I hope things are going well for you. I really appreciate your prayers for myself and the team. I just got back this morning from our unofficial team retreat. We went camping for a few days at lake Trasimeno which is about 20 minutes from my apartment. It was a wet weekend! It rained for nearly 75% of our time there and all the other campers (people from the Netherlands, Germany, Austrailia..) headed home early, but our team rode out the storm. It was quite the adventure!

A few weeks ago, I was in Florence for the Church of Christ convention. It was a great opportunity to meet a lot of the other brothers and sisters and connect up with some people from Harding University. I had a lot of language practice, because nearly everyone spoke Italian, and all the sessions were in Italian. I got to help out with the teens and I got to lead one of the discussions one day (via a translator). Most of the kids at this convention had been in church all their life and their parents are leaders in the churches. We had a great time discussing: “If you were able to change one thing about the Church, what would you change?” Their answers were prefaced with apathy, “You know, this doesn’t really matter. The adults don’t really care what we have to say, that’s why they have you guys babysit us.” Then they proceeded to list out what the church needs:

  1. the church needs to be more youth focused. Some of them had been to the states and had experienced churches with ‘youth ministers’ and the teens thought it would be neat to have something like that.
  2. a desire for community. They liked ‘being together’ and they felt that the church should be more about creating an environment where people could experience real fellowship and friendship with other believers
  3. to understand its identity. They said that the church needs to be more than just some ‘place’ where people have weddings or funerals and Sunday morning services. They felt that the church was being called to be someone more than this.
  4. to serve outside their community. They felt that the church is far too inclusive and removed from the real world. They thought that engaging this culture as if we had something to offer was a great idea.

There were some other thoughts, but these were the primary concerns. We concluded our time together with the vision God has given me (and our team) for Italy coming to Christ, challenging them to be apart of this. They have been hearing that ‘they are the future of the church’ and that ‘one day their time will come to take the reigns.’ I told them that they were the church NOW and that their time was NOW! I asked them not to view their task here as futile, that this is what the Enemy desires. We tried to help them see a difference between the institution that they know of as ‘church’ and what Christ really desires for His bride. We really focused the end of our time trying to show them the importance of being an embodied witness to Jesus Christ, right where they are and hoping in the Spirit’s work in us (and others) which makes us aware of the Kingdom. The convention wrapped up nicely on Sunday. It was a great time to be together and fellowship. At the end of the gathering, Riccardo (one of the teens in our group) came forward to dedicate his life to Christ and be baptized! It was such a great day and an encouragement to me and the churches throughout Italy. The Spirit is alive and at work in our churches!

Please keep praying for the work here in Italy! Your prayers matter, and God is using YOU to bring others to Him! Be praying this week for:

  • for the missionary kids: Jacob, Haven, Lance, Chloe & Trey as they start school (for patience, ease with the language, patient teachers, friends)
  • for our Ancona-based team as we continue building relationships and share Christ (for boldness, open doors, motivation with the language)
  • for our Perugia-based team as they learn the language (patience, boldness & motivation to seek opportunities to practice and find people to speak with)
  • for Marcus as he continues the frenetic furlough pace (rest, refreshment, new support)
  • for our team’s finances (every family and individual on our team is in need of more financial support)
  • for Brandy Henson (our team’s intern who is serving in Perugia as the Rotert’s nanny, for financial support)
  • that God would reclaim Ancona as his own and build his Church – for broken hearts and open eyes

Please remember me and my continual need for your monthly and one-time support. I depend on it to live and minister here and am so grateful for the sacrifices you make in your lives so that I can keep going. I trust that God is blessing your generosity many times over!