David & Debbie Frank

God literally grabbed our hearts with the huge spiritual need in Spain when we learned that over 99% of Spain’s entire population had no personal relationship with Jesus Christ. At the time, we were serving full-time at a camp and conference center ministry in Michigan. In July 1978, we arrived in Spain as part of a church-planting team which God led to locate in the NE province of Girona and where He established several churches over the years. This opened our eyes to the challenges faced in the local church of Spain. We thank Him for His gifts of three amazing children; Jeremy, Tafie and Tami, and for the privilege of serving in this ministry for 11 years.

Reaching Spain Through Camping Ministry

The following 30 years became a continual journey of personal learning and growing as God allowed us to participate in His plan to develop a Christian camp ministry of evangelism and discipleship for children, youth, young adults and families with the goal of building His church. This was His plan, His ministry and His impact in lives becoming a reality: reaching thousands of participants with the gospel and developing dedicated youth and young adults through discipleship training in order to build His church. We are grateful for the blessings and the challenges that God used to mold and to eventually lead us into the next phase of ministry He was already preparing for us.

Forging Kingdom Partnerships

While serving at the camp, we got to know other camp leaders across the country, through the entity CCI/Spain & Portugal (Christian Camp International). Over the years we developed strong friendships and became aware of their challenges and frustrations, as well as their dreams. This was part of God’s leading us to begin the ministry NEXT-TO together with our son, Jeremy & Silvia. We joined Global Outreach International Mission in September 2019, at the same time as Jeremy, Silvia and their two children. Several years later, Orly & Carol joined with their 3 children.

The Mission of NEXT-TO

NEXT-TO signifies “come alongside”. Our Mission is “To Serve, Equip and Encourage Christian camp and church leaders for the growth of the local church in Spain. This involves preparing a variety of training materials, taking trips around Spain for equipping through training, serving in camps in a variety of ways during their programming, recruiting work teams for projects, training in evangelistic camping and discipleship programs, leadership training seminars, and weekly prayer times for their prayer requests, etc. The task is unending, geographically extensive and challenging, but God is opening doors to serve, encourage, and equip the Christian camps in Spain to continue to build His church here. We are grateful to Him that we can serve Him in this ministry.