Fueling Faith in Italy

The Latest... 

Sorry for the long silence on our end! As you can see we are using a new email program to update you about our ministry. It takes a lot of time to add the 200+ email addresses and names manually and set up this new system. So now that it's finished we hope to communicate more regularly with you.

We continue to trust the Lord to build a team of partners who will help send us to Italy to train disciples who can become disciple-makers. The sooner we raise our needed financial support the sooner we can head to the field. Will you help send us? See the side bar for more information on how to participate in our ministry.

We have completed one year of ministry in Espanola, New Mexico this month. We have been blessed by a church that is very supportive and to see God working here. It is a slow process but we are building a foundation for a biblical ministry that will last long after we are gone.

Massimo is heading up leadership development for the Santa Fe Baptist Association. To this end, he began organizing leadership training seminars with the first held last May on disciple-making (see church site for audio files). Our next seminar will be in October on biblical counseling with Daniel Schuman from Albuquerque's Renew counseling center. This fall we are launching a new seminary extension ministry to train believers for ministry right here in northern New Mexico. If you'd like to learn more you can download a brochure at the home page of www.fbcespanola.com.

The practical experience we are gaining in the local pastorate as well as leadership development will be very valuable to us in Italy. Massimo is also personally training/counseling men in the church to be leaders in home and church. Kimberly continues to lead in our monthly women's ministry events and working with the children. Last month we had 84 children in our week-long Vacation Bible School and in a separate track for teens we had 34. We praise God for the ministry He is doing here.

Prayer Requests

• Pray for us to figure out how to either begin to transition out of my current ministry as Pastor of FBC Espanola in the next year, or to be able to balance this ministry with partner development. The demands of full-time pastoral ministry which requires me to be in the pulpit each Sunday makes it difficult to find time to connect with other churches/individuals.

• For God to lead us to some people and churches who would be interested in our ministry. Many churches and individuals we've talked with are either struggling financially or are limiting their support of missionaries. (Perhaps God is leading you to join our team or introduce us to your church?)

• Our church is struggling financially and we just took a 10% salary reduction. While we have a core of committed givers and servants, some are passive specatators and sporadic in attendance. Praise! After I explained the situation to our church a couple weeks ago the following Sunday was the first time the giving exceeded our monthly budget since we arrived! Hopefully that will continue.

• Pray for our marriage and family to be strong and a source of joy and encouragement. We need to be more intentional in planning date nights more frequently. We are also in the midst of choosing between a local Christian school or homeschooling Aemilia and Gianna this year. Also, pray for us to stay close to Jesus and display the fruit of the Spirit in our lives.

• Loris is still not talking (age 2 as of Aug. 13) and continues to drool. He is able to vocalize and says "mama" and "dada" and a few other simple words. He's seeing a speech therapist and is undergoing testing to determine the cause for his relaxed muscles around his mouth.

Thank you for your prayers and words of encouragement. Drop us a short email sometime and let us know how we can pray for you. We always love to hear from you. Dio ti benedica (God bless you).