Almost every year, rumors start to swirl. First, it is a post on someone’s social media that alerts us to the event. “It’s going to happen here and on this day!” But we have heard it so often that we generally are pessimistic over the veracity of the information. We do the normal internet research and find a blog or two commenting about the same thing. The information seems to line up, but that isn’t unusual, as they are all based on the same source. We check it out directly from the source and find nothing and possibly pass by at some point, just to be absolutely sure. This year was no different: September 7, Piazza Cordusio, Downtown Milan. It was the same day as our daughter AnnMarie’s golden birthday.
We realize that part of what we preach may have some similarities to the above situation, especially when you consider those who are trying to put a date and time on His return, and there may be some people who get weary of hearing it. But annoyed or not, the truth is that Jesus will return one day! We are still looking forward to His return and preparing others to have the same faith. Several months ago while out soul winning at a street market, a young Muslim man approached us. He said he was a Muslim from Iran but wanted to be a Christian. Ali and I met for several meetings so that he could understand what it meant to be a Christian, and just recently he rejected Islam and chose Christ. Just a couple days ago, he sent me a text message, letting me know that he had told his family of his decision. How humbling it is to see the zeal and faith of people who could go through such persecution, and yet we who have such liberty are so cold. Please do pray that this young Christian would continue to follow Jesus.
Also, this is an important season for our church where we generally will have a couple visitors. We are looking to spruce up our meeting place a bit. The Lord has brought us a pianist, who has been doing such a good job dealing with my handicaps concerning music. We have been working on preparing a ministry of our church which serves to do the work of evangelization. Please also pray for our efforts in spreading the Gospel seed to the apartments surrounding our church location.
Our family is well. William and AnnMarie are both zooming through school and doing better in Italian, thanks to a tutor the Lord brought across our path. Charlotte is walking and talking (she knows what she is saying, even though we sometimes don’t). Thank you so much for your love and support for our family.
Just in case you wanted to know what the first paragraph was about: this time it was true, and the first Starbucks in all of Italy opened in Downtown Milan. Anyone who knows me knows it is not a place I frequently visit.
Missionaries to the people of Italy,
Christopher, Amy, William, AnnMarie, and Charlotte Yetzer