The First of Many Firsts

As Stephen and I have entered into the next phase of this missions journey, it has become apparent that we will have many new "firsts" moving forward. The Lord has been calling on us to do things that we never dreamed in order to fulfill this call on our lives and we know it will just continue.

Last Sunday, we had the first of many firsts as we were invited to share about our call to full-time missions in Italy to our church's Latino service, Victory Vida. The topic of their message was "Heroes" and Vida's pastor, Emilio Schumann, talked about Abraham leaving his home country to follow God's leading to a new land where the Lord had planned his destiny. Then, to give an example of a modern day "hero", Stephen goes running onto the stage dressed as a boxer while the song, "Eye of the Tiger" is blaring from the speakers! He was introduced as the "Italian Stallion" and Pastor Emilio interviewed him about our call to Italy and the incredible need for the gospel there.

Because the Vida service is done entirely in Spanish, Stephen spoke through an interpreter (which was great practice for our transition to Italy until we learn Italian!). It was so moving to hear the crowd's reaction to the statistics Stephen shared and then Pastor Emilio led the congregation to pray over us in Spanish. Even though I didn't understand everything he said, I could feel the fervency of their prayers for us and for the Italian people. Afterwards, a couple of people came up to us and told us stories of people they know in Italy and the spiritual darkness they have experienced there. We also got several donations towards our outgoing expenses and had people asked to be added to our prayer list.

We had such a good time being a part of the Vida service! Pastor Emilio and his assistant, Jerry (in the picture at the top being "punched" by Stephen) made everything so easy that our first time speaking about our missions call in a service was truly a pleasure instead of being stressful as we imagined it might be. We are looking forward to many more opportunities to share!

P.S. If you or your church would be interested in having us speak about the need in Italy during a worship service, small group meeting, Sunday school class, etc., please email me at brandy@theverners.org. We would even love to bring a tiramasu to your house for you and a few friends or maybe just meet over cappuccino to talk! The need for the gospel in Italy is great and we are looking for people and churches to partner with us to make that happen!