Church News & Prayer Requests|
Saturday, September 23, 2006 Dear friends and family, A great tragedy that needs prayer. It grieves my heart to let you know that Friday night in Benevento, Itlay, near Naples, Lidia's son Davide overdosed and died at the mere age of 22 years old. You can't imagine our saddness for Lidia, her youngest son Jolomi, and the rest of the family. Davide has been messing around with drugs off and on for a while and the family was very aware. We were all praying without ceasing as were many of you that Davide would repent, surrender to Jesus, and have new life. We can't say where Davide is for only God knows what was ever in his heart. He struggled much with anger and pain from his father abandoning them as well as other bad breaks in his young life. Please pray for Jolomi and Lidia, and the rest of their family. We know that only God can bring comfort, healing, strength, and all that is necessary to get through this tragedy and sorrow. We also know that God even works good in such horrendous situations somehow. May God touch Jolomi, soften his heart, and turn him back to Jesus. May Lidia be held up and given the hope to go on knowing that God is still always, only good. May they all be able to trust God in a time when many questions and challenges may come their way. May God give them peace and fullness of his love. Thank you for you prayers and thoughts. If you want to send cards or emails or flowers perhaps, send things to our house address in Rome and we will get those things passed onto Lidia. Also pray for Robert, Vincenzo, and the church family that they would have great love and wisdom wherever they may be asked to be involved in funeral services etc... Thank you! Psalm 61 By Grace, Brent Harrell Monday, September 18, 2006 Dear Saints, It is now September amazingly enough. September brings somewhat of a new year mentality here. Time to get things going, traffic is thick again, school is starting up etc… Isabella has begun her second year of “asilo” or public pre-school. From 8:30-1:00 each day she goes at it full throttle, in Italian, with about 20 other rug-rats. We are very proud of her. She did really well last year and took off with her Italian language. She gets pretty wiped so we would appreciate your prayers for her emotional and behavioral life as well as how we respond to her in those moods. She is learning more about Jesus and the fact that he needed to go to the cross and suffer for her sins, so our prayer is that she will accept Jesus soon as her Lord and Savior and can then also be a light to her little friends. Perhaps it will even open up doors with parents. Olivia is growing and talking more. She is pretty mellow and sweet, yet knows how to go toe to toe with her big sister. Signs of pottying on the big girl potty are upon us which will be nice to kick buying diapers and changing them!! Please keep us and our parenting in your prayers that we would be unified, nurturing, consistent, and effective shaping them to know Christ and live for Him. The Lord has provided for us to visit family, our home church, and any of you that might want to hook up so we hope to see you soon. We leave Rome the 19th of September and will be gone until the end of November. Some neat things have been happening with quite a support/prayer team really solidifying at our home church so please keep them in prayer as they seek to serve us and pray for us. God is really showing us a lot of grace as people get more involved. We are so grateful. On the body side of things we are kicking back up. This summer was exciting with teams, outreach, the prophecy conference, and then a couple of brothers from Calvary Chapel Magazine stopping to cover Italy. We had a great time of fellowship with all. I think the Italy edition will be coming out in the spring. They were here for Stefano's baptism too, which was a blast. Lots of Italians and foreigners on the beach were very curious which led to some interesting conversations surrounding baptism. What a witness!! We are determined to get back on top of looking for our own place again. We really need our own place. May God lead us. Our Sunday service is going on well as we move through Exodus. God’s Word is just so wonderful and transforming. Our Wednesday night bible study is back at Paola’s house for now as we finish up 1 John still using more of an interactive study format. We have several other things going on: a Tuesday morning men’s prayer meeting and our Friday night prayer meeting. Next we are considering trying to do something for our married couples probably on Saturday night. There is, and has been some tension, and struggles in various marriages… as can be normal, but we want to have some time for fellowship and see if we can’t encourage marriages through the Word and prayer for one another. That will be in prayer until we return. Please lift up the fellowship, Vincenzo and Robert as they lead and care for the flock while we are away. They always do a wonderful job. Keep Amy and Stefano in your prayers as they nurture a growing relationship. Keep praying for Stefano to grow in faith and in the Word. They are both very special for us and with one another. God is good. Vlady has been struggling a lot. Please pray that the Lord would pour out fresh love on him and soften his heart. The woman who Negist works for and lives with is elderly, sick, and in the hospital. Pray for her salvation and for Negist to be assured of God’s hand on her life regarding work, provision, etc… Ester loves the Lord but only has time for work. My prayer is for her to be able to slow down a bit and integrate more into the body, establishing strong godly relationships, and having more time for the things of God. Joe and Jessica are new to the fellowship. He isn’t born again, but comes praise the Lord. May God open Joe’s eyes and fill him with His Spirit and eternal life. Jessica grew up as a PK and knows the Lord. It seems that she really just needs God’s Word poured into her and grace administered and exampled. We pray that their relationship would not be a hindrance to either persons growth. Paola is doing pretty good, has her ups and downs like all of us I reckon. Pray for her as her work contract expires and will be reviewed in the coming days. May God’s will be done. Robert and family are in transition out of their old house and waiting to get into their new apartment that has to have some work done in it first. Pray for expedient work and them to settle in at last. Praise God in the highest… Robert got his Italian citizenship after six years of bureaucracy. Now we pray for a better job opportunity. Natalia needs work and papers, direction and healing in her life. Pray for a new couple that came Sunday that they would be born again and keep coming. Don’t forget Lidia’s sons Jolomi and Davide. Also a friend of Davide’s, Fizio, that was battling heroine addiction and evidently received Christ. May God empower him and lead him mightily. And… I will leave it at that for now. May God’s best and only his will be done in each persons life individually that it might render us a powerful light unified to be a vessel for the glory of Jesus in this desperate place. If you have any questions or comments feel free to send them our way. We love hearing from you all. We will be hitting New York, Missouri, and Idaho if any of you are there or nearby and want to hook up just say the word and we will do all we can. We love you greatly and appreciate you more than we could ever express. Thanks for your faithfulness to us and to God’s call for us here in Rome. Have an absolutely blessed fall resting in His grace, yet busy about the work that he has called you to. Prayer for Calvary Chapel Rome:
By Grace, Brent Harrell Friday, July 14, 2006 Web site report for June (conference month). We had an all time high of web site visitors in the month of June totaling 765 visits; that's about 5 times more visits than average. Praise God! We apologize for the technical difficulties that prevented us from broadcasting live. Check back for conference materials in the upcoming months. John DiCesare Thursday, July 13, 2006 Ciao tutti, Greetings from Roma! Things are always exciting as we live for and walk with Jesus. Our passage this past Sunday was Exodus 1:12 - the more they were afflicted, the more they grew... and multiplied. How is that one for your pocket promise box. We appreciate your prayers! We understand that even in adversity and affliction, our God is good and has a precious plan to develop Christ-like character and bring about His wonderful purposes. I'm not sure really how to go about summing up our Conference and all but let me just say that it was incredible, a lot of work, a great blessing, and a joy to see God move people together to see it all happen. It was a great display of the body functioning in unity. From our little fellowship and each persons contributions to our web guy out in Cali to our CC Boise team coming and helping out in many major to minor ways, a Latin American church doing 007 style security, people doing book tables, the hard work of the worship team and technicians, to the speakers and their gracious time and energy given, all the way to the CC Budapest choir rockin out the house... it was a grand event that I know glorified Jesus. Three people got saved, one of whom was a girl that was working for the theatre. We sold about 10 copies of the Italian DVD version of 'A Woman Rides the Beast' which our very own Vincenzo helped to translate (along with Larry Demejo from CC Rochester) did the voice over for, and got copies done just in time for the conference. We also were privileged to have Roger Oakland and Jim Tetlow's 'Queen of All' book in Italian. It was the first time Roger gave this presentation at a conference. Other people are requesting materials as well as wanting the audio from the conference itself. We await resources to print and pay for translation on Dave Hunt's most recent book, 'Judgment Day'. We had the privilege of having about 10 pastors or so from various local churches. Six or so of them were Italian pastors. One had come from down south in Italy after having received one of our conference brochures in the mail. It was a whirlwind couple of weeks. Pastor Ray Viola, Roger Oakland, and Dave Hunt were tremendous guests, very gracious and flexible, bringing very powerful messages on all fronts. By God's grace, the conference was professionally filmed, and The Berean Call and Understand the Times have offered to pay for that and make a DVD from the sessions. We believe obviously that this was a very critical message in a very critical place at a very critical time. Though we would have liked to have seen more people in attendance all the way around, the materials alone that will be produced from this event should be very impacting and far reaching. Be watching for those products in the months ahead. I'm sure it will take a good six months or so to get anything accomplished, but be in prayer for the people that will work on it. Topics from general prophecy and the trustworthiness of the Scriptures based on prophecy were covered as well as specific pressing events such as the Catholic church and Marian apparitions' role in bringing about unity among all religions. Dave gave a clear perspective on Islam while Ray brought home the importance of the Rapture and end time events and how that should effect our lives as Christians now. Though we were disappointed not to have filled the theatre for the concerts, the Budapest choir was incredible and said that our Roman audience was one of their best ever as far as involvement and excitement. They were blessed and so were all who attended. On Saturday night just before the choir performed, we had a special guest from a church in Milan, Lilly Olivieri who is a professional Christian opra singer, stun all of us with her amazing singing. Thank you Lilly!! Since my step-dad went to be with Jesus I was out a week to the states. Thank you so much for those of you who prayed, sent flowers, or communicated comfort. It really meant a lot to me and my mom. Upon my return from the states, we hopped in the car and fled to Croatia for several days as a family joining the CC Budapest leadership team for some R&R. It was nice. Especially after Hope had a week alone with the girls!! Needless to say, we will be dealing more directly with conference follow up in the coming days and weeks. We sincerely want to thank all of you who participated, served and sacrificed. Thanks to all of you who gave and prayed so faithfully too. We do still have some remaining expenses to cover so feel free to give and or pray for provision as the Lord leads. All in all, it was an amazing experience. We learned a lot and will be a bit more prepared next time. By God's grace, Roger Oakland has expressed interest in coming back in the fall of '07 for a Creation conference. This is another area of weakness in the Italian churches and Italian christian literature as well as a front for the enemy and his evolutionary lie in the culture as a whole. Local pastors have already expressed enthusiasm for this topic. Well, I could share much more but then you would have to keep reading and I wouldn't know where to stop so I will cut it here. I wanted to mention something for prayer that just came up. Some missionary friends of ours are leaving the country and want to get rid of a 12 seater passenger Van for cheap. I want to pray and see if that Lord might not provide for this for us as we haul lots of people and teams etc... It is an old Mercedes Van which he has even let us use before to take a team out of town for outreach, for baptisms etc... He used it to transport teams to and fro during our conference as well. Let's just pray and see what God might do. We are supposed to have an outreach team next week from England and one from YWAM just called me yesterday and asked if we could work together... so lift up these teams and their time in Rome. We will do some stuff in the piazzas (squares) and go up to Frascati and help the church that we work with up there. The last bit of business so to speak, for the summer, will be our Italian retreat in Austria together with the churches in the north. Lift up the speakers and all who attend. May God minister mightily to the body and use them to set on fire this country. Please pray for my family and all of our body and the families of our leaders. To some degree I think that the attack is just as concentrated now that the conference has passed as it was preceding the conference. My family all have colds and Isy's ear started hurting last night. Pray for healing. We are considering moving and need God to do it all. We just can't keep up with the bills where we are and something just isn't right. We are getting bills of outrageous proportions even in these summer months. We have wanted to move for a while but it is not so simple. We like the area where we are, Isy started school here last year and so forth, but money unfortunately again becomes an issue when moving. Just pray please. Aside from the conference and ministry, the financial strain of living here in general is simply becoming a bit unbearable. We are seeking and open to God's will and direction in this area. Be praying with us as we seek only to discern God's voice and obey. As much as we need and appreciate your prayers, we also enjoy going to the throne on your behalf. If there is anything that we can be lifting up for you please let us know. Be watching and praying, your redemption is much more near than when you first believed. By Grace, Saturday, July 8, 2006 Hi All, I wanted to get out a simple note to let you all know that I am actually home now. Thank you all for your prayers for my mom and the the details over the funeral in Seattle last week. I flew out by myself on Tuesday (thanks to financial help with the ticket), spent five days with my mom and family, attended the funeral service in Olympia, Wa. with lots of other family and friends, got back on a plane Sunday morning and arrived in Rome on Monday only to hop in the car and take my family on a bit of a retreat to Croatia for a week. Time with family in America was good under the circumstances. Time in Croatia was calm and restful. We have all had some hacking cough and some sinus problems all week, but the view and the fellowship made up for it. We were invited up there by CC Budapest as they spend a week up there with their leadership just relaxing. It was cheap and by God's grace we made it there and back. My email has about 19 pages of emails that I need to pilpher through this next week so if you are awaiting a response just be a bit patient and I will get to it. I want to pray and prepare for tomorrow, watch Italy win the World Cup against France, and then Monday I will be back on top of things as much as possible. Next week I will get out my update on the conference as well. Thank you again for all of your prayers and words of comfort for the going home of my step-dad Jim. A special thank to those of you who so thoughtfully sent flowers for the funeral service. Please keep us all in prayer here at CC Rome as well as my mom and our families. Hope you are having a blessed summer. Blessings to everybody. By Grace, Brent Harrell, CC Rome
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