Facilities Management and Youth Ministry (Rafa & Yolanda Villalba)
Spain | 58764
Our History
Our names are Rafa and Yoli Villalba, and we have two children (now grown) - Laura and Miquel. We currently live in a small town called Banyoles in the northeast of Spain, although originally we are from Barcelona.
Rafa met the Lord in a church in Barcelona when he was 13 years old. Yoli became a Christian at age 18, impressed that God wanted a close relationship with his people. Yoli and I met at the church in Barcelona where we attended, and over the course of 5 years we served the Lord together in different activities. Now we are celebrating 34 years of marriage. Together we have worked as leaders for adults and youth groups both in the church and in different camps. Rafa served as a deacon in several churches we attended and was part of the pastoral council. We helped start a new church with the help of several others over the course of six years. We have been very actively involved in many street evangelism efforts, both in our church and across Spain.
Professionally, Rafa spent 20 years working in facilities management for the government of Catalonia, achieving proficiencies in electricity, carpentry, plumbing, and masonry. Yoli has also worked in various capacities within the government including leadership positions in autonomous organizations, in the police, fire department, etc. Yoli is exceptionally experienced with administration, contracting, accounting, and budget performance, in addition to technical engineering.
We have been GEM missionaries for 25 years and we have been serving the Lord in a Christian camp called Fundación Privada L’Arcada in Spain. Rafa served there as the maintenance director, was on the executive committee for a year and a half, and has been director of the foundation for two years together with another partner. Rafa coordinated (along with camp directors David Frank and Pere González) work teams traveling to L’Arcada from different parts of Spain and also internationally, teaching them how to manage all of the camp’s facilities and operations. This enabled him to spend more time focusing on software management, scheduled maintenance, and planning for future camp expansions. Both Rafa & Yoli have facilitated weekend camps for years called MacGyver and MisGyver that were focused on teaching men and women the basics of electrical work, carpentry, etc. paired with devotionals and Bible studies. We invited both young people and adults to participate in these camps who were not believers or had not been to church for a long time so we could talk to them, advise them and help them by any means necessary.
What We're Doing Now
Our many years working in facilities management and maintenance have shown us the need to train and encourage others to work in this profession, following the many examples from the Bible of people who worked in similar ‘backstage’ vocations (Noah, Nehemiah, Bezaleel, Jadon Meronothita...). Our vision is to encourage and teach others that when you want to serve the Lord, He provides countless opportunities to do so. As a result, we are diligently working to help other ministries, camps, and churches with their operations, facilities management, new installations, and software implementation when they request assistance from us.
We view this work of encouraging and training others in facilities management as a tool to provide ways for people to serve in their churches or ministries, and even to help them use these jobs to share the Gospel and multiply disciples for Jesus. We have learned that it is much easier to share the love of the Lord through working side by side!
We continue to serve in different ministries with young people where we spend time listening to them, encouraging them, and advising them so they can persevere in serving the Lord.