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 times 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.

These past weeks have been once again a time of sober reflection on the uncertainties of life, the fragility of human life, and the fact that things are not under our control, even though we strive to control them. By the grace of God, we experienced and are experiencing this very reality: in ourselves, we are masters of nothing! At times, when God makes us realize that things are not in our own hands, it is painful to learn how to cast our cares upon the Lord. But in time, God’s fatherly discipline brings forth blessed fruit in our lives as we understand more what it means to live by faith. As we learn to be grateful in times of prosperity, so we learn patience in times of adversity and to have confidence in God’s good providence in relation to our future and living in time in light of eternity.

Even though I am conscious of the feebleness of my gratitude to our triune God, I write to you with thankfulness and praise for the many blessings we experienced in the last two months. In fact, in spite of the COVID-19 crisis, we have many reasons to be grateful. In particular, my wife Cristina, and I are wonderfully privileged to have communion with all of you who pray regularly for us and for the church plant here in Perugia, in the region of Umbria in central Italy. Thus, I write with a felt sense of privilege for your many expressions of tangible concern for the saints of the small Chiesa Riformata di Perugia.

My wife, Cristina, and I hope and pray that you are doing well, even at this time of insecurity and unrest. What a comfort to know that when we are worn-out and heavy-laden, the Lord Jesus in his gratuitous mercy and free grace invites us to come to him to find security and rest (Matthew 11:28-30). In these days of uncertainty and anxiety, we are realizing anew – and hopefully in a deeper and more real manner – that “all flesh is grass and all its beauty is like the flower of the field” (Isaiah 40:6). Some of you may remember that in the newsletter of last month I mentioned the plan to have Rev. Cuneo and his wife Ivana moving to Perugia. In this newsletter, I would like to introduce you to them and how you can pray for them and for us.

As I write to you, I realize that another month has gone so quickly! However, we do not lose heart. Even though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self his being renewed day by day. We are thankful because our light, momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. It is always comforting to write to you thinking about your faithful prayers and many expressions of tangible concern for the saints of the small Chiesa Riformata di Perugia. We are grateful to God for having brought all of you in our lives!

As I tried to reflect pastorally, it seemed to me that thinking about doctrines such as God’s sovereignty and providence might seem too abstract and difficult, while looking at the One crucified and raised from the dead would have strengthened our faith, hope, and love by inviting us to fix our gaze on a palpable God (Zachariah 12:10; Galatians 3:1).

In these sobering days, we are experiencing in a special manner a sense of the fragility of our fallen humanity while pondering anew the amazing grace of being part of redeemed humanity. At times, I try to imagine what would it be like not to be united to Christ in faith, hope, and love. We are grateful for having received a kingdom that cannot be shaken! Even though in our pilgrimage we are often afflicted in every way, we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but we are not driven to despair.

Behold, how good and pleasant it is

when brothers dwell in unity!

For there the LORD has commanded the blessing,

life forevermore.

In his “sacred prayers” from the book of Psalms, paraphrasing psalm 2, Italian theologian Peter Martyr Vermigli beseech God as follows:

O God, convert the kings of the earth to yourself

so that they may understand and acknowledge and embrace and kiss your Son. Make them realize your anger,

and may they at last be filled with terror by the fury of your wrath!

Pity the nations, o our God, constrain the earth to come;

Send your victorious Word abroad, and bring the strangers home.

We long to see your churches full, that all the chosen race

May, with one voice and heart and soul, sing your redeeming grace!

We have not loved thee as we ought,

nor cared that we are loved by thee;

thy presence we have coldly sought,

and feebly longed thy face to see.

Lord, give a pure and loving heart

to feel and own the love thou art.

Thursday June 6th marked the first year since Cristina and I arrived in Perugia. We are grateful for God’s sustaining grace and for his guidance as we are striving to encourage and animate one another in this new and awe-inspiring endeavor to plant a confessional church in the city of Perugia (located in central Italy in the region of Umbria). There are a number of things for which we are particularly grateful.

It has been more than nine months since Cristina and I moved to Perugia. Perhaps, the most important experience so far has been the discipline of intentionally knowing the people of the core group and their families more intimately, as well as the geography of the place and also beginning to enter into the lives of our neighbors and making friends. This experience caused me to think in pastoral terms about the present trend for the recovery of ordinary Christianity.