Inside this theme issue on ‘How to hear the word of God’:

• The centrality of scripture
• A radical idea?
• Surviving in a mad, bad world
• Reaching rural Wales
• Can we really believe the Old Testament?
• Family worship
• The best preaching on earth
• Getting the gospel out
• The art of balancing
• Turning points in church history: 1859
• Finally alive
• Book reviews
• Family worship
• Personal Bible reading

This booklet, as are all those in the series, biblical (identifying different kinds of rebels); personal (identifying the rebel in each one of us) and practical (it’s all about discipleship).  As with the other booklets in the series, there is a chapter on “Personal Application Projects” which contains some common sense  suggestions and also a chapter on “Where can I get further help?”

This series has been mentioned previously in the magazine. New subjects now available are:

HELP! I’m a Slave to Food.

HELP! SHE’S Struggling with Pornography.

HELP! I Can’t get Motivated.

HELP! I’m Confused about Dating.

There are more titles in preparation in this series.

Sheila Stephen

“Dorothy’s Dictum. God knows the circumstances of life in advance. He expects us to seek His face on our responses to the events of life.” (page 98).

Sheila Stephen

 Paul Yeulett

Books for travel buffs

Attractive travel guides from Day One that would prompt a holiday or days out. £10 each.

• The House of Parliament: Cradle of democracy.
• C. H. Spurgeon: In the footsteps of ‘The Prince of Preachers’.
• William Tyndale: England’s greatest Bible translator.
  • Oxford: City of saints and dreaming spires.

Biography and devotional

• John MacArthur: Servant of the Word and Flock by Iain H. Murray. Banner of Truth, £14.90.
• Lady Jane Grey: Nine Day Queen of England by Faith Cook. EP special offer price £6.99.
• What the Bible means to me by Catherine Mackenzie. Short contemporary testimonies. Christian Focus, £7.99.
• Women of faith and courage by Vance Christie. Short biographies. Christian Focus, £8.99.
• Pearls of great price by Joni Eareckson Tada. Zondervan, £9.99.

Books for children

Day One are producing more books for children. Here is a selection of their fictional titles. £5 each.

• The Mystery of the Deserted House by Mary Weeks Millard.
• Gowandale Adventure and other stories for boys by Ruth Burke.

Christian Focus have some great Christmas books for children.

• Jesus Christ the Best King of all by Catherine Mackenzie. A bright and colourful book telling the Christmas story. £3.99
• The Greatest Gift by Catherine Mackenzie. Plenty of puzzle fun to keep the junior aged child busy over the Christmas holidays. £2.99

CDs

• Prom Praise: How Great Thou Art. £14.99
• Jonathan Veira: Travelling Songs. £12.99
• Stuart Townend: The Journey. £12.99
• Emu Music: Meet the King. (Songs to take kids through Mark’s gospel.) £10

Sheila Stephen

Since Santa is so pervasive in our culture, it is nearly impossible to simply reject Santa as part of our annual cultural landscape. Still, as parents we don’t feel we can simply receive the entire story of Santa because there is a lot of myth built on top of a true story.

Redeeming Santa

As the parents of five children, Grace and I have taken the third position to redeem Santa. We tell our kids that he was a real person who did live a long time ago. We also explain how people dress up as Santa and pretend to be him for fun, kind of like how young children like to dress up as pirates, princesses, superheroes, and a host of other people, real and imaginary. We explain how, in addition to the actual story of Santa, a lot of other stories have been added (e.g. flying reindeer, living in the North Pole, delivering presents to every child in one night) so that Santa is a combination of true and make-believe stories.

We do not, however, demonise Santa. Dressing up, having fun, and using the imagination God gave can be an act of holy worship and is something that, frankly, a lot of adults need to learn from children.

What we are concerned about, though, is lying to our children. We teach them that they can always trust us because we will tell them the truth and not lie to them. Conversely, we ask that they be honest with us and never lie. Since we also teach our children that Jesus is a real person who did perform real miracles, our fear is that if we teach them fanciful, make-believe stories as truth, it could erode confidence in our truthfulness where it really matters. So, we distinguish between lies, secrets, surprises, and pretend for our kids. We ask them not to tell lies or keep secrets, but do teach them that some surprises (like gift-giving) and pretending (like dressing up) can be fun and should be encouraged. We tell them the truth and encourage them to have fun watching Christmas shows on television and even sitting on Santa’s lap for a holiday photo if they so desire. For parents of younger children wanting them to learn the real story of Santa Claus the Veggie Tales movie Saint Nicholas is a good choice.

The truth about Santa Claus

The larger-than-life myths surrounding Santa Claus actually emanate from the very real person of Saint Nicholas. It is difficult to know the exact details of his life with certainty, as the ancient records are sparse, but the various pieces can be put together as a mosaic of his life.

A gift-giver

Nicholas was born in the third-century in Patara, a village in what is now Turkey. He was born into an affluent family, but his parents died tragically when he was quite young. His parents had raised him to be a devout Christian, which led him to spend his great inheritance on helping the poor, especially children. He was known to frequently give gifts to children, sometimes even hanging socks filled with treats and presents.

Perhaps his most famous act of kindness was helping three sisters. Because their family was too poor to pay for their wedding dowry, three young Christian women were facing a life of prostitution until Nicholas paid their dowry, thereby saving them from a horrible life of sexual slavery.

A bishop and saint

Nicholas grew to be a well-loved Christian leader and was eventually voted the Bishop of Myra, a port city that the apostle Paul had previously visited (Acts 27:5-6). Nicholas reportedly also travelled to the legendary Council of Nicaea, where he helped defend the deity of Jesus Christ in AD 325.

Following his death on 6 December 343, he was canonised as a saint. The anniversary of his death became the St Nicholas holiday when gifts were given in his memory. He remained a very popular saint among Catholic and Orthodox Christians, with some 2,000 churches named after him. The holiday in his honour eventually merged with Christmas, since they were celebrated within weeks of one another.

Misnomer

During the Reformation, however, Nicholas fell out of favour with Protestants, who did not approve of canonising certain people as saints and venerating them with holidays. His holiday was not celebrated in any Protestant country except Holland, where his legend as Sinterklass lived on. In Germany, Martin Luther replaced him with the Christ child as the object of holiday celebration, or, in German, Christkindl. Over time, the celebration of the Christ child was simply pronounced Kris Kringle and oddly became just another name for Santa Claus.

Folklore

The legends about Santa Claus are most likely a compilation of other folklore. For example, there was a myth in Nicholas’ day that a demon was entering people’s homes to terrorise children and that Nicholas cast it out of a home. This myth may explain why it was eventually believed that he came down people’s chimneys.

Also, there was a Siberian myth (near the North Pole) that a holy man, or shaman, entered people’s homes through their chimneys to leave them mushrooms as gifts. According to the legend, he would hang them in front of the fire to dry. Reindeer would reportedly eat them and become intoxicated. This may have started the myth that the reindeer could fly, as it was believed that the shaman could also fly. This myth may have merged with the Santa Claus myth, and if so, explains him travelling from the North Pole to slide down chimneys and leave presents on fireplace mantles before flying away with reindeer.

These stories of Santa Claus were first brought to America by Dutch immigrants. In the early twentieth-century, stories began having Santa Claus present for children during the Christmas season. Children also began sending letters to the North Pole as the legends surrounding an otherwise simple Christian man grew.

In sum, Saint Nick was a wonderful man who loved and served Jesus faithfully. So, we gladly include him in our Christmas traditions to remind us of what it looks like for someone to live a life of devotion to Jesus as God. Our kids thank us for being both honest and fun, which we think is what Jesus wants.

Mark Driscoll is the founding pastor of Mars Hill Church, Seattle. This article was posted on The Resurgence and PastorMark.tv in December 2010.

1. He loved his Lord; our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Easy to say; true of every Christian? But how much time do we spend with One we say we love best? John was keener on simply enjoying His company than singing about how much he loved Him! That meant listening, talking and walking with his Lord, championing His precious name and cause, ever-sensitive to any dishonour (‘liberal’ or otherwise) offered to the Saviour.

2. He loved his Bible. He read it through every year (do you?); he consistently spoke and wrote about it and from it. He adjusted his mindset in its light (do I?), always working ‘outside the box but inside the book’.

3. He loved the church; in two biblical senses. God called him to stay with his London congregation, All Souls’ Langham Place, far longer than most Anglican clergy; these days, deep-rooted ministries in one spot are often a Free Church commitment. He also treasured the global fellowship, ’the whole state of Christ’s church militant here in earth’. Evangelicals differ about denominations or wider groupings, but John’s servant-heart, often at work among the least affluent and most vulnerable parts of the body, was evident from his passport and his prayer-list. Disunity grieved him; he felt no need to apologise for loving the Church of England or co-founding the ‘Lausanne’ movement.

4. He loved the world; in the John 3:16 sense, while he well understood 1 John 2:15. He grappled with contemporary culture, but a less ’worldly’ international Christian statesman would be hard to find; his simple tastes and refusal of any supposed ‘promotion’ were a rebuke to many and a challenge to all. He had no love for money (his royalties established the Langham Partnership) or ecclesiastical titles; his focus was both worldwide (100 countries visited) and relevant.

5. He loved (and lived) the gospel. From the day he willingly embraced it as a seventeen-year-old, the good news that God saves sinners was the motive-power of John’s life. He led over thirty university missions; he was also ashamed of his own ‘guilty silence’ while busily writing on a train journey and ignoring an opportunity of conversation with a fellow-passenger – which he soon corrected! Basic Christianity has stayed in print for fifty years and brought countless readers to faith, while many count his finest book The Cross of Christ.

6. He loved his friends. The single, celibate life is less popular now than formerly; John’s was not a life-style choice but a costly, rewarding vocation. In more than one dispute, where he over-reacted he was the first to apologise and make peace. Among best friends must be counted sisters, nieces, colleagues, study-assistants, and his secretary for nearly fifty years, Frances Whitehead, who deserves her own biography.

7. He loved words: for reading, writing, speaking and preaching. The discipline of the first and the clarity of the others are among his richest legacies. His small commentary on the epistles of John reflects the depth, power and simplicity of these letters, in a style that heavier or racier studies cannot match. He was master of the well-honed phrase summing up a paragraph of Paul or a tense late-night debate in a divided assembly.

8. He loved birds. His knowledge of God’s feathered creatures was legendary. It expressed a sense of creation and redemption; a rounded personality at home in the wild as in the study. Enjoy the memoirs which relate such tiny things as delighted King Solomon and One greater than Solomon!

9. He loved Wales! His personal retreat, shared with so many to their delight and profit, was ‘The Hookses’ on the Pembrokeshire coast. This, the only property he ever owned, he eventually and characteristically gave away. He cared for the needs of the Welsh people whose guest he felt privileged to be. He established local evangelical initiatives; his ashes were lovingly buried in the village of Dale where the affection was mutual.

You didn’t always agree with him; nor did I! He was indeed ‘this glorious and good man’ (Dick Lucas), but never the infallible evangelical ‘pope’; rather, an outstanding and model leader with whom it was possible to discuss, debate and differ, while honouring him hugely for the work’s sake (1 Thess. 5:13).

10. He loved to smile; never the professional grin or cynical smirk – nor the frown, the glare, the grim jaw. John smiled readily and naturally; so many photographs radiate that warmth. He loved laughter, languages, letters and London; peace, prayer, poverty and punctuality; he loved fresh thinking… and would love us to keep at it.

Christopher Idle is a retired Anglican minister living in Bromley, Kent.

Those involved with the Movement at this time functioned largely within denominational churches, and had to come to terms, on the one hand, with a ministry often trained in the principles of ‘higher criticism’ and, on the other hand, a new-found faith, which felt the spiritually-deadening effects of the higher criticism (otherwise known as ‘Modernism’, or ‘Liberalism’, due to its liberalising tendencies). Some evangelicals believed it their biblical responsibility to withdraw from these influences; others their duty to stay within and to seek to bring the freshly-recovered gospel to their denominations. Tensions surfaced frequently over the next few decades with regards to these matters, whilst yet the Spirit of God continued to bring many to faith. An independent evangelical Welsh-speaking church began in Bala in 1967 but after some five or six years most of the men were called to serve elsewhere, which necessitated the need for the pastor, John West, to look for support in another direction. Another work began in 1981. This was to become Bala Evangelical Church, which over the years also benefited from its close links with the Movement and with Bryn-y-groes, in particular.

Recent history

It was thirty years ago that Deeside Evangelical Church (now Christ Church), after an initial Saturday evening meeting (26 September 1981), began to hold monthly Friday evening services in Bala, under the title, ‘Hear the Word of God’ and then ‘Bala Bible Ministry’. By September, 1982, a Sunday evening service and a mid-week Bible study and prayer meeting had become a regular feature and the name of Bala Evangelical Fellowship adopted. Initial attendance at church services was by a handful of committed and regular believers, some being indigenous Welsh speakers, some Welsh speakers from outside the area and some, including those often involved in the regular ministry, unable to speak Welsh. The services and meetings were, therefore, held in English. Whilst not desirable to all, this meant that everyone could at least understand the word preached – the preachers coming from the evangelical constituency of mainly North Wales. In June 1984 Bala Evangelical Christian Church was constituted with seven members. Sunday morning services, with Sunday school, commenced in November, 1989, the year the church joined the Associating Evangelical Churches of Wales (AECW, formed 1988). In 1990 the church became independent from Deeside and in 1995, with fourteen members, called its first pastor, Ioan Davies. Within a year or so, the name Christian was dropped from the title, and the church has since been known as Bala Evangelical Church. During the following ten years the work developed and the membership continued to grow.

For the last five years or so, Bala Evangelical Church has had a membership numbering in the twenties. Few of the church’s young people stay after school-leaving age. Most head off to university and, for reasons of employment, and opportunities of the ‘big city’, do not return (we have our theories about why city churches are larger than small-town ones!). Few job opportunities in the town, especially for young professionals, partly explain few young families being in the church. But we have seen an increase in the number of local people attending services and also in the number of first-language Welsh speakers becoming members. We rejoice in this, believing that Welsh people are better equipped to evangelise Welsh people. We seek to reach people by personal contact, and have found Harvest Suppers to be an excellent evangelistic opportunity, with Christianity Explained/Explored a helpful means of leading people to understand the gospel. With two services on the Lord’s Day, we now alternate our mid-week prayer meetings with home groups, of which there are four. One of these is based in Dolgellau, the others in Bala, of which one is Welsh-speaking. From 1987 the church arranged for occasional services to be conducted solely in Welsh, but this has not taken place in recent years. The annual spring/summer influx of UK-wide visitors, and the visits from churches and camps staying at Bryn-y-groes, serves to broaden our horizons and enrich our fellowship.

Word-centred

Being the only evangelical church within about a twenty-mile radius, the church values greatly its fellowship with the next nearest evangelical, gospel-proclaiming fellowships – at Llangollen, Penrhyndeudraeth and Bangor, and enjoys its links with other evangelical churches scattered throughout North and Mid-Wales, Cheshire and Shropshire. We are keen to build prayer and fellowship links with these churches. There is a slow but steady increase in the network of pastors and preachers from these churches able to ‘supply’ others’ fellowships. Realising ‘the Word for the world’, the church actively supports the work of Wycliffe Bible Translators, Barnabas Fund, Tear Fund and Caring for Life, as well as values its personal contacts with missionaries serving with UFM and AWM. The current pastor, Gareth Williams, also teaches Sudanese pastors from time to time with MERF in Kenya.

Amongst the denominations, and even in the vicinity of Bala, there appears to be a growth in evangelical concern. We might say that only where the gospel is proclaimed is there likely to be any church growth, whether in Congregational, Baptist, Presbyterian or Anglican denominations. But as Thomas Charles was led to ordain outside the established church 200 years ago, and some churches in connection with the Movement over the last forty years have seceded and ordained their own elders, those today who faithfully preach the gospel within the denominations continue to have to work out whether or not they will remain within them. Those evangelicals who sit loosely with received church structure, whether Independent, Presbyterian or Episcopalian, perhaps with ‘emerging church’ ideas in mind, have the challenge of working through a consistent ecclesiology, and to go with it, as it often seems, a biblical pneumatology. How does God lead? Is it by His word only, or mainly? Is it by impression? How are impressions weighed, etc? The theological spectrum of those who have come to the church services has been very wide, owing, in part, to there being so few evangelical churches in the area. These are some of the issues that surround us as a church here in Bala.

During recent years the church has also had to work its way through the variant styles of worship on offer these days. We aim to remain word-centred. Being a small church, and renting premises, we are somewhat constrained in things we would like to do. We wish very much to see men and women of the church become increasingly able to teach God’s word, to evangelise and to lead various Bible studies. With members having responsibility for running Bryn-y-groes and two EMW bookshops, one in Bala, the other in Wrexham, and considerable ill-health within the membership and/or their wider families, members often feel stretched, some finding the time and space needed for prayer hard to come by. We stand in need of a larger spirit of prayer.  We love to have visitors, we love to meet up with other churches, but we feel greatly the need for prayer: prayer that we will truly love one another, prayer that we will evangelise local people effectively and be sensitive to our bi-lingual, socially diverse context, prayer that we will be increasingly outward-looking, in fellowship with other churches and in global awareness, prayer that the Lord Jesus Christ will have, and will be understood to have, the pre-eminence in all we do, that we, as the saints around Bala have done in ages past, will seek to do everything for the sake of the word ‘which stands for ever’.

Gareth Williams is the minister of Bala Evangelical Church.

Children and young people in revival

It is not uncommon for adults to have low expectations of the spiritual understanding of children and therefore disregard their spiritual experiences. Some developmental theories have had a guiding influence on the thinking behind some published materials about, and for children’s ministry. There is a view that children should not be taught certain doctrines and that children, prior to late adolescence, would not be able to make an informed and independent response to the gospel!

Even a cursory study of the influence of revival on children and young people blows these ideas out of the water! But there are other reasons to study this subject – to warm our hearts and raise our expectations.

Some of the characteristics of the involvement of children and young people in revival challenge the practice in some contemporary youth work which often short-changes the time for overt spiritual activities and maximises the time for entertainment.

Enjoyable prayer

Would we expect children to be excited about prayer today?

In 1816 in the village chapel, Capel y Nant, near Saethon, Gwynedd, a bored disabled boy wanted to find some rest and quiet between the end of the preaching service and the start of Sunday school. He crept into the church loft but his peace was shattered when the daughter of one of the elders joined him. Both children were moved to pray and they were soon joined by others in their serious entreaty. Apparently the venue was no hindrance to these children and young people who made prayer a regular weekly event and often met out of doors among the prickly gorse bushes. Eryl Davies, who writes about this event in his book The Beddglert Revival (Bryntirion Press) indicates that prayer was for them an ‘enjoyable’ experience. The following year revival came to Capel y Nant.

Harry Sprange has made a study of children in the history of the church, with an emphasis on revival. His study focused on 300 years of Scottish church history, from the eighteenth-twentieth century and has been published in Children in Revival (Christian Focus). He too makes many references to the fervent prayer of children. He records one incident in an institution in Edinburgh on 1741 when the house-mistresses were woken up with the voices of the girls in prayer and praise.

In April 1742 in Kirkintilloch, near Glasgow, sixteen children were meeting in a barn to pray in preference to play. And in Cambuslang a group of children between the ages of nine and thirteen were meeting together for prayer three times a day.

At Carrubbers Close Mission in Edinburgh in 1860 hundreds of children met regularly for prayer. At the time people said that their prayers were a challenge and rebuke to older believers.

Children’s prayer meetings were also prevalent in the 1904 Welsh Revival. Many took place in school playgrounds.

The revival in the 1950’s in the Belgian Congo also resulted in groups of children spontaneously meeting for fasting and prayer without any adult intervention or organisation. In fact the adults were challenged by the children ‘why haven’t you taught us these wonderful truths before?’

Conviction of sin

In Kilsyth, outside Glasgow, in 1742 upwards of seventy-five children between the ages of nine and eighteen were awakened to a sense of sin and their need of a Saviour. One six-year-old girl was in great distress. She told the minister that she had become aware of her sin through the preaching. One wonders how many six-year-olds are hearing sermons in our contemporary evangelical churches?

In Shapinsay, Orkney in 1861 it was reported in the local paper that boys of ten and eleven years of age were experiencing great anxiety about their souls.

Conversions

Accounts of revivals all record conversions among children and young people, in families, in schools, in institutions (such as Muller’s orphanage in 1858), in churches and in Sunday schools. Jonathan Edwards recorded that little children were brought to Christ in great numbers in the revivals in New England, USA and Robert Murray M’Cheyne made similar comments about the Dundee revival in 1839.

Zeal

One could hardly say that this was a hallmark of many of today’s young people! Not so in times of revival. In 1904 in Wales it was nothing for young people to walk fifteen miles to attend a youth meeting.

The local press in Blaenau Ffestiniog recorded groups of children, some as young as three walking around the village singing revival hymns.

Discipleship

How easy it is to keep children ‘on ice’ after they have professed Christ. In a desire not to encourage false professions or put pressure on the young there is a tendency to ‘wait and see’ when a child indicates that he has trusted Christ as Saviour. Babes in Christ can stay babies because we lack the faith and the opportunity to encourage their spiritual growth.

The opposite was true in times of revival. In Beddgelert in 1817 the Rev John Williams started a regular doctrine meeting for children and young people. Actually these were a precursor to revival which broke out shortly afterwards.

In Charlotte Chapel in Edinburgh in 1905 1,000 people were converted. Children were baptised, ten at a time, and 230 of them attended a Bible study specially set up to nurture them in the faith.

Fruit

In the various accounts it has been noted that many children and young people who were affected by revival have gone on to ministry or church leadership. Through revival God has built His church and secured its future leadership.

Warmed and challenged?

Has your heart been strangely warmed by this brief overview of revival among the younger generation? Are you stirred to pray for the children in your family and in your church? Above all will you have greater expectations of the spiritual experience of children and act accordingly? Our God doesn’t change.

Sheila Stephen lectures in Youth & Children’s Ministry at WEST.

Like much of Europe however Italy is mainly unreached, with numerous towns and cities lacking any biblical witness. Most Italians would consider themselves Roman Catholic, but are increasingly disillusioned with the church. Sadly, the perceived choice before them is either Catholicism or secularism, leaving no real option. Moreover Protestantism tends to be weak and divided, and congregations lack trained, funded and mature under-shepherds. There are very few written resources for the broader church.

It is estimated that only 0.8% of the population is evangelical in the broadest sense. Within that grouping there is a small presence of Brethren, Baptists, and Pentecostals, and increasingly churches coming from immigrants who have settled in Italy.

Mantova

Coram Deo Ministries was formed in 2007 with a vision to take the gospel to the Italian people. Preaching is central in this vision, a commitment to proclaim the historic Christian faith and to plant churches in areas of Italy where at present no gospel witness exists. Coram Deo is a Latin expression that means ‘in the presence of God’, and by implication honouring God, a life open before God, held captive by the word of God.

CDM works in the city of Mantova, thirty kilometres south of Verona. The founder of CDM, Andrea Artioli, returned to Mantova after his studies at London Theological Seminary to establish a publishing house. He knew that his country did not possess the range of theological books that was available in the UK and so began a work of translating books from English to Italian, by authors such as Richard Baxter, Martyn Lloyd-Jones and John Piper. Publishing literature is an integral part of the work of Coram Deo, because it is so important that Italian churches are strengthened in the faith by having in their native tongue the wealth of evangelical literature found in the English speaking world.

In 2008 the first CDM church was established in the outskirts of Mantova in Porto Mantovano. Other opportunities for establishing churches will materialise in the coming years as we meet with small groups to study God’s word. There are many opportunities to share the gospel with Italians. There is much work to be done in patiently coming alongside men and women and presenting the gospel. We experience the same challenges as all missionaries working in Italy – a culture that has become indifferent and sceptical to all forms of religion, a ground that is hard to break to sow the seed.

Ian McElhinny
Find out more at: www.coramdeo.it

Turin

‘Don’t move to Italy because it’s beautiful – take a holiday here. Move here if God is calling you’ was the blunt but wise advice we received from missionary friends in Italy two years ago. Those few words summarise so neatly the situation for ministry in Italy; a country of stunning beauty, rich culture and amazing food is also regarded as something of a ‘missionaries’ graveyard’, with recent statistics stating that the average ministry-time of a missionary to Italy as lasting just four years. The answer to why gospel work in the country is so hard is complex, and reflects many of the challenges to gospel ministry across Western Europe, albeit often in more acute forms. The short answer is that the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.

We believe that over the last couple years the Lord has given us a clear call to Italy, culminating in a call last February for Huw to pastor the International Church of Torino. Nestling in the foot of the Alps, Turin is an industrial city in the North-West of the country, famous for Fiat cars, Juventus football club, the Turin Shroud, The Italian Job movie and winter sports.

The International Church of Torino (ICT) is a congregation of around 100 people meeting in the centre of Turin every Sunday. It is truly international, with (at the last count) people from thirty different home countries spread over five continents. Services are conducted in English and the primary mission field of the church is to the city’s large international community; in a population of around one million (doubled in the surrounding Greater Torino area) the international community accounts for around 13% of the city’s inhabitants. Many come to Turin to work or in the search of work, while many others come to study in one of the city’s two large universities. As a result, a large proportion of the congregation is rather transient with people staying in the city for a year or two before moving home or moving on to other situations. This brings its own challenges and opportunities; an ever-changing congregation can be unsettling and there are always plenty of goodbyes to be said to friends, while there is also the opportunity of investing in brothers and sisters for a year or so before God moves them on to new situations.

Italy has never seen a large-scale movement of the gospel, remaining largely untouched even by the Reformation. Please join us in praying for the country as a whole and for the city of Turin in particular. Please pray that the ICT would be equipped to reach out into the various communities it represents, as well as to the Italian communities of the city. Finally, please pray for us too, that we would love and serve the church with the love of Christ Jesus and make Him and His great love known.

Huw and Alison Williams

Bologna

‘Bologna is a lot of things, my friend. It’s always been the centre of free thought and intellectual activity in Italy, thus its first nickname, la dotta, which means “the learned”. Then it became the home of the political left and received its second nickname, la rossa, “the red”. And the Bolognesi have always been serious about their food. They believe, and they’re probably right, that this is the stomach of Italy. Thus, the third nickname of la grassa, “the fat” (John Grisham, The Broker).’

Under the auspices of UK agency Crosslinks John Paul and Sue Arunzulla have been invited by Italian Christians to work long-term in Italy in planting and establishing a church in Bologna, and researching, publishing and lecturing in biblical studies within the Institute for Evangelical Training and Documentation, a theological institute committed to equipping and raising up indigenous gospel workers and church leaders for this needy nation.

It was here that Stefano Mariotti, a native of Bologna, began to train for the ministry. In 2003, the elders of his church, San Lazzaro, encouraged him to study at the EMF school in the UK. The church then encouraged him to complete a BA and MA programme at the Wales Evangelical School of Theology (WEST). There he met Jenny and in 2006 they married, later returning as a couple to serve the Lord in Bologna.

‘Our passion is to reach the 30,000 people of San Lazzaro with the gospel of our Saviour. Our vision is also to establish a strong fellowship with other evangelical churches in the area in order to reach the half a million people living, working and studying in Bologna.’

John Paul and Sue Arunzulla

Compiled and edited by Tim Curnow.