Milan, Italy Church Plant by Frank Apisa
The day I put my trust in Jesus as my Savior, I told Him, "Whatever you want me to do, I'm ready to do it." Jesus said to his disciples, "The harvest is great, but the workers are few." So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields" (Matthew 9:37-38).
The Lord sent my wife, Pam, and I to Turin, Italy first. He has established a thriving church there, raised up two other pastors and through them, is training and raising up other leaders. The church is well-established, and the national leaders-in-training are coached by the elders. This growth has allowed us to move out and make disciples in other cities. Jesus said, "My nourishment comes from doing the will of God, who sent me, and from finishing his work'. You know the saying, 'Four months between planting and harvest.' But I say, wake up and look around. The fields are already ripe for harvest" (John 4:34-35).
Last September, Pam and I moved to Milan, Italy, joined by a young student, Tony. Another couple will be joining us this coming June. We feel like God has opened all the doors for us here. It seems like everyone wants to practice speaking English. We have met three students who work with a student organization and they have helped greatly by allowing us to register students inside the university and use its classrooms free of charge.
Last year, we had two mission teams who led English Clubs in March and October. The October team came from the Turin church which proved to be very successful. Since then, the Lord has given us the opportunity to continue English clubs three times a week. We have also started two Bible studies and, this past January, we began our first worship service. Recently, the father of a Ukrainian family that lives near us received the gift of eternal life and will be baptized at our first service. Praise the Lord! Keep us in your prayers that the Lord will continue to lead us and guide us to make disciples.
For more information on Great Commission Europe, log onto: www.gceweb.org.
With approximately 30 families, River Ridge Church
planted a second campus in Teays Valley, WV in the fall of
2008. The church decided on a model of "one church in two
locations." While each of the five pastors concentrate their
ministry efforts on
Who would have thought that two fathers would be
involved with their college age children in starting a new
campus ministry? It was an answer to prayer. We had been
praying that the Lord would provide an opportunity to continue
laboring in the gospel
