God Is Opening New Doors!
[dropcap4 variation=”coprper”]W[/dropcap4]e have been so blessed, as we have watched God work in our lives. We are grateful for the ministry that Grace Immanuel Bible Church is having in our lives. The faithful preaching of the Word and the incredible body life are both a challenge and an encouragement for us.
Cornelius Ministries continues to have an impact in Italy through the ministry of Bill and Maria Teresa Standridge and the literature ministry inItaly. We are thankful for thousands of people that are impacted by the books, Bible correspondence courses, tracts, and blogs that daily touch so many lives.
God is giving us many opportunities to serve and have an impact for missions. Loredana is discipling many ladies in the church and poring her love for Christ and for ministry into others. David has the privilege of teaching two Bible studies and speaking into different men’s lives.
[pullquote1 quotes=”true” variation=”mossgreen”]The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.
—Matthew 9:37-38[/pullquote1]
One of the many amazing privileges has been to meet regularly with a couple from our church who have been challenged by the Lord to consider Italy as their place of full time service. Matt and Johanna have been a source of great encouragement for us. Matt is pastor of student ministries at our church. We have watched their love for Italy grow, as we have met to talk about ministry and have helped them learn Italian.
The elders of our church have asked us to accompany this couple and one of the elders on a survey trip to Italy. God willing we will be leaving October 2nd and return the 16th. Our goal is to expose them to different ministries, but especially to have them see the work of Cornelius Ministries in Italy. This will also give time for David to spend time in Rome and help in the decisions that have to be made for the progress of the literature ministry.
In the last couple of weeks, a new couple from our church has shown interest forItaly. Brian and his wife, Julie, are in the beginning stages of considering Italy as their future ministry. Brian Marchi is in his last year of seminary. We are excited to see how the Lord will guide.
David has been working full time in a company owned by a member of our church and has grown under the challenges of juggling full time work, his responsibilities with Cornelius Ministries, helping with the development of The Expositors Seminary and being faithful in teaching the Bible studies.
God used a message by Todd Murray, one of our pastors, to challenge David to meditate daily through the Psalms. This time of study has developed into David preparing daily devotionals that are being emailed to many. Loredana has begun to translate them in Italian and they are now being emailed to many in Italy, as well.
As you can see, God is faithful to open unexpected doors of ministry. We never thought that God would use our time here in Jupiter to touch lives and encourage others to consider Italy as a mission field. We have a responsibility to serve, not to tell God where and how we want to do it!
We thank those that are praying faithfully for us and supporting our ministry financially. We continue to ask God to clarify for us what He wants us to do and then to give us the strength to do it. We look forward to our trip to Italy, where we will be able to see the ministries we love so much, along with spending some time with our friends with whom we served when we were with Aurora Mission.