Looking forward to visits from Nonna, Stephanie, Brittany&Marc, Betsy&Debbie in May/June!
Also, thanks to the Lord providing a work-free July/August, and the financial support of many of you, I am headed to the USA so mark your calendars!! *Just a note of warning I will be eating only Thai and Mexican food so please don't try to feed me anything Italian haha :)
- Will be in Los Angeles July 26-August 5... and again August 16-18.
- Will be in Seattle (still not official dates) August 10-15.
MONICA & ERICA. Monica is a long time member of our church in her 40s. I really love her and am inspired by her sincere, childlike heart. She suffers from bipolar disease and her heart and life are quite chaotic. On Sunday I spent the day at her home for lunch. She had been wanting me to meet her 20 yr old daughter ERICA. Erica's father (American) left them when she was small. She is amazing. The family is full of trouble and pain--Monica deciding whether to kick her boyfriend of 9 yrs (also a church member) out of the house. Or marry him. Oh goodness it's a long and winding story. Anyway, pray I can spend more time with them. And that I have the love and wisdom to do so. Cool thing: Erica works just down the street from my house(unfortunately at a gelateria--I'll have to break my loyalty to my fave gelato guy Marco at Blanca's every now and then to go see her!!).
RAFFA. I just love her so much! She seems better but we haven't really talked about how she's doing emotionally since I last wrote. We are spending time together on our holiday tomorrow, and then having tea with Tania Friday after work. Pray I can share more of Jesus with her. Just love her as He loves me. Pray she opens her heart to wonder and ask and want to know Him!
FATION. I saw him today as I usually do on Tuesdays. He is quite mysterious and I know he suffers a lot with his family, depression, loneliness, godlessness.... please pray for him. Pray that I know how to be his friend in a way that cares for him and points him to Jesus.
LIVIA. Cool thing. My Roman friend Livia just messaged me and she is back in Rome (was living in the north for cooking school) a few weeks in May and then most of the summer. She wants to get together. I love her parents/little sister as well. And Livia is just SUCH a lovely, strong young woman. Pray we can get together and have a good time and that she grows hungry for Jesus. Pray God's Spirit is with me so I know how to share exactly what she needs.
SUNDAY SCHOOL. A bit of a mess. Hard with young ones and old ones in one bedroom with my weak abilities. I need help!
PRAISE... I do feel that my Italian is getting a bit better. It takes a lot for me to say that, but I think it's true. I am looking forward to getting some tutoring this summer to focus on some grammar points.
PRAISE... last night Marco, Miky, Tania and I had our monthly dinner/prayer thing we're doing. It was really sweet. These guys are going through a lot it breaks my heart. They are the only Christians among their peers and it's just a big battle of beliefs, ideas, practices, philosophies, relationships.... Pray that they are strengthened in the Lord! Pray that together we can foster a new kind of community among young people here! If you are at all interested in sponsoring any of them at university (may have to drop out for financial reasons), let me know. By that I mean like $1000 per person, it's not a lot here.
PRAISE... our church member Hilde has returned from 4 months in the US. Her son ANDREAS has become a friend of mine, but since he spent Christmas with my family, despite attempts by Tania and I, we haven't seen him. Tonight I saw him again as Hilde hosted Bible study in her home. He arrived after since he had another obligation, but I am SO PLEASED to be in contact with him again. He is such a great guy and I just know God loves him and wants to fill him with purpose. Pray for ANDREAS and ELEONORA (girlfriend) that we can hang out and that they walk with Jesus.
PRAISE... as I mentioned last time, our church has become an official 'Association' or nonprofit in the county. La Speranza can function as a church but also coffee shop, bookstore, tutoring centre, and lots of other things we dream to be for the community. We are praying now for a location to move out of our house-church phase. This also requires maturity and unity of our members. Pray with us!
Love to you all!
A
Above: my home--may it be used for kingdom purposes!
Below: me @top of Castel Sant'Elmo, Napoli last weekend :)
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