FEBRUARY 2024
Dear prayer companions,
I apologize for the delay in sharing news from Perugia. I am resuming some tasks that I had to set aside for a while. In the last few months; besides the joy of cultivating the communion of the saints, we’ve had several encouragements that we consider an answer to your faithful intercessory prayer on our behalf. And as you read, I ask you to do so through the Spirit of grace and supplication.
Reformation Day
As usual, we organized a weekend to remember the beginnings of the Reformation. We invited Rev. Dr. Victor d’Assonville from Heidelberg (in the center of the picture between myself and Elder Andrea Suraci). Rev. d’Assonville visited us for the second time with his wife Daleen. Because I’ve been preaching through the Book of Psalms and Rev. d’Assonville is a John Calvin scholar, we considered Calvin’s Interpretation and Pastoral Use of the Psalms on Friday and Saturday, and Rev. d’Assonville preached two sermons on Psalm 22 and Psalm 31 on the Lord’s Day. We are grateful for the fellowship with other ministers within Europe because it brings a measure of consolation for us Italians who are so few.
Visit to Australia
Our first son Simone, his wife Alison, and their daughter Matilde moved to Australia last June. Cristina and I were sad for some time. However, we are grateful for the opportunity to visit them last November. We rejoiced for the privilege of spending some time with them and visiting Australia for the first time, seeing the new place where our dear ones now live. It is a suburb in Newcastle, about two hours north of Sydney. We’ve been encouraged to visit the Reformed Church of which they are now members and we are thankful for how Cristina and I were welcomed by that congregation. God willing, next May our second granddaughter Lucilla will be born!
Christmas Season
In the last newsletter, I asked you to pray for the Christmas season and for our evangelistic endeavors in inviting people to worship the triune God with us gathering around the Gospel. I believe that we are already seeing a response to your prayers. In December, our small congregation began a new practice: for the Christmas season, we met every Saturday afternoon from 5:00 pm to 6:00 pm to read the most pertinent text in the Old and New Testament concerning the incarnation of the Lord Jesus while singing God’s praises and praying. We also held a worship service on Christmas Day and New Years Day. We are grateful because the members of our church responded well and we also had few visitors.
Visitors
Speaking of visitors, I would like to share some information about the region of Umbria, in Central Italy, where biblical and religious analphabetism is extensive. Umbria counts a little less than one million people and Perugia is a University City with 200,000 people (if we consider the smaller towns surrounding Perugia the number of people grows to more than 300,000). In Umbria alone, there are less than 25 protestant churches which constitute about a thousand church members. As for the church of Rome, during the last two decades in Umbria, the number of “regular” churchgoers has dropped by more than a quarter, as have the “occasional” ones (usually occasional churchgoers attend church for funerals, weddings, and maybe Christmas and Easter). The phenomenon of “believing without belonging” is rampant in every denomination, and as for those who call themselves “catholic,” their number is decreasing rapidly. Some people say that waiting for this crisis to pass without doing anything is like trying to shelter from a hurricane with an umbrella! Therefore, you can imagine how blessed and joyful we feel having had some new people who began attending regularly our worship services. One family – Massimo and Katia (and their two teenage sons, Cristian and Gabriele) have been attending regularly for over three months (even on December 25th). I meet with them at their home every other Friday afternoon to study the Heidelberg Catechism and to explain to them what is a Reformed church and what it means to become members. Another man, Renato, has been attending for four Lord’s Days in a row.
Please, pray with us for the following prayer requests:
for Cristina and myself, for our son Simone had his family, and for our second son Daniele;
for the growth of the fraternal communion of Reformed and Presbyterian ministers/missionaries in Europe that may result in the strengthening of our witness in our very secularized culture;
for the growth in grace of the members of our congregation;
for the new people attending church: Massimo & Katia (with Cristian & Gabriele) and for Renato.
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