I can’t believe how fast August has gone! My second month of class is winding up and I am moving into the third level of my language learning. This month, I haven’t made as many friends as I did last month, but I have had some great conversations with some people in this class. Recently, I had coffee with a German girl during the pausa (the break between grammar class and conversation class) and I asked her if she knew many people our age who were in the ministry. She replied, “No. Religion isn’t as popular in Germany as it is in the U.S.” I inquired further as to why this was the case and she told me that the church in Germany (both Protestant and Catholic) is like a club that charges you a monthly membership fee even though you do not receive their services. I had heard the cliché in the states about the church being just a social club, however, the way she talked about this seemed much more severe. She said that when Germans (and possibly most Europeans) receive their paychecks from their employers, their income has been garnished by a ‘Church tax’ along with the other state taxes. She also said that the state will not recognize your marriage if it is not performed in the Church. The dilemma is that the church will not perform your wedding if you are not a member. So, to circumvent this problem, she said some Germans come to Las Vegas to those drive-thru chapels to receive a document that they can present to the state in order to have a legitimate marriage. This struck me as just another portrait of the church being an oppressive presence here in Europe and another reason for the culture to reject what it offers. It seems like the church has chosen cling to its ‘power’ through the state by taxing the masses. As we were paying for our coffee and walking back to class, I couldn’t help but think if there was some way to introduce people to Jesus without the church getting in the way.

On Wednesday, I am leaving for Florence to meet up with a bunch of other Restoration Movement pastors for a conference at the satellite campus of Harding University. I am excited to meet up with other brothers and sisters who labor in the same field and struggle with the same kinds of struggles we face here. I don’t know how I will do speaking the language, but this should be great practice for me to get out of an English context and test the waters of fluency. Please continue to pray for me and my team as we try to faithfully embody the witness of Jesus Christ in a culture that desperately needs Him. You are on this journey with me and your prayers are the most vital part of this ministry. R.A. Torrey says that “The neglect of prayer on the part of the people at home has much to do with the comparative failure of many of the missionaries on the field…. The man or woman at home who prays, often has as much to do with the effectiveness of the missionary on the field … as the missionary himself.” I am deeply encouraged to know that you are interceding on our behalf and on behalf of the believers here.

Please be in prayer this next week for:

  • Our team’s intimacy with Christ; that our hearts will be made more like His and we would embody a Christ-like witness here in Italy
  • Our team’s language ability; that God would loosen our tongues and give us confidence to speak to Italians (when we know we aren’t grammatically correct!)
  • Our team to be sensitive to the divine appointments that God gives us to share the good news
  • My travel/experience in Florence, that I may be an encouragement to the believers there and that a larger awareness of the Kingdom can be known
  • Angese, our newest believer as she embraces more fully the love of Christ and teaches us how to live life together

If you have any prayer requests that we could lift up, please let me know! It is a blessing to know that we are not in this alone.