The countdown has begun!
Do you have a countdown app on your phone? I have at least two!
One specifically for Christmas, and another one for everything else (and Christmas!).
I have two countdowns that are particularly on my heart right now, and prayers.
Most urgently, I need to finish tomorrow’s sermon.
This is my weekly countdown. Tomorrow, Lord willing, I will be preaching from Matthew 4:12-17. I admire you pastors that get your sermons prepared weeks in advance! I’m still tweaking until Sunday morning at 8, when I am doing well.
More importantly, we are counting down to Melodee’s return.
Her return ticket is for December 19th, which is only 12 days away.
Unfortunately, all we can do is wait and pray that her background checks from Michigan and Pennsylvania arrive in the mail so that she can then turn around and get the apostilles done.
Please pray!
- Pray that the documents arrive.
- Pray that she can get them legalized (“apostilled”) in time.
- Pray for discernment if we need to extend her stay.
- Pray that she can be home for Christmas.
We are doing ok. We have our moments.
My parents have been a great blessing, feeding us lunch almost every day.
We have friends who have also brought us meals too.
I am trying to not neglect my ministry and my parental duties.
The kids have tried to keep busy with their school work.
But it’s hard. Maybe you are one of those who have been there.
We tried to listen to the song “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” yesterday, but it did not go well.
Thank you for supporting us in this challenging Christmas season through your prayers.
May the fun begin!
We thank the Lord for Daniel and Sara, who gave Melodee a ride to the airport Tuesday!
Since you asked, Melodee made it back to the States, and last time I talked to her she was headed to Michigan for the first and most important leg of her trip, along with her mom.
Here is Melodee’s checklist:
- Michigan Background Check
- Pennsylvania Background Check
- Michigan Background Check Apostille
- Pennsylvania Background Check Apostille
- Spend thanksgiving with Melodee’s family and extended family (woohoo)
- Return in time for Christmas (Let’s just say that we will not be playing the song: “I’ll be home for Christmas” for a while…)
- Hand in papers to complete her Italian citizenship request
In the meantime, my parents are feeding us lunch almost every day, I am re-learning how to run the dishwasher, washing machine and dryer, the kids are helping me cook and clean, and in my free time, when not playing soccer mom, I am trying to be a pastor, get my sermon done and anything else that comes my way!
We appreciate your prayers!
Home Before Christmas
Thank you for praying for Melodee’s Italian citizenship process.
We feel very loved and prayed for at this moment. ❤️
The good news is that Melodee does not have to go to Minnesota. (She hasn’t lived there since she was a baby)!
But she does have to go to Michigan and Pennsylvania to get background checks (plus apostilles). And it has to happen fast, before her FBI background check and birth certificate apostilles expire in January.
The other good and bad news is that she leaves tomorrow.
I’m excited that she will be with her family over Thanksgiving, but we are praying that she can get everything done in time to return home for Christmas! Eva in particular is struggling with the idea of missing her mommy.
We realize that we are asking for a small miracle, considering the holiday season upon us. That’s where you enter in!
There are so many things I could add to the prayer request list, but I am sure you can imagine the domino effect of being gone from us for a whole month (if she gets the paperwork done in time.)
What more can I say? Thank you for caring! And especially, thank you for praying! God is good.
PS.
Special thanks to Daniel Ransom and my neice Sara, who are also heading out for Thanksgiving with family tomorrow morning, so Melodee can get a ride with them to the airport!
And for my BFF Shawn Gurk who suggested that “Background Check” sounded much better than “Criminal Record”!
Rejected!
A couple weeks ago a little bird flew into our window. We didn’t know what to do.
Was it alive? Dead? Did it need first aid? Mouth to mouth?
Gradually it came back to its senses and flew off as if nothing had happened.
Today we feel a bit like that little bird. Although we are still in the “stun” phase.
And more than a window it feels like a big wall!
Since this summer we have been working (and you have been praying) as we gathered all the documentation that we needed to request Italian citizenship for Melodee. It’s kind of like life insurance for missionaries: if something were to happen to me, she would have to leave the country without it.
Melodee is the only one in our family that does not have Italian citizenship!
We even hired a lawyer to get it right.
Yesterday, after getting everything in order, we sent in the request, at the lawyer’s office.
And today we received news that Melodee’s Italian citizenship request was flatly denied on the grounds that we did not have state criminal records to go along with her federal criminal records. Unless something drastic happens, all the money and time will have been for nothing, especially considering all the expirations dates on many documents
The lawyer said she would go speak with the office where the decision was made to see if something can be done..
Now what? Only God knows! It’s not quite like in 2006, when Melodee got kicked out of the country…but the feelings are similar.
Would you pray?
- Pray for deliverance.
- Pray for wisdom.
- Pray for peace.
Proverbs 21:1 says: “The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, like the rivers of water; He turns it wherever He wishes.”
May God’s will be done in our lives and His name be glorified through it all!!
Spreading the Truth, Spreading the Hope
One of the frustrating things about ministering in a “religiously Christian” country such as Italy is the blatant contradiction in beliefs that people live comfortably with every day.
Not too long ago, I spoke with a very well-educated man who was trying so hard to get his religious beliefs to coincide with his scientific beliefs. He wanted to consider himself a Christian, but he was dogmatic about his Darwinist beliefs regarding the origins of the world.
The average Italian we speak to does not even go that far…he or she would say they believe that God created the world, but also that it created “itself” by chance.
The Italian religious system could be summarized with the following motto: “Don’t ask too many questions. You might not like the answer.”
Italians need to find a more solid foundation than the ones they have been relying on so far: Catholicism and Evolutionism.
- Both of them rely blindly on the changeable word of man instead of the never-changing Word of God.
- Both of them demand that you believe them without questioning their faulty assumptions.
- Neither of them are founded on truth, and neither of them can give hope.
For this reason, I am asking you to pray for these seven things with us:
- Pray for this weekend’s meetings, when our missionary friend Massimo Mollica (the former rocket scientist) will be coming to our church to speak on the theme of Science and Faith.
Massimo has specialized in this field and will be a great help in equipping Christians in our area and evangelizing the many unbelievers of all ages that we have invited. - Pray for Massimo and their family, as they come minister to us this weekend.
- Pray for our church people to come, and bring their friends.
- Pray for our students, who are bombarded every day with false teachings in their schools.
- Pray for the many people to the event, to actually come.
- Pray that people will embrace the only Truth and only Hope: Jesus Christ, creator of Heaven and Earth.
- Pray that in our hearts we may honor Christ the Lord as holy, and always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in us; yet do it with gentleness and respect. (I Peter 3:15)