HE is risen! HE is risen indeed!
HAPPY EASTER!
http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/sermons/what-jesus-built-by-rising-from-the-dead
Romans 8:34
Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.
“And Can It Be?” by Charles Wesley (last stanza)
No condemnation now I dread;
Jesus, and all in him, is mine!
Alive in Him, my living Head,
And clothed in righteousness divine,
Bold I approach the eternal throne,
And claim the crown, through Christ my own.
With a little (big) extra help
We had the blessing of hosting Linden, a missionary in Estonia, this month. He came with his wife Janice and did us a great service by helping to redo the entrance area to the kitchen and meeting room/dining room. They tore out all of the cement and old roofing-overhang. Gianluca and Linden worked very hard and were able to get it done in a week. It looks really great and we are excited to see how God continues to improve il Rifugio even in a practical, visual/aesthetic sense. God has a great plan for that place and we are happy to be part of it.
Happy Birthday Aurora!
Our little Princess is 6 years old! Time goes by so fast…we are so thankful for her and the beautiful role she plays in our family.
We love you Princess Aurora!
Sunday Sermon
Gianluca had the chance to preach this Sunday- the first time this year! We have been so busy with i6:8 that he has not been up to the pulpit as much. But his message today was powerful! God is so good.
SHOCKWAVE
Shockwave Youth Prayer Event this Weekend! Pray for the persecuted church.
This weekend young people from around the world will join together to send a shockwave of prayer out for the persecuted church. Won’t you pray with us?
Friday the church in Trani will be hosting the prayer event, Saturday the event will be held in Modugno, and Sunday Andria will be hosting a moment of prayer for believers who are persecuted simply for their faith in Jesus Christ.
HELP has arrived!
Update on my back…still spending most of the day in bed. I have lost track of the weeks now. I think I am starting my 6th week now. Sometimes it feels much longer. Other times things go by just too too slow. I am finishing up all my tests and analyses this week so that I can get back to the doctor next week and decide what to do next. Last week went pretty well, and then starting on Saturday after I did my MRi I started having a lot of pain again.
So it is still up and down. Keep praying! I know I am! Praying for a miracle of God’s complete and permanent healing. God is teaching me a lot about humility- learning to ask for help. And patience- waiting on Him and his timing. And His sovreingty- asking him to change my character through my circumstances instead of worrying so much about Him changing my circumstances.
But help is here! Yeah! My mom arrived on Monday morning, thanks to the sacrificial gift of one of our sending churches who offered to fly her here to help us out. It is so good to have her. Thank the Lord for His provision.
Love for the nations
“Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.” 1 John 4:11-12 NIV
A Divine Visit
We have had some really special guests during this period. It has been so wonderful to have them and absolutely amazing to see how God is moving and opening doors and bringing all the right people together. I wish I could say more right here, but it is not the place to share about all that is happening. So I will just say- WOW! And again Wow!
TrUE LovE
21 Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.22 Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing[b] her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— 30 for we are members of his body. 31 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”[c] 32 This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband. Ephesians 5: 21-32
TRUE LOVE
Annual Conference on what True Love means this February 17 and 18.
Each year the youth group hosts an event to speak out against the false image our culture gives us about love. If we look around us love according to our culture is all about meeting our own needs, it is about what feels good, about satisfying oneself. But if we look to the Bible we see a very different message about love. True love puts the other first. True love is willing to wait. True love is not focused inward, but outward!
Gianluca and I have the honor to participate again this year and we are looking forward to sharing once again what TRUE LOVE really is.
“4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love never fails.” 1 Co 13:4-8