Where has the time gone, 6 months into the year and wow what a great start it has been? So much has happened. Well lets just start with March 28
th, when we started our first ever 24/7 in the Florence area. This isn’t just a few days or a whole month as others have done in the past here around Italy, but a whole year. We gathered in the Nuova Mercato in Florence with about 10 or so churches with different denominations represented.
We currently have a little over 280 people praying around the clock for the glory of the Lord to fall upon us here in Italy. It’s really pretty exciting to be able to be in on the beginning of new things and reaping fruit from areas that others have toiled for years to bring about.
Stephen & Ros are now hoping along with Ps. Giovanni Targetti to spread this to Perugia,
Bologna etc. We can be found on Facebook as Preghiera Continua or at the new blog site me and & Guido put together to add new ways to extend our prayer project at
www.preghieracontinua.blogspot.com . What is really neat about all this are the testimonies. Many people took 1 hour and have reported that once they started they were praying even longer and with ease and some have even taken a second time slot. When it is the Lord it is easy. We are starting to see more of a hunger for prayer that even includes the young who in our church have been taking the midnight to 3 shifts.
At the end of April a group from YWAM Hawaii came over to the church in Empoli to the church in Empoli and did some all night prayer & worship meetings. We went on the 12th for about 6 hours of prayer & worship. How awesome it is to worship in your own language and they incorporated it with Italian worship as well.
We volunteered to drive them 1200 km. to Herrnhut Germany. They rented 2 vans which me and Guido drove up & back. It was the cheapest form of transportation. They were like 13 people total, 1 in a wheelchair & 1 small toddler and tons of back packs, instruments, stroller, car seat, etc. Europe is not cheap for this many people taking a train or a plane. 1 way rental had a 1000 drop off fee so that is why we offered. Left on a Thursday at 4:30pm, arrived Herrnhut, yes that is the famous 100 year prayer place of Count Zinzendorf & the Moravians, and now a YWAM base sits in the village.
I even saw my first deer ever in Europe after 12 years. Not like the deer we seen in California in the first few days grazing along the freeway in Pleasanton. Go figure. Arrived at 5:30am, got everyone into their different sleeping quarters (3 places) our awesome American hosts treated us to some incredible pastries from a family bakery that was opened in like in 1841 and Paul gave Guido a message and poured us into bed by 7am.
Our hosts were Jean & Paul Wemmer of Washington State and Paul who was born in Germany but after the war went to the USA, just recently translated from the old German language 2 books on the life of Count Zinzendorf, 1 that was written 100 years after and the other 200 years after he died. He gave us a copy which I have read and if anyone is interested you can contact them at
Paul14120@gmail.com apparently he is giving them away and what an awesome book it is. Anyhow we were then up by noon for some awesome Germany hamburgers (round like baseballs), potato salad and the best bread and deserts ever and back on the road by about 3:00, and made it until just inside the Italian boarder at 1:00am Saturday morning and we had to pull over & sleep. We woke up about 3:00 and arrived home 6:00am, to bed, up by 10 to return the vans.
Yes we are crazy but we will do just about anything for the body of Christ. We didn’t get to site see but as usual the Lord had some divine connections and I’m sure you’ll be hearing more about those in the months and years to come amen.
Now the next day Sunday May 23
rd and stemming from this 24/7 prayer came the Global Day of Prayer where incredibly we had our first ever (as in historically ever) meeting in the Florence area under the tent
www.cristoelarisposta.it . From this was also a simultaneous meeting of about 8 churches in the Prato region with 5 of those being Italian, 1 Chinese, 1 Nigerian and groups of Africans from the Ivory coast, Pakistani’s and various other ethnic groups together crying out to the Lord. Again Prato is the first for Global Day of Prayer on this scale. We danced, we sang, we prayed in unity with the rest of the world.
For us it truly was a joy to see something that started back in 2005 helping Ps. Montecchi In Milan to get the info out, fast forward 5 years later and seeing large groups coming together to cry out and seek the Lord’s face together.
Italians pray, don’t get me wrong, they have been praying for years for their country, but there is something very powerful and dynamic when the body of Christ gets together corporately and does it. There is power in the unity of the body and that is what we are rejoicing in at this time for we know as we do this, repenting, crying out and seeking the face of the Lord that He is going to hear us and heal this land amen.
On May 26th we met with Stephen & Ros and a group of people they gathered together to introduce the Alpha course. Guido actually prepared a very nice dinner before hand and a gentleman from England came over, actually he was here on vacation and Stephen & Ros appropriated some of his time to impart into Italy, just like us, your here to visit and we use you for building up the kingdom, not a bad exchange really, pasta for ministry work, ha ha. He was glad to tell this group of various people about the program, how it is used specially among the Catholics in England and how even some churches in the past have used it here. We shall see as this looks like a great tool, thank you Keith Hazell for the suggestion from like 3 years back. Finally we have the resources to begin.
Praise Reports
Many of you know about our battle with the pension board here in Italy, and the new battle that ensued when we got back in January regarding our employee. It seems like another agency (there are 2 different government pension boards here) got involved, made one phone call and now has written us a letter that should release us from that issue and may actually cause the original to crumble as well. Now our original case has been sent to yet another person who told us he can not understand how our case was sent to collections when it hasn’t even come back from review. Hmmm I wonder how that happened. He said it is impossible to send them to collections without final review from Rome and yet it was. In fact they put a lien against the motorcycle last month so we could not drive them. We decided to transfer them out of our name into a Non Profit Ministry here just so we could continue to have a something to drive. They can’t out right take the bike, however if we get stopped on a random street check there is a €500-2500 fine and the police take the bike, so we sprung for the €60 euros & transferred them for now. All in all I have faith that the Lord will bring this to a favorable end, we just have to let patience work its way in us through the process amen. Now I know why everyone has everything in their grandma’s or children’s name, its crazy how one mistake on someone else’s part can take years to unravel.
July 8th is our 6th year anniversary living in Italy. WOW, we can’t believe everything that the Lord is and has been doing. No clue when were coming back, but we know that we are where were suppose to be for this moment. Also in July a group from Redding is coming to minister in some of the local churches. Please keep that in prayer that they will be led of the Lord to give to the Italians exactly what the Lord wants for this time and hour and that the Italians will have open hearts to hear what the Lord is trying to say to them. This contact was made while in California with Rosario (thanks bunches) who introduced me to Catherine who just graduated from the Ministry school in Redding along with her parents Thomas & Maria Stankiewicz. They had been prior 10 years in Reykjavik Iceland as church planters and feel that they have a call for Italy. They are bringing with them a team from Bethel including Josh Albillio and all who have a heart specifically for Italy. Amen, Lord send the workers for the harvest. So we are very very excited for the contact and their heart of teaching the Fathers Love, which has been our theme for many years since our time in Toronto. We currently have them set up for 4 churches in 3 days and hope that we can squeeze in another 2 to fill up their 5 days with us.
Jami & Chloe are currently back with us. Here engagement is over after 5 years, so please keep her and Chloe in prayer and that she will see this as God’s hand to draw her back to him in a mighty and powerful way. It is really hard to be young these days and it is even harder to be young and Christian in this country. There are not many youth groups like in the USA or programs in our area. Our youth at the church now have just come into their own in the last few years after Jami left and are really about 5 years younger then her so it wasn’t really her crowd and there is not many young mothers in this country either. Her work is going well and Chloe is excelling in school. She just finished 1st grade and already reads and writes in cursive. She usually had 1 or 2 hours of homework a day after being there 8 hours and even has homework for the summer. It is rough but she is smart as a whip and it keeps her very stimulated and she is the type of child who needs this. I’m impressed but now she is loosing the English so guess what I’m doing this summer? You got it “Hooked on Phonics”. It will be easy, she is a great student and I’m not bias.
As four our finances we truly are learning the way of faith more and more. On paper we are coming up about short about €100 euro a month and yet our debt is not increasing so I’m not sure how that is working out. Money in vs. money out is for sure short but there is always enough so we just believe that it will continue. Of course all extra’s no longer exist for us, only necessities and we are alternating utility bills for payment, but I hear many Italians saying the same so we are not alone. Guido still has not found work and not for a lack of trying. He gets discouraged at times because he certainly is qualified, but the age thing is a factor when it comes to employers paying the contributions. He is only going to be 50 in November but here it is a death sentence for work. I continue to work on-line with Kaylyn in California and that has really blessed me and given me something to do.
Thank you specially Don and Faith you have really been the major contributors to us since we got back and for it not been this way, we really could not have stayed. Thank you Bernabe family for your faithful sowing into our ministry for the past 4 years or so. Thank you Land & Sea for not forgetting about us. Thank you to all you anonymous givers who give to us through New Life Christian Church, truly it is a work that could not be done without your support. Europe is expensive. A recent trip we made to Germany for some ministry contacts for the future (not Herrnhut) cost us €300 for gas, tolls & car. We have had to turn down invites because we simply don’t have the finances to say yes. When invited we usually minister even though we are not the speakers so we are not reimbursed for these things and many times the smaller places give offerings which generally cover what you spent, but we don’t have it to even get there. Maybe it is a lack of faith and we have lost the will to go out for fear of not being able to replace it if we missed God, or wisdom however we are in a learning curve so please please pray for us to really hear the Lord clearly and to be obedient even if it means going to the train station with no money in hand believing a ticket will be there if He says go, amen.
For His Glory Alone
Guido & Joyce Bassi
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Wjust a few days or a whole month as others have done in the past here around Italy, but a whole year.
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