Honeymoon & beginning of missions!

Hi you guys!!

SO much has happened since our last blog post! We're so thankful for how much God has provided for us. We're now in Turin with the rest of the team, and going into the 4th day of English Bible camp tomorrow (: a quick recap on all the things that we did these past 2.5 weeks --

5/27 GOT MARRIED

5/28 left for Europe on our honeymoon!

5/29-6/1 Iceland -- driving around icelandic wilderness & finding random waterfalls & eating gas station sandwiches (lol) (we had no food in Iceland)

6/2-6/4 Paris -- <3 10/10 would visit again

6/3-6/7 Positano, Italy -- the most beautiful city on the edge of a mountain off the Almafi Coast! The city is filled with pastel-colored buildings, bougainvillea, and the best food. 

6/8-6/10 Florence -- my favorite! So fun to be back with a HUSBAND & wander around the italian streets and just people-watching and eat (again) sandwiches.

6/11 Met up with the rest of the team in TURIN! (: Finally after two weeks in Europe we arrived in Turin to meet Bonnie, and also Joel, Hernan, Kellie, and Jackie from Faith Bible Church. 

So excited for what the Lord is doing during our time here! The Spitale family has taken such good care of us, opening up their home to us, and feeding us SO well. We are getting to know the kids and trusting that God is using Raffaelle to preach the Gospel to them each day during the lesson time. Each morning we start with singing songs from Jana Alayra (if you don't know her, she's a VBS popstar) and then going in to a sermon based on the verse of the day. After that we do memory competitions with the same verses, and play field games with the kids. We're getting the know the kids more each day, and although the language barrier has been hard, we already love them so much! More updates & photos of our kids to come soon <3 Ciaooo

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Prayer requests: 

• That the Gospel that is preached everyday would take root & grow into saving faith in the children's hearts. The Raffaelle would speak the truth bodly and clearly
• That the love of Christ would be shown through us to the children, and also just for energy to keep up, and for our health.
• That God would strengthen the local missionaries, the Spitales, to persevere in their ministry and grow their church in Turin.

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lastly, some honeymoon photos! --

Our first missions meeting!

This past Friday, we met with the team for the first time! There are four members (Joel, Kellie, Jackie, and Hernan) from Faith Bible Church and Bonnie from CrossLife Bible Church. Joel will be leading the team and he has been doing an amazing job in setting our hearts right for the mission trip and coordinating all the details, praise the Lord for him! 

During the two week trip, we will be hosting a English Bible School for kids aged 5-12 years to share the message of the Gospel with them. Each weekday, we have prepared crafts, skits, songs and games to help Raffaele and Manuela Spitale share specific elements of the Gospel (God, man, Jesus Christ, death and resurrection, repentance and faith, forgiveness of sin, salvation). As the Spitales will be doing most of the teaching, our lesson plan and preparation has been focused on encouraging the children to memorize verses, sing songs about God and make Gospel themed crafts. We’re really excited to be helping out in leading song singing, skits, face painting and sharing the good news of Christ with these children!

Please pray that our hearts are prepared and emboldened to share the Gospel. Please pray for the English Bible School and the Spitale’s efforts in hosting the two weeks. Please pray that we would have countless Gospel opportunities with the kids and parents. And lastly, please pray that the Spitale’s local church would grow in up in every way into Christ.

In Christ,
Lenny

We're going to Italy for missions!

This June, we will be going to Turin, Italy to share the Gospel of Christ alongside two Italian missionaries, Raffaele and Manuela Spitale. From 6/9-6/24/17 (2 weeks), we will join four other team members from Faith Bible Church, and Bonnie from CrossLife Bible Church, to host a English Bible School with the goal of evangelism and encourage the believers at the home church in Turin.

Please pray for our team. Please pray that God would open to us a door for the word (Col 4:3). Pray for courage and boldness as we share the Gospel (Eph 6:19). Pray that the Gospel will spread rapidly wherever it is heard (2 Thess 3:1). Pray that the church in Turin would be encouraged (1 Thess 4:18).

We feel especially thankful and excited for this opportunity as both of us have a huge heart for overseas evangelism—we can’t wait to finally be doing this as husband and wife!