Short-Term Mission Trip To Italy
Our Missionary and Evangelist, Gaetano Sottile along with his staff from Italy For Christ, requested a team from Central Church to help with a Festival just inland of Naples June 14-26, 2007. The Arzano Festival has been a successful evangelism tool in the southern region of Italy. The Festival is a free event open to the public, and creates an environment rich in opportunity to share the Gospel.
Evangelism in Italy, "Here I am Lord, send me." With just three short months to prepare, Craig and Ellen Reckord, Brenda Faulk, Brenda Sutherland, and Kathy Ellison would be the Memphis Team from Central Church. We were only five, but being baptized in fire, we were a fervent five accepting this invitation from Italy For Christ. On a wing and a prayer from Hank and Sandy Mauer we left Memphis International Airport for Amsterdam and then on to Rome.
Jennifer Sottile, Gaetano's daughter, met with us in Rome to line up our first night's stay and transportation to Casoria, Italy for our first meeting with the Festival Leadership. A Missionary for over 30 years, Pastor Doug Valenzuela, picked us up at the train station so he could give us a quick orientation of the event while driving us to his church and headquarters of the festival. We then sat down for our first Pronzo (lunch) with the Festival Director, Brian Heerwagen, who did not miss a beat as they tag-teamed our orientation.
The excitement of the first day of the Festival was contagious and we were asked to begin each festival day with a prayer walk around the park. We would pray for the staff, the participants, and for the much-needed ministry at each booth. We noticed the need to pray that the park would be transformed from being overgrown, riddled with graffiti, and a dirty dried up fountain, to a park fragrant with the fruit of the Spirit.
Our whole Memphis team served in the inflatable rides area for the first few days. Our mission was to encourage parents by loving on their children and providing a safe place to interact with them, and taking advantage of every opportunity to show them Jesus. As the Festival went into full swing, our team began taking shifts serving in other areas as needed. The crowds grew each night and the need for more interaction grew too. Because of the intense heat, we would cling to "the joy of the Lord is our Strength".
One night when jet lag, the heat, and our scheduling dilemmas caught up to us; we broke out in a holy laughter. We could feel the need to shed the emotional excess baggage that would burden our ministry in Italy. The Lord proved His faithfulness to us. If we would empty out all our preconceived notions and expectations, that He would gladly take charge and show Himself to us by renewing us and reviving us once again.
The first weekend we met Gaetano Sottile and his brother Ugo at the Arzano Festival. Guy preached a very dynamic sermon that spoke clearly to the Italians. Several came to know Christ and many more would begin to recognize the Truth. Guy told us that his Sunday message the next day would be on the Method, Material and the Motivation behind evangelism. That night we were led to have individual time with the Lord focusing on our motivation for evangelism. Guy's message pierced our hearts and encouraged us all to evangelize with a pure heart. The Lord specifically put a man by the name of Carlos on our hearts and to pray for his salvation. The next evening Carlos went forward at the invitation. The Lord encouraged our prayer life by answering many prayers and by showing us the significance of praying with a pure heart.
We drew great confidence in seeing the Lord use our SHAPE to minister to those around us. "For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so that we can do the good things he planned for us long ago." Ephesians 2:10
We enjoyed serving along side of the other American teams from around the US. We were all using our hand held fans and I was given a Magnolia Bloom from one of the trees in the park. That's all it took for us to begin to dramatize the plantation days when a lady would attach a blossom to her hand held fan to cut through the humidity and add a fragrance to the room. Such mannerisms of our heritage and our Southern Belle drawls led to our nickname, the Steel Magnolias from Tennessee.
The Steel Magnolias were in a spiritual battle as we began to pray for our individual testimonies and the translators during the week. Our very own Brenda Sutherland was asked to share at the chapel service for our 100 member festival staff. She shared her testimony and sang a tribute to God's redemptive love. There was not a dry eye in the place. Praise the Lord for His faithfulness to equip us and to never forsake us.
One evening while serving as the volunteer security team at The Casoria Church, The Steel Magnolias took advantage of the acoustics and began belting out favorite gospel tunes loud enough to be heard by the government housing. While singing, mopping, and securing the premises, we felt like a living testimony in action and deed and knew that our Father in Heaven was smiling down on us and giving us the Joy down in our souls.
We were so thankful for the experience of the Festival Staff. This (American style) festival is a huge undertaking at home much less in Italy. They took exceptional care of the Memphis Team from Central Church because we were the rookies. Considering the logistics required for the American staff, the Italian staff, and the Christian performers; you could easily say that God was in control and blessed all the efforts initiated by the leadership. At the close of each evening, the Italian Pastors would pour out beautifully anointed messages with great creativity and clarity. We could physically see a change come over people as they would be touched by the grace of God.
Roughly, 5,000 Italian guests from Arzano and the surrounding communities walked into The Villa on the final night of the Festival. Overall, at least 10,000 or more participated throughout the nine day campaign, of which 50 stepped forward to make commitments for Christ and then went into the SOS tent for spiritual counseling. The average church in Italy is around 50 people and typically they will see five new commitments within a year. We have been blessed to be a part of God's mighty plan to bring many to know Christ through the 2007 Arzano Festival.
This trip has been an opportunity to meet so many beautiful people. The loving people of Italy have enriched our lives. It has been an honor to catch the spirit of Italy for Christ and see first hand much fruit. We did not want to leave because we knew that we would miss our new Italian friends. Our prayer is that this trip will mark the beginnings of a deeper commitment to pray for the lost, the new believers, and the foot soldiers in Italy. And we know that the soil at The Villa in Arzano will never be the same because of the seeds planted by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ
