La Piazza Press

La Piazza Press is our newsletter that we use to keep everyone informed of our progress as missionaries with Saint's Equipped to Evangelize in Valvasone, 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 newsletter. For more information, you can visit our website at www.littlesitaly.com

Ministry Highlights - November 12, 2011  

This newsletter is a little longer than usual because there is so much to share, but please take the time to read it and celebrate with us what God is doing here in Friuli.  ESL classes are in full swing.  We have 5 adult classes and 3 kids classes, totaling 120 students.  Tom and Maureen are both teaching this semester as we don't have any other teachers.  We have changed the times of the classes to 1 1/2 hours, once a week, which has also meant some redesigning of curriculum.  Needless to say we are very busy. 

This semester we held a movie night at our home for the Advanced class.  It is an all-female class for some reason and Maureen has really enjoyed them.  She showed the movie, Luther, which is the story about Martin Luther and the beginnings of the Protestant Reformation.  This stimulated a lot of conversation by the Italian women about the abuses of the Catholic church. Samuel Spatola gave a half hour overview of the story before the movie was presented which gave them a lot of helpful context. By the end of the film, the ladies were cheering Martin Luther on.  It was pretty entertaining to watch.  Hopefully, we have planted a lot of positive seeds and have given the women many things to think about.

We had a Fall Party for our kids classes.  We served Coke and brownies.  (Believe it or not, they don't have brownies here!)  The kids loved them and all the mother's wanted the recipe.  We used construction paper to make pumpkins and autumn designs.  Two of the older boys dressed up in scary costumes and tried to frighten the younger kids.  The kids had a great time and learned a lot of new vocabulary words.  We are now planning a Christmas party and will make S'mores outside the library and sing Christmas Carols in English.

Pastor Russell Howard from McGregor Baptist Church came for two weeks to teach the Book of Acts at S.B.I.  We were blessed to have him stay at our home and enjoyed some great fellowship.  Of course we had to take advantage of him while he was here and asked him to share his life with our ESL students.  As always, he did a great job presenting his family, his calling and the gospel.  'Thanks Russell for planting lots of good seed.'

Last but not least, we have some very exciting news!  We are part of a new church planting team. This team was formed to start a church in Pordenone. Of course we will continue to support our Udine Church until they are able to function alone as an indigenous church.  Pordenone is 20 minutes from our home and S.B.I.  We are currently in the planning stages but hope to launch the church within the next year.  There are 10 people on our team: Sam and Chris Spatola, Samuel and Amber Spatola, Martin and Lydia Armstrong, Jesse Schrek, Jeryvee Bacay, and us.  We are meeting weekly to pray and plan the best strategies for this new endeavor.  Please pray for wisdom as we seek God's will.

Personal Highlights

We had the opportunity to drive over to Lago di Garda (Lake Garda) a few weekends ago with two of our S.B.I. students, Marcus and Bess Velsen.  (Bess was an ESL teacher here 4 years ago.) It is the largest lake in Italy and only a 4 hour drive. We visited the ancient fortified town of Sirmione which has a castle dating back to the 13th century.  It was a welcome break and we had a great time with this young couple.

November/December Schedule

We will be having Thanksgiving Dinner at our house for our staff and the S.B.I. students about 30 people. We will also have a special guest, McKenzie Milanowski from Maureen's hometown, Beaver Falls, PA.  She is a Foreign Service Officer for the U.S. State Dept. and is serving at the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan.  We are very exciting that she is coming.  She is the daughter of one of Maureen's closest friends from high school. 

We will be holding a traditional Thanksgiving meal for our ESL students on Saturday, November 26th sharing the gospel and salvation testimonies. Please pray that the Holy Spirit would open up eyes, ears and hearts to the love of Jesus and the truth of the gospel. We are expecting 100 Italians. Also, please pray for the finances to make all this happen.

In December, we plan another movie night with our Advanced students, The Nativity Story.  We will also have a Graduation Christmas Party for all our ESL students.  We are teaching them Christmas Carols in English that they will sing during graduation. Sam Spatola will share the gospel message and we will be sharing our testimonies.  Praying for fruit!

Support Update

We are at 74% of our monthly need. There are two ways that you can support our ministry, first through prayer and second, financially. Please review our specific prayer requests below.

If you would like to support our ministry financially, you may 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.  Please mail your check to:  

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

If you prefer, you may contribute through Paypal by following this link: http://www.seeteams.org/paypal/MakeOnlinePaymentStep1.php

Praises and Prayers