MARCH 2020
Dear prayer companions,
Many of you have already understood that this is a sobering moment for quite a number of people. As I am writing this report on the Lord’s Day of Mach 8th 2020 today, we could not go as usual to our church building because the Italian Government decreed the cancellation of all public meetings, due to the spreading of the virus Covid-19. It is humbling to consider how privileges and gifts that we so often take for granted might be suddenly taken from us. Today we appreciate anew the words of Psalm 133:
Behold, how good and pleasant it is
when brothers dwell in unity!
For there the LORD has commanded the blessing,
life forevermore.
Nevertheless, because we are sustained by God’s benevolent and undeserved presence, we struggle to be faithful to our daily tasks, knowing that in the Lord our labor is not in vain!
Move to the new church building. As you probably remember, beginning in June 2019 we’ve been busy in searching for a new and better located church building. With God’s help, we found a place in OLMO (a suburb of Perugia) in a very good location and in a strategic place for evangelism. We are especially grateful for the help received from our sister churches to buy the new furniture for the church. We now have 16 pews, a pulpit, a baptismal font and a table. The people are very happy about all of this and for some of them it is like a dream becoming reality after many years! It will take still some time to adapt the place to our needs making it suitable as a church-building, but a first great step has been taken. We had our first meeting there on February 16th, 2020 and we pray that we may soon be allowed to benefit from the new place after the crisis caused by Covid-19. At this moment, we pray especially for our sister church Filaldelfia in Milan because the situation is far more worse there (at present at least!) than here in Perugia.
Move to our new home. Since we arrived in Perugia at the beginning of June 2018, Cristina and I have been living in a rented apartment. Almost all our belongings were left in Milan, waiting to find our new home (I miss a lot of my books!!!). I began preaching, teaching, and organizing the new church and about a year later we began to look for a new home. We found one in the same suburb in which we’ve been living thus far because being quite central to the area allows us to easily reach the church building as well as the people. Just before the Covid-19 crisis began we were able to bring the majority of our possessions. In mid February we began to prepare for the move to our new place. We were much encouraged to have not only our own brothers and sisters from the church to help us but also a few friends we’ve known here in Perugia. God willing, we’ll move to the new home some time in March having at least the kitchen, the bedroom, and a bathroom ready. It will take some time to order everything, but even in this case the first great step has been taken.
Preparing for the summer. Considering the encouragement and fruitfulness of our experience last summer, we are preparing for some special activities for Summer 2020. Besides conducting English classes, we are looking forward to having some music lessons, evangelistic undertakings such as the distribution of evangelistic literature and visits designed for the purpose of introducing the gospel to friends and acquaintances. Moreover, we’ve been planning our first Family Conference at the end of August 2020. For the occasion, we invited our dear Brother Rev. Charles Tedrick of Calvary URC, Loveland, CO.
Please, pray with us for the following prayer requests:
pray for the difficult time caused by the virus Covid-19; in particular,. We ask you to pray for our second son Daniele and my aged Mother who live in Milan as now it is impossible to go in and out of Milan’s city limits and the whole Lombardy region;
pray for the completion of the move to our new church building and new home;
pray for the preparations for the summer activities and especially for the Family Conference and the visit of Rev. C. Tedrick.
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.
Yours sincerely in Christ,
Pastor Andrea Ferrari