DECEMBER 2020
Dear prayer companions,
Once again, warm greetings from Perugia! Not much has happened since the last newsletter. We continue to experience a precarious situation and we have mixed feelings because of the COVID-19 crisis. According to a research of John Hopkins University, Italy is one of the nations with the highest death rate in the world: thus far, 112 deaths every 100,000 people. Because of the seriousness of the situation, during the Christmas season there will be a new “national” lockdown (not regional as in the month of November and early December) from December 20, 2020 to January 7, 2021.
As the year 2020 is getting close to its end, I write with gratitude as I think about your spiritual and financial support as well as your many palpable expressions of love towards us. The little flock of the Chiesa Riformata di Perugia is receiving great benefits because of your sacrificial giving and – as I’ll write below – I think I can say in truth that they are prospering spiritually even in such a time as this.
COVID-19 and evangelistic opportunities. Recently, I received an email from the US in which I was asked: “Do you find that people in your area are more susceptible to hearing the Gospel of Christ during these time of lockdowns and restrictions?”. It seems to me that both in our region of Umbria and in the rest of our nation, Italian people are beginning to feel more heavily the reality of human fragility and more deeply the need for true and abiding comfort. For this reason, in conjunction with the Christmas and New Year season, we began preparing a small gift package containing a copy of John Piper’s book “Coronavirus and Christ” and a Bible calendar with a meditation for each day of the year. We give the gift especially to people we know well enough to meet them in their home and so that we can have a small talk about human life in relation to God. God willing, in the next two weeks we’ll be able to distribute at least 200 copies of “Coronavirus and Christ” and 100 copies of Bible calendars.
Zoom and spiritual benefits. As a number of our readers will remember, since last March, we have been having Zoom meetings on Wednesdays and Fridays from 6:00pm to 7:00pm. On Wednesdays, we discuss the sermon of the previous Lord’s Day together and on Fridays, we have a prayer meeting. We usually have between 20 and 30 people in attendance and I must confess that I’ve been taken by surprise by the eagerness and seriousness with which the people have shown. Their questions, observations, sharing their own experiences, and participation in the prayers of the church have been an unexpected blessing. It is evident that the people are receiving much benefit from these meetings about which at first I was not so much enthusiastic. Thankfully, I was wrong!
New website in English. We are grateful for the wise guidance of our elders and members of the Italian Mission Committees in our sister churches in the US for their idea of developing a fitting way to present our work here in central Italy through the internet. Besides our beautiful website in Italian, we now have another website intended to show you the work in Perugia more closely in English. We are grateful for the competent help of our brother Kyle Lee of Christ Reformed Church, Washington D.C.
Please, pray with us for the following prayer requests:
pray the Covid crisis in Italy and that we may be faithful witnesses of the gospel;
pray for the growth of our church in knowledge, number, and especially in love;
pray for the efficacy of our new website in English to promote our mission to Italy in Reformed and Presbyterian churches;
lastly, pray for me that I may be a faithful Christian, husband, father (now also a “father in law”!), church member, and minister.
On behalf of all the members of the Chiesa Riformata of Perugia, I express a felt sense of gratitude for your faithful prayers and generous support.
Those of Italy greet you (Hebrews 13:24)
Yours sincerely in Christ,
Pastor Andrea Ferrari