01.14.10

Time Flies…

Posted in Ancona, Newsletters, Team, church, culture, family, kids, ministry at 4:00 am

I just realized that I typed “Volume 8 — Issue 1” on the byline of our most recent newsletter. How is that possible? Is this really the eighth year of sending out newsletters?

A lot has happened over the years. We spent over two years in the US raising support for our work in Ancona. What an experience that was – easily the most faith-stretching experience of our lives.

Then we moved to Perugia to study Italian. We enrolled in a small language school and tried to train our mouths to make all the weird sounds we heard all around us. We also adapted to the Italian rhythm of life, and enrolled our two oldest kids in school. What an experience that was – easily the most faith-stretching experience of our lives.

Next we moved to Ancona and started to dip our toes into life on a team. We learned all the reasons why working on a team is such a great thing, and we also learned why it can be a really challenging thing. The Italian culture started to feel a bit more familiar to us, but things were still new and scary sometimes. Moving to Ancona and working on a team was a great experience – easily the most faith-stretching experience of our lives.

After our first furlough, we came back to Ancona with a new confidence. The language wasn’t quite so difficult. Our kids were doing pretty well in school. We even had a baby in Ancona. Our team leader asked us to be the interim team leader for six months while he was in the US. What an experience that was – easily the most faith-stretching experience of our lives.

Just before our second furlough our landlord gave us six months to move out of her apartment, and we were faced with finding a new place and completely furnishing it with absolutely no way to pay for it. What an experience that was – easily the most faith-stretching experience of our lives.

Which brings us more or less to the present day. We still get our faith stretched on a regular basis. God still pulls us through despite our doubts, and shows us how faithful He is to us.

And through it all, He’s forming a church in Ancona. Sometimes He uses us, and sometimes He does an end-run and brings people to us that we never would have even met. He molds us and shapes us and chips away at our rough edges until we become more and more like Him.

And to think. It’s only taken seven years so far…

Thanks for sticking with us.

11.19.09

It Has Nothing to do with Us

Posted in Newsletters, church, ministry at 2:49 am

Everybody ready for the big confession?

The growth of the church in Ancona has absolutely nothing to do with me. Or any of the other missionaries working with me. Or any of the members who currently attend.

This fact has really been driven home to me in the past month. Jason asked me if I would meet him at our church building after dinner. A woman who is friends with one of our church members wanted to get together and talk about some things she had been reading in the Bible.

Uhhh … OK. Who could turn down an invitation like that?

So we met and just started talking. Jason started things out by asking her to give us a little bit of background about herself - where she’s from, how she ended up coming to our church.

I was completely unprepared for what was about to happen. In the most clear and genuine way, she talked about how God had been working in her life even before she knew it to prepare her to become a Christian.

She talked about how she needed forgiveness, and how she believed that Jesus lived a perfect life and was a sacrifice for our sins. She knew that baptism was a part of becoming a Christian. She even quoted the passage in Acts where the Ethiopian says, “Look, here’s water … why shouldn’t I be baptized?”

We were honest with her. We talked about how baptism is very important in the life of a Christian, but one part of other things like repentance that are just as important. We told her that problems in life don’t magically go away when people give their lives to Christ. And we asked her a simple question: Are you ready?

And she was. Not even a week later we all met at the Casey’s house to baptize her in the bathtub. When she came out of the bathroom after getting dressed she said, “It’s wonderful to be a newborn!”

All of this reminds me that God is already at work here in Ancona. He is much more concerned than I am about a growing church in this city. He is infinitely better than we are at drawing people to Himself.

We basically just have to show up. We have to find places here where God is already working and join Him. “God made it grow” is such a true verse. We’re all busy seeking Him and doing what we feel He’s leading us to do, but God is the one working behind the scenes.

Welcome to the family, Cristina!

10.23.09

How real are we?

Posted in church, culture, kids, ministry at 11:46 am

I’m getting to know a new group of parents. Our oldest started soccer this year, and so I have tried to hang around during practices to get to know some of the other moms and dads. There’s one woman in particular who is kind of outspoken and generally puts on a good show for us every practice.

Last night she was talking about a website that said we are going to have an earthquake this weekend. Some of the parents were really listening to her, but most were rolling their eyes. But she said something that really make me think. She said if an earthquake happens, she’s running down to the bottom floor of her apartment so that she can “die with all of the rest of the sinners – at least you know who they are.”

I think she was implying that the buon crisitano (the good Christian) is just a big faker. It’s not possible for the real people, the work-hard-for-a-living people, the kind of people she can relate to, to have a faith: the two things are just incompatible.

I hope that can’t ever be said about me and my life. I seek to be the kind of person that people can relate to, who knows what real life is like. And at the same time I seek to grow in my faith – a faith that is authentic and genuine. If those two things don’t match up in our lives, then I think we will forever be branded as an irrelevant bunch of fakers.

04.27.09

Who should pay?

Posted in church, culture, ministry at 5:26 am

I overheard a very interesting conversation at church last night. A woman, who is normally fairly reserved, was really upset when she started talking about the victims of the earthquake in L’Aquila.

The government has promised to give the victims of third of their home’s value to rebuild. Many people have lost everything, and more and more reports are coming out that say the builders who originally constructed the buildings took shortcuts and didn’t obey government standards for earthquake proofing. So buildings that should have been able to withstand an earthquake crumbled.

Unfortunately, the city archive was also destroyed. So the chances of finding the builders (who are probably long gone anyway) are very slim. Even if the person remembered the company that built the building, more than likely those people aren’t around anymore.

So the woman in our church was lamenting the fact that the taxpayers have to foot the bill. She was upset that the mafia is probably involved and is skimming off the top. “Italians are good people – maybe too good,” she said as she described people who blindly give money to help with no real assurance that any of it ever gets to where it is intended. My friend said she would much rather invite someone into her home and, as she said, “share my bread with them” than send an text message that donates €1.00 to the Red Cross.

I think she has a point, but what can you do? Aren’t things like this the reason that people have governments? Earthquake insurance is nonexistent here. If the government doesn’t step in and help, who will?

The church?

Is it possible that Christians have relied on government to be the hands and feet of Jesus? Wouldn’t a group of people whose only motive is to relieve suffering and help as they are able be a far more effective “disaster relief team” than a big government bureaucracy?

04.09.09

Earthquakes

Posted in Ancona, church, ministry at 4:38 pm

Since moving to Italy, from time to time we feel a little rumble in the earth. Never anything large, and often something that you’re not sure you really felt until you read in the paper or see on the news that there was a tremor.

This week the city of L’Aquila in central Italy was hit with a powerful earthquake that, as of this moment, killed over 200 people and has left thousands homeless. We’re fine here in Ancona. As a church we’re trying to figure out the best way to help. We’ve been overwhelmed with people writing and calling to ask if we’re OK.

Jasmina Tešanović has written a very beautiful summary of what life is like in L’Aquila right now:

As I watch the TV, I know this is not a science fiction disaster movie, this is the new realism. Only last night the same television showed me an old movie with Ana Magnani: the post war late 1940s in Italy. It seemed so different: the good guys had defeated the bad guys. There was hope. Watching these high tech rescue squads, ambulances heavy with gear and with high pitched Italian sirens, politicians in Armani suits with Missoni ties, blonde sexy news announcers with cosmetic lip surgery, all scampering among the ruins, I feel uneasy. Where are the real people? Whatever became of normal life? Trained dogs sniff for normal life beneath the rubble.

You can read the entire article here. Please note that the website this article is posted at occasionally posts some off-color items. Browse carefully…

Keep praying.

04.08.09

Prayer in the Piazza

Posted in Ancona, Team, church, ministry at 4:27 pm

Once a week our team gets together for Prayer in the Piazza. It started as something a little uncomfortable for me. I much prefer praying in private. It’s sometimes difficult for me to come right out and let other people listen in on my conversation with God.

But as time passed and relationships with teammates grew stronger, I began to look forward to this time together. We pick a piazza to meet at, find a stair or curb to sit on, and pray. Eyes open, looking around, watching the sky and the people and the traffic. Sometimes we meet for coffee, and sit outside as people pass by, often bumping into us, completely unaware that they are being prayed for. Often times the line between prayer and conversation with teammates gets blurred as a moment of prayer turns into a discussion time about an issue we’re struggling with.

I used to see these pauses in the prayer time as interruptions, and would try and bring the focus back around to prayer. But if we really believe that God is present with us anyway, and if prayer really is a conversation with God, it seems to make sense for prayer to become like talking to the person across from us. It seems to me to be, as Brother Lawrence’s book is titled, The Practice of the Presence of God.

Our prayers often focus on asking God to show us where He is already working in this city, and how He is already causing the church to rise up. Big prayers and little prayers, while sitting in a piazza and watching the world go by.

I think the church needs more Prayer in the Piazza.

11.18.08

How to Create Community

Posted in church, ministry at 8:28 am

Our church recently hosted our first ever all-church retreat. We rented a place just outside the city and moved our regular church meeting off site. We mostly just wanted to get together with everyone and talk and pray and dream together. I think this meeting was part of the baby steps we need to make to begin turning leadership and ownership over to non-Americans.

During dinner we started talking about community, and some of the ways we can help foster or create communities both among ourselves and with non-believers. Daniel really amazed me with his is simple, but I think very accurate, response:

Dove si mette le mani, già c’è comunità. There is community wherever you put your hands. The men he works with form a community. The people we eat with are a community. The things we do in our free time form community. In other words, whatever we are involved with, whatever our hands do, that is the place that God has put us and that is the place where we need to sow the seeds of the Gospel.

I really appreciate his insight. Instead of assuming people need to attend some church function to be a part, it was a reminder that the “church” goes wherever a believer goes. It was a reminder to let God work in what we are already a part of instead of trying to create an additional, and perhaps artificial, community.

Good stuff, Daniel! Any comments…?

06.19.08

A New Picture of Church

Posted in church, ministry at 4:57 am

Yesterday, Jason suckered me into attending a meeting for all pastors and priests in the Marche region. Normally, I’m horrible at these things – meeting people and describing our “denomination” and mingling aren’t my strong points. But the theme of this meeting piqued my interest: the problems of youth.

For most of the meeting we were divided up into four groups discussing various aspects of youth like The relationship between youth and spirituality and Youth and secularization. There were pastors there from all kinds churches: Greek Orthodox, Catholic, The Apostolic Church, Seventh Day Adventist, and little ol’ me. At one point a young priest said that young people need “una nuova immagine di chiesa” – a new picture of church. He talked about how it’s time to stop asking the young people to fit into old models of what our relationship with God looks like. Church needs to be about community, and allowing people to “work out their salvation” and not be perfect before walking in the door.

Did you catch that this was coming from a Catholic priest?

The conversation went on and I described how we have begun to change our view of church as well. Instead of asking people to behave and believe a certain way before they can belong (be a part of the community), we switch the order. They can be a part of the community, which causes them to change their beliefs, which causes them to change their behavior.

And then another lady started criticizing the Catholic church, and the conversation stopped there while the priest dodged the arrows that were being launched at him. It was too bad, because there was a good thing going.

I’m never sure what to do with these ecumenical meetings. On one hand, I think it’s silly to think that any of us, with our various theological backgrounds, would ever be on the same page (though that’s probably not even the goal). On the other, conversations like this where we learn from each other can only benefit the capital “C” Church.

05.16.08

Massimiliano Ripanti

Posted in Ancona, church, friends, ministry at 2:51 pm

My heart is heavy and my eyes full of tears. Yesterday, around 9:50 AM, our dear friend Massi went Home.

He had been battling myelofibrosis for nearly a year, and infection finally overcame his weakened immune system. His absence will be a tangible thing in our church for a long time.

As the pastor, it’s my job and my priviledge to stay strong for the family and to be a source of strength in a difficult time. Yesterday I was reminded how thin the facade is. As I was walking Rosa back to the waiting room after one last goodbye with her already-cold fiancée, the facade cracked. I found myself in the hallway with Jason. The door to the waiting room clicked closed, and the tears came. We tried to save ourselves the embarassment of emotion (masculinity is a funny thing) by hiding in separate corners. And just as quickly as it started, the crying stopped and we went back in the room.

I miss him already. His funny Senigalliesi accent that took me months to get used to. His weekly phone call at the exact time Life Group was supposed to start, telling me he had just left and was on his way. His suspicious looks when we served something American, and then watching him take a second and third helping. Our awkward conversations in the hospital towards the end, when we both talked about everything but the obvious. But more than anything, his faithfulness until the very end. He loved God with all his heart, soul, and mind.

A dopo, amico…

05.01.08

Echoes

Posted in family, ministry at 3:34 am

Yesterday I had the privilege of performing my first funeral service. A family of english-speakers needed someone to do a funeral in their own language, and a friend of a friend called Marcus and got the ball rolling.

I was (surprisingly) not nervous for the service. I surprised even myself at the confidence God helped me show even though I wasn’t 100% sure of what I was doing. And I was amazed at how many of the same things I was feeling that I felt at my dad’s funeral. It was comforting to me to take care of a hurting family, and to ask (and help them answer) the hard questions. Standing before their large family at the service, I saw their son losing the battle to hold back the tears and was reminded of my own battle at my dad’s service.

But somehow God has wired me to get through it. I found relief in my own sadness (which is often just below the surface even today) by guiding others through grief. The pastor in me soars in situations like this, and it makes me shake my head in wonder at the powerful God we serve who makes the impossible possible.