Italy Update
Report from Italy
We are very grateful to Good News Church for your relentless support to church planting work in Italy. You have been faithful supporters throughout the years and we praise God for your example and take your passion as an inspiration. As you are well aware, church planting is a process that can have unexpected accelerations or stops. Not all the projects are at the same level of growth and health.
Breccia di Roma
We praise God for the church planted in 2010 and the new Church that was planted in 2018 (Breccia di Roma San Paolo). Our next project is going to be Breccia di Roma Trionfale in 2022.
After much prayer and reflection, the two churches (Breccia di Roma and Breccia di Roma San Paolo) positively evaluated the calling of two families to relocate to a neighborhood called Trionfale (Triumphant) on the northern border of the Vatican City. For those of you who are familiar with Rome the entrance of the Vatican Museums is where Trionfale begins. It’s a densely populated and in many ways thriving area (approx 100.000 people living there) with little if any evangelical witness. It is literally under the shadow of the Vatican and St. Peter’s cupola dominates the whole area being visible from afar.
Bologna
Your help here was to re-plant an old and dying church. Praise God, in recent months they have seen the first conversions to Jesus Christ after many years without. The new converts are all young people. New families are joining the church and this is also a great encouragement. For personal reasons, the former pastor left the church but a new leadership is now developing and building a kind of momentum that has not been experienced for years.
Verona
In the midst of the covid pandemic, the launching of the Verona church happened in October 2020. Praise God for the core group that continues to meet under the leadership of Daniele Bozzini and Luigi Dalla Pozza, build relationships and networks, and evangelize. In the most difficult season in recent years, the project was launched and is looking ways the get established.
Pescara
The project there is still in a pre-launching phase. The mother church (Chieti) is still working in the area in which they want to plant by building relationships and evangelizing the neighborhood. The time line towards the planting is slower than expected but the process is still on.
Catania/Sicily
The work in the Catania region was developped by the church in Caltanissetta. The church was planted in Comiso using the premises of the former US air force base. The church there is very involved in the community by fonctioning as a local food bank for needy families. Regular services are held in the area and that are promising signs of growth.
Rome, 16th April 2021
Leonardo De Chirico, Rome, Italy
leonardo.dechirico@ifeditalia.org