Former
This year our church is focusing on each step that Christ took and making applications to our lives. We are also reading the Gospels together as a church with a different reading program every month. We have gone with Him from Heaven to Nazareth, then to visit Elizabeth and back to Nazareth before going down to Bethlehem and on to Jerusalem. It is looking to be a profitable journey for all of us. Our church anniversary was the first week of February. Missionary Frank Maietta and his family from Grosseto came to be with us. His family sang for us, and Bro. Maietta preached. It was such an enjoyable and refreshing time for us. We didn’t break any attendance records, but the spirit was great.
Fruit
Missionaries often do things that every person just has to do. Shopping needs to be done, meals need to be prepared, kids need to be educated, the family spends time just having fun together, as well as many other common things. Sometimes missionaries are presented as only preaching machines who do not stop to eat lunch or spend one dime on gelato. I remember someone once commenting on how much time is wasted on the foreign field just getting food and preparing meals. We find that anywhere we are we can use that place to plant seed. I have no idea how many times I have met people in stores and given them tracts and invited them to church. I am always looking for a reason to try to give someone a hand and create conversation. Recently I was sitting at a table eating and saw a man across from me reading a book in English. I interrupted his reading and struck up a conversation with Thomas. He is from Verona but is here in Milano studying to be a doctor. He was raised Catholic and has no real belief in God at this time. After a 15-minute conversation, he agreed that some things seemed logical, and he appreciated our conversation and seemed interested in further investigation. A Polish lady I have previously mentioned in my language class finally visited our church. Another time my wife took our children to a play area nearby and overheard a Ugandan lady speaking on her phone in English about how much trouble she was having finding a good church here in Milano. After she hung up the phone, my wife spoke to her about the Gospel and invited her to our church. This lady is married to an Italian who does not like her going to church frequently, but he allowed her to come one Sunday morning. Even in our daily lives, we find ways and time to talk to people about Christ and invite them to accept salvation and visit our church.
Future
Today my wife handed me a small piece of plastic to add to the pile on my desk. It is another thing that once had seemingly great strength and was very useful, but now it is in the “how do I fix this” pile. I have drilled holes in the legs of toy animals, surgically inserted stripped nails, and super glued the legs back together, all to no avail. My children’s playing habits are rougher than my fixes. It is not that I cannot fix them; it is just that I want them to be useable after they have been fixed. Sometimes this seems to parallel the lives of many people. Pray for us to have wisdom as God strengthens lives of believers and saves the souls of the unsaved. The World’s Fair is just a few weeks away, and the already overwhelming work of reaching 4 million will be multiplied for the next 6 months. I was recently told that there are over 200 Jehovah’s Witness congregations in Milano. May God use us to reach souls before they do.
Missionaries to the people of Italy,
Christopher, Amy, William, & AnnMarie Yetzer
