We were finally able to accomplish everything that we had planned for the spring. The baptistery arrived safely, and we had our first baptism with it. As many of you know, this is such a blessing to us, as it has been difficult to find places to baptize in this urban setting. Unfortunately, because of the situation of the universities and how they are handling COVID, our brother had to return to Iran. Please pray for him, as he greatly desires to follow Christ in a country that is hostile to Christians. Also, I was able to officiate my second wedding, my first in English. It was a beautiful ceremony overlooking Lake of Pusiano.
We want to share just a quick update on our situation and the regulations in our region of Lombardy. Firstly, we want to thank the Lord that the government here has seen churches as helpful, and they have not strived to close them during this time. However, the current restrictions prohibit anyone from leaving their own town for any reason other than work or health. This means that several of our members have been unable to gather together with our church since about the beginning of November. It has forced us to make some changes to our music and Sunday school programs for now; but, nevertheless, we are happy to be together.
Over the years, we have asked prayer for the situation with the Italian Bible. The publishers who own the rights to the current text we use do not want to make it available digitally and are planning another revision, which will cause everyone to have to buy new Bibles or use ones that are not in unison. There is an older text that is more representative of the traditional Italian text, which is not under copyright, but even the man who took the time to put it into print does not want to make it available digitally or share the text apart from the Bibles he has printed. Looking to the future, it would be advantageous to have a text that is legible, accurate, and available. To this end, we have teamed up with other Baptist missionaries and Italians to produce an Italian text that fulfills these desires. The lockdowns have provided some extra time to put into this project. One of my personal desires is to make a dramatized audio Bible in Italian. The owners of a major Christian website in Italy said that the most used sources on their website are audio files from a Critical Text Bible. There is no current legal audio Bible in the Received Text line at all. To make available a beautiful rendering of God’s Words for the ears and hearts of Italians would be such an amazing opportunity.
Our family is healthy and well. William and Annie are diligently doing their homeschooling, and Charlotte is growing and learning more and more every day. My wife and I are both well and love getting to raise three wonderful children together. Thank you so much for your love and support of our family.
Missionaries to the people of Italy,
Christopher, Amy, William, AnnMarie, and Charlotte Yetzer
