Church News & Prayer Requests|
Wednesday, March 5, 2008 Greetings from Rome, A heart-felt thanks for your prayers and support these past months. God is so gracious through you all and we are grateful. We hope this update finds you grounded in grace with the rivers of living water flowing unhindered! Things have been somewhat quiet here in Rome these past couple of months and yet in other ways very turbulent. Though there have been times of discouragement and difficulties, there have also been moments of encouragement and blessing. At the end of February I had the privilege of being invited to go to Israel with a group of pastors from Europe, predominately England, at next to no cost. The Lord provided for Hope and the kids to be able to spend the time in England with Mindy Crager and the Crager kids. Their time was obviously not as amazing as ours in Israel, but it was a great time of fellowship for Hope, and the kids enjoyed their time together. I have no words for what I experienced in Israel and the blessing it was. By God’s grace, after several years of talking about it, we will plan to take a group from our church to see it all. The month of February also brought two important monthly meetings for us as a fellowship. First was our afterglow. We just aren’t seeing the turnout that we would like at some of our other meetings outside of Sunday morning services. Our prayer is for more people to realize the importance of prayer and praise, and the need for all of us to grow together in the use of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Understandably, some of it is simply timing and logistics. Second, was our married couples study, which meets once a month. We had good turn out, great fellowship, and all were edified. So many are just tired from trying to survive and make it month to month, work, and raise a family. It was refreshing to get together. This month we are starting a book on marriage, so please pray for our time together. We really feel this is a key area of importance, and a pillar for the fellowship. March brings about these two meetings again, plus a group coming for outreach and our Easter service. It is our prayer that God would stir up a heart of evangelism within the body, that people will begin to see the importance of reaching out to their families, friends, and co-workers inviting them to service and sharing with them on a personal level. We are picking up efforts to look at buildings to rent since it looks like the building that we are currently using for Sunday mornings will not be leased any further by the Church we sub-rent from. This is a good thing as it forces us to look for our own place, which is greatly needed. Starting another work on the periphery of Rome is still on our hearts and we are praying for the timing and location according to God’s will. God has opened up more doors for us to reach out to parents and neighbors in our zone. Romina’s daughter goes to school with our daughters. Romina is trying to get a job guiding tours in the Historic Areas of Rome so she asked us if we could help her improve our English. These are great opportunities for us as they break down walls and allow us to build personal relationships that naturally lead into the chance to share Christ. Last week Romina and her husband Fabbio invited us over for dinner. Fabbio had many questions about faith and biblical Christianity. Please lift them up in prayer. Personally, we are looking at apartments again. We need a different apartment, with more rooms, but we would also like to stay in this zone if possible. Brayden is now 7 months old, agro-teething, being broken of waking up in the night, and heading towards being weaned so, pray for him, Hope, and all of us. Lack of sleep can really mess with the mind. The girls are good for the most part, school, friends, church, etc… Lord willing, we are hoping that somehow we can get them into some sort of after-school activity like ballet or something a couple of times a week. We’ll leave it at that for now. Have a wonderful spring. Come and visit. Spring in Rome is incredible. God’s best to everybody. By Grace, Brent Harrell, CC Rome Tuesday, January 15, 2008 Greetings brothers and sisters, Buon Anno! Well, here we are in 2008. It was about this time in 2000 that we started our little bible study just Hope and I! We praise God that he has granted us the grace to endure, to labor, to wait and to see a family of believers develop here in Rome. I am always blessed that as much as we have our plans and ideas, God leads us in His way. The international flare and mixed cultural dynamic of our body keeps things colorful and exciting. This last year has been a year of great mountain top experiences as well as many desert trials. Hope, the kids and I spent 3 months stateside going through American bureaucracy for medicaid and the birth of our first son as well as applying for religious workers visas to return to Italy. We were showered upon with great grace and favor from God in those situations. Not to mention that our time was greatly blessed with family, friends, the body and supporting. We received our visas in record time and Brayden was born in August. Both amazing miracles. Then, back to Roma. Once we settled in September it was hyper planning for our Creation conference that was coming in November. With your help, your prayers, great brothers and sisters that came with outreach teams, including those here in the body serving tirelessly (or tire-fully), we saw the hand of God move greatly with hundreds of believers and non-believers attending to receive the powerful teaching of our wonderful guests Roger Oakland, Doug Bennett, and Rick Oliver. There was also a great turn out among local pastors which was historic I think Other churches came together, one church particularly housing folks and hosting the conference. Great fruit was the result and we continue to receive requests for DVD's and audio on the teaching. What a great time of edification and Creation evangelism. One guy that was particularly touched was an Ethiopian Airline pilot that had somehow found himself attending while on layover in Rome. We gave him a bible, prayed with him, and sent him off fired up for God. Once the conference was over we all fell down dead for a week or so. Interestingly enough, the enemy didn't take any time off as usual. It was sobering to watch as the enemy sought to take away the blessing from the victory of the Conference. Nonetheless, God has certainly remained faithful and taught us many things. It is humbling what God can do through so few and so little resources, but child-like faith and believers unified in purpose. The Christmas season was wonderful. We had a little Christmas play improv with the few kids we have in our children's ministry. One great blessing was that one our 7 year olds brought a friend who had never been in an Evangelical church. Ironically, his name was Abraham. He loved church even though his parents have fought against letting him come. Pray for him. We focused our service on the gift of, and availability of, peace with God- through Jesus given, the peace of God within, and peace with others. Our New Year's Eve was passed humbly together with some of the brethren, some food and games, then prayer and worship, then watching the Italians go nuts all over the city with their own professional fireworks displays. Our Wednesday night study seems to be picking up some steam after a discouraging start-back-up in December which followed a 3 month break due to building issues. We now have a place on campus for our mid-week and hope to reach more students with this opportunity. Though we were few before the New Year, the book of Galatians sure has been a sledge hammer to my own heart. I realize that the subtleties of legalism are tremendous and of course poisonous. I was really convicted. Praise God for His Word. One change we are making in this new year is a fresh go at evangelism. Meeting on campus is a great opportunity to do more evangelism and plug people in to something convenient for them since it's in their surroundings. We are also looking forward to more street evangelism and teams coming from Spring to Summer. Our vision to start a couple of Italian language only churches outside of the center is still stirring. Now it is just a matter of timing and location. I would like to step out this spring for one on the outskirts of Rome somewhere near our home. Please be in prayer for this. There are three people in Terni, outside of Rome that we are also seeking to nurture in the Word and praying that God will use. The past weeks have been blessed with new people visiting the fellowship. Pray for Gabriella, Gelda, and Dorothy. Dorothy is a believer from Nigeria. Gelda and Grabriella are mother and daughter (Italians) of which Gabriella, the daughter, we have known for a long time, though not too intimately. Neither are born-again. Finally, now that things are calming down again, we need to go forward with the building hunt again. May God give us grace to find something central and affordable that meets all our needs! We had asked you to be praying over some co-laborers who were considering coming to work with us and God has seemingly responded. We are blessed to have a small family coming to join us in the work here. Please pray for the Wallin's (Michael, Allison, and little Benjamin) from Philly as we seek to go through the visa saga and getting them here, their remaining preparation, timing, etc.. On a personal note, things at home have been somewhat tough and intense these past months. With the addition of our third child, things can be crazy without the help of grammas and some of the other logistical eases that perhaps America affords. Not complaining, just asking for prayer. One prayer is for our paper work to come back so Hope and I can both obtain our Italian driver's licenses. This would free Hope up more since I always have to drive her anywhere. Another much needed change is still finding another apartment for us as a family. We don't need more space, but we do need more rooms. Two rooms and a hide-a-bed just aren't cutting it with 3 kids and visitors from time to time. Our prayer is that God would open up a door for us to buy something! Currently, my office is also our bedroom. I pray for this situation to change be it with a new building for the church, or a temporary office space to rent. Lastly, God has blessed me with the opportunity to go to Israel practically for free. I will fly Hope and the kids to England to stay with Mindy Crager and her children. Then Kirk and I will fly out of Manchester to Tel Aviv. We head out Janary 30th and return Febuary 10th. Please pray for our travel, the ladies and kids while we are away...their safety and sanity, and for Kirk and I to get out of the trip all that the Lord desires. Thanks for you love, support and prayers. We couldn't exist without them. May the Lord bless you, provide for you in every way, and may he give us all the grace to put off the old man and clothe ourselves with the new bearing much fruit to His glory. His coming is certainly upon us. Praise God! God's best to you all. All our love, By Grace, Copyright © 2002 Calvary Chapel Rome ~ Developed by: iNetMatrix.com |
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