Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” James 4:13-15

As you know, we returned to America to have our fourth child a few months ago. Isabella is doing wonderful. Our plan has always been to return to Italy as soon as she was old enough to fly, which would have meant returning in the end of September, or early October. But, the Lord has other plans. Several circumstances have forced us to remain in America for a season.

First, due to our financial support. Upon returning home, we had incurred several large losses to our support team due to economic instability. Actually, over the past 12 months our overall support losses have been pretty drastic. As I began to add it all up, and combine that with our increased needs due to a larger family and living overseas, it became evident that we need to focus an extended time rebuilding our team of financial supporters.

Second, due to our team. When we returned to America, the plan was to return to Italy and work with another staff family, and be joined with a third staff family sometime in the early fall. All of this changed within a matter of 2 weeks. Our dear friends and co-workers Rodney and Amanda, with their son Grant, have decided to return to America full time. Also, our friends Justin and Gayle found out that they were pregnant with their second. The timing works out best for them to remain in America to have the baby, and move to Italy in the spring. Essentially, we would have no team this year if we had returned.

So, we see that God’s timing is perfect. We need an extended time to replenish our financial support, and he has given us an opportunity to do so. Are we saddened by this? Of course we are. We want nothing more than to be in Salerno, serving the city with the love of Christ. But, we are also fully aware that God cares more about that city than we do. And, his timing is perfect. We are planting seeds in that city that have eternal significance, so for us to put that on hold for 6 months is not going to destroy what God has done, or what He will continue to do when we return.

Thank you for joining with us in praying for Salerno. Would you also pray for this season as we seek to replenish our financial support? Also, pray for God to continue to raise up laborers to serve there with us. Finally, for those who have trusted Christ. Many of them are anxiously awaiting our return, and we are trying to keep in contact as best as we can in our absence. May we trust God together for His perfect timing!

Happy Monday! We hope you all had a wonderful weekend. We had a great time with some friends who visited for a few days. It was nice to just kick back and enjoy their company. But, today we are hit again with a dose of reality, and we wanted to invite you to pray for us.

By nature of being missionaries, we must fully depend on God to meet our financial needs. And, he chooses to do this through the body of Christ getting behind us. Over the past few years, our family has expanded (tripled, actually), and we moved overseas. Also, as a result of difficult financial times, we have lost a significant amount of financial supporters. These factors combined have created a very large need. In order to remain on the mission field, we must replenish our team of faithful supporters.

Exposure is a key word for us right now. We are praying that our ministry would be exposed to as many people as possible. We’re very excited about where the Lord is taking us, and want to give as many individuals as possible an opportunity to consider joining our team.

Sensitivity would be another key word. Being aware that times are tough, we want to be careful as we approach people inviting them to give financially towards our ministry. Our hope is to invite people to give $25/month, which is an amount most people can swallow. By exposing ourselves to hundreds of people, we are hoping that this challenge will bring in the support needed to continue.

Would you please pray for us, that we would be able to meet (personally or via the web) as many people as possible and invite them to join our team? Would you also consider sharing (Facebook or Twitter) or forwarding our emails to others that you think might be interested in our ministry to Italy? It feels as if we have quite the mountain to climb, but we’re confident God will provide!