Last night we had our monthly team meeting. Mark (Avant leadership) went on a scouting trip the end of February and shared with us about his trip. The need in Rome is staggering! After hearing from Mark my heart is excited and anxious at the same time.
Rome Statistics:
~5 Million people call Rome home
~There are 8 Christian/non-Catholic churches in Rome
~Two parts of the city do not have any Christian churches (Rome is basically split into 4 segments)
~There is a total of 175 evangelical Christian churches in the entire country of Italy
*evangelical = preach the Bible, believe Jesus is the Son of God, only way to Heaven is to believe Jesus is Savior and forgiver of our sins, etc.
~The University of Rome (section 1 of 3) has 150,000 students. Out of those 150,000 students it is believed that about 20 have a personal relationship with Jesus! That is less than 0.001%
To say I am needed in Rome is putting it lightly. To say Rome needs our team to come and share the gospel is an understatement. I have known that Europe has become godless and it is clear that Italy has lost it's once righteous belief system. The people of Rome find no need for God, have do not desire to pursue any form of religion, and seem to be content on being a godless people.
What breaks my heart is that these statistics are people! Lives that are broken. Lives that are lost. Lives that in their times of desperation don't have a faithful God to turn to!
With knowing these statistics comes an understanding of what is at stake. Lives are a stake, souls are at stake! I am now more than ever am convinced that I heard rightly and that God has picked me to go. I was hand picked for this task and I will prepare myself in whatever ways I can so that the Lord can use me.
Right now my gifts are screaming within me to be used! I am so ready to pack and move, now!!! After hearing from someones first hand experience in the place I will soon call home makes me want to be there all the more. I have a renewed sense of urgency to start learning Italian and pushing through the hard parts of support raising.
Things I'm excited about:
~There are a couple of existing ministries doing great work in Rome that we might have opportunities to work with
~One of those ministries reaches out to the poorer neighborhoods in Rome (southwest section). I'm super excited to see what they are doing and get involved!!!
~Praying with more specificity about my soon to be home :)
~My team! I think God has done a good job ;) Excited to possibly have another family join us!
~Learning Italian~Thinking about all the new people I'm going to meet... so cool!
~My parents are starting to save their pennies to come visit me in Rome. Yay!
~Nicole
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