Hey everybody! I hope you are all doing
Great and enjoying the Lord! This month of July for me has been a new start. I’ve been a part of a lot of amazing things in only a short amount of time and have a new perspective and new strength from the special things the Lord has done in, through and around me. SUMMER OUTREACHES. We had the privilege of having 10 young adults From the college group from Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale Come and minister with us in MB. We also ministered in the cities of Feltre, Ferrara and Fiero di Primeiro. They were here for 10 days and I would need about 10 days To really share all that the Lord did in me, through me, in the group, Around the community and confirming His call on my life. Feltre. The first thing that we did with the group was we painted the church in Feltre. It’s one of those practical ministries that Often gets overlooked but the way I see is It gives people a fresh start. That it’s something new and needed for the church. They can see it as a blessing that people care about their church and desire that it grows and continues to change and advance even in the practical things. Montebelluna. Every summer the Lord has opened the doors for us to proclaim The gospel in the middle of Montebelluna through music. We were able to share the gospel publicly to around 300-400 people throughout the night. I personally was able to share the gospel one-one to about 15 people. I had some amazing conversations and was able to Preach the gospel to those who had never heard it before. My conversations were mostly with young people ages 16-27. I truly felt that the Lord had given me such A boldness to proclaim the Gospel, such that I’ve never experienced before. We did that in Ferrara and in Fiero di Primiero as well. And every time the Lord blessed us and me in sharing the gospel. I was so overwhelmingly blessed by this group with words of encouragement, service, financial provision and simple friendship and support. Something that I will never forget. They gave me a new zeal and a passion for the only thing that matters, the highest calling one could have; sharing the gospel of Jesus. They were a reminder of the privilege I have in being here and gave me a new drive to serve the Lord even more and tell more people about Jesus. REALATIONSHIPS. This month I have also seen the Lord open doors for me to have relationships with non-believers in the community. This is a real effective way to win the hearts of the Italian people; invest in them, to show your concern for them, to spend time with them and to build a solid, trustworthy relationship. And I believe it will allow them to open up more and to share their deep beliefs, doubts and issues and problems they struggle with. And I have already seen that in a few friends that I have made in the community of MB. It’s great to see the Lord give me favor with people here and their desire to simply want to be my friend and spend time with me. Prayerfully I can make an impact on their lives for the sake of the gospel and win their hearts to Christ over time. CCBC ITALY. In the middle of all this busyness of ministry with the outreach team and the church we are prepping for the BIGGEST Bible College semester we have ever had! We're going to have 24 students for this Fall. I’ll be teaching 1/2 Thessalonians and am looking forward to being able to disciple and teach the next generation of disciplers for Jesus.
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Happy Summer Everyone!
Hope you all are enjoying this warm weather and the new change of seasons. I’m definitely enjoying this new time of ministry and summer here in MB. I'm busy with concerts in the city center, youth & college studies, BBQ discipling and fellowship and preparing for what looks like to be our biggest semester here at CCBC Italy! Summer Ministry. The summer for me, ministry wise, is different than It would be during the Bible College semesters. In the month of June I went up to our other church in Feltre to practice a handful of times for an amazing opportunity we had to play a concert in the center of the ancient Roman city. The organizers of this event called US. They were the one who reached out to US and asked if we could play on this huge stage with an amazing sound system! We made it clear who we are, what music we were going to play and what we were going to share in between songs; Jesus’ good news of salvation! It was so rad playing the drums, worshipping the Lord right in the middle of the city, preaching His gospel to the people and even being able to make a great connection with the organizers for possible future concerts. PRAISE GOD! CC Montebelluna. Craig, our pastor, has been gone for 3 three weeks and one of the Sunday’s he was absent he asked me to share the message. I don’t think I’ve ever been so nervous. Before we start the service the leaders and worship team go in the back and pray together. And it's one of those things I won't forget. Our pastor wasn’t there, the assistant pastor wasn’t there, another one of the leaders wasn’t there, it was me and the worship team. But what an opportunity it was. I was so blessed to be able to share with the church that I pretty much grew up into a man with and for them to see and for myself to see how far God has brought me from the 3 1/2 years ago when I first arrived. It was an amazing experience and blessing. CCBC Italy. We have 19 students signed up for our Fall Semester. It’s going to be a big group which is always fun with a limited staff. We have about 7 Italians signed up. It's a big answer to our prayers, since we desire to see God raise up Italians here in Italy with a hunger to be equipped with God’s Word and go out and share in a culture where God’s Word is unknown. A few of them are kids that have grown up in our churches here and in our youth groups. A huge answer to prayer! I’ll be teaching the letters of 1st and 2nd Thessalonians. I am very excited to get studying for a new book and to see what the Lord will accomplish in me and the students for this next semester. Bible College.
The month of May was the end and start of a New season for me here in Montebelluna. It was the end of my 7th semester working with CCBC ITALY and the start of the summer season. It’s so amazing that it has already been 3 1/2 years since I’ve been Serving here! I can’t imagine what Another 3 1/2 years will look like. The Spring ’15 Semester we saw 4 students Graduate from our school. And it was a very special graduation as well With one of our very own natives graduating. It’s so amazing seeing when young people, Especially from our church/community have A desire for God’s Word, start AND finish the Bible College program and than go out and start Serving the Lord on their own where He has called them. This is our vision and desire; to see our youth in our churches Begin and finish our Bible College program and Go out and serve the Lord here in Italy. We are making preparations for our Fall ’15 Semester. It’s looking like we Will have +20 students. It’s always so Exciting thinking that the LORD is giving Us students to pour into and to disciple. I am going to be teaching 1st and 2nd Thessalonians. So I am thrilled to Start studying and preparing over the Summer for my class next semester. Calvary Montebelluna We saw 5 precious saints make a Decision to be baptized this month! It always gives me a joy and strength To see when people make a step of Faith like this, knowing that our labor Is not in vain. We are also planning and starting to organize Our summer concerts here in the center of town. It’s always an amazing thing to see the Lord opening Up doors for us to openly play music and preach the Gospel in our towns here in Northern Italy. And even the fact that the city asks us to play! We will have 4 different evenings where We’re able to play music and share who we are And what we believe. It’s truly a miracle! Buongiorno from Montebelluna, Italy!
Hope you all are doing well and growing in the God’s love! I have a quick update on a few things the LORD Has done in my life and around me in the month of April. It just flew by. Mamma mia. But nonetheless, it was FULL of Ministry and great opportunities to serve the Lord. CCBC Italy Spring ‘15 This semester of Bible College really was the fastest semester I’ve been a part of. The students had outreach week. (They travel to a different ministry/church in Europe helping out in any way that place needs) And I along with most of the Calvary Chapel’s in Italy Had a 4 day conference in the city of Perugia. It was such a blessing helping out down there with worship And being able to see how God over the years has taken our Movement from 1 Calvary to over 7 Calvary’s in Italy! Also I’ve been teaching the Gospel of Mark To 6 awesome students. Verse by verse and chapter by chapter, 3 hours every Tuesday afternoon. It’s been amazing every week. It is so worth it after hours of studying to finally being out to pour it all out. I love it! But sadly the class is coming to an end and soon And the some will go back to America, go to their cities in Italy. But I’m so encouraged knowing that They will know Jesus better and Will follow His example, as they saw Him so clearly In the Gospel of Mark, as a servant. CC Montebelluna This month has also been a sweet time at the church. Every Sunday it seems there is a handful of NEW people coming. You can totally see the Lord drawing those around the community to Himself. It’s been a blessing as well developing new relationships With some of these people who have arrived. The Youth and the College Groups have grown And not so much in number but I believe in depth in Christ and in His word. I’ve been super blessed to simply teach the word To these groups and see the LORD Change, grown and mature them. Buongiorno from Montebelluna, Italy!
HALF WAY This month has been a whirlwind of ministry, trips, teachings, evangelism, youth/college meetings and it's only the half way point of the Spring '15 semester. It has flown by and if this is only half way, I'm so stoked to see what the next half will have in store! Here's a little update on March and some ministry the Lord so graciously lets me be a part of... Seriously. Who am I or who are any of us that He lets us do anything for Him? But He wants to involve us! Perugia Trip A few weeks ago I went on a trip with Pastor Craig and Ty to visit a new church that started in the city of Perugia and meet with the pastor who we meet in February. It was such a great trip meeting new ITALIAN believers who are passionate about the gospel here in Italy and getting the Word of God out to a country who has 29,000 cities without any Bible teaching churches. Keep my good friend Giaccamo in prayer as they consider joining the Calvary Chapel movement and the beginning stages of their church. LA FONTE/YOUTH GROUP & COLLEGE GROUP I felt like at the beginning of this month the Lord was leading us to start evangelizing with our youth group to the youth of Montebelluna. And so we were obedient and took some Bible college students and a few youth from the church and went out. It's been a great experience sharing the gospel and hearing were the youth are at in their spiritual walk and their different beliefs. From only 2 times we went out we had shared with over 20 kids! Buongiorno from Montebelluna, Italy!
3 YEARS This month, 3 years ago, is when I first arrived to Montebelluna, Italy! And it was only a 3 month internship with Calvary Chapel Montebelluna and the Calvary Bible College. But I would have never guessed that I would have ever come to Italy, let alone start living here and have become a youth pastor/worship leader/teacher and the Dean of Men at a Bible College! The Lord really does above and beyond what we could ever imagine or even dream of doing for Him. It has been a privilege to serve Him in this way here in this city. And I am so humbled that He allows me to do anything for Him. CCBC ITALY SPRING ’15 In a few days we will be welcoming 13 students from different parts of Italy and America to study for 12 weeks God’s Word! And I get to teach the Gospel of Mark for the second time this semester! I know already that even though I’ve already studied this book before, God’s Word is as deep, fresh and applicable as it was last semester and as it will be for all of eternity!Also I will be teaching a section of the Sermon on The Mount for our Men’s Discipleship class and helping out in any way. I am just so excited to start this new season of ministry here! A lot of my time has been dedicated to preparing my class, and studying for this amazing gospel and doing practical things in trying to get our apartments ready for the students to come. Please be praying for God's Word to equip and change the lives of all of here! LA FONTE/YOUTH GROUP & COLLEGE GROUP I’m continuing teaching our youth group every other Saturday through the book of Acts and on Sundays we’re finishing up the book of Colossians and moving to the book of Exodus after! And it's been such a sweet thing to see the Lord grow me and grow all the kids that come and desire more of His Word. Happy New Year Everyone!
I hope that 2015 we all can know Jesus in a deeper way and to be ready for His coming! I have had an amazing trip back to America! It’s been a great time being with my family and friends and spending the holidays with them. I have also enjoyed so much the fellowship at my church, Calvary Chapel San Juan Capistrano. I've enjoyed simply sitting in the crowd for worship, Seeing people come to the Lord, And meeting people who have been praying for me and the work out in Italy! So amazing. I am looking forward to going back to Montebelluna and get back to the life that has become my home and getting back to work. Here we are getting closer and closer to the end of the year already!
I turned 24 last month and will be going home for 6 weeks next month; Which will be a year since I’ve been in America. New seasons coming and going. But a very exciting time here in Italy! CC MONTEBELLUNA: One of my major roles at the church is leading worship. Sundays and switching on Wednesday nights I lead on acoustic guitar. I have to say, it’s pretty fun playing with our team. The more and more we practice together the more comfortable we are. And the less we worry about the music side and the technical side but focus more on the words we sing and leading the people. It’s been a blast seeing the church respond to that and worship with us. CCBC ITALY: Outreach: This month all the students went on our Semester Outreach. They went in groups to serve at different countries with different churches and different ministries. Paris, France, Finland, Salzburg and the Castle in Austria were all places that our students went. The Gospel of Mark: I finally finished teaching my first book of the Bible here at the college! It was a daunting task but the challenge was well worth the time and effort To be able to look that intensely at the life of Jesus with the students. The End of The Semester: These past 12 weeks have flown by! It seems like just the other day we were welcoming the students and getting ready for the first week of classes. We have now reached the last week of the semester. It’s an amazing thing to be able to pour into these students for 3 months. I look forward to seeing how this season of their lives will affect their future and their walk with the Lord. Colossians 1:28 – “We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ.” LA FONTE: It’s always a struggle wondering if the kids in group are growing or learning more about Jesus, but it’s been an encouraging season seeing a few that are getting serious about the Lord; saying no to sin and the influence of their peers that are trying to pull them into a lifestyle of the world. I’ve even asked one of the older kids to simply open the group up with prayer; making disciples! COLLEGE GROUP: We had our first college group study this month. There were about 15 that showed up! I taught the verse 9 verse of Colossians and will continue going through Colossians once a month with this group. We had great fellowship over a pizza and I’m really looking forward to what the Lord might want to do with our group over this next season! Hey friends and family! I hope all of you are doing well. Here are some updates on what the Lord has been doing in and around me this month. I pray you’re encouraged!
BIBLE COLLEGE One more month till the end! It’s been a great semester, Filled with lots of ministry and serving opportunities. And one opportunity that I really enjoy is getting to know the students. It is such a unique time for them and a unique time for us as a staff to be with them. Over the 10 semesters I’ve been in Bible College I’ve been learning to enjoy each little season that I have with the group of students that the Lord brings. It’s been a challenge being the Dean of Men but I’ve enjoyed the process of coming along side and helping this group of guys to grow spiritually and practically. YOUTH GROUP Wow. I’ve been blown away lately by the things the Lord is doing in our group of kids here. At the beginning of the year when I took over the youth group it seemed like we had a change. The older kids left and a new group started to emerge. It's amazing to see that more kids are wanting to come and are inviting their friends! Usually we'll have anywhere from 10-20 kids show up. We've also been seeing kids start to have a desire to read their Bibles. And getting rid of sin in their lives. The power of the Word of God! I’ve been teaching through the book of Acts. It's been so special going through this book and seeing the Bible come alive to the kids. Some of them have never heard the Bible taught, book by book, chapter by chapter and verse by verse. One kid told me how simple and easy it was to understand the lesson! I've been encouraged in this season with our group. COLLEGE GROUP As a staff we have been praying for a while to start up a college group. And by the Lord’s grace and wisdom it looks like we’ll be starting one soon! Please keep this in prayer as it is the beginning stages and we desire for those that are college age in our church to get reconnected as they have left our youth group and now need a ministry that fits their needs and meets them where they’re at in this time of life. CONCERT. Something amazing happened Sunday, the 19th of October. We played a concert in the city of Arsie’. And how that happened was the city organizers called us to see if we wanted to play a concert at a festival they have once every year. They called us! After we played a few concert this summer in a city called Feltre, where we have a Calvary Chapel planted as well, they heard about our “band” and heard that we talked about God and played some sweet music. So they called us! It’s so amazing seeing the Lord open up door for His gospel and allowing us to be a part of this amazing work He’s doing here in Northern Italy. So in preparation for the concert I got off the plane from our Footsteps of Paul trip with the Bible College in Greece, got back home, got on a train for Feltre and practiced into the wee hours of the night with our band and all day Saturday and played the concert on Sunday. The concert was amazing. An absolutely beautiful day up in the mountains playing for thousands of people coming and going to and from the festival, stopping and listening to our songs and our testimonies and the gospel being shared. I was really blessed at the end of the day, realizing how much of a worker the Lord is. He desires so greatly His gospel to be shared. And even in the midst of the craziness of my schedule and the tiredness I felt, it was amazing to look back and see in that weekend the Lord do everything. Hey Everyone!
I pray all you guys are doing very well this new season; being filled with the Holy Spirit and growing closer to Jesus! Here's a brief update on some of the things the Lord has blessed me to be able to do here in Montebelluna over the summer and the beginning of another new season with the start of another Bible College semester. I hope you're blessed and encouraged in reading a little about what the Lord's doing in my life and here in Northern Italy. "There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven" - Ecclesiastes 3:1 The start of our Fall 2014 Bible College semester! We are going into our third week of our semester and we are so blessed to be able to have 20 students. We have Americans, Italians, Germans, Canadians, Australians and Peruvians. It's a great bunch of students we have and it's great to see their desire to come and study God's Word and to be equipped in the Scriptures. I am looking forward to all that the Lord is going to do in and through the study of His word in my life and in the students lives. I have also been teaching the youth group of our church every other Saturday. And we have been going through the book of Acts. And as of late it has been amazing to see more and more youth come out and be involved in our Saturday meetings. I'm really praying for the Lord to move in these kid's lives with the start of a new school year for them because most of them are the only Christians in their school. It's very difficult but the Lord is working. Church life has been awesome lately. Sundays have been full of people. And for me I've been really enjoying leading worship lately with the team here. It's been fun trying new things, picking the songs out and worshiping with the church body. It's been a real blessing to be able to be apart of the worship here. And the staff and myself too feel that this is a new season for the church. And the Lord wants to do something special in and through us in this time. I'm very excited to see what God is going to accomplish in this next season. |