luis M and Luis P – a total of eight men in an eighth-storey, 70sqm space. The neighbours, less than thrilled about their nearby residents, pressured us to leave. We eventually found a rural cottage 20 minutes away.
Myk, my wife-to-be, took the first female addict into her home in San Blas. After marriage, together we began a women’s community in an apartment two suburbs away. We nervously handed over the daily running of the two houses to Raul for the men and to Estrella for the women. Soon, the number of men swelled to 25, and we had to look for a second dwelling for them. Those two dwellings soon grew to accommodate 50 men. The women’s group also increased to 20 mothers (some with children).
Meanwhile, the embryonic church meeting in the Tepper’s loungeroom grew to 20+, which forced us to look for a larger space. We found a vacant shopfront to rent. Weekly, the number of attendees grew, consisting of heroin addicts and their desperate family members. The meetings were often unruly (to put it mildly), but God was at work in the chaos!
As these men and women found freedom in Christ, they captured a vision of how sharing their stories with other addicts could be effective in other cities in Spain. In 1985, we were in just one city, Madrid. By 1988, we had teams of ex-addicts in two cities: Madrid and Cuenca. By 1989, there were three cities: Madrid, Cuenca, and Valencia. In January 1991, we sent a team to Barcelona – a fourth city.
Within a few years, we had opened works, not just in Spain, but also beyond in Napoli, Italy (1993), Queens, New York City, USA (1994), Birmingham, UK (1997), and Gurgaon, India (1999).
The original fledgling church moved three more times and now owns a purpose-built facility with a regular attendance of 700 and a seating capacity for 1800, in the Madrid suburb of Carabanchel.
Today, 39 years later, Betel has clocked up over 250,000 entries into our communities around the world. Our average resident population consists of approximately 2,400 individuals, served by 350 staff: pastors, monitors and professionals, including doctors, lawyers, social workers, dental clinicians and a multitude of other prepared, relevant specialists.
While the senior leadership of Betel today still consists of the original missionaries who started Betel, almost the entire oversight, counselling and management of Betel's rehab communities and income generating projects is now in the hands of Betel graduates. This is truly wonderful. To God be the glory!
Amazing Proof of the power of the gospel 🙏