Dear friends,
When I sat down to prepare our annual letter from the Director, as I considered the reach, extension, and impact of Betel International’s ministry that has touched hundreds of thousands of lives and is today functioning in over 100 cities in 20 nations—I am at a loss for words.
Betel can trace its humble beginnings from the arrival in 1983 of WEC missionaries (Worldwide Evangelization for Christ) in the working-class neighborhood of San Blas, Madrid. Those first ‘pioneers’, who, along with the transformed lives of the first addicts, alcoholics, and marginalized, became the model of what Betel’s program would offer and take to the nations.
Today, after 40 years, Betel’s residential communities and program are supervised and led by our professional and pastoral staff, most of whom themselves have come through Betel’s program to go on to serve as residential directors, staff, supervisors, and work team leaders.
Betel is grateful and proud to acknowledge this amazing ‘fusion’ of faith and professional standards. This unique work has been praised and awarded many accolades over the years. In the year 2000 Betel was honored by the Spanish government and ‘Declared to be of Public Utility’.
It is our desire that Betel remains in the vanguard of those institutions capable of meeting the needs of the ever changing world in which we live—whether they be Europeans wrestling with substance abuse, homelessness and unemployment, or the current surge of immigrants arriving in Europe from the developing nations in the Middle East and Asia, along with refugees from the present conflict and war in the Ukraine. Truly the need for a people and a program like Betel’s has never been greater today.
We thank all our friends who have identified with Betel and our work among the marginalized over the years. We and those who have entered our program are indeed grateful.
The Betel family among the nations
Elliott Tepper
International Director of Betel