Happy Resurrection Sunday – He is risen & He is faithful….

It has been a whole year since we have sent out a Newsletter so we thought we ought to touch base and let you know what we have been up to.  Many of you know that we  moved back to California on March 10, 2016 to be  here for our family as the Lord really impressed  upon us that it was time.  So much has  happened, I’m not sure even where to begin.

 We have been living in the home of my Italian  teacher who is elderly and needs help around the  house.  She lives in the same city that we left  from,  so it has been such a blessing to  be back on our  home turf so to speak.  It has  been an enormous  blessing for us as it has  allowed us to be stable,  close to our daughter &  granddaughter & to save  some money.   Not to  mention, she let us bring our  cat Judah.  We have  a beautiful downstairs room a  private bathroom &  a garden view.  

Blessed is the fruit of our labors

Guido started a new job upon arrival and has been doing really well; in fact they just put him into a supervisory role and put him on salary.  This was a total blessing from our daughter who referred him.  He works Tuesday, Thursday & Sunday for 12 hours.  You can check out what he does by clicking on the link below.  For the first few months he worked so much that we were able to sock a little money away and bought a practically new car.  This car was a huge blessing a real super miracle since we didn’t have any credit as we have been gone for 12 years, and Guido had only been on the job for 2 months J

I am still plugging along doing bookkeeping with my awesome friend Kaylyn.  I am now a Quickbook Pro Advisor but have so much more to learn.   Adjusting for some reason was not that hard, although my heart really pined daily to go back home to Italy.   It almost was as if I never left, like no time had passed.  I was extremely stressed out before I even got back, thinking that I wouldn’t be able to make the adjustment.  We were told we should get counseling as it is normal for missionaries to have some difficulties but it became very apparent that we were inside an enormous grace bubble.  The Lord had personally wrapped us up and was carrying us along in such sweet and faithful manner.  Such grace & favor has been upon us.

www.habit.com

Let go, Move on!

The only thing that did make it difficult was that people kept telling us now was the time to settle back in, Italy was done & over, move on.  I started freaking out because in our hearts we really only felt that this was for a season & that our work in Italy was still ongoing.   Contacts for further work in Italy were opening up and we were just starting into this wonderful season of fruits from our labors.  It wasn't just that we love our life in Italy and just want to live there, but we still have so many plans & dreams for Italy.   I really started hitting an emotional breakdown thinking I was never going to get to go back. 

While We were visiting VOT Church, they had a guest speaker who has a very accurate prophetic ministry.  After the service, Pastor Dennis introduced us and talked about our adventures in Italy together and this man asked if he could pray for us and he started giving us this incredible prophetic word that totally lined up with our heart vision for a school in Sicily.  He talked about us going back & forth and it totally set our hearts at ease.  We really were blown away at the accuracy of the word and totally blessed & it encouraged us to kick it up a notch & get ready for these things to happen.

New Beginnings

The year had many changes for us personally as well.  We officially resigned as missionaries at New Life Christian Church.  This was not an easy decision for me as this has been my church since I was 23.  I raised my children in this church.  It has been my home & family.  They have blessed me for 30 years and loved me & Guido so faithfully.  It was a very difficult prayerful decision but we felt we had to move into the next season and align ourselves with those who would partner with us for the future in Italy. 

The church we have settled into is called Voice of Triumph with Pastor Jim & Marti Souza.  A very young, upbeat, on fire community with awesome worship & powerful preaching & teaching.  We are now on staff and are their missionaries

to Italy.  They have been so loving and caring to us.  Pastor Dennis is also

 here so it really feels like home having  my spiritual father here as well.  It feels like we have always been a part of this fellowship.  We have so many new friends our age & many young families as well.  They just celebrated 7 years on Sunday, very exciting times ahead.  They are very connected with the flow of Bethel & we have many awesome guest speakers & ministries coming through.   It really is a time for us to fill up, grow more into the body of Christ in a much fuller way and to strengthen relationships, gain new contacts & be better equipped for what the Lord is doing in these last days.

 We also had a

 young lady from Sicily come & stay 3  months with us.  Enza Maria or  Fireball Enza as we call her. 

 This is one of the most incredible young  women we have ever met in Italy.  She is  young, on fire & knows how to pray &  fast.  She got to check out the School of  Supernatural in Redding, hang out with the  students currently there from Italy, go  down to LA & visit Chapman & Hannah

 & their new baby Shepherd & even got a  surfing lesson & had her first American  Thanksgiving with Chapman's family.  She  was such a blessing to the VOT Church  youth & semi youth (lol).  She was deeply  impacted as were they 

 as they shared their love of Jesus from different cultural perspectives.  She hopefully will be back in October with a group of youth to do some music ministry/workshops & perhaps even go to school.  We feel we have become a bridge between two nations and are looking forward to many more Italians making their way here to bless our American church family and to be blessed by them as well.

Mission Base ... 

We currently go back and forth to Italy twice a year and just returned from our last trip on March 31^st.  We planted a mission station finally.  10 days of intense work building the furniture & kitchen.  We also got our things out of storage from our lovely friends Vittoria & Joyce who blessed us tremendously by storying it for us in their atic.  We managed to get most of the unpacking done and the apartment is now ready to receive our first mission guests.  It really has been a dream realized as returning to the USA, we weren’t sure how this

could happen, but our awesome friends Manuela and Marcello in Sicily found the apartment and made all the arrangements from getting the contract together, all the utilities turned on to being there when the couriers delivered package after package from IKEA & Amazon.  

                                                      We weren’t 

 able to visit with  many people  however we did  reinforce some  friendships & made

 new ones as well.  Was able to pray & lay hands  on our new neighbor Franca who had a bad back  and her daughter in law Rosalba who is fighting  cancer, please keep them in prayer. Believing f  or complete healing & restoration amen.

 We need to be convinced of this one thing, the  Lord is our provider always and He works out  His  plans in our lives.  We had many years of  being  so financially stretched in Italy but He  never  let  us  down.    We just  need to  trust in  His goodness & faithfulness.  We till marvel at how He does this stuff.  How He opens the right doors, makes the right connections and divine appointments, not just in finances but in every aspect of our life.  There is never by chance when the King of Glory is ordering your steps and you are looking to Him for everything.  A man plans his ways but the Lord directs his path has become a life plan for us.  

Having left lands & homes & families....

Another awesome report is that we bought a house.   9846 Olive Street, Oakland.  Yeah can you believe it, Olive St. I just have to laugh.  A total miracle has happened for us.  Literally a meeting with a Jewish realtor who hooked us up with a loan agent who has gotten us funding, grants & special loans to make this possible.  The realtor & the broker just championed for us through the process.  We were going to get just get a 2 bedroom 1 bath house.  We had made at least 8 offers and had been outbid on every one of them.  We were feeling a little discouraged thinking this would not be happening since this is the only place in the Bay Area left that has some afforadable housing.  Then literally right before we left for Italy, this house dropped into our laps, 4 bedrooms & 2 bathrooms.  It really is what we need with the amount of people that are coming from Europe to visit us this year.  Miracles grace & favor.  I’m still in shock; Guido is like “yeah that’s my Daddy”. 

When we left California in 2004, everyone said we would never be able to buy again, geez I even 

said it.  Homes in California already were skyrocketing & even though they had a crash, it still continues to escalate beyond reach for most people & rents are not even practical and yet the Lord saw fit to open a door for us.  We had an excepted offer on March 10^th, the 1 year anniversary of our return.  What a gift the Lord has granted us.  Such incredible

favor in finances he has given us abundantly so we can stay with both 

feet in both countries for the moment.  Instead of throwing money away on rent, we can build equity for what the Lord is doing in the future for Italy again.  I love how the Lord works out every detail. 

Oh a little side bar the Lord even put the seed money into our savings for the down payment a few months after we returned.  My friend Raye texted me in the summer and told me about a Government site that you can go to and see if you have any unclaimed money.  She said she looked me up and I had money sitting in this account.  Not possible, I know where all our money is and we don't have any lol.  But there it was $2400 dollars from a settlement?  I’ve no clue what settlement but there it was.  

We need to be convinced of this one thing, the Lord is our provider always and He works out His plans in our lives.  We had many years of being so financially stretched in Italy but He never let us down.  We like Paul learned to be content in seasons of little and now in seasons of plenty because what we need for each season is available to us.  We need but to just trust in His goodness & faithfulness.  We till marvel at how He does this stuff.  How He opens the right doors, makes the right connections and divine appointments, not just in finances but in every aspect of our life.  There is never by chance when the King of Glory is ordering your steps and you are looking to Him for everything.  A man plans his ways but the Lord directs his path has become a life plan for us.  

A hear the sounds of Revival

California also has some breakthrough things going on, so were super excited to be a part of this as well.  We got to go to Azusa Street when we got back last April & now were having the Sound 2017 on 7/7/2017 in San Francisco.  Putting our feet down & walking and praying the ground as we wait for the outpouring that the Lord has promised here.  Being a Californian you can’t even imagine how truly full of expectation I am to see this happen.  I spent most my life praying and believing for this moment, so I'm feeling extremely honored to be a part of it.  Again there is no chance with God, He is masterful in His plans and I come with the authority and right as being born here to stand and make declarations over my City/State.  How ironic that I will be living in the city I was born in.  Oakland will become a city filled with Oaks of righteousness amen.  Come and visit, our homes in both countries are open; we would love to see you.

Thank you again for all of you who have continued to bless us financially, to pray for us to follow up on us.  Now that we are moving again in the work in Italy we will try to be diligent to report on a qtr. basis. Should you desire to go & visit Sicily, the apartment is available.  Just let us know.  It can accommodate at least 8 people & has 1 small bathroom but hey, it’s Italy.  Oh & is only a 7 minute drive to one of the most incredible beaches around, Lido di Fiore.   Many doors are opening and hearts are being melted together as the Lord is blowing upon Italy/Europe in these days.  It is so awesome to see.

Or perhaps California is where you feel the Lord is calling you to come and partner with us for this great State.  Our home is always open.  Please keep us in prayer as there are so many new things on the horizon.  We are preparing to start making some trips to various schools around the nation as we  look into putting a Leaders Training School in Italy.  We are looking to partner with other ministries that are already doing this here & checking out all the awesome material they have been using.  We also will be having ALL our children & grandchildren together for a week long camping trip in July.  We have not all been together since 2006.  We are literally scattered all over the US & Canada.  

Abundant Blessings upon all of you our wonderful brothers & sisters in Christ

with love & affection

Guido & Joyce Bassi