Adventures Non Stop - 2017 to 2020

So what have Guido & Joyce been doing for the past several years in California? What wonderful and marvelous things has the Lord been doing?  We apologize for the long pause in writing, seems like life & time have flown by so quickly since we came back.  It certainly is time to recap.

Sept 2017 Guido shortly (2 weeks) after we bought our new home, he was fired, which in turned shortly led to them closing down the whole production line.  It seemed a moment of panic could set in as I Joyce only work part time and could never cover all the expenses, even with Guido's unemployment.  12 years of living in Italy has taught us one very important thing, "God is faithful all the time and is good". 

Team VOT

So we breezed through the 4 month trial as if it never happened and Guido landed another better job.  This waiting period included a scheduled missions trip to Italy which was only a few weeks after he lost his job.  It was a fruitful trip which included multiple churches and building & establishing new relationships.  It also gave us an opportunity to get the mission base in Sicily more guest ready for future visitors.

 

I (Joyce) stayed a few extra weeks and went up to the Florence area to see Albiola & Peter, Ps. Ivan & Maria & Stefania, my friend and pioneer of a Christian Counseling center in Italy.  All movers & shakers in what the Lord is doing in Italy & Europe.
  

Inga a German student who we also met in Florence while living in the Montecatini came and stayed a few weeks with us before heading up to Redding and helped us to move into our new home, cleaning cabinets and floors and packing the elderly woman that was still in the home when we moved in.  She came back in November and stayed another week and painted this beautiful mural for us as a way to bless us for hosting her.  Now every morning when we meet with the Lord, Italy is always at the forefront of our minds.  This was her first ever mural and she really did an awesome job.

Dec. 2017 -- So we had the honor of having Shannon King from Italy who is going to school in Redding stay with us with us. It seems we are a portal for the Italians who are coming back & forth.  It's awesome to see how the Lord just keep's us to the vision of Italy and our future there.

 We passed through a very nice Christmas season, with us having our 1st Christmas in our new home with Tim, Lauren, Jami & Chloe our Granddaughter, Haven't done this in a long time.  We passed the day playing games, goofing around and eating great food.

Then it was 2018, which was full of many exciting adventures.

January -- Team Italy arrives and we take them up to Redding.  More world changers arrive every season to drink from the river of Redding so they can take it back to Italy.  It really is such a blessing to be a part of what the Lord is doing even though we are here in California, we are surrounded by Italy on all sides.

March --  Guido started a major bathroom remodel, transforming our tiny cramped bathroom into a work of art.  He moved the toilet, set in a clawfoot tub with the help of some friends from church & voila, a 1920's bathroom we can actually both fit into.  Bravo Guido.

May was back to Italy.  I Joyce went first to the North meeting up with Louise Davidson, and then heading back to Florence and eventually making my way down to Sicily.  Our son Tim came for Mother's day and hung out with me a week before Guido arrived.  Always fun having our family come share our adventure even if it's for a short visit.  We just did work on the mission base, relaxed in the sun and continue to strengthen the relationships with the local pastors and the body of Christ in our area.

June was another trip to Italy for more mission work.  In September 2018 a fellow missionary from Holland, Debbie came to hang out.  This incredible woman has seen many countries and been on many great adventures so it is always such a treat when she takes time out to come and hang with us.  Guido came as he had to handle some details with the passing of his Mom.  It really wasn't a mission trip for him, but a time of closure and grabbing some of the paintings his Mom had painted and to visit his aunt and a Ps. friend of his in the North.

Then it was back home for a few days and off to Kansas City for the wedding of our Spiritual daughter Kayla  who came home from Israel with her Israeli/Argentina fiancee'.  We were asked to pray for them during the wedding ceremony and lay hands on them to go out as missionaries.  It was such an honor to be included in their family.  

Before leaving we went off to IHOP KS and were able to meet up with another student, Joelle, who we met in Florence and got to prayer for her as well.  I love having family all over the world and we can spontaneously just be together

Then it was off to Brazil for me (Joyce) to meet up with Louise Davidson who is my friend from Italy.
  She is incredibly prophetic, anointed and a lot of fun to be around.  She had asked me about 3 years before if I wanted to go if the door opened up and I felt in my spirit from that time on I had to do this.  She has a ministry called Il Desidrio del Cuore (The Desire of the Heart) and it is geared for Women Pastors & Leaders.  She has been doing this for the past 12 years in Italy and it has been life changing for the women there who often feel alone.  She was asked by Ps. Mara Engel of Brazil Ps. to come and be a part of seeing it move from Italy to Brazil.  It was a fantastic time of seeing the women leaders of Brazil being blessed and ministered to all weekend us included.  We were all treated like daughters of the King, every meeting given gifts, prayed over and just loved on. It really is an amazing ministry and it is now on two continents, way to go Louise & Holy Spirit.

I had the amazing privilege to do a prophetic act of repentance and blessing up on the prayer mountain.  Ps. Mara & Joel have a mountain that they have been hosting 24 hour prayer for the past 15 or so years.  Being Portuguese I was able to ask a native Brazilian (Sylvia our interpreter), who was an original descendent from the natives who lived there before the Portuguese came and also a descendent of an African slave who was brought there by the Portuguese to forgive us.  She had never done anything like this so when I asked her to stand in proxy on behalf of the people I felt the Lord wanted me to pray for, she nor I expected what happened. 

The Spirit of the Lord fell on her and she began to weep, I began to weep, there was  shift in the atmosphere, a gentle breeze began to blow upon us.  Ps. Joel spread a prayer blanket from Israel over us as a sign of covenant, we took communion.  It was amazing, and the sunset that appeared after.  There was such thick presence of the Lord that I couldn't help but fall to my knees. It really was amazing and the highlight of the trip.

 

 So what happened from 2017 to 2020 has been a whirlwind.  Many of you have been following us on Facebook, so I won't go into much detail except some highlights.  Our Daughter was married in 2019, much of the family got together for a beautiful ceremony, many camping trips, new friends and home projects, spending time with our Granddaughter Chloe and going her softball games or a movie.  Just hanging out was enjoyable.  New Church family that Pastor Dennis brought us into at VOT

Another amazing blessing is the Lord opened a door for us to buy a home in Sicily with a view of the beach, olive & fruit trees, in the countryside.  It has been a great time of favor and abundance spiritually, physically & emotionally.

We entered 2020 with such hopes and anticipation, we could have never imagined we would have a pandemic happen.  Most of the world shut down, job losses and hardship for many people.  Despite the situation we still were able to to work and even had some family time which included baptizing my youngest brother.  This lead to us getting the puppy we had been looking for.  A beautiful German Shepherd from Missouri, we ended up not being able to ship due to the pandemic so we drove to Albuquerque to meet the breeder half way and getting to stop in and see my Spiritual Parents, Keith & Lynn Page.  In the midst of all of this we were prompted to sale our home.  

Very unsure about the economy and future we decided to wait until the spring of 2021 as that was the original plan, to stay and see our Granddaughter Chloe graduate, however after further counsel we decided to put our home on the market September 11th  and sold our home in a week .   For those who followed on Facebook, you know that Guido transformed this 100 year old home into a gem.  We had help from our son Tim who rewired the whole house, to CJ helping Guido build a new garage.  Only a few outside people did paint & concrete & plumbing but other than that, Guido put in blood, sweat & tears.  He made use of all down time from work and made it possible for us to be able to pay off our home in Italy in full by the proceeds of this sale.  I will upload a blog entirely of all the work he did.  Truly he made it a a stunning place that many of the neighbors stopped in and told him what a great job he had done.  The woman who bought it said it was an oasis for her.

 It was a whirlwind move that included giving everything away, packing up 5 suitcases & 2 animals and taking the 1st flight we could get out having had 3 flights cancel on us from April through September due to Covid.  We were told we couldn't fly into Italy but the Lord opened all the doors and we arrived back on November 7th, 2022.

When we arrived Italy started a new lockdown with different regions having different degrees of restrictions.  We were in the orange zone and had a curfew of 10:00.  Everyone here wears a mask, everything is open but closes at 6:00 so no eating out, but there was take out pizza.  We had decided that next year we would replace our 29 year old car but of course it didn't make it a week.  Guido had started taking down our 1st load of stuff to our new home and our beloved Alphie (the car) which we have had for 10 years died which forced us to buy another car in order to finish our move into our new home.  Thankfully we have Franco & Maria here to help us with all those details and we were able to get a really good dependable station wagon, a Mercedes actually fully loaded and an automatic, which is so rare here.  This car should get us down the road another 10-15  years and has plenty of room for the dog and all the things Guido needs to harvest olives next year.  We stayed in the old apartment until November 30th as Guido slowly but surely dismantled the apartment and transported it to the new house.  Everything including the kitchen sink had to be moved.  We arrived just in time, November 30th and so did winter.  Up until that time we had been enjoying warm fall weather and even was able to go swimming in the sea a few times.  Now it is rainy, windy & cold.  

Don't have much more to report except to say we are looking forward to this year ending, I'm sure many are saying the same thing.  With this year and all the crazy things that have gone on.  All the tragedies, negative news, no churches or limited access to people and worship in person, it has been a long hard year.  The Lord has been ever present and faithful, for that there has never been a lack, a more tangible and real presence but I miss people, hugs & just fellowship in general.  Not sure how the future will look but I know that the Lord has great plans in store for the nations.  

We will try to put one of these newsletters out again every so often  as things unfold but thank you all for sticking with us along the journey.  May your Christmas & New Year be abundantly blessed with all the things that really matter in life.  May the the Lord be gracious & kind to you and pour out His unending and outrageous love and affection upon you.