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ATLANTA – In Gambia, Dabou made a living as a fisherman until the fishing industry plummeted. When he couldn’t afford to feed his family, he left for Europe – a continent of promise – where a job meant he could send money back home.

It took him months to reach the North African coast, where one evening – in the dead of night – he boarded a small boat with 20 others trying to make it to Spain. Lucky to survive the 33-hour journey, Dabou was detained in a refugee camp for months before being granted rare permission to stay.

For migrants, such as Dabou, life in Europe isn’t easy. It’s hard to find and keep work, and there is a sadness and loneliness of having left everything else behind – family, friends, home.

But along the way some African migrants will cross paths with Joel and Tiffne Whitley, Cooperative Baptist Fellowship field personnel serving in southern Spain. The Whitleys, who have been in Spain since February 2007, are there to be the presence of Christ among the large migrant community.

“I want others to be able to have a personal relationship with God,” Tiffne said. “There are many migrants and refugees from countries in Africa who have not heard [the gospel]. It is our hope to build relationships with them, helping them with humanitarian needs and spiritual needs.”

During a year of language and culture study, the Whitleys have developed relationships in two migrant neighborhoods. They’ve met migrants like Ester, who is from Equatorial Guinea and was thankful the Whitleys could connect her with a church, and Mamadou, who is from Senegal and has been teaching the Whitleys about migrants’ greatest needs.

The Whitleys met Ester and Mamadou through a weekly food distribution, which helps meet the often overwhelming physical needs of migrants. Each Wednesday morning they collect excess vegetables from a nearby produce factory. They sort, bag and distribute the produce in migrant communities.

“This small scale food distribution has been a very meaningful and beneficial way for us to meet individuals, start friendships and nourish hungry stomachs,” the Whitleys said. “We hope that in time we will be able to share the ‘food of the gospel’ and nourish hungry and hurting hearts.”

For the Whitleys, this migrant ministry is built on prayer. They pray for those they meet on the street, around town and near their home. In January, a prayer team from CBF partner Oakland Baptist Church in Rock Hill, S.C., came to Spain to join the Whitleys in praying for people in need.

 “Prayer is such a vital element of ministry because it puts the power where it belongs – with God,” Tiffne said.

Other churches partnering with the Whitleys include Nineteenth Avenue Baptist Church in San Francisco, Calif., and Texas churches First Baptist Church in Hereford and Rock Hill Baptist Church in Aubrey. As their ministry grows, the Whitleys hope churches will come to Spain to serve.

“Sometimes it is not until one experiences being a foreigner in a foreign land that they begin to see the needs of and become sensitive to internationals in their community,” Joel said.

Through these missions experiences, the Whitleys hope churches and individuals will begin to see how they can become missional in their own communities.

“What a better way to live – giving and loving on others in every opportunity that God places right in front of you,” said Anjani Cole, a member of First Baptist Church of Abilene, Texas, who is traveling to Spain this summer. 

The Whitleys are supported by CBF’s Offering for Global Missions, which enables them to live and serve in Spain.

“For Fellowship Baptists who want to be actively involved in missions, giving is a key way to participate,” Tiffne said.

“The Offering allows us to be the presence of Christ and facilitate others in being the presence of Christ, too, when they come and serve,” Joel said.

To support the Whitleys by giving to the Offering for Global Missions, visit www.thefellowship.info/Give, call (800) 352-8741 or send a check payable to Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, P.O. Box 101699, Atlanta, GA. 30392, indicating “Offering for Global Missions" in the memo line.

CBF is a fellowship of Baptist Christians and churches who share a passion for the Great Commission and a commitment to Baptist principles of faith and practice. The Fellowship’s mission is to serve Christians and churches as they discover and fulfill their God-given mission.