Dear brothers… May peace and grace be with you all!
We gladly express our gratitude to the Lord for His faithful sustaining work of grace in our midst. We are and remain unworthy of so great a love, but He is and remains faithful.
Church’s Ministry and Membership
On the Lord’s Day mornings I’m expounding the book of Proverbs, treating it topically and trying to address practical subjects that may help people to think and live biblically. The focus is always evangelistic. This past Lord’s Day I preached from Proverbs 8, a message that may have been titled, “The Gospel Of Jesus Christ in Proverbs” (His person, His calling and His power to transform sinners).
A husband and wife, who are already evangelical believers, are interested and willing to join us. A seventeen-year-old Nigerian refugee, who is looking for a church, also visited us. The past Saturday we had open air preaching in the centre of Caltanissetta. Several people who are regularly attending the church’s meeting came (among them was a man from Egypt and a couple from Calabria) and the Lord gave us grace to sing hymns and to preach a brief message from John 17:3 to about 12-15 people of the city who stayed and listened carefully.
At the end of June we lost two members who had to relocate to Northern Italy because of their new work. One of them is my son Giovanni who moved to the Milan area to work for an oil company.
Church Planting Works
The planting work of new churches in Comiso, Catania, Milazzo and Palermo continues on a regular basis. From the beginning of July there have been regular meetings on the Lord’s Day in Comiso and the people there have been ministering to poor people of the area, even providing food and clothing. These two pictures have been taken during the first meeting held the first of July.
The group in Catania is meeting in a rented 7th Day Adventist church building because the place where they were meeting became too small. The group in Milazzo (about 50 people in attendance) has reacted well to a recent disappointment caused by a man who used to have a role of teaching there. The Lord gave me grace to deal openly and wisely with the matter. I can say that no one has left the group even if many are still suffering for what happened. Our brother Francesco Pollicino is doing a very good work in discipling and encouraging these people. Also, in Palermo things continue to go well. My plan is to visit the group the next Lord’s Day afternoon (July 29).
Theological Training
The last class in pastoral theology was the 5th of May (the next will be the 15th of September). From 12-14 of July, I gave three lectures (about 5 hours) in homiletics to a class of about 41 men. My subjects were: “Calvin as an Evangelist,” “Evangelistic Puritan Preaching” (J. Alleine, ‘A Call to the Unconverted’), and “How to Prepare and Preach a Series from a NT book of the Bible” (I Thessalonians). We had to cancel the module in Biblical counseling with Lou Priolo that was supposed to be held in August and it will be soon rescheduled for 2019.
Publishing ministry
The 2nd of June we had the first meeting of the translators and editors of Alfa & Omega. We spent the morning listening to preaching by Johnny Gravino. I also shared something about the history of the publishing house and about the principles by which we have been operating since the beginning.
Afterwards, we discussed several practical editorial issues in order to increase the quality of our books and to speed up the process of publication. The most recent published books are: “The Doctrine of God and Creation” (675 pages) by H. Bavinck and “The New Calvinism” by Jeremy Walker. We are presently working on a couple of John MacArthur commentaries, a book on prayer (‘The Hidden life of Prayer’ by D.McIntyre), and on a new Italian edition of “Death in the City” by F. Schaeffer.
Church Building
We are still where we were one year ago with the church building. We are praying for God’s provision to finish the basement because we would like to start a ministry for boys and girls who abandon school and to provide assistance to poor families in the area.
Please Pray
- For our relationship with God, that the preaching of the Word might contribute to the spiritual growth of believers and to the salvation of the unconverted.
- For some believers who are rather “lethargic” or little involved in worship, so that the climate of our adoration might always be one of joyful freshness and full-hearted involvement.
- For some believers who are rather “lethargic” or little involved in worship, so that the climate of our adoration might always be one of joyful freshness and full-hearted involvement.
- For the men involved in the church planting works: Giuseppe, Francesco, Jose and Ivan who are helping in the teaching ministry.
- That the Lord might grant other elders for our church.
- That the Lord might call other sinners to faith and repentance.
- That the Lord might provide the necessary funds to complete the building.
- For Alfa & Omega Publishing Ministry.
- For the various activities of training, evangelization, and conferences.
