June News from Bill and Maria Teresa

Dear Friends,

[dropcap4]W[/dropcap4]e’ve had some requests for news and current prayer requests, and are happy to have people who want to pray specifically. So, here we go…

We spent this week, Monday-Friday staying at our son Steve’s home, here in Rome with Simmy and Eliza, while their parents were in Naples getting a special entrance visa to theUSfor their mother, who is still a German citizen. Every thing went fine.

You’ve probably seen the news about the earthquakes in Italy.  There are numerous evangelical churches in that area, but we have not heard of any Christians being killed or injured.  Some have had to leave their houses, and some are out of work, since their factories were damaged.  Our church has offered to send personnel or supplies, according to requests from local churches.

As for prayer requests, we continue to need the Lord’s help to keep our energy and strength up, in order to keep rolling on.  Last week I went back to a dermatologist, a young lady with a masculine hair cut and blazing red hair, whom I had seen a couple of weeks before for a skin irritation.  When I went that first time, as I walked into her office, she took one look at my face, where I have had several moles, and asked if I came for that, but I told her “No”.  Then, after I left, I wondered if she had wanted to tell me that I should have them looked at.  So, on my recent appointment, after she saw that my skin irritation had passed, I wanted to ask her if she thought I should do something about the moles.  She didn’t wait for me to finish the question, jumped to her feet, grabbed a cylinder of gas and started freezing the moles.  I had had one removed several years ago in the U.S. and it cost me $150.  This time, she burnt 14 in very few minutes, at no cost, since I had come for another reason.  This is nationalized medicine in Italy.  Often hard to get and slow.

At our first visit, when we explained who we are and what we do, she told us that she was Jewish.  So on this visit, Maria Teresa gave her a list of prophecies from the Old Testament, with their New Testament fulfillments, and told her that we love the Jewish people.  Her eyes were moist, as she planted a kiss on Maria Teresa’s cheek.  A seed was sown, pray that someone else may water it and bring salvation to this energetic, efficient doctor.

Tomorrow our church will have a picnic, if it doesn’t rain, and they will have a worship service on the picnic grounds, while we are having one at the church for those who cannot go for one reason or another.  After the service, we will go to the picnic, which is in the pine forest near the sea, at Ostia.

Next Sunday, the 17th, I am speaking in L’Aquila, the city in the mountains where they had a bad earthquake two years ago.  The building in which they had held services was completely destroyed, and now they are meeting in a community center.  Then the following Sunday, the 24th, I will be speaking on the return of Christ, in our church.  We will show a film Saturday night and Sunday afternoon on this subject, with invitations distributed throughout the neighborhood of the church, and I will follow up the film with an evangelistic message, trusting that we will have some unsaved present.

Then, the 25th, Maria Teresa and I will go to the seashore for a week of rest and relaxation.  That is our vacation plans for this year.  I usually take some serious Christian books to read and spend the morning doing that, since I seldom get the time while we are inRome.  Then, in the afternoon, we get some rest and have a long walk along the seaside before supper.  We always come back refreshed.

After that, our summer will be filled up with preaching and teaching, writing and correcting manuscripts.  This is the ministry we love and which the Lord is continually blessing.

It is a tremendous challenge and blessing to hear from so many who have read our books or articles, or who heard us speak in conferences and camps and have been helped spiritually, some to understand salvation by grace through faith, some to understand God’s standards and will for their family and work.  Many, who know us, but whom we have often forgotten since the time years ago when they attended a conference in which we were speakers, phone to us asking for spiritual help, concerning family problems, or spiritual problems, or doctrinal Bible questions.

Thanks for praying for us,

Bill and Maria Teresa Standridge —Rome, Italy