La Piazza Press

La Piazza Press is our monthly newsletter that we use to keep everyone informed of our progress as missionaries with Saint's Equipped to Evangelize in San Lorenzo, Italy.  Our vision is to see the piazzas (town squares) filled with evangelical Christians.  Would you be willing to share in that vision?  If so, please click the Subscribe button above to receive our monthly newsletter.  For more information, you can visit our website at www.littlesitaly.com

Ministry Highlights - April 5, 2008

During the week of Easter, SEE hosted an evangelical ministry team from Corban College in Salem, Oregon.  This is the fifth year Corban has sent teams over spring break. The team included 16 college students. The students raised all the money for this trip through various fund raisers. During their visit, the weather was very uncooperative; we had rain, hail, snow, wind, and oh yes, it was mostly cold. But they never complained and in fact the team pushed us to start early, do more, and stay late. Youthful energy and zeal, on fire for the LORD, and love for JESUS will always prevail.

Team members learned through the training sessions that the Italians were very resistant to the truth of the Gospel.  So, their prayers before coming were that just one person would be moved from the tracts they would distribute and the mimes they would present.

Our GOD does answer prayers!  Not one, but two men were moved to have open conversations with the students and the SEE staff.  Marco, the first person, saw the mimes and was approached by two Corban team members.  They discussed the message presented in the mime and ended with an invitation to our church. Marco did show up at church and he is now attending one of our ESL classes.  He is also meeting with Ken Wells, one of our church plant leaders and pastors. Our second contact, Faek, was a man that received a tract and then called the phone number on the tract.  He reached one of our staff leaders, Jesse Faught.  Jesse and Faek met and had a spirited and detailed conversation about salvation, Christianity and JESUS.  Faek then meet us in the Piazza for one of the mime presentations.  Jesse explained the mime and continued to witness to him.  Before leaving an Italian Bible was presented and he agreed to visit our church.  Faek came this past Sunday evening.

Throughout the week, many other conversations took place with non-believers and about 10,000 tracts where distributed in and around the city of Udine. GOD knows where this effort will lead, but all of us at SEE know the effect that 16 students had in five short days and we Praise the Lord!

“When you absolutely have to have it delivered” you could use UPS or Fed Ex (certainly not the Italian Postal service), but this spring in Italy God chose Corban College to deliver His most valuable message to the 'lost' in Northern Italy.

Personal Highlights

We spent a weekend this past month traveling south with Fred and Louise Ruggles, our friends from Georgia, in search of Louise's relatives.  Her grandmother and grandfather immigrated from Abruzzi, Italy in the early 1900's.  We had only limited information about her heritage, but God intervened and before the weekend was over Louise met her great aunt and numerous cousins.  It was a thrill of a life time for her and for us as we were welcomed into her new found family.  We can't begin to tell you how much fun we had.  We enjoyed a wonderful meal at her extended family's home on Palm Sunday in a remote mountain village.  We all felt part of her long lost family and promised to keep in contact.  Our Lord is our great provider!

 April Schedule

On April 11, Maureen is having a Recipe Swap Party with some of her ESL students.  They will bring a recipe and their favorite scripture verse.  This is a real stretch for them as they never read their Bible but, we are excited to see how our Lord will work through this party.  On the 12th and 19th, we are having a concert for our ESL students in Valvasone and Udine.  We have a Christian guitar player/singer who will perform and share his testimony.  We will be providing snacks afterwards and are praying for opportunities to share the gospel. 

Support Update

Praise the Lord!  We have had several people join our monthly support team this last month.  We are now at 76% of our monthly support.  Our short fall is $1,152.  Please pray that the Lord will continue to provide additional monthly supporters.  Italy needs the Good News!  We are hard pressed to do all that the ministry requires without full support. 

To become a part of our financial support team, make your check payable to Saints Equipped to Evangelize.  Put our names on the memo line and indicate whether it is a special or monthly gift.  All contributions are tax deductible.  Mail your check to:  

S.E.E. - P.O. Box 587 - Bradenton, FL - 34206-0587

Praises and Prayers