We just finished going through a Sunday school series in our church on the deaths of the apostles as a testimony to the historical reliability of the Resurrection. While I personally don’t think it is necessary to prove “factually” such things in order to believe in the Gospel, it can be helpful in a culture that is mostly humanistic and anti-God. One of the men in our church expressed his appreciation for the way the series encouraged him, and I know that others were edified as well.
Throughout the years, the Lord has provided musicians who have ministered in our church during our hymn singing. Brother Stoica played the guitar at the beginning. After he left Northern Italy, we had a period of a cappella, followed by a few college students who played the piano. Since our last pianist graduated, married, and moved out of Italy, we have been back to a cappella. We are thankfully back to the point where the Lord has provided a man who went to conservatory, who is now playing the piano, as well we two others playing guitars. It has been hard for me to learn that to better help our church, I probably need to sing less loudly. I know that some of you reading this will laugh because you are thinking of someone in your church who sings like I do. It’s not that I think my singing sounds good, but that I like to sing to God. On deputation, a lady sitting in front of us at a church turned around and praised Amy’s beautiful voice and acknowledged my love for the Lord. Thank God for these men who are offering their talents to edify our church during our singing.
In our agreement with the location we rent for our church, the owner is allowed to ask us once every two months to change our meeting to a Saturday night. Over the past two years, the owner has only ever asked us to do this three times. During the most recent one, we took the opportunity on Sunday morning to visit a Baptist church in downtown Pavia, the town where we are living. We have seen the location many times and noticed the name, Bible Baptist Church, which in Italy generally denotes a fundamental church that separated from the modernists in the early 20th century. We were pleased to find that it is an independent Baptist church. The room was in the basement, as many churches in Italy are, and the pastor is from Greece. We enjoyed getting to meet them and are thankful for their ministry in Pavia.
We go soul winning weekly but regularly find it difficult to create meaningful conversations with people. There are many reasons for that, but without going down that important rabbit trail, we are grateful for all of the opportunities we get for conversations where we can share the Gospel. My barber in Pavia takes his time cutting my hair, and over the hour or so, he enjoys talking politics and religion. He has some family who are Jehovah’s Witnesses and at one time was one himself. He has gone to an evangelical church in Pavia but isn’t currently. Each time I get my hair cut, we get to talk about God and current events. Please pray that the Lord would give me wisdom and for Tommy and his soul.
Missionaries to the people of Italy,
Christopher, Amy, William, AnnMarie, and Charlotte Yetzer
