Why Italy?

Ciao a tutti, 

I wanted to give you all this Reformation Day a glimpse into why Carli and I have a heart for the people of Italy. As many of you know today we celebrate Reformation day. It was this day that Martin Luther wrote to the Archbishop of Mainz protesting against the sales of indulgences. The letter that he sent the Archbishop later became known as The 95 Theses that changed the world. If you study the history of this day, you will find that Luther did not want to confront the church, but wanted to respond to doctrinal false church practices. 

Luther's response was intended for the work of Johann Tetzel, a dominican friar who was sent to Germany to raise money for the building of the present St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. Johann was known for saying, "As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs."

Now, many of us who were born into Protestant churches here in North America sometimes don't realize the affect that the Reformation had on the church. We grew up experiencing some of the most precious doctrines that had been covered up for more than a millennium. This present day in Italy, many people are without the doctrines that we hold so dear. Their conception of grace, faith and sanctification are nothing like the Bible defines them. 

Please pray for the Italian people and their hearts. Pray that the Lord opens up a beam of light as it happened 500 years ago. There is a true need that the Italian hear the true Gospel of Chris according to the Scriptures alone. We invite those of you who support and pray for us to take a minute this Reformation day and pray for another Reformation Day, one that doesn't just hit the Germanic countries but, that goes to the bottom of Sicily. 

Here is a link to show you some of what God is doing. 

https://vimeo.com/124201843

We love you all!

Thoughts for October

Hello all,

This afternoon I was reading Psalm 145 that spoke to my heart and I thought I'd share some thoughts about it.

"The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. The Lord is good to all, and His mercy is over all that He has made...The eyes of all look to you and you give them their food in due season, you open your hand: you satisfy the desire of every living thing." (Psalm 145:8,9,15,16)

This chapter really convinced me of the gracious steadfastness of the Lord that He puts forth day to day on mankind. I do not deserve this crazy amount of grace despite my most doubtful days. We always try to preach the fact that God is gracious and merciful but when the realities of life hit us or we experience days which don't go our way, our hearts say differently. We might not overtly say that God's not there but our responses to those problems are usually full of doubt and lack of faith.

Charles Spurgeon wrote concerning this Psalm, " Even those who refuse his grace yet share in long suffering. When men do not repent, but, on the contrary, go from bad to worse, averse to let his wrath flame forth against them. Greatly patient and anxious that the sinner may live, he "lets the lifted thunder drop", and still bears. "Love suffereth long and is kind", and God is love. And of great mercy. This is his attitude towards the guilty. When men at last repent, find pardon awaiting them. Great is their sin, and great is God's mercy, need great help, and they have it though they deserve it not; for he is good to the greatly guilty." (The treasury of David)

Now, Spurgeon speaks to the patience God has on the lost and the unrepentant. Can we just imagine for a second the love that God has for us His children? The next time we have a bad day and our actions speak to our lack of faith in God's favor and graciousness on us, we should take a close look at this Psalm.

We love you all very much,

Justin and Carli

The glory of God in the midst of fund raising

Hi Everyone,

We have now been in Houston for 4 weeks. During this time, we have learned a lot, whether it be in our marriage, networking with others, fund raising and church ministry. We are starting to understand that our timing in life may not always be what God allows. We came to Houston with a fixed idea you could say, to raise funds for Impatto Budrio over the next 6 months. We can say that tentatively and we hope for that time frame, however we must not think that if we stay longer that something is wrong. The Lord will bring the increase to our needs and will see to it that everything is met.

 I was reading this morning from the book of Romans where Paul is closing his letter to the church in Rome. He writes in chapter 15, "For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience-by word or deed..." (Romans 15:18) Again, I'm astonished at how many times the apostle reiterated the reason why he could not boast in anything other than was Christ accomplished in and through him. I have found this incredibly encouraging as we invite brothers and sisters to participate in this vision and mission for Italy. No matter the time it takes to get back in Italy, I'm called to make much of how Christ is bringing about that good work until it's completion.

I wonder sometimes if this is part of the reason why God may not allow us to leave or come when we project times but that we allow His perfect work through His spirit to finish what we cannot. I'd encourage those of you who read our blog to think about that with what you have planned in your life. Are those plans changeable? Do you hold things with open arms? My prayer for Carli and I this week is that we rely on Jesus and venture to speak of nothing other than what He has done through and in our lives and put our trust in His timing.

What does faith look like?

George Mueller was a native German born in 1805 and lived until 1898 dying at the age of 92. In 1834 he founded the Scripture Knowledge Institute for Home and Abroad. He was known for his immense orphan ministry. Over the period of his life, his 5 orphan homes took care of more than 10,000 children whose parents had died. At the same time, he preached an average of 3 sermons a week until he was 70 years of age. At 70 he fulfilled his life long dream to become a missionary. He traveled to 42 countries speaking on an average of at least once a day until he was 87. Out of all the money he raised, he never ask anybody directly but prayed that the Lord would provide for all of the orphans and ministries that he looked over. George died at the age of 92 years old the morning after he had led a prayer meeting. His life was a life that was given to the Gospel and he looked to God to provide all of his needs.

This past week has been trying and difficult to say the least. Carli and I have been convicted about our lack of faith in God's provision for our lives. Instead of taking each day as a blessing from God and relying on Him to take care of all of our needs both spiritual and physical, I tend to stress and worry that I may not be doing enough to make things happen. I want to do more to help God's plan come to pass so my plans come to pass. What I need to be doing is praying more like George and be still and know that He is God. (Psalm 46:10) It's been helpful for Carli and I to look to others' lives who through faith, trusted God for His provision. George Mueller is one of those people.

All of those accomplishments happened not because George had the ability to do all of that from his own energy, but the energy and finances came because He trusted a God that was bigger than him and was able to provide all that he needed.

In Houston

Hello Everyone,

We have just recently arrived in the city of Houston and have already been blown away by the hospitality of the brothers and sisters in Christ out here. We are in the process of looking for some jobs and a more permanent place to stay for the remainder of our time here.

This morning we went to Sojourn Heights for our first Sunday. This church will be helping both Carli and I in our assessment as missionaries and also our training over the next few months. Please pray that we have clarity as we settle down here and that the Lord brings folks into our path who can be a part of the ministry with Impatto Budrio (our church) in Italy.

Each week we will continue to update this blog so that you all have an idea of what the Lord is doing with our lives in this process so that you know how to pray for us in this journey. The sermon from this morning was very encouraging and eye opening on this path that we find ourselves on. Pastor Brandon spoke from Matthew 28:16-20. Something that is interesting about this passage is the fact that when the disciples went up to meet Jesus many of them worshiped him, however some doubted. The point of the sermon was the idea that even though we can be close to Jesus in our lives and in our daily struggles, we can also doubt His ability to show Himself sufficient over our lives. Doubt doesn't mean that we are always far from God. It just shows our inability to trust Him and His character by ourselves without His spirit helping us and bearing witness to the truth.

That is where we find ourselves in Houston. We are joyful that we have this opportunity to worship Jesus and be close to brothers and sisters of the faith for the next months. At the same time, not having all of the future figured out can make us doubt the Lord's ability to handle every situation as He sees fit. This is something that we need to give to Him as His children.

The promise of his authority in the next few verses, 18-20 make it quite clear to us that everything in life, no matter how bad it can get, Jesus has everything in control. Christ tells His disciples, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me." This should give us a peace and comfort to live our lives for the Gospel and not look back. The confidence of that verse gives me the hope that even though I don't have everything figured out, Jesus does and He will have His good work in our lives. We just have to let Him lead.

A Wall of Faith

Hello Everyone, 

This past week Carli and I have really been thinking about our time here in the States and the purposes that the Lord has for us while being here. We know that He will provide all that we need to return home (Italy) however, we want to listen to His leading so that our hearts can grow to have a mature faith that is salted by the trails of waiting. 

I have been reading from the book of Nehemiah and through his life I have learned a lot about what it means to be in the Lord's will and wait on his timing. As I have a personality that is focused on efficiency and hard work, I can lose sight on the big picture that the Lord is working in my life. We see a glimpse of this same struggle in the life of Nehemiah. At first he seems to prosper in everything that the Lord pushes his way. God seems to give Nehemiah what he needs to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem. First, Nehemiah rises through the ranks of Artaxerxes court to the highly trusted position as cup bearer. Then, when the King notices the sadness of Nehemiah, he wants to do something about it. He gives Nehemiah a building permit and military escort to return and rebuild the ruined city of Nehemiah's forefathers. When Nehemiah arrived to Jerusalem, he quickly mobilized people who lived around the wall to rebuild sections near their homes and the Scriptures say that the people, "had a mind to work." (Nehemiah 4:6) Things seemed to go very well for Nehemiah. 

Then come along Sanballat and Tobiah. Their people had a bad history with Judah's former dominance and did not want Jerusalem to bu rebuilt. These two men tried everything to get Nehemiah to stop working and rebuilding the wall. They insulted, threatened attacks, intimidated people all to slow the work of Nehemiah. But none of that worked. The "good hand of God" (Nehemiah 2:8) was on Nehemiah and his crew. All of this did however create distraction and distraction caused slow progress on the wall. Half of the people who were building had to stop and guard the city walls as the other continued to work. 

This ended up being a costly distraction. Why did God allow Nehemiah to have so much favor at first and then have so much wasted time, energy and money?

The truth is God didn't allow this to happen in vain. The Lord was not just building a wall but He was building faith. Faith is far more important at the end of the day guys than our goals. The Lord wants us to have faith which is "the conviction of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1) God gives it to us as a gift (Ephesians 2:8) He gives us this so that we can trust in what is "not seen" (Corinthians 5:7) more than what is seen. This is what Carli and I believe the Lord is doing in our present walk with Him. This trip to Texas coming up and the many months that we are spending in the US to raise awareness of Impatto Budrio (our church). He is allowing all of this because He wants our faith in His provision to be that which gets us by, not our own ability to take care of our needs. 

Will you join us in walking by faith? Will you partner in praying for the work of God in Budrio? Italy? Will you as Nehemiah did, walk out in faith and rely on the Lord to use your finances for His kingdom and not just your daily needs? He knows what we need. He knows that we need His time and His provision. 

Justin

Back in the USA

Hello everyone,

We have made it back to Georgia and spending some quality time with our families. We have seen the Lord's sufficiency in all things and are learning to lean on His provision as we start this change in our lives. It is such a blessing to encourage some of our supporting churches and to be able to be ministered through our families and friends.

 As many of you are aware of, Carli and I are continuing with our plans to go to Houston, Texas at the beginning of September to start our support raising for our return to Italy. We intend to spend the next 6 months in Houston under the care and supervision of Sojourn Heights Houston. Sojourn has been partnering with our Italian team now for quite some time and have committed to helping us with networking and fund raising as well as some ministry training over the next several months.

We need your prayers over this period as we are seeking the Lord's guidance in how to let people know what our ministry is about in Budrio, Italy and our desire to see people as well as churches partnering to see new churches planted in the Bologna area. Please pray that both Carli and I through these months can also minister to the Americans around us and give a passion for the name of Christ in all aspects of our lives.

We will keep you all updated every week as we are back to let you know how we are experiencing this transition in our lives.