I am Igor Dias Ramos, born in 1986, in a German colony in southern Brazil. My parents raised me with Roman Catholic principles until I was 18 years old, when some friends invited me to join a Pentecostal church. My dream since childhood was to be a soccer player, and this was my passion until 2008, when I was hit by a truck and this accident was God's way of taking me out of a world of vanities to lead me to an eternal life. It was from this moment that I understood that God's calling for my life was to lead people not just to celebrate a game for a moment, but to rejoice in the eternal salvation that has been given to us in Jesus Christ.

In 2007 I married my beautiful wife Eliane Kochhann de Miranda, and we have been married for 17 years. For over 12 years of marriage the doctors had told us that we would not be able to have children, but our prayer to the Lord was to give us wisdom to rest in His will. Until 2020, in the midst of the Covid pandemic where many people died, the Lord granted our heart's request, we have been graced by Him with a son through IVF treatment and in this month of July 2024, our son Christopher will be three years old with great health, lots of love and desire to know God and our King Jesus Christ. Glory to God for his tremendous generosity and goodness to us.

After some years of theological training in seminaries and participation in Reformed churches, the Lord is sending us back to Spain to help strengthen the local church in this country. But in March 2022, on a mission trip to Paris, I met two Christian women, as in the book of Acts 16:9; "At night a vision was shown to Paul in which a man from Macedonia was standing praying to him and saying, "Come over to Macedonia and help us!" These two women told me that they had been praying for a Bible church in their city, Lleida, for more than 15 years. They begged me to help them get to know God in a way that the churches around them had not been doing for many years. So from that moment on, my wife and I began to pray and ask advice from our pastors about the possibility of starting a work in the city of Lleida.

Lleida is the capital of the region of Segrià, with 211.7 km², it is one of the largest municipalities in Catalonia. Founded in the 6th century BC, it is the largest city in the Principality outside the province of Barcelona, a modern and cosmopolitan capital, an AgroBiotech reference in southern Europe, with an important communications network, a pillar of its geostrategic position.

In September 2022 we moved to Lleida and started meeting in our house until we had no more space and moved to new premises in November 2022. I am pastoring this small group of brothers, which sometimes has grown due to the curiosity of the people. Curiosity to know a reformed church, but they do not want the commitment that God demands of them with Himself, with His Word and with the people of God, so very few stay to be part of the people that the Lord has called, justified, is sanctifying and one day will glorify Him. 

Today we are a group of 8 members, five candidates for baptism and eight candidates for membership. On Sundays we gather about 25 people to read the Scriptures, sing the Scriptures, pray the Word of God, listen to the Word of God and see the living Word in the fellowship of the breaking of bread and wine in the Lord's Supper and in loving one another. 

We have spent over a year studying the book of 1 Timothy in Sunday services. This summer we will study the marks of a Biblical church and in September we will begin the study of a book of the Old Testament. On Thursdays we study the fundamental doctrines of the Christian faith. And once a month, on Sunday afternoons we have our prayer meeting, in which we meditate briefly on the Word of the Lord (this meeting is an opportunity for new preachers), listen to two or three short testimonies and spend a lot of time praying for our church and for the churches around us and around the world, and also spend time seeking the Lord together as a church.

DECEMBER 2025 UPDATES FROM OUR FAMILY AND MINISTRY

Hello dear brothers and sisters and friends who walk alongside us in prayer and financial support. We thank God for each one of you who understand that we live in this world as pilgrims. For this is not our home, but we wait with great hope for a heavenly homeland.

“But, beloved, do not be ignorant that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.  The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. Then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Since all these things are to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? But according to his promises, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.” – Peter 3:8-13

This month we want to share our activities with you and our prayer requests for the rest of this year.

DIAS KOCHHANN FAMILY

Our family is doing well, thanks to the Lord, although two weeks ago, just on the day of our church's third anniversary, Christopher had a gastrointestinal virus, which caused him to vomit and have diarrhea. We often see that during church activities such as conferences or anniversaries, the enemy tries to attack us and attacks our little boy. But thanks to the Lord, who protects us and has already given us victory over the evil one. Christopher is now doing very well. 

Thanks to the Lord, we are now settled in our new home, and the Lord has given us grace in the eyes of the owners of our apartment. They are very happy with us, and even though we have only known each other for a short time, they are always concerned if we are doing well. By God's grace, they visited the church during our congregation's anniversary celebration. That was a miracle, since they are not religious people.

Eliane is working hard at the English academy. It is not easy to coordinate all the activities and tasks of the house with the academy and her studies. Being a teacher and at the same time a student, mother, wife, and homemaker is a challenge for few women of this generation. But the Lord has given her much strength and energy to get good grades in her studies and even prepare creative classes to facilitate the learning of all the children.

We are so thankful that Eliane has already received an offer to do her internship at Christopher's school, and it will be a great blessing for us to have mother and son spending the day together in the same school. 

Our challenge this coming month is the consumerist spirit that exists in Spain and the many idols that are present during this time of year. Here in Spain, there is a tradition in which parents take a small log and dress it up like a person, with clothes, scarves, they paint them with eyes, tongues, noses, and ears, and on a specific date, they put chocolates and sweets for the children. This is a very old tradition that is celebrated on Christmas Eve. This tradition holiday they used to celebrat at a mass called “misa del gallo” (rooster mass). Tradition says that the rooster mass was at midnight on December 24, but the children had to sit and listen to the mass and were bored in church until midnight, so someone had the idea of taking the logs that were used to heat the church and using them as an attraction to distract the children until midnight. The parents asked the children to ask the log for some gifts and things to eat, and under the log appeared chocolate and gifts. Children just have to ask for firewood and hit him on the back, and chocolate and candy will appear in the form of poop. That's why the name of the firewood is “caga-tío” (poop uncle).

But we don't want our son to talk to a log, no matter how harmless it may seem. We explained to Christopher that we can talk directly to the Creator and Sustainer of our lives through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, whom was born and lived in our world and died on the cross, and He will not only provide us with abundant food, but He has also provided us through Jesus Christ, salvation, forgiveness, and eternal life.

This month, on Thanksgiving Day, we also had the opportunity to invite some neighbors to come to our house for dinner and introduce them to the American tradition of giving thanks for God's goodness in our lives. We told them the story of how Thanksgiving began in America, and we took the opportunity to share the gospel with our neighbors. It was a wonderful time to share our lives and also to remember that we have much to be thankful for instead of always wanting more. May gratitude never leave our lips and hearts.

IBL CHURCH UPDATE

At the Biblical Church of Lleida, we had a very busy month due to the activities we had in November and those we will have in December.

Thanks to the Lord, we are welcoming new families to our church, some of whom are leaving the churches they have attended all their lives. These churches do not feed them with the truth, nor do they talk more about Christ. Others are tired of the religiosity they experience and want to commit themselves to Christ and His people.

Unfortunately, we received news from a man of whom I wrote about a few months ago when he visited us. He is very Catholic, and he told me that he would prefer to remain in the Catholic Church for now, as he still has many doubts about evangelical doctrine. That message has left us sad, but we know and trust in the Lord that in His time He will bring him back to the fold if he is truly a sheep of the Lord. I had sent him a quote from a pastor that said: "When Jesus crosses your path, he reveals you as you truly are. He pushes you to make decisive decisions. In response to Him, people change, either for better or for worse. When a person changes for the better, sanctification is taking place.“ David Powlison (”How Does Sanctification Work?"; p. 13).

The man replied saying, “Reading David Powlison's quote, I realize that he is absolutely right, and I believe that my decision cannot be to change from one denomination, Catholicism, whose interpretation does not correspond to what I read in the Bible, to another interpretation, Calvinism, which also raises doubts for me. I hope that on the day I stand before Him, He who knows my heart and my love for Him will make the most just decision about me. If it is for salvation, glory to God, and if it is for condemnation, it is what I deserve, at least for a moment I will have been able to contemplate Him.” We are praying for him. 

Our church is very happy to introduce two new brothers who will be baptized on Sunday, December 7. Brother Marc and Sister Yaima will go down into the waters and publicly confess their faith in obedience to the Scriptures. This is a great moment for our small congregation, as little by little the Lord, and not us, is adding people who have been transformed by the grace of our Lord and who want to submit themselves to the Lord and commit themselves to His people.

We want to pray for two women who want to be baptized, but as a church we still see that their lives are not giving a good testimony to the Lord Jesus Christ. In the same way as other people who are still undecided about committing themselves to the Lord and His people. However, they are showing willingness and submission to the church and the Word of the Lord, and we hope that soon they too will go down into the waters together with others who need to be awakened from their slumber by the Lord. 

We are very happy to be able to celebrate our 3rd anniversary. We were honored to have Pastor Rafael Vargas and his family from Valencia with us. However, the enemy was not happy about their visit, because the day before they were to come to Lleida, their car broke down, and he was unable to leave Valencia until early Sunday morning to preach in Lleida that morning. After the meeting, Pastor Rafael fell ill. But thanks be to the Lord, everything is fine now. 

The anniversary celebration was very blessed, with Pastor Rafael offering words of encouragement and exhortation so that, just as the church in Thessalonica set an example for other churches, the church in Lleida would also be a model of brotherly love and devotion to God. After the service, we had a time of fellowship and communion among the brothers and sisters.

We are very happy that the team from First Baptist Church Lake Butler in Florida accompanied us at our baptisms. Our brothers sent by AIT blessed us with teaching, testimonies, and fellowship in the truth of Christ. We look forward to these days with our brothers and sisters in Florida so that together and in fellowship with them we can learn from one another and thus share the gifts that the Lord has given to His beloved church. May this be a time of great blessing and growth for our young church.

PRAYER REQUESTS

Brothers and sisters, here are some prayer points for this month of December.

1) Pray for the baptism of Marc and Yaima, that their testimonies on Sunday the 7th will greatly impact the lives of those attending the meeting. And may the Lord save those who are still in darkness but want to live a religious life.

2) Pray that the Lord will give us strength to resist the current of this greedy, consumerist, and materialistic Christmas season. May we take advantage of opportunities with family, friends, neighbors, and coworkers to show them the best gift the world has ever received: Jesus Christ, the light of the world and eternal life.

3) Pray for Eliane, that she may continue to be a light in her English academy and in the course she is studying. May the Lord grant her strength to continue performing her tasks with excellence and joy.

4) We pray for our son Christopher, that Christmas will be a time for him to get to know the Lord Jesus Christ better, that Christ will give him fullness of life and eternal joy, and that Christopher will not be deceived by the idolatry of the world.

5) We pray for our brothers and sisters in Florida, that not only will they bless us with their visit, but that we as a church will be able to share the wonders of Christ and rejoice together in God's love. 

6) I pray for each one of you reading this letter. May God's love be poured out in your hearts and may you never feel forsaken by God, but remember: The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation and to reserve the unjust for punishment on the day of judgment.

7) We pray for young Antonio, who has not yet come to our church, always having an excuse, but our trust is in the Lord who will draw him with His cords of love. 

8) Pray for my pains, which are sometimes so intense that I can only sleep with medicine.

9) We pray for this holiday season, that the Lord will give us wisdom and courage to proclaim His virtues and show those around us that the child who was born in a manger is the only way, the truth, and the life. He is our Savior. 

10) Pray that our church will have wisdom in future decision-making, that despite our young age as a congregation, we will be faithful to Scripture and sensitive and obedient to God's voice. Pray that our commitment will be to truth and not to pragmatism. 

We love you in the love of Christ.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. (2 Co 13:14)

Igor Ramos