April 2016 -- New Adventure, moving forward towards the promise of Italy, Destiny & Revival

Well it has been quite a while since we wrote and many exciting things have happened, so let's go back in time a bit.

First , please forgive us for never finishing up our posts regarding our past prayer walks on the Gothic Line that we started in 2013.  Let us just start with March 2014 and we will try to be more diligent to keep up posting on a regular basis.   Please see previous blogs if your interested in what were talking about.

 March - April 2014 -- After several mountains we had to stop due to snow and the risk of falling to our deaths, I know it sounds a little dramatic but we are amateurs so it really isn't too far a stretch to imagine us sliding down the face of one of them due to a lack of experience.  Then we had guests for a few weeks, then our car broke down for 6 weeks.  Then we found out we had to leave our apartment. so we decided to pack it up and head back to California.

Gesu Viva

In the the meantime Guido suggested we start to revisit some of the ministry connections we had made over the years, so in May we decided to head to Sicily and check in on our Church Plant in Marsala and visit a group of youth we had met some months earlier at a Bethel Event in Viarregio Italy.  Guido called ahead and talked with their Pastor and if they could find accomodations for us.  We came to find this most incredible group of youth and a most incredibly gifted Pastor.  While there they invited us up to a mountain for what we thought was siteseeing.  It turned out to be a prayer walk to pray down into the valley and over their region.  Can you imagine, they had no clue that that was what we had just been doing in our own area.  They then invited us to come and live in Sicily instead of going back to the USA.  Hmmm was the Lord up to something?

We got back home on June 6th and now we would be leaving sometime in September to live in Sicily. Plenty of time to finish the 12 mountains we had left right?  However they found us a place to live within a few weeks so it was decided we would leave in July and spend the Summer in Sicily and do the mountains in September when we came back to pick up our stuff.  The only thing is we kept feeling the Lord telling us it was vital to finish our walk before we left and it had to be done for sure before the end of 2014.  We felt such an urgency but we had no clue why it was so important to the Lord. The fact that we were rolling around to the 70th anniversary of the end of the War in 2015 might be important, but we wouldn't know just how important until later.

So with only 1 month till moving day, we walked to the top of 12 insanely high mountains while packing the apartment up on rest days (ha ha ha) and entertaining drop in visitors from the USA & Ghana.  It was awesome & difficult all at the same time.  We had great encounters with the Lord, tangible, visible presence and awesome views, not to mention pushing us physically to the limit.  It wouldn't be until December while living in Sicily that we would be invited to an Event in Germany on July 2015 called Awaking Europe.  We learned that just a few months before (February 2014) Todd White & Ben Fitzgerald were in Germany overlooking a field and they both had an open vision of a massive gathering of people in Europe, in unity coming together praising the Lord and then being sent out to gather the harvest.  Now we understood the Lord's urgency.

Ps. Antonella 

So on July, 4th 2014 we officially moved to Sicily.  The Lord had divinely opened a door for us to become a part of a very vibrant church called Gesu Viva in Santa Margherita di Belice.  This church has a female Pastor which in this part of the world is very rare and comes with many pressures and attacks  as the culture is still very much back in time physically and spiritually. She has a church full of passionate youth and she is loved and followed by many around the region.  Many Pastors call and ask her to come and help them with their youth as well.

This little church on a hilltop took us in and loved us dearly, honoring and blessing us on every occasion.  We did many things together, Birthdays, Anniversaries, Bible Studies and just hanging out.

Marika's 18th Birthday Bash

The music is very lively with a keyboard player (Massi), drums (Salvo), electric guitar (Ps. Antonella, or Anto for short), and a base player (Silvio).  Pretty much everyone has a nick name which is so cool.  You get a real sense of family and tradition while going forward and being upbeat for the Kingdom.

Guido's Birthday Bash

Although this church is far from arriving, they are the most progressively on fire church that we have encountered in our 12 years in Italy.  They have well rounded teaching, incredible worship, powerful prayers, and although the leadership is still in it's infancy (still functioning with just a pastor), they are well on their way to incorporating apostles, prophets, teachers, evangelists & pastors from among their own group or associations.  They have a strong call and many mandates.  They need prayer as they traverse a very difficult terrain filled with religiosity.

Fireball Enza

They are spiritual warriors who intercede and pray with many of them doing fasts and all night prayer vigils.  Sicily was, the most exciting time and adventure we had in the 12 years.  Maybe it was just a kiss from the Lord for the 10 years we put in up in the North. It was like picking ripe fruit off the vine.

Very Serious bunch

Although our 10 years in the North was full of so many wonderful memories and times of blessings, healing, love, outpourings, friendships and the like, it was an intense time of plowing and building and laying foundations.  The North is by far a much harder ground to work, however Sicily has many challenges as well.  Some of the greatest things they really have is a strong sense of adventure, spontaneity, humor, family and openness. This atmosphere was exactly what we had been longing for and missing.  .

Really a Camel too?

Amazing Sunsets

Sicily was a season of intense refreshing, and yes some work, but the work was shared, it was no longer just us two plowing as much as we were a family working together for the Kingdom.  It was the closest thing we saw to Kingdom living with a group of Italians.  We have seen it with other groups living in Italy but they are comprised of mostly foreigners.

 Sicily is raw and still old world even among the modern things.


It often felt like we were living in the wild wild west as sheep ran through the streets guided by shepherds with dogs & farmers parking their tractors outside their front doors.

Lunch Break at McDonalds

July 2015 -- In Nuremburg, we  gathered 25,000 strong  from among the Nations for Awakening Europe .  Like we said earlier, it was from an open vision that Ben Fitzgerald & Todd White had the year before.  They did all this in faith. They  had it translated into 4 languages, Italian being one of them.  They also wanted it to be a time of reconciliation between the European Nations effected by Hitler during the II World War.  The theme was basically 70 years and the captivity was over.  Yeah so glad we finished our walk in Italy.  The Lord has a timeline.

Ran into our friend Lidia who now lives in Germany

We brought a group from Italy and became part of His Story for Europe.  It was powerful, anointed and shifted the atmosphere of Europe.  This was the same Stadium that Hitler trained his youth for hatred and murder.  From this same place we exalted King Jesus and set Him as King over Europe and commissioned a generation of youth to the Harvest of souls for the Kingdom and blessed the spiritual moms & dads to rise up and help them to do it.   Europe will be saved.

Team California

 Interestingly enough, in the 20 months we were in Sicily, the Lord brought all kinds of people around us from all over the world who wanted to partner with us to put in a training school.  All in all, we had 58 visitors in 20 months from places like Israel, Australia, USA, England, S. Africa, Italy, and other places we can't remember.

Ps. Dennis & the Church in Marsala

We have hosted teams, ministries & friends, some who returned 2 or 3 times. We never had this many people visit us in the North.  It is like the floodgates opened as people who have been longing to come to Sicily arrived.  Many have family roots here, others just felt called to be here.

Chapman, Hanna, Penny, Giovy, Silvia, Pete & Michelle

It was crazy, our house was full to overflowing at times.  They all want to be a part of the Lord raising up the Italians and learning from them as well.  The Body of Christ has so much to give to one another, every joint supplying, it is awesome.  We all want a place where we can gather with the Italians from all over Italy, and have people come from all over the world for 3 months to train and hang out and be a part of this incredible place.

Albiola & Peter from Florence, meet Enza & Christina of Sicily

 A self sustaining place that can then flow out into the surround communities & Italians going out into all the earth.  Italy needs to send missionaries out as well. The Lord renewed our vision, rebirthed our dreams (which I think we lost sight of ), and now we want to make our life in Sicily forever.

Michael Miller doing a Prophetic conference

Bethel in Palermo

With that said, one would say, "why did you come back to California then".  Well it started with a dream that Guido had about 10 years ago regarding our Granddaughter and in that dream he saw us alongside of her while she was in High School and well, that time has arrived and she doesn't live in Italy so that required a move.  Although we are really sad about that, we know that the Lord has a timing.

Penny from Australia

Onward with the Sicily story.....


It is very difficult for Italians to leave for extended periods of time from their family due to financial obligations for schooling not to mention there really isn't very many places in Italy that they can go for Bible School.

 We know in the USA it isn't if you can go, it's
where should I go,  because it is overflowing with every kind of Bible School known to man.  This just isn't the case in Italy and many are lacking basic training and forget about anything like Bethel, or IHOP, it just doesn't exist.

So it is our desire to use these 3 or 4 years here in the USA to formulate the vision into something that is tangible and workable in Sicily.  We already have sat down with our friend Sarah and begun to write out the vision and what it could look like, however we now need to type it up and begin to present it to others so that they too will catch the vision and partner with us.  It really is an exciting time and also a very challenging time as we sort of settle into a life in California that we know we are going to be leaving again in a few years.  How do you stay all in here as you live life, and all in Italy at the same time.  Only by the Grace of the Lord.

So to fast forward....

We arrived back in California on March 10th 2016.  A few months before that, Guido was given a job opportunity that he started 4 days after we arrived.  Talk about provision from the Lord.  It's perfectly suited for him in a test kitchen working on meals that are prepackaged healthy eating.  Good wage & benefits for both of us.  I am still plugging away at my Bookkeeping job that I have been doing for the past 5 years, and I am believing that the Lord is going to increase my clients so when I return to Italy I will have a good wage to supplement our missions work.

We already have settled in with a home here that is just around the corner from our Granddaughter and into a routine.  We are beginning to reattach ourselves to friends & family that are now all over the great state of California as 12 years is a long time to be away.  We still belong to New Life Christian Church as their missionaries however we also are frequenting other churches at this time.
We are not our own and so we are seeking the Lords direction at this moment to our future and what that might look like.  I personally don't like change, who does right, however we believe it is a huge season of change for us so we want to make wise decisions.

Grace is what has been on us since we landed.  We were a little afraid that we would be overwhelmed living here as everything is big, fast, and more than abundant.  Our past visits have found us crying in grocery stores and longing to leave as soon as possible, however this time it is as if we never left, which is very strange and so we know this is His grace for this season.  We have had huge amounts of favor, love and provisions.  We had to leave everything behind except a few suitcases and needed everything, which the Lord has provided, even a car.  You don't realize how much you had until you have only 2 suitcases and your missing a bunch of stuff you use everyday.

Within a few weeks we went to LA to  Azusa Now and it was an extension of the same kind of reconciliation work we have seen in Europe.  Native Americans, African Americans, Latinos, Catholics, Jewish brothers & sisters repenting and forgiving.  Calling forth Heaven to invade Earth. It was great fun running into other fellow missionaries and friends who have been with us in Italy or partnered with us for Italy.  We are living in times where Heaven is touching Earth and we are calling down the revival rains.  We are walking in a time of great favor and Mercy as the Lord longs to touch each and every person on the planet and bring them to Himself.  We are living in the greatest times ever and we all get to be a part of it.  The world is so desperate for hope and love and need answers and we, brothers & sisters, we have it, we have Him and He is moving mighty upon the earth.

So we will leave you with this, and we will continue to update you hopefully more regularly.  If you want to be on our mailing list, please drop us a line at ocityofgod.italy@gmail.com and ask.  If you have a heart for Italy and would like to partner with us, drop us a line.  If you would like us to come and speak at your church and share with you the vision, again the email address above is the best way to contact us at this time.  Do you get the hint, contact us.  Father God is doing wonderful things in the Nations of the earth and there is a call for everyone to go, be it short term or long term, the fields are white with harvest and we pray that the Lord would send workers, we hope he sends you to us in Italy./

Blessings & Love
Guido & Joyce Bassi
Missionaries to Italy