FBC Missions

Regretfully, the internet is not as easy to get to as we had hoped.  But now that we have moved to an apartment in Ostia for our second two weeks, we have found a close-by Internet point.  Our mission time is over half over, and God has been beautifully blessing our time with deep conversations, close relationship building, and a ministry of beautiful music… more than we had even been hoping for!

 This photo was taken in the home of Grandma Iaia’s (the beautiful woman sitting to Mark’s right) apartment, which used to be an old monastery. We spent the entire day reconnecting with the Infusso family while they were vacationing in Tuscany, who are involved in the church in Ostia. Dave and I had a great time trying to speak Italian with the father of the family, Cologero, who is currently not a believer but has a very big heart. It is important that we keep Cologero in our prayers not only for the sake of the Infusso family, but also because if this man dedicated his life to Christ, it would be a great example to many other typical Italian father figures.  Additionally, complete families add greatly to the stability of small churches like the Ostia church, and so we pray that God would use Cologero as a leader and father figure in their church family.

 Us with Cologero.

Mark has had a continuing ministry with this entire family since last year.  He has become very involved in the lives of Matteo and Giovanni, the two oldest sons in this family.  In Italian culture, there is great social pressure to put on a tough front, and Mark is praying to be able to demonstrate how real men love Jesus.

Mark with Matteo.

The evangelical population in Italy is less than 1%, and we are seeing how great the need here is more and more each day.  “The greatest suffering is lost-ness and separation from God,” and we are seeing how that lost-ness affects a nation.  Please pray for us as we continue to be clear mirrors, reflecting God’s sustaining and glorious light to a dark country!

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 2nd, 2006 at 1:04 pm and is filed under Italy 2006. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.