We want to thank our God and Father who allows His Word to be transmitted from generation to generation to fulfill His eternal purpose of saving those who were given to Christ so that He would die for them. He is the one who could say, “None of those whom the Father gave me have I lost”. We also thank the Holy Spirit who regenerates all those whom the Father has chosen from eternity, giving them to the Son to appear before the Law, declaring them righteous before the throne of God. In the fulfillment of God’s eternal purposes, He uses means, these means are men. Therefore, we want to show special our gratitude as a church to the following people:
Mr. Percy Buffard, who traveled to Spain from his native England as a missionary in the early twentieth century, focusing his base of operations in Valdepeñas (Ciudad Real). There a strong church was established and used by God as light in a country immersed in spiritual misery, ignorance and superstition. Through the missionary trips that Mr. Percy made from Valdepeñas, the message of the Gospel spread to many Spanish towns in the middle southern part of the country as well as the eastern part. His tireless work and dedication, his determination to carry the seed of the gospel with much suffering, despite great setbacks and with the means available at the time, proved that no obstacle would keep him from fulfilling his mission faithfully. Mr. Percy was a means used by God to shape many men who would later become pastors, to provide health care to a helpless population, and to save many souls through the preaching of the Gospel.
Mr. Joaquin Ranero Gascón, who after seeing his young wife converted in the mid 1940’s was determined to show her the inconsistency and falsity of the Scriptures. However, it was precisely due to his inquiring spirit that instead of disproving God, God disproved him, leading him to discover the Savior in the pages of the Bible. This prompted him to give up life as a painter with great potential for renown, abandoning an intellectual environment to give himself to the preaching of the Word, first in Castellón and then in Palma de Mallorca, where he first arrived with very few resources to start a pioneering work with great effort and sacrifice. Together with his wife Armonía and their three children, he went through great hardships and many deprivations, but they fulfilled God’s purpose and were able to build a Reformed church in Palma de Mallorca, a church that he founded and pastored for almost forty years.
This is the historical background of the Covenant of Grace Reformed Baptist Church in Madrid, established in 1993, fruit of the courage, work, effort and sacrifice of these two men: Mr. Percy Buffard and Mr. Joaquin Ranero Gascón, who did not know each other in life, but whose works still speak to us today. The pastor of our church, Boni Lozano García, is the great-grandson of a man who went to Mass every Sunday, forcing his children to worship even though the Mass was in Latin. However, he was able to hear the gospel of Christ in his mother tongue, and the Lord opened his heart and called him, using Mr. Percy Buffard as a means to do so. He is also the son-in-law of Mr. Joaquin Ranero, through whom he learned the doctrines of Grace, with all the scope and depth of the teaching of God’s Word as rediscovered by the reformers in the sixteenth century, which brought so much light to medieval Europe at a time when it was immersed in ignorance, and carried out its work affecting the conscience of sinners who were called to salvation, with the impact that this had for the arts, sciences and letters. This is the incredible story, once again, of God’s Providence moving through history so that the Spirit may act by calling to salvation all those whom the Father gave to the Son. Not one of God’s children will be lost.
For all this, we thank our God, for giving His church pastors who feed us with wisdom and intelligence, and who at the cost of their comfort, professional expectations, social position, and legitimate ambitions, put first things first: serving God in their generation. Today we want to testify that their witness has been passed from one generation to the next, and that the seed planted with tears has borne its fruit according to the will of God, and many have come to know the truth. The example of these men is a challenge for all of us who must also fulfill our duty before God, honoring His name and transmitting the gospel of the unsearchable riches of Christ to the next generation. We pray that our God would allow us to continue fulfilling the responsibility that has been given to us as a church, and that in spite of social pressures, religious fashions, and society’s current way of thinking, we will faithfully and effectually fulfill this responsibility.
Apoc. 14:13 Oí una voz que desde el cielo me decía: Escribe: Bienaventurados de aquí en adelante los muertos que mueren en el Señor. Sí, dice el Espíritu, descansarán de sus trabajos, porque sus obras con ellos siguen.
