Return to Verona

So, we are heading back to Verona for a third visit (my fourth since I came here with Cliff Murphy, but we were only here for four and a half hours). This time we are taking the on field Ancona team with us. Since both Go Ancona and Go Verona are part of the same "Taking Christ to Italy" PACE project, it makes sense that the Ancona team would be involved with the research of the target city. Their field experience will be incredibly insightful as we seek to remove the enemy's grip from this city, while we seek out the spiritually needy.

We hope to spend some time in personal prayer over the city and getting to know the city better. It is quite an experience to transition from one home to another. One day, we will feel as comfortable in Verona as we do in Ancona, yet Verona will never replace Ancona in our hearts, just as Ancona never replaced Tulsa either. Our hearts have room for several "homes" especially since they all pale in comparison to our final heavenly one. And it is that home with our God that we want to share information about, within each city that we happen to find ourselves.

And The City Is...Verona!

Well, we have some great news to announce, which is in some ways months in the making and in other ways years in the making. The target city for church plant number two of the Taking Christ to Italy project is Verona. In subsequent emails, we will be introducing you to this new city as we enlist you in praying us out of Ancona, where we have lived and ministered for over six years and preparing for the move to Verona.

In this email, I would like to share with you a few of the things that led us to the city of Verona. First, the Italian minister of the Apostolic Church in Verona made contact with us and showed us some of the spiritual needs of the city. The Apostolic Church is one of about four Italian speaking evangelical churches in this city of 270,000 people. The Apostolic Church is also the group in Italy that has provided the requests for us to have permission to be in Italy over the past six years. Elvio, the minister, and his wife, Paola, told us that they had been praying for more workers to come to Verona for a long time, in fact over a year ago they recruited the other members of the Apostolic Church to pray and fast with them about it. They saw our new team as answers to those prayers. He has been incredibly open to our new team, which is very strange for churches in Italy. They would love to help us get settled in the new city and find information for our new church plant.

Second, while the prayer/survey team was there we broke up into groups to explore the city throughout the day. At breakfast, a couple of us went into a coffee shop to get to know the workers. There was one woman behind the counter, who was very open and talkative with us. We asked about the spiritual condition of the people of Verona. She said there were many people who believed, but not many who went to church. She told us that she believed, but didn’t go to church, because she was not sure what she thought about the church, referring to the Catholic Church. She asked us more about what we were doing. We replied we were praying about choosing a city, out of four cities, for myself, my wife and a some friends to move to and start a new work there. Part of what we would be doing would be studying the Bible with people and being the Church, the way the New Testament describes it. She told us some of the great things about Verona and then told us before we left to come back and find her, if we chose Verona. She was the only person, out of the four cities, who told us to find her if we chose her city to move to.

Person after person, store owner after store owner, people continued to be friendly and talkative as we walked, prayed and surveyed Verona. Out of all the cities, it’s receptivity towards us and the new work seemed to be the most open. In some cities, to have conversations it felt like we were pulling teeth to get them to talk, or in other cities they simply answered questions, but in Verona the people there actually started conversations, not just continuing the ones we started. It was simply refreshing, to say the least. This was a characteristic which is foreign to us in Italy, in other words it isn’t normal.

While visiting the four cities that we surveyed, the people often told us what they thought of their particular city and the other cities we were visiting. Verona was the only city which people always had good things to say about. We prayed that God would use the people we met in the different cities to speak to us and had faith that He would. In Verona, we felt like the Christians there were asking for help and Eli (pronounced Ellie), the unchurched worker at the coffee shop, was interested in the new work that we were talking about doing. These people seemed to be clear voices in a search where we were praying for clarity.

One of the heartbreaking traits that we uncovered is that Verona leads the country of Italy in the number of divorces. This is a city that is famous for love, due to the semi-historical story of Romeo and Juliet (more on this in future months). This city of love continues to look for love in all the wrong places. The only love that will quench the thirst of their souls is the love of God, found through his son, Jesus Christ. We hope to be His witnesses in this new city.

Verona is a city of art, music, bikes, community and friendly people. Throughout the next many months we will mourn our life and friends in Ancona and greatly anticipate our life ahead in the city that God has directed us towards, which is Verona. Thank you so much for your prayers and encouragement as we have marched ahead in this new project for God’s kingdom.

A Decision is in the Works

Soon, we will be announcing the new target city for the Taking Christ to Italy project. Check back soon for details.

Impromptu Message & Worship

In preparation for our trip, I emailed many different missionaries in the north. I asked for information on contacts within the four cities we were going to be visiting. I got connected with people from Verona. When we arrived in Verona, I checked my email and saw there was one from Pastor Elvio. He leads the Apostolic Church here in Verona. He invited us to their prayer night. We went and he invited me to share a few words, which I did in Italian and also English for our survey team. He then went out of his way to show us some sights and then take us out to a great gelato shop. Then they drove us back to the hotel where we prayed and then headed to our rooms. One of the coolest statements from Elvio was, for about a year they have been praying for more workers to come to Verona.

And the Trip Goes On

We arrived in Mestre last night and checked into our hotel. I had a very interesting conversation with Mauro, who ran a newsstand. He is around 25 and thinks the mafia created the Catholic Church. He does believe though, but just doesn't go to church. Then the team went out into the city, where we saw where all the people gathered at Piazza Ferretti. Then we had dinner and as well as gelato and headed back to our hotel, where we prayed before going to bed. Mestre is the opposite in many ways of Treviso. It seems less safe, more graffiti, dirtier, the people more open and poorer (but Treviso is one of the richest in Italy, so that is not a huge thing).

This morning we headed out for surveys and prayer. After our time in Mestre we had to head to the train station to depart for Verona. There was a misunderstanding on the time for the train departure so we ended up having to practically jog with all of our luggage over a half of a mile through city streets to make out train in time. I literally took one step onto the train platform as it pulled in and a minute or so later we were on the train and on our way to Verona.

Once we got to Verona, we took a bus to our hotel and walked several streets to arrive at a great hotel, four stars, which coincidentally is the best hotel we have stayed in so far and is by far cheaper than the others ($39 per person per night). We have some time here at the hotel before we go out into the city to rest our legs and our minds. I'll write more later.

Here is another picture links...

Mestre (Day 2 - Day 1 Mestre Pictures coming later)
http://public.fotki.com/mcrosser/2007/prayersurvey-trip---1/

Treviso - Day One (continued)

Here are some of Angie's thoughts after our first day in Treviso.

"Treviso is a beautiful city. It looks like a painting. It is very clean and the people are beautiful dressed like out of a fashion magazine. When we stepped out of the train station we could see a tree lined street. You can tell that the city has money. My thoughts and prayers for the people tonight have been surrounded by this money. I have wondered if they are bound by their love for money. I have prayed that God would free them from that. If I could put a face on Treviso it would be Davide. I know his name because I overheard a friend say “Ciao David” as they were saying goodbye. I watched Davide a tall slender man with a firm jaw who was wearing dark jeans and a black shirt. I watched him walk away smiling and I prayed that he would know my Jesus. "

And then below you can find a link to around 30 pictures from our first day in Treviso. Also the second link is where you can see all of the links for the trips so far.

Treviso - Day One
http://public.fotki.com/mcrosser/2007/prayersurvey-trip--/

Pictures from 2007 (including Verona pics from an earlier trip)
http://public.fotki.com/mcrosser/2007/

Treviso - Day One

We made it to Treviso, and just checked into our hotel. At the train station we were already attracted to the cleanliness outside of the train station. Trees all in front of the train station and nice buildings. We only had a short walk to our hotel from the station. In a few minutes we will meet downstairs to go to dinner and explore the city center a little. Later, I will try to post some pictures.

Download our Prayer Guide

Hey if you want to pray with us through the cities this week, download our prayer guide. View it by clicking here, http://www.thecrossers.com/gonorth/gonorthprayerguide200704.pdf. If you want to download it right click the link above and choose to "save target as" and choose somewhere on your computer where you want to store it.

Prep Work For The Prayer and Survey Trip

So, we are getting closer to the Prayer and Survey trip through the four cities we are considering for the next church plant. I have been working on the schedule and accompanying resource booklet for the participants. I am including maps of each city's downtown area (the area usually most frequented by Italians), phone numbers for emergencies, survey questions, items to consider as we walk through each city, as well as places to journal and evaluations as we leave each city. After the trip we plan on compiling the information and sharing with prayer partners and supporting churches, so that we can pray together for the city in which we will be ministering next. I will close now, so that I can get further along on the materials I am preparing.

Coming up.....

We are only about a week and a half away from a prayer and survey trip we will be taking to help determine what city God is calling our new team to. In the next few days I will post information about the prayer and survey trip, as well as some tools to help you join with us in praying.

Also, this marks the release of Team Expansion's first Global Podcast. Yours truly was the interviewee and Jason Casey (Leader for the Ancona team) was the interviewer. It is all about the new work that is underway. I hope to post it here soon for you to check out. Also, I will post the new feed for all the new Team Expansion podcasts.

I love technology and the interaction with supporters that it gives us missionaries.