ItaliaNews 29-August-2012

"...you never know how things turn out!"

Dear friends!
This title fits well with our current life...
Maybe better: Man proposes and God disposes!

We asked for prayer for the summer games in the park in late August.

Well, we spent much time in preparations, but the last week we heard one message after the other, which has shown us that God's ways are not always like we we think they are...
When we talked to a friend who always gets us the power connection, he said: "Thomas, in the park are constructions going on, there is no electricity..."
A few hours later the phone rang and a girl from the Castello Church stated that the small mixer we always use in the park no longer works.

So without electricity and microphones, it is impossible to do the summer games as we did it in the last years. Well, a couple days ago we went to the park to see how the situation was, it's actually a construction site, a part of the park is no longer accessible!

The last week was also extremely hot, we had 125 ° Fahrenheit on our balcony, at 5:00 p.m.! Unbelievable! We cannot remember such a long and intense heatwave in Italy...
Well, now we ask the Lord how we can reach our beloved friends from Umbertide.

But we trust that He is in control and opens up new doors for us!
We decided to make it smaller, next week we'll do something for kids or in our house or in the meeting hall if we have more kids coming. The weather reports for next week is rain (kind of a answer to prayer after this period of heat), so it's maybe good to be inside...

last week we also got clarity about the return of our colleagues. George has myasthenia gravis and one therapy step is the removal of the thymus. Kim and George have decided to do this surgery in the United States. After they had the appointment with the surgeon, they found out that George will have it on Sept 11^th. They will return to Italy around Sept 25^th. Please pray that all is going well with the surgery and that we have the strength to bear the responsibility for another month...
Gabriele, one of our church members had a stroke. A small one, but not diagnosed when it happened (some weeks ago). So he has trouble moving his arm and his right leg... Please pray also for wisdom as we encourage him and his wife Gabriela. We pray that she is opening her heart through this!
Then Thomas bumped into another car...

But we have been encouraged by a verse in Psalm 112: ?Bad news won't bother them; they have decided to trust the LORD?.
It helped us once again, to look away from the circumstances directing our view to the Lord! We want to learn to really trust Him and go on! Thanks for praying with us!

Impressions from our ministry and the beach at our annual prayer conference
Please pray specifically for:
- Today, 29.08: Bible study with Marinela, a Romanian believer
- next week: a day with kids we'll invite to our house or the church sala
- we are going to visit several people
- In the next months we will have to pay a huge amount of taxes (for 2011 and 2012)
Thank you that you will fight with us!

The Lord bless you, Thomas and Rebecca