The God of the weather created an exquisite panorama ten days ago. And we worshipped Him outdoors with praise and truth and baptized those who have turned to Him through His Son, Jesus Christ.
In the “Newsletters” section of our site, there’s a new one. Feel free to download and read it. More than that, partner with us in the advance of the Gospel through prayer. If you’d like to give financially, send us an email and we’ll let you know a number of convenient ways you can do that.
The dollar hit its all-time record low this week against the Euro. European vacations and living costs 40% more than it did about six years ago.
Ever move houses? Ever build your own home? Ever do either in Italy? We’re on the last stretch of finishing up phase 1 of our construction project with our Ministry Center (that’s a “Church Facility” for those who are afraid of the words “Ministry Center”). Yesterday, the electrician stopped in his tracks and asked me, “Have you ever studied architecture professionally because you sure have an eye for it…” I replied, “Only with you guys…” knowing that we have to watch what they’re doing like a hawk to prevent mistakes (we’ve caught some big ones). And I definitely feel that we’ve gotten a degree without the certificate. If we did receive the diploma, our major would be something like, ”How the World Works — Slowly.”
I know you’re a faithful reader if you get to the fifth paragraph. I’m pausing here to give you an e-high-five of thanks for keeping up with us.
FUNNY: Another American girl has started attending Reilly’s school. She’s in the 2nd grade too. Well, the two of them have really hit it off and all of the other boys are starting to tease Reilly that he has a girlfriend and Reilly really doesn’t know what that means (thank Heaven). So Reilly came home the other day and put an awkward question to us. He told us that the boys were teasing him and then asked, “What’s an amarosa?” Literally, the Italian word is used to mean “Lover”. You’ve gotta’ be in Italy when you have an amarosa in the 2nd grade.
I’ve been teaching through the first chapter of Philippians and digging deep into each word that Paul pens from prison. One word: wow.
We’re developing and organizing a ministry function called an International Prayer Coordinator. The coordinator will collect and collate the many various requests that we have and make them available to our prayer partners. This is something you can be a part of. I’ll post something about it in the future when we have more information available.
Giuseppe stopped by. Bepe (short for Giuseppe — or Joseph in Italian) is our electrician who is getting ready to install some lighting in a new room of our ministry center. I’ve known Bepe for about 8 months now and have enjoyed his hard-working, get-it-done-when-we-actually-get-around-to-it mentality.
So, we planned out the work-order as if it were the first time we had done so.
Installation is just around the corner. We can feel it. Oh, that’s lunch. It’s 12:30.
Just before we finished up the plan, I wanted to find out what was going on in Bepe’s life since I was gone for a good portion of the Summer. “Come stai? Bene? Vita? Come va?” You know, profound man-talk. Then I asked Bepe how his family was and how many children he has. His answer was, “We’re OK. I have two children — actually one — we lost our son last year.”
Bepe’s son was killed in a head-on collision last year near Aviano when he tried to pass a slower vehicle in front of him. This means that I met Bepe only a few months after his son was killed and this is the first time he was really able to share anything. My heart went out to him. “Lord, how do you want me to reach a hurting, angry-with-You contractor?”
I gave him my warmest condolences and shared with him how Christ the Creator also loves him and wants to know him as “son”. I kept it simple so that I could hear his heart. And this is what Bepe shared as if it were a secret script passed around these regions that we regularly hear but are never allowed to read. “I’ve become a pessimist; a cynic. There is more pain to life than joy and pleasure. I wake up every day and try to find strength from somewhere. Then, I go to work and make as much money as I possibly can so that I can live the day. Who knows and who cares about what happens tomorrow. And at the end of life - whatever.”
Interesting, those were almost the identical words I heard from our plumbing contractor about the loss of his son when his son was a young teenager. Although Livio added, “I smoke today because I like it and I don’t care if it hurts me tomorrow. Who knows if it’ll be there.” Both of these guys are very talented and gifted in what they do. You can see the image of God all over His creation. Sadly, these are hollow-hearts filling hollow-spaces. Pray that the Light will shine through to their minds and refreshing springs of water will flow abundantly into their hearts where only hopeless men once dwelt.
My Dad, Jon, turns 60 today on May 15th. What a milestone!
For those of you who actively follow our ministry, my Dad has been a huge help and active part in the organization, establishment, and foundation of the Serenissima Ministry Group International. With the team of directors and all of the details, Dad’s assistance has been invaluable. Starting this year and for the first time in our lives and ministries, we’ve been able to work on Kingdom projects together. It’s a thrill to see Dad’s gifts in administration flourishing again where they can be valued and appreciated.
Happy Birthday Dad — from all your kids, grandkids, ministry partners, supporting Churches, and multi-national brothers and sisters who are being impacted by your good work and investment.
The other day, Reilly came home from school and walked into the living room where we had the TV on. He looked up on the screen and sounded-out the word Reilly. With enthusiastic glances back and forth from the TV, he exclaimed, “Dad, I see my name on TV!”
“That’s right, that’s Bill O’Reilly. His name has your name in it!” I quickly responded.
Contemplating this for about 5 seconds, Reilly turned towards me with a look of panic and asked, “Daddy, what are they saying about me on that show!?”
What a catchy title! Wouldn’t you say? Over the last eleven years of pastoral ministry, there have been times where I discovered that I’m human. I hate it when that happens, too. But I have to give credit to pastors because until you wear the shoes and drink the punch, you can’t know the depth of exasperation that comes in the phrase, “I’m killing myself for these people…” That’s a very human moment. It means we see the reality that we have one life to live and that life is passing — many times faster than we had hoped. Pastors are real people too (start playing nice music here).
I remember thinking about five years ago how fast “ministry” would come at me and saying, “Don’t answer the phone, I haven’t had time to nurse my wounds from the last battle.” Often, this struggle has been magnified and multiplied by the speed of the information age. In other words, somebody fires-off an “offended email” at you and if you don’t respond within the day, they’re offended all over again because you’re ignoring them and their problem. This usually isn’t the case, it’s that you need a couple days to just think through how to honor the Lord in the situation and respond to them in a good way. But, if you do that, you start receiving calls from other people who they’ve called or Skyped all over the world about their issue. Technology and speed are great - sometimes.
Please understand that this is just one illustration of the many pressures that we face that come with the Calling. And, please know that I know that everybody has stress and pressure wherever they work and live — because that’s life. Ok, with that concession, I’m referencing life from the special role that I’ve been able to play in it. The point is that in this line of life-work, there can be a great build-up of continuous pressure to accomplish, complete, and please both projects and people. As one author put it, we get the incredible feeling of “hyper-responsibility”. And for some time, I lived under that immense load…
Until I discovered the gift of the Sabbath. Don’t miss the p
oint here — I knew the command of the Sabbath was in the Bible. But sadly, I had been taught or the Sabbath had been portrayed in a “secondary/non-important” light. “It was for the Jews, you know, pre-Jesus.” Oh, how much life-joy was missing in the years that it was “ok” to ignore the Sabbath. What many Christians don’t see today is that the Sabbath was a Creation thing of time. It was placed into the Creation-order. This means it was given to mankind to know his Creator. Man was created Friday. On Saturday, he rested — very first thing to do opportunity to know.
As our family has weekly received the gift of the Sabbath from the Father for some time now, it’s been on my heart to write about different nuggets and treasures that we’ve gathered from its joy and study. So, I think I’ll start the series, “I Refuse to Kill Myself” as a Shabat-joy series to share what I’ve learned about my Creator. Thank Goodness that Italy is a “slow” country where that slow-ness actually helps us in this journey of discovery. I feel bad for those of you in the States who will have to work stop extra hard.
Today is our day-off or Sabbath and I wanted to take just a few minutes to catch you up on some of our family happenings. I’ll work backwards from yesterday for a couple weeks.
Yesterday, Reilly rode his bike without training wheels for the first time. Dad was so proud and relieved to not have to run beside him any more while trying to wheeze encouragement. Some dads reading this are smiling right now at the thought.
On Resurrection Sunday, our Church celebrated the Living King with praise, Word, and beauty. A number of fellows (our assistants — I actually have a ministry staff now which has been a great treat) worked for a couple of weeks prior to prepare for this wonderful day. The grounds at our Church property were fantastic. The guys helped contractors put in a whole new fence to secure the property (moving tons of dirt, trees, and roots in the process), manicured the lawn and grounds, setup tents and tables for a fantastic outdoor family picnic, and painted the nursery. They did a great job. We had a number of visitors from all different nationalities, and we shared a ton of food together. It really turned-out well. My favorite part was the opportunity to teach on the doctrine of the Resurrection. In other words, I reveled in the opportunity to lay-out the Gospel and its power to change lives forever. The Resurrection brings meaning and significance to the Cross. They are fully dependent on each other. Without the Resurrection, the Cross becomes a hollow hate-crime of history and without the Cross, the Resurrection becomes completely selfish — only accomplishing life over death for one. Praise God He knows how to fulfill His promises — all of them.
Last week, we flew to Germany on Tuesday and returned on Saturday evening just before Resurrection Sunday. You can imagine the preparation that went in to making that happen smoothly. We went to Germany for a few reasons. First, we went to see our great friends, Paul and Jana Shankle. These guys were our support-network for the week ahead and we are very grateful for their help and care.
We also went to partake in a memorial service dedicated to our good friend and Church member, Troy Gilbert (see my “Tribute to Troy” post about his life and death in combat over Iraq). That happened at the high school in Bitburg, Germany where Troy graduated. We prepared for the official ceremony on Wednesday and then conducted it on Thursday. It was an outdoor ceremony and the weather was beautiful with a light breeze and cotton-ball clouds seemingly bouncing off of the rolling green hills in front of us. Our close friends Allan and Lenora Woodcock participated in the memorial and also asked me to make a speech. My Church members were in awe when they heard my speech was only 4 minutes, but I won’t waste more space about that here. 
The real blessing was that I was able to share the Truth of Jesus Christ evident in Troy’s life throughout my whole speech. If you’re interested in reading a copy of it — send me an email and I’ll drop it in your inbox. It should take you about 4 minutes to read.
Lenora gave a wonderful speech just before mine and Allan (call-sign = Woody) led the formation of F-16’s in the missing-man formation above us at the final note of Taps. Woody, Lenora, and Troy were all active members of our Church. In fact, Woody and Lenora were the leaders of the small group that Troy & Ginger were a part of while here. Another special point is that the missing-man fly-by was part of Woody’s fini-flight which was his last operational flight as commander of the 23rd Flying Hawks fighter-squadron. The Lord has kept Woody safe through two wars and many deployments in his 20 years of flying for the Air Force.
The next day (Friday), we attended and celebrated Woody’s change-of-command ceremony and then went to lunch together overlooking a beautiful valley on the Rhine river. These are special memories for us. I’ll try to upload some pictures of these events and friends in the gallery soon.
In the weeks prior, we’ve been very active in the teaching and administration of the ministries in the Church. Also, construction on our Church property began in March which gave us yet another hat to wear - general contractor. In high school, my pastor often said, “The mission field is where the adventure is…”
Tonight, Dad and the kids were all in the room praying before it was time to go to sleep. Our LifeTeam (small group that meets in our home) is currently praying for the country of Taiwan. So, we started talking all about Taiwan, missions, and our good buddy Mark Lehman on mission there. The kids were really getting into prayers for Taiwan and Dad was so proud.
In those moments, a parent can experience some of the most special insights into a child’s life — or some of the most bizarre. Dad thought that this prayer time would be one of those most special and insightful times … oh, sul contrario…
“Dad -”
“Ya buddy.”
“One day I’m going to be a dad too, right?”
“Yup, I’m sure the Lord will let you be a daddy someday too.”
“And I can have a kid?”
“You bet, even more than one if you promise me that you’ll all live at your own house…”
“I can have a boy-kid?”
“Yes, if that’s what Jesus gives you.”
“But I can’t name him Wicked can I? Or how about Han Solo?” . . .
Each February 17th, I celebrate my Rebirthday. Today marks 23 years in Christ Jesus. Over the course of these last couple days and into this weekend, I have been soaking in the Wonder and the Mystery of the salvation guaranteed to me by God through His Holy Spirit. Consider this, God the Father cursed the Son instead of me. I now stand as a redeemed treasure although my life, behavior, attitudes, and heart were rendered worthless by sin. Full credit was paid to my account without any option for me to merit it. I was dead, but now I live to lavish praise upon the Lord and become rich in my devotion to Him through zealous good works. Oh how great a salvation in Jesus Christ my Lord & Master!
On the 27th of November in the Anbar Province north of Baghdad, Iraq, our dear friend, Major Troy Gilbert, lost his life engaging hostile targets in his F-16 Viper. 
Troy and his wife Ginger were a part of our Church here in Italy for almost three years. It was during those years that we kindled a special friendship as Troy served the Lord, his family, our Church, and his country while residing in Aviano.
A Little About Troy
Troy was a good listener and a good learner. He really wanted to know the Scriptures. Troy was also very careful about the “sources” that he listened to and wanted to make sure that he wasn’t buying into the modern church’s, candy-coated Christianity. From a pastoral point of view, this was one thing that I loved about Troy. He was genuinely sincere in wanting to know the Truth. He had a ready and earnest heart almost every time that I would teach or preach. Troy would regularly discover what words were the Father’s words for him that day. There’s nothing more exciting for a teacher than to teach a hungry heart. Troy treated the Church, the Word, and my calling with utmost respect. He was a faithful and generous giver to the mission and ministry.
Troy was also a great dad because he worked at guiding and shaping his children’s hearts in wisdom. He wasn’t just his kids’ “buddy”. He left this Earth with five precious ones that the Lord had granted him — and he had a plan for each of them. He prayed over their destiny and worked on their lives like a fine craftsman would ply his trade with painstaking patience. When it came time in our work here to teach a longer-term parenting course, I had great confidence in Troy and Ginger that they would do a good job. Instead, they did a great job and really impressed me. I have since learned to be very careful in our Church about what parents will disciple other parents in the strategic art of raising their children because Troy not only met the standard but raised the bar.
The Treasure of Memories
I have so many fond memories of Troy that it’s hard to just single-out a few that will capture what a special guy he was to myself and others.
I remember a few times that we had the chance to go golfing together. Troy would try to distract me with ministry questions to get into my head and slowly win the game. But I saw through this crafty tactic and not only answered the ministry questions he would strategically pose at me — but would also win the golf game because I was keeping score. 
Yes, we sure had a lot of fun on those occasions where we were able to play “at” golf together.
On Troy’s last day in Italy, he and I spent almost the entire day together. I think that day was one where we developed our friendship deeply. Both of us had come through some heavy trials in our work respectively. So there was a good deal of mutual solace that we shared. However, most of the day was spent talking about ministry hopes and dreams in both of our lives. We talked about our kids, the nation of Italy, and the last three years we had shared. Troy spoke with me about how important our Church covenant was to him. I remember him telling me repeatedly not to abandon the richness of that covenant that guides and protects our people. Well, we haven’t walked away from it and still treasure it dearly. We’ve kept it for nine years now. And, it’s been updated and revised for the better since Troy was with us. I sure wish I could show it to him now. He was genuinely interested and involved in things like this. I know he would soak it up in appreciation and genuine encouragement. Troy was a good encourager.
The last time I saw Troy in person (we spoke a number of times on the phone after this) was at a Cracker Barrel restaurant in Glendale, AZ. We had a great time with the Gilberts just “catching-up” on kids and events in our lives. At the end of the meal, Troy and his sons Boston and Greyson along with myself and Reilly went out to the front porch and sat down in the rocking chairs. There were very few people coming and going and the few minutes we passed there will remain with me as a fond memory for the rest of my life. The Arizona sun was setting into a golden yellow giving way to tides of orange-salmon over the desert’s ridges. The air was dry and beautiful. A monsoon was brewing off to the east, but the west was resplendent with beauty and color. Troy had his boys on his knees, and I had Reilly up on my lap. There we shared those moments of shalom with our futures. Looking into the distance, unknowingly for the last time we would see each other until Heaven, we shared how much we appreciated each other and how blessed we were with all these boys to raise as men. Oh, it was a rich moment of grace and rest and friendship. Thanks be to God — everything was really great out front of Cracker Barrell and will stay that way for years to come.
The Meaning of His Sacrifice to Me
Troy knew his job was one of danger, risk, and extreme importance. He knew his mission had to be done. Like many of the pilots I’ve come to know over this last decade, Troy’s steely nerves were no different. He had trained and meticulously prepared for every part of his mission even to the last moments of his life. To sum it up in one word, Troy was brave. In fact, because of his sacrifice, Troy was the bravest of the brave. This means that his wife Ginger and children are all brave too. They too have sacrificed for our country. Their love for America has deepened forever without option.
The meaning of Troy’s sacrifice is tremendously profound for my family and me. You see, Troy went into the barrage of fire and the flames of war where I have neither stepped nor flown. He did this so that those physical enemies of my country would be stopped right where they started and not show up at my door for 
as long as possible. Troy not only fought for his wife and children but also for mine. And beyond my family, he fought for thousands of Iraqi families too. The tyranny of Saddam & Thugs Inc. has not yet ended, but rather, it has hit us right in the gut by taking another one of our own.
With Troy’s profound belief in democracy came the opportunity to bring the Bible to a broken people. With the hope of war finishing came the hope that he had contributed to bringing a relative peace where people could hear God’s Word freely. Troy also knew that he was an active part of Romans 13:1-7. So, he was obedient to both commander & command because he recognized that they derived their source from the Almighty. In the end, the earthly sacrifice of Troy means that right, obedient, and Godly causes are worth fighting for. While war is the singular last option available to any just cause, when it became necessary, a good man went — and that was all that was required.
Why He Died ~ Why He Lived
Many people begin their questions about this tragedy with the word Why? Ah, this is impossible to answer right now because I don’t see the beginning from the end. However, I know the One who is both the beginning and the end and knows everything in between.
In other words, I don’t know why Troy died – but I do know why he lived. Troy lived to love the God of Heaven revealed in the Bible. He lived for fidelity in loving, cherishing, leading, and teaching his wife Ginger as their marriage matured through the years. Troy lived to bring God’s Word to his children and all of those around him at every opportunity presented him. He lived to be a devoted, God-honoring son, father, husband, friend, and warrior. Yes, Troy lived a life that was worth living.
When we explore the mystery of this tragedy, I don’t think that we’re left completely without some answers. I think we can come away with some rich principles of understanding for our own lives as well.
- 1) The first principle is that a storybook life through to old-age is never guaranteed for anybody.
- 2) A second thought is that even the good guys can go early from our human viewpoint.
- 3) Third, such an unexpected ending ought to bring an urgency to our lives that we listen to and obey God.
- 4) Fourth, we need to content our souls with the fact that Troy lived each day that the Good Lord wanted him to live.
- 5) Fifth, if this doesn’t have you thinking about Heaven, your heart and your brain are disconnected.
- 6) Sixth and last, God knows what He is doing. He will always do what is right. The Lord is sovereign, and He will remain that way forever and ever.
Troy’s Legacy
My hope is that Troy’s life and death will bring a deep soul contemplation to the many men and women who knew my friend. I hope that they will see that Troy lived for Jesus Christ of the Bible and died confidently in His saving grace. May friends and acquaintances look profoundly at their very own sin and recognize that they themselves can do nothing about their eternal destiny apart from the Savior who is Jesus. My plea is not that they turn to Jesus as Savior just because Troy was a true Christian and their friend too, however, may Troy’s life be their impetus for reflection, conviction, and confession. May they turn to the only Savior because the reality of sin has struck them deep in the heart as they stared at death through Troy’s tragedy. May they see that Troy will forever be in the presence of the Lord, but if Troy had not repented of his own sin while living, he would be separated forever from the love of God. I express these hopes for the Gilberts among fellow military members. Indeed, at this moment, I think very specifically of fellow-pilots and personnel close to the jet.
I’ve heard different men off-handedly slight our work and ministry because we have the “transient military” population that we shepherd. What others fail to see is that there comes a percentage of very high caliber people through the doors of our lives. These folks demonstrate love, servanthood, deep loyalty, sincere affection, and generous support to a missions outpost here on the Italian frontier. And, for a season of a few years, I get to be their Pastor. Then, the Lord knits our hearts together, and we get to be friends for life. Often, I feel so inadequate to shepherd such precious people. But the Lord charges me time and time again to do what is right and teach what is right — to feed His sheep.
The loss of Troy will always invoke an inspiration in my heart and alignment of my ways to stand for Truth. Troy left a personal legacy in my life which I hope to consistently transmit to others in the years to come. I sure miss him.
Thank You, Lord, for Troy.
Fans, short-sleeve shirts, & mosquitos made it feel more like June than October on the third of this month. We just completed our second annual discipleship conference and we were running the air conditioner with fans the entire time. By this time, we’ve already experienced our “seasonal-shift.” What I mean by seasonal-shift is that the seasons are so full and so pronounced here in the North that there are a few days a year where you can actually feel the dividing-time as one season overtakes another. Strangely later than usual, a beautiful lightning storm rolled in on Tuesday night. By Wednesday morning, the smell of the air was different, the color of the light had changed, and the weather had a crispness to it. Fall had arrived and Summer wasn’t coming back.
To digress for a moment, the discipleship conference was a lot of work and a great success. We had around 32 people training to be one-to-one disciplers. Also, after a year of effort, we were able to announce that we have completed the translation of all of the discipleship material into Italian. With this, we can assist many churches across Italy to care for their new believers and preserve a legacy within an embattled nation. There’s still a fair amount of work to accomplish before we’re able to assist Italy on a larger scale, but we reached our first milestone.
With the arrival of Fall comes the harvest and the many culinary tastes that accompany it. Pumpkin is often mixed into the sauces on pastas and two long-anticipated delights are reaped: chestnuts and pomegranates. Italy has wonderful pomegranates, second only to Israel in my opinion. We’ll devour a couple of these tomorrow. By the way, there is a lot easier way to eat this great fruit than picking at it seed by seed. If you would like to have this “fruit-hack,” just let me know and I’ll be glad to share it with you.
The joy of chestnuts, on the other hand, is when we roast them over our stove here at the house. The fragrant smoke they emit fills the entire house. Couple the roasted chestnuts with ice-cold Vanilla Coke and you’ve got an unbeatable combination that makes it worth living in Italy the whole year. Tonight, I was able to re-acquaint the kiddos with this harvest tradition. What a blast! Reilly’s quickly picked up the intricacies of shelling them well and eating them quick. Things like this make for great memories.
Tonight, Sandy is up in the Dolomites with a group of women from our Church. This weekend is our Women’s Breakthrough Weekend. The Men’s will follow in a couple weeks. These are also times of great memories as many men and women have their lives changed through the work of the Holy Spirit. All of these great things happen in the Fall.
I recently needed to write an article for one of our supporting churches and their missions conference. The requested theme of the article dealt with how we responded to the call to go to the mission field. While this is a brief summary and the whole story contains many more details, I thought I’d post it here on our blog for many of our churches’ benefit.
The call to “go in Jesus’ name” brought me to a fork-in-the-road moment. I was considering leaving Bible college and pursuing a degree in business and business leadership. For many years, the Lord had pressed upon my life that He wanted me to serve Him for His glory in a full-time ministry capacity. But the world and all of its opportunities were wide open to me at twenty years old. I was making good money — more than I had ever had control over before. And, I had aspirations upon a certain title and office in a company that I was working for at the time. I knew that if I put my mind to it that sheer will-power would get me that position and the pay associated with it.
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High Carbs
They’re not exactly like your state troopers back home. They’re also not your normal traffic police. These guys are “above” the traffic. They’re federal-para-military-city-provincial-police and they deal in high crime like bank robberies, pedophilia, extortion, mafia, terrorism, and all kinds of bad ragu.
Whatta’ u’ guys want?
So, it surprised me when I came back from the States and received notice to appear before the Carabinieri as soon as possible for atti di giustizia. Now, atti di giustizia can mean a couple things. First, it can mean acts of justice like somebody is suing us, there’s a citation against me, or they caught me putting too much sugar in my coffee. Or second, however, the word giustizia is also the biblical word for righteousness. They could’ve been asking for me to appear to preform acts of righteousness — WHICH I’M MORE THAN WILLING TO DO.
I couldn’t figure it out. I was racking my brain. I was wondering what Andrew (our summer assistant) had done with my car or my house or how he had illegally extorted my chihuahua. I had nothin’.
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This is a short post on a giant topic: Italy’s culture
For our spiritual-minded readers, it’s the culture & its complexity that becomes like cement to the Seed. Hardened through centuries of empty tradition and ceaseless opining, the average Italian has become a strange synthetic of secularist-religious swirl. Everything is about appearances; refined appearances. In other words, it matters more how your dress your baby, what kind of watch you wear, or how clean your house is than how much you’re cheating on your taxes, cheating on your spouse, or cursing God with the vilest of language. This syndrome of “externalism” is called, La Bella Figura (The Beautiful Figure) and Italians are both artisan and artist in its performance.
I was sent a great article the other day. Actually, it’s a book review (on the New York Times site — can’t stand the NYT just to let you know). However, if any of you are at all interested in the nation of Italy - please read this article. Here’s a great quote from the article to help you catch the idea of the beautiful figure. “Italians, in other words, would just as soon look good as be good. The country suffers from an ethics deficit…Lying outrageously…is considered normal.” Ethics are the practices of an anchored moral system. Therefore, the best ethics are biblical ethics and Italy is so void of care for the Bible that whoa-la — disappearing ethics.
Take a few minutes and read the article. I’d love to hear your thoughts or answer your questions (that’s diplomatic code for “leave a comment on this post”).
Travels Completed (for now)
(warning: this post is a wee bit sarcastic and moderately funny due to intense jet-lag. Read at your own risk)
We touched down on a beautiful Venetian morning at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday. When you fly into Venice, the old city is just outside the right passenger window where one can easily discern buildings, squares, and canals. It was a balmy 72 degrees which was quite a beautiful change from our Phoenician departure of 265 149. We had 8 suitcases (each weighing 50 pounds) and 4 carry-ons (Another 500 lbs. — ok, I’m exaggerating a little — about my carry-on).
We were delayed in Philly an hour and a half after pushing back from the gate early. It so happened that when we were 5th to take-off, a man fainted in the airplane and caused a medical emergency. We had to pull out of line and head back to the gate. This was an interesting experience to watch unfold. The man had taken a couple sleeping pills and decided to wash them down with a couple cocktails at the bar (must’ve hated flying more than I do — try it with children!). With his personalized and customized drug-induced coma, the man couldn’t buckle his seat belt and the flight attendants couldn’t find a pulse on the guy. One burly attendant picked the guy up and suplexed him to the floor which began to revive the man. The EMT’s came. The pilot kicked the guy off the plane. A depressed baggage handler had to find the guy’s luggage (which was probably the most work). The police visited our plane too. Fuel and oxygen had to be replenished… yada yada…
The second to the worst part of this ordeal was that the man was sitting on the emergency exit aisle. The incident happened just after the attendants announced, “If you’re seated on an emergency exit aisle and do not feel that you can adequately handle the responsibility of the exit doors, please inform a flight attendant immediately.” Oh, and the worst part about this ordeal was that our children were sleeping while we were still on the ground consuming up valuable sleep-time. All parents know that you want sleeping kids while in the air! Jessi was a maniac for the first four-hour flight to Philly and one of the men near us saw how exhaused we were and decided that we needed to be patronized. Getting Jessi’s attention he says, “How do you have so much energy? You haven’t stopped yet. Where do you get all of that energy?” So I shared one of Jessi’s strawberry PowerBars with him — ya, right.
Forty minutes after our ascent and the sun’s descent, Reilly awoke and said for the first of a thousand times, “Daddy, are we almost to Italy?”
Things Not to Take on an Airplane
When traveling, I usually carry the most stuff. Well, the most threatening stuff that would require more searching & inspecting. (BTW, at the rate the world’s going, we’re only going to be able to travel in our underwear in men’s and women’s sections on the planes — and that may even be too dangerous b/c some guy will inevitably invent exploding boxers.) However, it’s Sandy that usually always gets searched. It must be her shifty eyes.
Yesterday, they pulled apart her purse in Phoenix and took away her Carmex and Hand Sanitizer. Chapped lips are a pain, but don’t take away the sanitizer when we’re travelling with kids. This can be a bio-medical threat! So now, I’m thinking that there’s some strange concoction of Carmex and sanitizer at 2 fluid ounces that can threaten a 767.
This is nothing like the guy we encountered when flying out of Denver a couple weeks ago. For 5 days, the news had been informing people, “No liquids, bottles, containers, lipstick, etc. etc.” When we got to DIA, the loud-speakers, big new signs, ticket agents, and security guards informed us of the same. Finally, we arrive at the security check-point and the guards selected the guy’s bag in front of us. They abruptly opened the bourse and pulled out a bottle of Wishbone Italian salad dressing. Sandy and I looked at each other in total disbelief. I wanted to see the authorities make the guy drink it to see if it was ok. What possessed this guy to think that a tube of lipstick wasn’t going to get on the airplane but his big ole’ bottle of lettuce flavoring would is beyond me. Hey, at least it was Italian (which, by the way, cannot be found in Italy because Italians don’t use bottled dressings — and is a funny look on American faces when they come here and discover this fact and are left with only olive oil and vinegar. We like that look; we’re a bit twisted.)
I received a great article about Italy and its culture that I’ll put in a separate post in a couple days. It’s worth the read (in contrast to this post). Also, I repaired the link to “Rob’s book wishlist”. Can one or two of you test it to see if the script is working right and let me know? Grazie.
Thanks to some great help from brothers Mike Rosowski and Brad Cairns, we were able to have a couple thousand new prayer cards made. If you would like to order some for your Church or have a couple for yourself personally, you can follow this link or click on “Request Prayer Cards” on the left hand menu of our site. The photo in this card was taken in April 2006.
The Last 5 Weeks
It’s really been tough to get something posted on any of our blogs this summer. We’ve been travelling and we haven’t been around much internet access. Also, my computer’s been giving me a lot of problems. We found it necessary to take about 6 weeks and travel to various churches that have supported us over the last 10 years to say thank you and report on the ministry.
Sandy returned from Italy with the kids on the 12th of June. She really needed a break away from all of the work and the kids really needed some family-time with grandparents and cousins. I returned on the 12th of July after completing a number of important steps in the ministry (i.e. a covenant renewal time in our Church, a baptism where 6 entered the waters, the care and ministry of a travelling musical group, and a load of preparation for the upcoming missions conferences and stops etc.)
Our travels have taken us to sites and Churches in San Diego, L.A., San Francisco, Columbus, Indianapolis, Chicago, Branson, & currently Denver. We have completed 5 flights and have 5 more to go. We’ve had 3 rental cars and borrowed 2 others. I think we’ve returned them all.
Overall, our kids have been travelling champs. I’m not quoting anybody we’ve visited though. 
We’re scheduled to return to life in Italia in a couple weeks.
Sandy Holds the Hill
Yesterday, August 7th, Sandy held another birthday at the top of “29″ hill. This year, we were in Denver participating in a missions’ conference. Last year, we were in Slovenia for her birthday. It’s a tradition for Sandy to be somewhere “different” each time she turns 29. Sandy is a wonderful wife, mother, and friend. We are so blessed to be in her life and we love her so much. Happy Birthday Sandy!
For my hundreds of many faithful readers, I owe you an apology for the lack of info on the blog this last month.
It’s true. I had to hold off on blogging for a month because the amount of work and priorities here on the field consumed me. I like what George Muller wrote and I’ve been chewing on this thought for a couple weeks now: “The Christian servant can be easily distracted by the work of the ministry for God while forgetting to commune with Him.” It’s happened to all pastors. It happened to Muller - that’s why he wrote it!
What’s Up?
Sandy, Reilly, & Jessi headed back to the States on June 14th. I’ve been here in Italy as the inelligible bachelor for a month now. I’ll return to the States on the 12th of July to begin visiting a third of our supporting churches. So, we’ll be hitting the trails from Arizona to California to Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Colorado, & Nevada — all in 5 weeks. I could run for President with that kind of schedule.
Brother Andrew Maxwell (see the post Flight of the Apprentice) has returned to Italy for his 4th consecutive summer with us. Andrew keeps me company and I keep him working.
Last Sunday we had a beautiful baptism down at the river Livenza. The water is always around 43 degrees. We baptized 6 people. I’ll have some more pictures of that for you soon.
New Prayer Letter
We do have a new prayer-picture letter for you. You can view or download it by clicking here. Or, you can go to our newsletter section where I’ve uploaded it there too.
Signup for our Newsletter by Email
I did a little work on our email component. Those of you who have subcribed to our newsletter by email have hopefully received an email with a direct link to download the letter as well as a couple of other pieces of information.
If you haven’t subscribed — click here — to go to our subscription page, enter an email, submit, and whoa-la… you’ll get a notice about every blue moon.
Here’s another blog announcement. In addition to Vision Glorious (which is a multi-forum blog about principles of living-the-Church), my good friend and I have begun a new co-authored blog called From Israel to Italy.
This is what I’ve been chipping away at over the past 6 weeks in addition to our normal responsibilities (building the site design & user interface). Roberto and I realized that we were mutually collecting many insights into Italy, Rome, and the Roman culture here in Italy. Together (eye to eye), we have consistently seen that the Jesus that Rome presents is not the Jesus of Israel.
So, we want to write about the Roman culture and how it impacts much of the world.
Our motto for this blog is Revealing the Jesus of Jerusalem by Exposing the jesus of Rome. With a broad brush-stroke let me paint this statement: “Many Evangelicals think about and adopt principles that have much more to do with Rome than anything with Jesus of Nazareth.”
So, these are the blogs that contain what I’m passionate about — Christ and all He promised His believers could have and experience in the calling of the Church - Vision Glorious. Christ and Who He truly is no matter how much Rome seeks control over its 1 billion adherents — Israel to Italy. Christ Who has wrought me a beautiful family that serves to further the Good News of Scripture as a changing force in a key land — Here. 
I have another post coming in a couple days that I want to share about Memorial Day, but I thought I’d better share what’s been going on here over the past week or so.
We ran our second Italian Missions’ Sunday and some specific prayer requests were answered. Right in the middle of the lunch, my good ole’ friend Dr. Mark Lehman from Taiwan comes walking in to surprise me. I haven’t seen this guy in 5 years and he just shows up in Northeast Italy with his buddy Tim. I guess they were hungry or something. It was fabulous to spend time with Mark again. Wow, word spreads fast and far when we offer lasagna from scratch.
The kids are just getting over 6, 8, 9 days of chicken pocks. We have sequestered them. They have imprisoned us (Sandy). I’m going to kill those chickens.
Computer crashed twice. Bad memory. Must be getting old.
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Back on February 19th, I posted a few paragraphs entitled “Young Worshippers with Killer Hands.” Click on this link if you’d like to read the story.
So, my wife and I wrote down this specific prayer request into our discipleship journals. We could sense the Kingdom importance in the request and knew that time and money were both on someone else’s side.
The next day, my good buddy and almost blood-brother Brad Strable dropped an investment into our family’s worship. I said, “Wow, this is really happening.” Then in March, we had saved a couple hundred dollars for the project. In April, my Aunt & Uncle, Ron & Marge Carlson, wanted to “help our family with a project specifically for us.” Fully generous & always surprising, the Carlsons moved us closer to the mark. We knew right away what to place that seed toward — because we had already been praying about it.
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I do have some famous uncles. One of them just got famous-er. My uncle, Peter Krause, recently received the “America’s Teacher of the Year - 2005″ award from the PGA Tour. As a result, he is now featured in the May 2006 issue of Golf Digest from pages 217-227 giving lessons for breaking 100, 90, 80, & 70.
The picture that was taken here for Golf Digest was done with Peter standing on a 16 foot ladder to get up to that clock. You can also see the ring on his left hand that he won as Teacher of the Year.
We’re thrilled for Peter as his career has unfolded on the national scene.
Official word is that Peter wants me to remain in Europe until he retires. It’s part of a PGA policy — no blood relatives can be hacks and residing near or around you within the 48 contintental states. Not to mention how I could wilt a flowering career with my skills.
He couldn’t have won the award without me. For this, I’m honored.
After laboring these many years in Italy, we were able to reach a milestone today (I began writing this on April 9th, 2006). Some might say “milestone” and others might say “starting line” depending on your point of view.
For the first time, we were able to host our full Italian Missions Sunday. It was beautiful. We held it with our folks, in our own place, in Italian, & permeated with Italian culture. It has taken us a number of years to arrive at this point and it was a real highlight of the year for us thus far.
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Italians celebrate two days of Easter. Sunday is Pasqua and Monday is Pasquetta. While they sound like friends of Squanto, they’re really two days of much-anticipated holiday for the Italians.
I don’t know if I see the Italians generally happier than right around the Easter holidays. It’s Springtime. The region is blooming with all kinds of flowers. The weather is warming up beautifully. And most likely, the Rome-followers are happy that Lent is finishing and they can start eating chocolate again or watching TV.
However, there is one thing that I really like about Pasquetta. Family. All day Monday, families are out everywhere. They’re riding bikes together, trimming the garden, having a bbq, walking through town, playing in the parks etc. No stores are open. Nobody’s coming to fix your sink or hot water heater on that Monday… never. Just wait. Rest. It’s family — because we’ve always done it this way. Now that’s a redeemable part of Italy, taken directly from the weekly Creation planbook of Israel, and a superior example to my earthly nation.
Here’s a picture of our little girl Jessi at our Easter picnic with our Church. She was guzzling Frizzante water and my good buddy Jay from Germany snapped this shot.
Ok Mom, there’s her Easter dress. It came complete with a hat for little girls “who like to wear hats and not throw them at their brothers.”
So, Silvio Berlusconi loses last week’s election (President — or Champion o’ Bureaucracy) by a narrow margin to Romano Prodi. Italian politics are hilarious. The Italians are generally upset about feeling the pinch of the poor condition of the Euro. So, they blame the richest man in Italy who also happens to be their president - Silvio. Then, they elect the man that brought the Euro both to Italy and the EU commission. Oh ya, that’s gonna’ make it all better.
Italy & Politics
Politics is enormous, gigantic, grandissimo to the Italians.
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A Little TV
It’s Sunday evening and just before I hit the hay. I’m watching Mickelson sweep the BellSouth Classic. Many think that watching golf is boring. I don’t. I think the announcers are dreadful, but I love the sport. We Krauses are golfers. In fact, my uncle Peter (dad’s brother) recently won the PGA Tour’s National Teacher of the Year award. Please let the record show here that I am boasting on his golfing ability and none of my own. He’s the pro and I ride the bogey train. Speaking of the links, Reilly learned how to swing his new golf clubs for the first time this week too. It’s a good tradition to pass along
Earlier, I saw a special from CNN on the two Mary’s surrounding Jesus’ life — His mother and Magdeline. It was about as pro-Romanist as you could come without actually posting a toll-free number if you’d like to convert. Something that I hadn’t heard around Italy was that they’re now trying to say that Mary Magdeline was one of the apostles maybe even taking the place of John as the beloved disciple. Some of the fuel for their fire has come from The DaVinci Code where the author makes MM a central character in his phony plot. The piece stated that she is now viewed as a new feminist-religious icon. Finally, the portion that I ended with was a woman (one of their experts, I suppose) saying about Mary (Jesus’ mother), “Just as the ancients needed to have their godesses, so we now have our godess in Mary.”
Reilly-ism
Our son comes up with some one-liners that are real treasures. I sprinkle them through the blog here on occasion and I want to share some of them as they come along. I’ve gotta’ record these while he’s five and before he stops talking altogether at about thirteen. So, out-of-the-blue today at the Sunday lunch table, Reilly says, “We need to go to Grandma & Grandpa’s house so that they can feel my muscles.”
This was about photo #897 in trying to get the kids to look at the camera this week. It’s been tough to get much digital work done as we’ve had a lot of computer upgrades & burnouts over the last few weeks. Soon, we’ll be up and running at full speed and more around the house and ministry.
Reilly
Our Sunday lunch table is a place for some serious laughs. Sandy taught Reilly’s class for children’s church this last week. So, as always, we decided to review the Bible account with him. “What did Mary do that honored Jesus? She washed Jesus’ toes. Good, she washed His feet Reilly. What did she wash them with? uuuh… snow cones!” After that one… the story was over.
Reilly’s Italian is coming along splendidly. He has the local accent down. He just learned how to swing his first golf club yesterday too. And, in turn, he learned what blisters were all about.
Jessi
Our music lover. She too loves snow cones and Play-dough. Her best friend is our dog Java. She’s coming up with a new word every hour and is days away from completing her law degree and taking her bar exam. Ok, we’re just kidding about the play-dough.
Website Notice: we’re in the process of upgrading the engine to this blog. This means that some of the features of the blog will be down until we can get them back up and working again. The new upgrade will help us knock down the level of spam and open the door for more user-friendly features for our 3 faithful readers (Hi Mom).
Springtime is just starting to round the corner as some of the first blossoms are appearing on the trees. Soon, everything will be in bloom. Northeast Italy is rich with various types of flora & fauna. It’s also rich with viruses and bacteria. One of our doctors in our Church told me that he had never seen so many strains of colds, fevers, & cruds than he had here. And sure enough, every winter we come down with something that lays us out for days or weeks at a time.
However, this year, as I noticed winter’s slipping grip, I praised the Lord for health. For this first time in years, I was protected from virulent violence throughout the winter. Oh, how I appreciated that. I had worked my third winter in an office with no heat. And, being from Arizona, heat is native to my nature. I much prefer the warm to the cold. So what was the secret you might ask? We got a new coffee machine in our worship center this winter. It’s Italian coffee. Beans are ground as you make your selection and a shot of chocolate is available with the cappuccino. I’m an addict now and I think my health & immune system has improved as a result.
So What’ve We Been Doing over the last 9 days?
Our close friends and church members (Aaron & Leila Hudson) had a house fire 9 days ago. The Hudsons have been in our Church for around 5 years now. Leila is 7 months pregnant. They lost most of their stuff and their 3 animals in the fire. They’ve had to inventory, clean what was salvageable, and move to a new home (2 doors down from us — Sandy’s doing). Many truckloads went to their new home and an equal amount went to the dump. It was a disastrous mess. So, we all have soot-stained hands and happy hearts as this couple gets back up on their feet again. It was a great “snake-story” of life to teach Reilly (who was completely fascinated with the whole ordeal). It was also neat to see how our folks in our Church came around this couple from morning to midnight every day.
Special Kudos
My close friend and colleague, Pastor Mike Bellamy, celebrates his 24th wedding anniversary with his wife Kim today. Congrats!! They’re almost silver. They also have double the matrimonial years we have. I just want him to know that even though I have more white hair than he does. I know you’re reading this Mike — just before you hit the gym again.
For the last few months, I’ve been chipping-ever-so-slowly-away at a project with my friend Mike. The idea was hatched some time ago and has now come to fruition. We started a new blog-forum. Yes, I know what you’re thinking, “But Rob, this blog here is fantastic; awesome even.” Yes, I can feel the digital praise (what I like to refer to as e-adulation) coming from my three regular readers as I type this very sentence. Ok, I’ll be honest, I don’t have 3 regular readers — it’s my mom only. She’s really proud of me — I think.
Moving Along.
I will continue this blog with the frequency and fervency that I’ve always contributed to it (you’re gettin’ about a post a week if you’re lucky). But I will remain steadfast with my ever-so-almost-interesting ramblings so as not to disappoint Mom.
But the new blog-forum is a different venture altogether. On that blog, a number of guys will join me writing about themes that pertain to the Church. I’ve had the joy of training or discipling a number of the guys that will write for the VG. These fellows are close friends because I like them and pay them well to be able to say that. Actually, we have some things in common that we want to write about. We love the Church, small groups, discipleship, the Hebrew worldview, and the power & promises God gives His Bride to impact her surrounding cities. You can read all about it on the “About Vision Glorious” page on the site.
It’s a little more teaching & application by nature to help Christian ministers and workers catch fresh principles for their Church. What we’re doing is spending a couple months on a targeted theme and writing insights on each theme. For example, our first theme is called True Christian Community and we’ll publish something every 5-8 days on that subject for a number of weeks. Then, we’ll be moving ahead to another theme. Over time, you’ll be able to have a repository of insights from guys who have well-tasted each of these principles and subjects. When you want to read or gather material on the subject of Community, all you have to do is click on the “tag” and all the articles on that subject will come up instantly. Also, you’re able to comment very easily on each article and discuss it with us if you’d like.
If you’re interested, add our new blog-forum to your bookmarks or subscription list and stop on by the Vision Glorious site. Leave us a “shout-out” in the Shoutbox if you make it by — Mom!
In Northeast Italy, we reside on the fence. Surrounded to our backs and sides by Romanism, we look eastward to the seemingly unstoppable waves of Muslim thought, culture, and practice headed this way. Brace yourselves for what happens to spaghetti-spine Europe in the coming years.
A Fantastic Article
Nathan Casebolt is a blogger that I read pretty regularly. He’s a young guy… HA! He weighs in five years younger than myself. I haven’t met Nathan or corresponded with him, but I have come to appreciate his writing, creativity, and intellect. Well, Nathan recently wrote an article about Europe entitled Muslim Soup that I think is a must read. You can find the article here. I wish I had his email address to thank him for it. He greatly encouraged us out here.
More EU Fanfare
Along the same lines, if you’re interested at all in the forces that shape continents, the European Union has by-passed Israel & side-stepped the US to help support the PLO now run by the terror group Hamas. They’re doing this by sending an aid package of around 165 million bucks after Israel froze their border taxation revenues. I wonder if the EU will send them some more teenagers and semtex when they run out of those too?
I read a wonderful article a couple years back about worship and the playing of musical instruments in worship. Here’s the skinny — because a true worshipper is a warrior in the spiritual realm, his/her instruments are weapons. When a worship-warrior begins to play on their instrument before the Lord, they begin to touch the things of the holy. They begin to practice the presence of God — Yeshua Shalom. This is one reason why I believe a lot of people in Churchianity who say they play musical instruments and are “called” to do music above making disciples are really nothing more than entertainers with Christian-oriented tunes. If one cannot discern the Body of Christ in the local, visible church properly (according to the Scripture), then they cannot lead those in that very Bride into Her ante-chamber. Their heart is not developed for battle in Word & intercession nor is it disciplined in the hard work of Christian-community service.
Sandy and I have been ruggedly digging those lessons out of these past years in shepherding a local Church. And, one of the common longings of our hearts is to train two young warriors in the proper preparation of worship. We want to guide them away from entertainment to the devoted love of God shown in service to His called out people. We want to show them how to capture the beautiful, turn it upward, and express it to Heaven with all of their skillful might.
So, we are setting out as a family to purchase a Clavinova. Reilly is ready to begin his training and Jessi touches the keys of the church’s keyboard every chance she gets (she’s our little music-lover). And, from what our entire city can tell, they’ve both been implanted with two strong instruments in their vocal chords. They love to sing and can keep in key and on pitch very well. So, our hearts are longing to train them and open the avenues for the future blessing of the Bride. We don’t have the money. Ok, no biggie. We’ve rarely ever had the money. So, we went out and found an instrument (pictured below) in the local area for a very good price. We’ve asked the Father for His goodness and help and we want to put it out on our blog. Often, people ask us what we need and we’re usually “all taken care of” and don’t have an answer. Now we do. Maybe you’ll want to help us save? I’ve included a button below if so. We rarely do something like this (in fact, this may be the first time) because we want this blog to be more information and reader oriented. Ok, that sounded like I was giving a presentation for Microsoft. We want — you — to enjoy — reading — here.
Here’s a neat picture sent to me by my Uncle Ron Carlson. He’s the older guy in this picture - HA! He’s also a new grandpa and another Packer fan has been brought into the world. Ron is an author and teacher extraordinaire. You can see his info here. The new DAD in this shot is my cousin Jason who visited us here last year and taught in our ministry. And may I add, Jason is another teacher extraordinaire! And the new baby is Caleb James Carlson and he’s just a “cute-guy extraordinaire”!
We also want to congratulate the mommy — Kim. She is a regular reader of this blog. We received no pictures of Kim to put on our blog and we don’t know why. Kim, congratulations, we know you’re out there.
I’ve been looking forward to pounding out this post for a few weeks now.
The Blue B’mer
Let’s start with the first picture. I’m featured in a rare appearance with sunglasses after having detailed my new ride (a 1988 BMW 7.30i) back in February of ‘98. What a great car! We put another 110,000 miles on it and saw it turn 300,000 kms before we sold it.
This car was our main family and ministry car for the past (almost) 8 years. It carried everything for the ministry and went everywhere. And, it has a lot of life left in it too.
Last September, we received our upcoming insurance rates for our vehicles for 2006. The insurance on the BMW was set to skyrocket 300% for the coming year. Instantly and sadly, we knew we had driven it for the last time. That weekend, we cancelled the policy, gave the car to the mechanic, my friend Brad cleaned her up nicely for me (what a great guy who loves his Pastor), and then entered the process to sell her.
Stay with the story! It’s a good one…
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