Hello everyone!
April went by very quickly, but at the same time extremely slow. Italy has been in house quarantine now going on eight weeks. We haven’t had a church service at our building with full attendance for ten. I do have to say for me personally it has been one of the more difficult times serving here in ministry. I am used to filling up my calendar with lots of different activities. However these last eight weeks have been very slow and at times discouraging.
Fortunately we are still having Bible College classes online so I have something to look forward to every Thursday and Friday afternoons. This semester I am teaching a class called Men’s Discipleship on Thursday afternoons. In which we have been emphasizing not only to be disciples of Christ, but also how to be disciple makers. Friday afternoons I have been teaching a class called Mission & Evangelism. Spent the first half of the classes explaining what Biblical missions looks like. Now for the second half I have been answering bigger questions that the students have in regards to the mission field and the age old question “what do I do after Bible College.” I spend a lot of extra time in the beginning of the week studying and preparing for those classes.
I think the biggest thing though that I have learned over these past eight weeks is the value of prayer and how vital it is for ministry. We are in a spiritual battle it is not flesh and blood that we wrestle with. Even though I haven’t been able to be involved with people’s lives as I would like to be. In this time of quarantine I have been seeing the Lord still working through prayer as I intercede for the people around me.
The situation here is slowly but surely opening back up. Since mid March the new cases have been steadily decreasing. We are around two thousand new cases a day in the whole country. Overall the situation has certainly devastated the economy and most people are also getting very impatient with the slow reopening process. Thankfully yesterday (May 4) is the day in which we started (Phase 2) of the reopening. In which most people go back to work full time except restaurants and coffee shops. Personally you can travel to see family members or significant others. Thankfully I got to go see Abigail for the first time in eight weeks so that was awesome! However the church has still not been given permission to open its doors. May 18 is supposed to be another target date for more things to be back reopen. In which restaurants, coffee shops, libraries, museums, and you should be able to travel within your own region in Italy. However it doesn’t look like we will be able to reopen for church services. So it is a complicated mess right now. As an evangelical church we have pretty much no say on a large scale political stage. However the Catholic Church has been fighting hard to get their buildings and services going again. So we are praying by the 18th we will be able to at least start somewhat meeting again in the church building.
Thank you for you support, for taking the time to pray for me and the ministry here. For finically giving and the sacrifices made to make that possible. I am so thankful for you. May the Lord richly bless you!
Pray for the following:
the ability to once again start meeting as a church body.
for financial provision for the church (not meeting for ten weeks has hurt income with lots of bills to keep paying).
For the Bible college students here to finish the semester strong.
That the Gospel would continue to transform new lives here in Italy.
The ability to have a youth camp this summer. The picture below is the from the youth camp we had this winter.
Personal wisdom for future decisions.