FBC Missions

The past week has been a very productive one for our team!  Last Saturday was the event we’ve been planning for three weeks: an evangelistic outreach Youth Group Music Night.  We invited the youth from the Ostia church and it’s two sister churches (which was, in itself, a feat, since these three youth groups have never yet put on a joint program!) to come and invite all of their non-believing friends.

Over 40 youth turned out, many of whom were non-believers who had never heard the Gospel.  Mark, Dan, and a local friend, Claudio, put on a fantastic Jazz concert that brought down the house!  Claudio is not a believer, and so we praised the Lord that he agreed to also help play the worship songs, too!  Then, after some contemporary U2 songs, Dave gave a testimony focusing on how we are broken and sinful on our own, but if we give ourselves over to God for transformation He will make us useful and complete.  He also shared some verses in Italian, stressing his experience of how powerful the Word of God is, especially when it is memorized by heart.

The wonder of God’s power is that we can continue to pray for the effects of that night, praying that He lit some long fuses that will someday explode some of these youths into repentance and a relationship with our Savior.

We have been encouraged to serve with Chris and Erma, a missionary couple that is also working with the Ostia church. For a long time they have been hoping to make some headway into ministering to the Ostia youth, and so they were so excited to put on the youth night with us.  The best part is that they will continue what we began on Saturday, as they continue to serve the Lord in Ostia long-term.

With only two days left, we are busy making time to say goodbye to all of the friends that we have made here.  Italians are a very relational people, and we must concede to having meals at 5 different households (at least) before we depart.  Not all of missionary life is a sacrifice!

These are 3 of the 4 elders at the Ostia church: Giulio, Michele (nationals), and Dan Simmons (a First Baptist missionary).  These are amazing men of God who have been able to pour into us while we have been here, but have also each told us that our presence has been a blessing to them, too.  We are simply humbled that God has been using us in ways far beyond ourselves, so that we know that the power is from Him, not us!

Thank you so much for your sacrifice, mission partners, in sending us to be a blessing to our Italian brothers and sisters, and also, we pray, to those who have not yet come to know our joyful Lord. Thank you so much for your prayers!  They have been deeply felt.  Italy is a difficult mission field (one of the lowest missionary-retention rates in the world), and so let us continue to pray for our fellow laborers who remain here in the battle.

 God bless you, First Baptist.  God willing, we will see you soon!

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!

-Greetings to all of our much appreciated prayer warriors and friends!

 Settling into a groove here has been a little interesting, but little by little we are more fully realizing how to fit into our own temporary niche among the ministries already present in this field. We have already made contacts with a number of folks in Rome that will be very important to us in making connections with other non believers, but there is still a long list of people to track down before we run out of time. Most all of the ministry is relational, as we are trying to open up opportunities to share with friends of friends. We want to amplify the influence of the Gospel within the spheres of inlfuence of our Italian brothers and sisters.  

The few days we have been here have been spent running to the open market down the street to pick up fruit, tracking down cell-phones, figuring out which buses to use in this new area, and other such necessary activities that don’t feel much like ministry. Saturday, we had the opportunity to attend an Italian, evanglelical wedding. What an experience! The ceremony started at 4:00 in the afternoon, and Daniel and I (Mark) assisted with the music, playing a number of songs including Bach’s “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring.” All went well, and afterward we were treated to a four-star hotel dinner in Frascati, a hillside town south of Rome. Below we are pictured in the middle of the marathon dinner.

 I’m going to have to train hard before I attempt to eat that much again! The recepetion went into the wee small hours of the morning, and we awoke to attend our first (very sleepy) Sunday moring.

We are all well except for being a bit tired. Continue to pray for the Lord’s guidance in our lives and the plans we make, and that He may give us endurance as we fight the affects of jet-lag.

alla prossima,

Mark Maricle

Our layovers were quite the adventure, with not knowing that we needed to get all-new boarding passes in Chicago and then waiting in the biggest security check line we’d ever seen at Heathrow.  But we arrived, mostly intact but minus 4 pieces of luggage, Wednesday afternoon.  We were picked up by Dan and Alice Simmons, full time missionaries, and Michele and Anna Gandolfo, local church leaders.  After some music practice, and then a good, long night’s sleep, we will start getting to meet and serve some new people tomorrow, which is what we’re here for!  Keep tuned into this site!

Mark Maricle, Dan Garrett, and Dave Reed, are heading for Italy on Tuesday, August 15th, for a month-long trip. We have two focuses in this mission: one is two invest in the Ostia Communita’ Biblica Cristiana, a small evangelical church in Ostia, Italy, which is near Rome. It is a new and small church, and this is a critical time in their development. We hope to be able to invest in the lives of the high-school age students, and help cement this portion of the church’s ministry as well as use our musical talents to minister to the congregation.

The second is to interact with college students at the Terza Universita in Rome. The Roman university system is entirely untouched by evangelical Christianity– that means over 300,000 college students who probably have never had anyone tell them that it is possible to have an intimite relationship with Christ. We pray God moves in mighty ways in the Roman universities in the future; so, as the forerunners of this, our mission is to test the waters, engage students in conversations, and learn how they think and interact with regard to spiritual matters.

Right now, the three of us are packing (light) and preparing to depart early Tuesday morning. After a layover in London, we will arrive in Rome around noon on Wednesday. After we get settled and connected with our Italin brothers and sisters who we will be serving with, we’ll send you another blog!

Please pray for God to begin ministering to the hearts of those we will get to meet in the next few weeks! Ciao for now!