Previous Related Posts:
The Church in Italy, Part 1 (the average Italian)
The Church in Italy, Part 2 (evangelical church situation)
Why We Have Hope for Italy (God is at work)
Our Timeline (why we are staying in America for a season)

What’s Next:
Acts 29 Network
Crosspointe Church (where Chan is pastor)
Chan Kilgore (pastor and church planter)

• Adequate Housing – Ideally a 3/2 or larger in an accessible location. We are taking a day trip up there on Saturday to see what is available. We actually have found one that we are really interested in and hope to secure.
• Our Italy Apartment – In order to afford payment on a home in Orlando, we need to be freed from our financial obligation to our apartment in Salerno. We never intended to be in the USA this long, so we only setup short term solutions for our absence. If we have to cut the cord and lose the apartment, we will. But, this apartment has been a HUGE provision for our family, and we want to keep it if at all possible. We’re currently pursuing our landlord seeking solutions (reduced rent with temporary renters, etc). Pray we can keep it!
• Vehicles – In moving to Italy, we sold both of our cars to help towards our transition expenses. We’ve had vehicles to use since we’ve been in south Florida, but the transition to Orlando means leaving those behind. We need a minivan for Abbey and the kids to use, and something simple (even if its a scooter) for Justin to get around while raising financial support. Borrowing something is ideal, but we are open to other options.

This unexpected stay in the USA certainly comes with its difficulties. But we trust God who always promises to provide for our needs. Particularly regarding the vehicles, if you are aware of anything (or perhaps have something yourself), please be sure to let us know! We’re hoping to secure something in a few weeks. Thank you for your prayers, and we will keep you posted on God’s goodness as He provides.

Too often we say things with certainty, not knowing what God has in store for us. And then we are confronted with a verse like this:

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!

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!

This was our most recent newsletter mailing to our friends and supporters. Click on the image above to view the full newsletter. You can also right click and “save as” to save it to your desktop.

(Click to Enlarge)

Sunday

Our spiritual life - Time to read and pray. Spiritual growth. Encouragement. Fellowship with local Christians. Good links with sending churches and prayer supporters. For integrity, reliability, consistency.

Monday

Our personal life - Relationships between husband and wife. Maintaining contact with children, parents and family back home. Friendships with nationals. Health and strength. Physical and spiritual protection.

Tuesday

Communication - Progress in language study. Adaptation to culture, customs and people. Clarity, creativity and relevance in preaching and teaching. Biblical emphasis. Involvement with those hearing the message.

Wednesday

Relationships - Harmonious relationships with other Christians, team members and church leaders. Partnership with the local church.

Thursday

Evangelism - For boldness. For godly, sensitive, Spirit-led ministry. Hungry hearts and the opening of spiritually blind eyes. For the establishing of Christ’s church. For national missionary movements.

Friday

Discipling - For patience and empathy. Training young people. Encouraging new believers. Equipping those with leadership gifts.

Saturday

Their country - For those in authority. The political situation. Religious freedom. Openness to the gospel. Favour with officials and other churches. Visa renewal processes and other legal matters.

More specifically, please pray that we will:

- ‘speak as men approved by God’ (1 Thessalonians 2:4).
- that our conversations will be ‘full of grace’ and ‘salt’ (Colossians 4:6).
- that we’ll preach ‘in season and out of season’ (2 Timothy 4:2).
- laying foundations ‘as an expert builder’ (1 Corinthians 3:10).

Colossians 1:9-12; Ephesians 3:14-21; Philippians 1:9-11 teach us about Paul’s faith and about God and his plans for his Church. Why not use them in praying for us and the Christians in our area?

(adapted from UFM Worldwide)

DID YOU KNOW:
• 32,000 (out of 33,500) Italian communities have no established evangelical witness
• Only 10% (of expatriate missionaries) on average return for a second term
• there are 616 official religions in Italy
• there are an estimated 100,000 recognized fortune-tellers
• less than 5% of Catholics are actually practicing
• Islam is the second religion in Italy. Jehovah’s Witnesses are as numerous as all Evangelicals put together
• 2.6 million foreigners live in Italy
• in Milan alone more than 1000 teenagers commit suicide each year

Would you take a moment and pray about these things?

One of the main things we try to accomplish while they are here is to find creative ways for them to interact with Italians at the University and engage in spiritual conversations that hopefully lead to sharing the gospel. So for the past two days, we’ve setup large photo exhibits that allow students to come and observe. While observing, we engage in conversation asking how these pictures relate to their life, and their relationship with God. It has opened up some neat opportunities for conversation that we would not have had otherwise. Pray for more opportunities like this in the coming weeks! Next week we will host a group of 25 from Mississippi.