Pastor Isaac Arbalat

About Us

I was born into a Christian family, and from a very young age I learned about missions and the importance of sharing the Gospel with those who do not yet know Him. However, although I participated in many church events and activities, it was not until my teenage years, during a campaign in Galicia, that God brought conviction of sin to my heart, and I surrendered completely to Him.

Throughout those years, the Lord was working in my heart, and as I was about to turn 18, during a trip to Brazil, I saw the immense spiritual need among children, and God confirmed in me the desire to dedicate my entire life to the cause of the Gospel.

Years later, I met the one who is now my wife, and through her God opened the door for us to serve together as missionaries in El Salvador. There, we confirmed our commitment to God’s calling to serve Him as missionaries and eventually return to Spain to continue the work.

Current Roles and Challanges

I currently serve as pastor of the local church in Talavera de la Reina. Since we do not have a full-time ministry team, my responsibilities include general administration, ministry organization, preaching, and family counseling.

Although the church has been in existence for more than 30 years, in a sense it is relatively new, as it has gone through various leadership changes and seasons of crisis that nearly brought it to closure. I began serving as an elder in 2014, and in 2018 I was ordained as pastor. During this time, we have worked on establishing solid foundations and walking alongside the few families who remained after those difficult seasons.

Today, we are a multicultural church, and we could also describe it as a “transitional church,” as many families gather with us for a season but eventually move to other parts of Spain in search of better employment opportunities. While this presents challenges, we have also learned to see how God allows us to be a place of refuge and care for these families during their most vulnerable times.

About Our Organization

The Evangelical Christian Church of Talavera de la Reina is a community that seeks to be faithful to God’s calling in the midst of our city. Although small, it is a vibrant, multicultural church, eager to be a testimony of Christ’s love in its surroundings. Our vision is to be a place of welcome, discipleship, and sending for the extension of God’s Kingdom. At present, we have 30 members, but on recent Sundays attendance has reached between 70 and 80 people.

Mat & Cheryl

Ministry and Vision

Our ministry began in 2004. During the first decade, we focused on immersing ourselves in the local culture. We chose to work within the house church system, partnering with and training these communities to reach out to Muslims. This initial phase emphasized training and collaboration.

In the second decade, our small partnership began to grow, and some local house churches committed to starting missions aimed at the Muslim population. Through trial and error, we recognized that local churches needed to embrace a transformative vision to be effective in the mission field.

As we enter our third decade of ministry, we are beginning to see missionaries sent by the house churches produce encouraging results. We anticipate that this decade will focus on making local Muslim converts and disciples. The transition is challenging due to strict religious controls imposed by authorities, but surprisingly, we have witnessed a rise in conversions, especially over the past two years.

Tim and Laura Neufeld

About Us

Tim and Laura both grew up cross-culturally as missionary kids, Tim in Latin America and Laura in Kathmandu, Nepal. Their lives first intersected when they attended Prairie High School in Three Hills, Alberta. Years later, Tim felt a clear call to mission aviation and decided to attend Prairie School of Mission Aviation to earn his commercial pilot license. During this time, Tim and Laura – now a teacher – got back in contact and were married in December 2009. Tim and Laura knew from early in their relationship that finding a way to become active in God’s Kingdom in a global sense was important to both of them, and since the beginning of their marriage have been working towards fulfilling this mandate. Before joining Mission Aviation Fellowship, they had been living and working in northern Alberta, where Tim was flying for an air operator offering medivac and charter work.

My Current role in Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF)
The Neufelds have being serving with Mission Aviation Fellowship in Papua New Guinea since October 2017, along with their two children: Hannah (2013) and Ethan (2017). Tim flies a Cessna 208 Caravan into isolated communities across the country to bring help, hope and healing through the love of Christ. His passengers may be missionaries, pastors, Bible translators, teachers, local people, or those needing urgent medical care. Laura is a teacher and has been volunteering at a mission school where both of their children attend.

In January 2025, after seven years of service in PNG, the Neufelds will be transitioning to MAF’s flight school, Prairie Aviation Training Centre in Three Hills, where Tim will be training pilots for mission aviation. He looks forward to using his experiences overseas in training the next generation of missionary pilots.

About MAF
Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) is an international Christian organisation whose purpose is to bring help, hope and healing through aviation to people living in isolation and poverty. Every 5.6 minutes a MAF aircraft takes off or lands somewhere in the world, transporting people who live in remote villages and assisting missions, churches, aid and development agencies and others working to transform the lives of communities that are cut off from the outside world.

PATC is a part of Prairie College, a world class Bible school just one hour outside of Calgary, URL: www.prairie.edu/aviation/

2025 July Update

 Please pray for all of the pilot candidates who apply to work with MAF Canada.  Tim has become involved in the recruiting and assessing of these candidates.  It is challenging but very rewarding.  

  1. Continue praying for Tim's struggle with getting some paperwork from Transport Canada.  This process has become very frustrating, but praise that there is progress happening in the past few weeks.  

  2. Pray for the Prairie College students who are training throughout the summer.  Over the past few weeks, we have had 13 new pilots complete their first solo flights, a huge step in their training. Pray that the Lord would continue to give them safety and excellent learning.