If you all are looking for a long overdo update, you’ll find a short one at the end of this blog post.
For those of you who need a refresher because it’s been so long…
I’m Rachel, a Christian missionary in Catania Sicily. Alan, my husband, and I have been here for three years, and we are staying on for another two years. We have a 16 month old son and another on the way.
Our main work is evangelism with the local church. Our main outreach/mode of doing evangelism is teaching English for free using the Bible as our text. We also do a few other things here with the local church.
But those will be included in the update at the end of the post.
Why, you might ask, are you a missionary? And in Italy? Aren’t there other countries? Haven’t the Italians already heard the Good News?
Well, my answer to you would be in the form of a question. What makes my husband and I missionaries? Is it the fact that we live in a foreign country from the one we were raised in? Is it the fact we are supported by the generosity of churches and Christians? Or is it the fact that our full time job is working for the church and we pass most of our time at the local church building?
While those are all common factors for quite a few missionaries, it’s not what makes us missionaries. It’s also not the definition of a missionary. So why then? Because we were called? This is when some might start to nod their head and think, “Yes, yes. I’ve heard something like this before. You felt called to go to Italy to share the gospel.” Well….not exactly. We, all of us who claim to love Christ and who have made him our Savior, have been called to be missionaries. If you want a specific verse for this just look in Mark 16:15, but really if you read the New Testament you understand that one of the overarching themes is that we are all supposed to share God’s love with others, be the light, and be prepared to answer why we have this hope to anyone who asks us.
So we’re missionaries because we’re Christians. You don’t have to live in a foreign country or a different state, you don’t have to be financially supported by the church, and you don’t have to have only this job as your full time job. We’re all supposed to be the light wherever we are.
For Alan and I personally it just so happened that we had this opportunity to come to Italy to do this work, it appealed to us for many reasons, and it worked out so here we are. So a question that Alan and I struggle with constantly and perhaps you all do as well is….what does it mean to be the light? What does it mean for me personally? How can I be the light?
And that’s where Alan and I are in our work here. We continue to do English lessons with the Bible, we continue to host the youth at our house for Bible studies and Bible Bowl preparation, and we continue to be involved in church studies and activities. But we are always looking to improve ourselves. We are constantly questioning how we can be the light to those we know and to those we don’t know. So right now we’ve been brain storming how we can get more involved with the local community and how we can encourage others from the church to be more involved. It’s a little daunting and overwhelming at times. We have had ideas in the past that work in the States, but we’ve learned don’t work here. So it’s a learning curve…we’re trying to learn this culture, the laws, and the local needs. We want to be that light. We want the church of Christ in Catania to shine brightly for everyone in Catania and the surrounding countryside to see. So, we ask that you all pray for us as we continue to brainstorm/research our options here and as we try to present our ideas to the local congregation. Right now we just have ideas….such as going into the Immigrant community here and offering to teach them Italian (obviously we would need other volunteers to do this as Italian is our second language) so they can find jobs. This would include people from all types of countries and religions. We hope, obviously, to share the Gospel with them first and foremost. We want to look into feeding/clothing the poor. But again, this and other ideas we have are just ideas right now. We need lots of prayer as we look into what we can do.
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| Do we shine as brilliantly as this firework? Is it obvious to everyone around us what we live for and that we live for Jesus? |
As for our work here, we continue with classes and youth group meetings. The teens will be having their first Bible bowl competition in a little over a month. We hope to get a big turnout at the church to support our teens. VBS planning has started already. I’m super excited for this year because we’ve already started to have meetings (usually they happen much later) and so many (pretty much all) of the ladies of the church have agreed to help not only during the event but in the preparation process this year! This not only helps me a lot, but makes the process so much more enjoyable to be able to share it with them and see them learn how to plan these events. The ladies have also started a monthly tea meeting in their homes. We decided to have tea and fellowship together and add on a small devotional. We have been doing Francis Chan’s Basic Video Series and studies, which I happen to have with Italian subtitles. So far everyone is really enjoying these evenings. I have taught a few ladies classes on the book of James. This is the first time I’ve taught adults in Italian. I feel a bit sorry for them as I fumble my way through and stumble over my words, but they’ve been very gracious and it was a good opportunity for me to learn. Just like it says in Romans 2:21 “you then who teach others, do you not teach yourself?” I’ve learned a ton by having to do this study. Alan continues to take the reins on the English classes, staying at the church just to keep the doors open, and visiting our contacts. Most likely when our second child is born I will be giving him all of my students except for the children’s class I help him with during the midweek Bible study. So pray for him that he continues to have energy and drive. He’s constantly giving of himself and is gone a lot, and right now he has an emotional sometimes irrational pregnant wife. ;)
On a fun note, the church has started up a Volleyball night on Friday nights at a local gym. It's been a fun way for everyone to hang out together and just laugh. It's a good opportunity to invite students and friends as well, and Alessandro, a contact and friend Alan has had since we've moved here, came and plans to come again.
We did host Thanksgiving last year, and as a result a few of our students came to church and a few of our students continue to pop in once in a while for services. Alan has a wide range of contacts from Buddhists, to atheists, to Catholics, and to those who are just apathetic. Please continue to pray for these contacts and our interactions/studies with them!
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