May - July

In everything give thanks unto the Lord. This would pretty much be all that we can do at this point as since March to now has been very intense for us. 2 of these months being in the Hotel in Verona. It was exciting, frustrating, awesome, tiring, exhilarating, challenging, joyful, & painful all in a short amount of time. It was never boring that is for sure, however after only a few months it was decided that we were not needed in the capacity that they needed us in, actually that they needed me in so we both returned to Montecatini. Although it was sad we believe that it served a purpose with eternal value and is not to us to question the ways of the Lord and His timing. It was a great experience and we were so blessed to be a part of it. We know the Lord has a great purpose for this family regarding Italy and can hardly wait for their kids to get back from Toronto.

The downside is Guido filed for Unemployment and found that the job he had worked at for the past 9 months didn’t pay into the unemployment fund so he is unable to collect anything. So the months of work are void. Who would have known? So in the next few months we have to find work, a house to live as Guido’s mom is arriving sometime in August and wants to come to a vacant apartment. We have found storage for our things with a friend and have started putting the stuff in his warehouse. I’m kind of leaning towards giving it all away as it is becoming a hassle toting everything around but some clothes and a blow up mattress, ha ha.

So with all this said you can see that we are in need of some things and are seeking God about them: 1) Jobs or more financial support or both 2) a car (for 1000 we can buy a car that uses Propane and gets about 300kg. for 20 euro's as good as the motorcycle but safer & better in the rain) 3) A place to live, doesn't have to be big, 4) or airline tickets back to the states, game over. Right now to get into a 360 sq. ft. apartment we need $1500. If we can find a private owner if not 2000 to go through an agency.

To top everything else off Guido could have sworn he heard the Lord tell him the other day it was time to open a church. Yeah for those of you who rolled your eyes or said "yeah right", I'm with you, however we certainly have the prophetic to support that but in our present condition it is almost like Sarah having a baby when she is old, I can see why she laughed, it seems so upsurd and so like God. We did a 4 day church planting course with DCPI (www.dcpi.org) from California and by their chart we have what it takes (all the characteristics including the call) to plant a church but just haven't done it yet.

Blain Pacini from California (www.blazingfire.org/ktssm.htm) was here at Vigna della Signore and taught for 4 nights on the Love of the Father, Knowing your Identity and looking at Italy with God’s eyes. We went up for prayer because we were feeling pretty beat up and discouraged and he started speaking prophetically into us. In fact he said it was if someone put a heave cloak on me made of lead and that I just needed to shake it off. He said I needed to swing my sword more & that the Lord was very proud of us. He confirmed a lot of our prophetic as did Trevor Baker back in March. He also had a men’s round table which Guido went to & helped with translation. When there were differences in opinions Blaine was able to bring them to a core agreement. This is vital here because many people (churches) won’t affiliate together because of these differences. He gave them building blocks for working together. The men were really encouraged and want to continue to meet together more often.

We went to a baptism last weekend which was held at a home church in the area. It was really nice to see a woman who Ps. Dennis lead to the Lord a few years ago getting baptized. It takes forever to get them to that point. In a culture where everyone is baptized at birth, it really is hard to convince them to do as Jesus did and do it while you’re an adult. While she was in the water I shared further on the message she had received about doing it out of obedience by giving her 2 more points to why she was doing it. I pointed out that it is the death of our old man and being resurrected into new life by the same power which God raised Jesus from the dead and that they would be free. This added truth pushed another woman who had been vacillating on the issue of baptism to go ahead and do it. She has been saved for many years and in fact attended the same DCPI training as us but had never been baptized. Well she wasn’t only baptized, she came out totally under the power of the Holy Spirit, crying, shaking and set free. It was totally awesome.

Tom & Monica from a church in Woodbridge Canada came for a vacation to Italy and were directed by our friend Bruno Iurello from TACF in Toronto to hook up with us. Can we just say they were a giant blessing to us? A cool drink of water for thirsty souls as us. They totally blessed us and we know that the Lord is going to be doing something with them and us in the future regarding Italy. All of their families are Italian and they are first generation Canadians like Guido so this was a really fun visit for us. They rented a car and after meeting them in Florence and walking around there we took them to San Gimignano, Venice & Pisa and back to Florence. They prayed for us and for this nation and just encouraged us to press on. If any of you are interested in their ministry you can find them at www.unveilinglife.ca

Today we found a car in just the price range we wanted. Runs on GPL gas so it costs like 18-20 euros for 300-350 km. And the previous owner is a Christian who we talked to about the condition of the car. Another brother from the church who is a mechanic met us at the dealership and said it was a great buy and his counsel was to buy the car. The price is only 700 and the cost to change it into our name is 300. We are seeking out the cost of insurance, etc. to see if this is something we really can handle buying. It seems strange to get a car without having a place to live, but with a car it opens up the possibility to find places to live outside of Montecatini which are less expensive. Also employment and ministry opportunities are expanded The train is great, but it only runs certain hours and no night time work as it stops at about 10:30. We also can take Chloe & Jami to church with us because for some reason they won’t let us put 4 people on a scooter, something about not living in Napoli or Sicily ha ha. Please keep this in prayer as we desperately need to have the Lords will in this stuff. We received ½ the money for the car but really this is like a dive off a cliff for us or as we always say a great leap of faith.

To be honest we are pretty done, the cycle continues like this every 9 months, we have work, we don’t have work, look for work, spend 6-9 months looking for work, limited by transportation. To top it off the law just changed that now Guido has to have a license to drive a forklift so he had to pay and take a course to get it. Now it seems the driving jobs take a special license to drive the delivery trucks which he has but they don’t recognize so that is another 1000 euro to get. Laws change and people have to take more courses and get more certifications. If your employed when it happens, the employer pays, if not you are out of pocket paying to be able to work in your own field of expertise. Now to pay rent, have a car and take more courses makes the need for increased faith even more. As I shared with my friend in Africa, so much effort for so little fruit, or at least fruit we can see. We have been told we connect people here and network and it blesses us to get an email thanking us for introducing them to someone that led them to go to school in Redding but maybe we could do this from the States with a fax and a phone.

We realize it isn’t the same as being here, building the relationships, praying in the land or being here to actually lay hands on people but for the amount of hardships that we go through personally were just not sure we should continue.So the questions is does Father God really want us to continue and push through and will He provide or is He saying time to come back, well done good and faithful servants. Many doors of ministry opportunity have opened for us however right now everything is hinged to each other and we must really hear the Lord clearly.

Thank you again for your continued support to us in all manners that we have needed it and at just the right times. Our gains certainly have been because of it. If any of you feel led to sow financially into this work please go to our hit the donate button or send your checks to:

New life Christian Church
20394 San Miguel Ave.
Castro Valley, CA 94546

We send you all our love and our sincere gratitude for standing alongside of us for these past 7 years. Yes July 8th was 7 years. Wow where has the time gone. May the Lord double bless you for all you have done for us and this Nation. Guido & Joyce

Acts 20:24 I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me, the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.