God is Faithful all the time

We have been here in California for 1 month on Tuesday and already the Lord is doing great and might things in our lives. It is our greatest joy to announce that we will be returning to Italy on January 26, 2010 and will not be staying here the 8-12 months that we thought. We have been able to hook up with old friends, make new friends and basically reestablish our connection to the church body. We are always truly amazed at how awesome the body of believers is and the love we have for one another. We are also so blown away at the connections we made in Israel last year and how those connections have led to other connections (divine appointments) for the future of Italy and Europe. The Lord really is rising up a heart for Italy and Europe where just 5 years ago everyone was asking “why are you going to there”. The Lord truly loves the nations and has heard the cry of the people. Yes they had their season but amen in the Lord He will always come back around to capture the hearts and minds of the next generation.

We currently are looking for work so that we are doing something besides promoting the missions and have been a little taken back about how impersonal the hiring process has become. You can’t just walk in the door and talk to someone until you have filled out an application online and some of those can take up to an hour or more to fill out. Our society has grown away from personal contact for a more stream lined, safe procedure of hiring. What ever happened to being hired because someone liked you when they met you and sometimes even if you weren’t qualified for the job because they felt they could work with you? It truly is a crisis and frankly I think these new hiring practices aren’t helping the situation. Our brethren who have been dislocated in this shifting economy need our prayer for patience and that the Lord would push pass the overly complicated process and grant them favor, placing them in jobs that He wants and not what some 3 hour psych. Test on drug use or anger issues dictates they should get amen.

Thanksgiving is just around the corner on Thursday and we want to extend our love and gratitude to all you our friends. We will be at New Life in the morning till noon helping them feed those in need. Salvation Army has supplied all the cooked food and we will dish it up and bless those among us who have fallen on hard times. We are believing that the Lord will be glorified and people will be blessed and touch by His great love and affection for them. From there we are off to friends and will be picking up Kyle who will be coming up for a few days. Please keep Guido & Kyle in prayer as they work through all the normal dad, son issues that they haven’t been able to properly do, due to the distance that separates them (Italy/Cal). We had a great time with him at Disneyland and were thankful for the Lords provision for the time. We made our way from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara via Greyhound bus where we picked up a car from our son. It is a 23 year old car but has been a very faithful blessing for our time here. Our son was afraid it wouldn’t make it up here but it has been plowing away without all the problems he said it had. Hmmm, I wonder what happened to all those problems? Thank you Jesus you make all things new, even old cars.

Anyhow we send you all our blessings and our love and thank you for your continued support and prayers. We are literally here without jobs and/or money as Guido was sent a letter before we left that he would not be getting any unemployment and just last week they informed us his injury was not qualified as a work injury. We have been living here in Tracy with our friend Tom who has opened his home to us without any obligation and people keep handing us money, total strangers whom we have just met who have no clue of our needs. We want you to know that the Lord is mindful of all your needs and will not ever fail you. We serve a living God who loves us and watches over our lives at every turn. Be encouraged and don’t lose faith He really is able no matter the circumstance.

For His Glory Alone
Joyce & Guido…

Don & Faith from Modesto whom we met in Israel last year. They took us to a conference here and our lives were transformed. We met other people who are friends of some of our friends. Never look at a chance meeting as being a chance, it is usually divine and with a purpose. Ask the Lord and He will make it clear.

We are here , we are we are here!!!!

Hello everyone, well we finally made it to California after a pretty uneventful plane ride, unless you call dropping 12,000 ft. in about 30 seconds and I started crying uneventful. The pilots hit a pocket of turbulence and they being the professionals did an awesome job dropping us below the stuff but I left my stomach up there. Never have seen the stewardesses drop to the floor and have the passengers hold them their either. United Airlines is a really awesome airlines. Finally arrived in SFo and got our rental car and finally made it out to Tracy to Tom Amato's home.



Wow cars have come a long way in such a short time. This thing was loaded (Kia Soul), you could even plug in your mp3 player, computer and something else I'm not sure of however, it drank gas even though it was the economy model. So the next day we drove back to a rental agencyin the area to get a smaller car. So different than Europe where an economy car is a Fiat Panda that gets about 50 mpg. We still ended up with a midsize car but it gets 32 vs 24. This thing is manual everything, doors, windows, squeeks and pulls hard to the right. It's a total bucket however, compared to driving around Italy with a scooter anything is an upgrade.



Sunday we went to New Life Christian Church to see our church family. So many new faces, so many new opportunities to make new friends. Always a blessing. Pastor DuBuyonne asked us to get up and share a little and do the communion. It was such an awesome time to share about our Lord and His love and to encourage one another in the faith and to break bread and remember the awesome love and sacrifice of our Lord Jesus and to thank Him for setting us free. We are so excited to be here for 3 months because this time, not like the others we will have so much more time to see everyone and hang out. We started with hanging out with Tina and Herm. I forgot how much food comes on a plate in America. And how many different types of plates you can order, I couldn't decide. In Italy it is pretty simple, menus don't vary much from ristorante to ristorante and you never feel like you have over eaten when you leave. It is a little different when you go to family dinners, there they stuff you until you can't walk, but that is like our Thanksgiving day meal.



Speaking of Thanksgiving, it is just right around the corner. Still don't know what we are doing as we have been invited to many places. Can't clone ourselves so were going to put your names in a hat and draw them out. Just kidding. Really we probably will house hop and see who has the best pumpkin pie, ha ha. This is such an awesome opportunity for us to volunteer and feed some homeless. We can't do that in Italy, just open up the doors at the church and feed people off the street unless you become licensed to do it (not a simple as filling out forms) . No handing out sandwiches in the park or setting up a barbecue and feeding the passerby's. New Life is doing such an awsome job at this, reaching out to their community and touching those in need and making a difference in the lives of others.



We went up and saw Nick and Lisa Cruz and had dinner and just an awesome time of fellowship. They wanted to bless us with warm friendship , and apologize for not being email persons. We just want you all to know that when we send out emails, newsletters, blogs and share with you our life and our needs that you our friends always cover us. We are all different and we all have different gifts, strenghts and abilities and even if you don't respond or just send a one liner saying your praying, we never ever feel that we aren't being cared for, loved on or provided for. People are busy, have lives and you let us into those spaces of your life and we so appreciate it. All of it goes towards sowing into the lost of Europe and reminds us always that the Lord is at the center of all of it. We appreciate all you have done, all you will do and all that that you are required by the Lord to do in regards to us and this work. Please never let the enemy keep you away from us because you feel you haven't done enough becuase it isn't true.



As you know we are off to Disneyland tomorrow for 4 days (We won this trip, all expense paid). What you don't know is that I've been flat on my back for the 2nd day with a bum hip. Can't even bend down and put on my shoes. I'm off to the Chiropractor today and hoping to putting that hip back in place will help, if not I'll be seeing Disney through a wheel chair. Yes it is that bad. Faith & Don Gerlach from Modesto called yesterday and prayed for me and it was an awesome time of prayer however I have not been healed YET however the pain has dimished and I can sit now in the chair but long lines of standing people isn't going to be possible. We met Faith & Don when we went to Israel a few years ago and they called to invite us to a conference next weekend and then to their church on Sunday. This is part of that network of people that have come alongside of us and pray and bless us. It is truely awesome to have family everywhere.

Well we will sign off for now and we will keep you all posted as to our where abouts, and adventures. Again we need you to let your Pastors know that we are in town and should any of them want us to come and share about Italy and Europe and the needs there we would love to come and share. You can call us on our cell, I have posted that number on your email and facebook. If you need it again please send us a message and I will resond. Love you all.

Joyce & Guido