September Update

We know, we know. We created this blog to provide more frequent snippets of the happenings in our lives and ministries here in Treviso. And while we have been giving updates, they have not been very frequent. So be gracious and please have a quick look at our brief recap (a real challenge for my meticulously detailed mind that wants to tell you everything!) of our most recent and most significantly encouraging events the Lord has been working through. Truly, God is doing great things in our midst!

Nino, Perside, Ruth, Esther and Sharon Converso

Ordination of Nino Converso, September 18

We are so excited to share with you the news of our first, soon-to-be ordained elder at CC Treviso. Nino and his family are Italian and have been with us for six years now. This is a very special occasion indeed when a local is raised up. 

Please pray for Nino as we simply acknowledge publicly what the Lord has already made clear for Nino’s life and ministry. Pray also for his family’s health. He has had kidney trouble lately while his wife, Perside, continues to live with severe arthritis and a pending hip replacement. 

CC Treviso Annual Retreat, September 9-11

Please pray for our team and those attending our annual retreat at the Calvary Chapel Conference Center in Millstatt, Austria. Pastor Jim Stewart and his wife Margie from CC Padova will be ministering the Word and serving the children’s group. Pastor Robin Turner from CC Spitall, Austria, who also is directer of the Castle, will be teaching for one of the main sessions on Saturday. We look forward to a blessed and refreshing time together. 

Frank and Renata. Pizzeria Da Pino in Centro Storico

Sunday Service with Pastor Frank Ippolito and other Special guests

We had the distinct pleasure of hosting Pastor Frank from CC Vineland, NJ for our Sunday service on August 14. Though many were still away for summer vacation as is typical in Italy this time of year, the Lord brought whom he wanted, and one family in particular was the highlight of our day. Pray for Andrea, Marta and their son Riccardo, friends from our children’s school. 

At a run-in encounter at the local park recently, I had the chance to talk with Andrea about Jesus and our life as Christians. They showed up the very next Sunday for service and afterwards commented repeatedly how touched they were by the message and music. 

Wow, what an encouragement this and various other similar occasions have been! Pray for Andrea, Marta and Riccardo with us! By the way, Luka and Riccardo are friends.

Foto taken by Frank Ippolito at the pulpit Sunday morning

A Season of Fresh Fruit

What is usually a discouraging lull in the Summer months has actually turned out to be the most encouraging season we can recall in all the years of our ministry here. Although most of our regular families and several individuals are absent during the summer months, as the picture to the left will show, God has been stirring the hearts of various unsaved local people and bringing them into our doors to hear the Scriptures and message of Salvation by Grace. 

On this particular Sunday service in the picture to the left, we realized we had 7 unbelievers happily listening to the Word of God.

What is more, these precious people keep coming back with hungry hearts for more Truth! Pray for commitments to Jesus in the lives of Valter, Veronica, Franco, Sabrina, Rosanna, Debora (and Andrea and Marta mentioned above).

That’s all folks! There’s actually a lot more but I’ve omitted it because space and time will not allow for it. My penalty for letting too much good stuff pile up between updates :)

Thank you for reading, a double thank you for praying, and may the Lord bless you greatly!

We love you,

Mark and family

Update - June 17

Renata and Keely on the road to the bungalows

Beware of covetousness, but we have been greatly blessed with two wonderful weeks of ministry. First in Tuscany for the CCs of Italy retreat, June 1-4 with Pastor Ken Ortiz.

The sessions were packed with down-to-earth, practical teaching for married life. But even singles came away so blessed, as God's truth is universal and applicable to all.

Shockingly, during the last session Keely's son Kyler (age 10) fractured two vertebrae in a freak accident. What was a peaceful time quickly turned into a chaotic rush to the hospital where the family had to remain for three days until he was released to Treviso.

The doctor wanted to transport Kyler home by ambulance to keep his posture in the right position. Thankfully, that didn't need to happen and the long story is coming to an end. Their joy from the weekend of blessings has not been robbed though, and Kyler is healing up quickly. We'll be visiting him tomorrow, please do continue to pray for his recovery and grace for the family as they adjust.

Sweet time of worship Sunday morning - led by Alex and the team.

Just after coming back from Tuscany, it was crunch time to gear up for the second retreat. This one was with the saints from Calvary Chapel in Spittal, Klagenfurt, Vienna and Salzburg, June 10-13.

One special dynamic is how the weekend started off planned to be a CC Spittal retreat only, but then slowly expanded into the first-ever, Austria-wide CC conference. Something they've been praying for but has never happened until now, and without actually planning it.

We're thankful for the privilege to be there for this special time. God is cooking in Austria and I get the impression we're only seeing the beginning of what is to come!

Renata and friend Laura - part of the castle team with husband Alex.

I taught through the book of Ephesians and personally both Renata and I came away enriched from our time in fellowship with the saints. So thank you Robin, Alison, Castle staff and all those who attended. You made the weekend special.


We returned home to the local battlefield of Treviso on Monday night. Matea was sick the next day with a high fever but we're all healthy again for the moment :)

Kids show at the preschool followed by parental involvement!

In between the retreats we had meetings for Luka's school where he begins 1st grade next year, and an end-of-year party for all the kids in the current preschool.

After the children did their show, we parents were asked to get involved. Initially the announcement seemed we would have to dance with choreography like the kids did, and I was determined I would not be part of that!

But then we realized we just needed to go into the class rooms and join the children in making the arts and crafts that will be put on display for the school. Once I saw a glue gun, I was a happy participant.

The teachers would not let me leave until I painted it!

Luka and I built an airplane with a plastic bottle, a cork, and a few clothes pins. Just when I thought I was done, the teacher told me I had to paint it. I actually got into it and almost fought with another child over the color I needed to use :) Only joking.

But it's not over! We've got another school dinner to attend this Saturday evening. Can you guess what's on the menu? That's right, Pizza!

This season is full of wonderful opportunities to share a meal and the gospel with others who are not from the body of Christ, so please pray.

We have come to really appreciate the importance and value God places on such activities wherein we can be salt and light in the simple day-to-day life. So often we relegate ministry to inside the church walls or preaching on street corners. Yet the greatest harvests are quietly reaped through the precious individual relationships that God brings our way behind the scenes.

Mom with her gifted artists :)

**We ask you to please pray for Renata's father who will have surgery this Monday to have a pace maker installed. He has had heart trouble on and off for some years but with the latest tests done on him, it was discovered that his heart was stopping during his sleep for up to 4 seconds, and then it would beat irregularly and repeat.

May is the Month to Mangiare

Quality Family Time!

Below are some of the various activities from this month, with pics (click for details). We've had a lot of Pizza and Gelato these days. No surprise considering the fact that Pizza and Gelato are as important to Italy as the Sun and Moon are to Earth's survival. Much of our socializing revolves around these two delightful creations (let's not forget coffee and cappuccino)! And hey, we're not complaining. Just two more reasons to thank the Lord for having us minister in this unique country :)

Full of activities both in ministry and personal life, May continues to yield the fruit prayed for by many of you. Thank you! Wonderful doors are opening among the local people here. And in such a simple way. We can speak of new friendships starting and lengthy conversations that spark up naturally at schools' parent meetings, business ventures, grocery shopping and so on.

In addition to our outreaches, it's enough for us to just be with the unreached in everyday activities and they will do "the asking." People want to know who we are and what we do here. So thank you for praying. It is encouraging to know that some of you really take prayer seriously, and that you are praying seriously for us!

Agape Lunch and Pastor Craig

I translated for Craig into Italian. That was odd!

 It was a great pleasure to have pastor Craig from CC Montebelluna with us on Sunday, May 8th. The Word was great, the account of Abraham and Isaac in Genesis 22! Thanks Craig for the edifying message!



We just so happened to also have an Agape (Pot luck) lunch scheduled for after service that same day, and kid's program put on by our Sunday school class.

The day was full of good fun together in Christ. A joy also to see the kids playing and making use of the new, larger space we have outside. Us big kids, the adults, got down with some ping pong competition too!

Getting in line for food.

Even the women were anxious to eat :)

Preparing for the kids' show.

Our class that day with teachers!

School Fundraiser
Our kids' school asked if we parents could attend a demonstration from a mattress company on Monday evening, May 16. Sounds strange, but there's a demographic to it. And by our attending, the company would donate 600 Euro to the school for the presence of 26 couples. We invited Bob and Lori to help fill the seats, and though we didn't make it to 26 couples, we had 21, and the school was awarded 500 Euro, which is very needed as they do not have money to fix their one-and-only school computer! But the evening was not only about beds and eating together, we mingled as usual and the Lord warmed up new faces to us, bringing an invitation to a BBQ at the house of Luka's classmate too. That will be next Sunday afternoon, May 29, so please keep this, and Alessandro and Francesca in prayer as we deepen our friendship and share the Lord. We had helped this family out previously by keeping their son at our place for two afternoons/evenings during their stressful move. It's great to see the relationship take flight gracefully. Bob and Lori have been invited along too. Amazing how the Lord uses anything and everything when we put ourselves out there in faith. We don't have pics from this night, but wanted to share it with you anyway.

TEC Dinner
As a follow up to The English Club, we regrouped on Wednesday evening, May 18 for a pizza dinner with about 25 of us, students and teachers included. Once again, the Lord prepared the ground for His Word to be sown. The Lord guided our lips in conversation about him and good things took place! Just a few names to continue praying for: Cristina, Emanuela, Marco, Adolfo, Sergio and Mariana.

Teachers' Party
Parents from Matea's class wanted to do something as a "thank you" for the  teachers. Can you guess what it was? Yes, Pizza dinner once again. About 45 of us with kids gathered this past Friday evening, May 20. As the Lord would have it, I sat down right in front of a couple of which the husband was a world traveling professional surfer, and so had been to America and other English speaking countries. We talked about life, his Catholic religion, our cultural differences and our ministry. It was good!

See, even kids socialize over Pizza. Makes the world go round!

Matea with some of her classmates. Scooter races, yeah!

Luca and I are now officially friends and have exchanged numbers. He even gave me a hug when the night was over! Odd for a Trevisano.
We'll soon be getting together in the center for a coffee during one of his work breaks. He's an architect and native to Treviso. Luca and his wife Elisa (not the same Luca and Elisa mentioned in other updates) are the hightlight of the evening, but we also spoke with and exchanged contact info with others. Pray for Roberta too, who would like to get together with us.















Picnic and Carnival
The summit of this month so far was our picnic and kid's fair this past Sunday!

What an awesome and rewarding day it was. Contrary to the weather prognosis, the Lord answered our prayers with clear skies, dry ground and a nice breeze.

The fair just taking off, view from the front.

We brought our church to Parco Margherita and as the pics show, took over a small corner of the field. We had food, fun and fellowship until about 3:30 PM and then began set up for the fair which would invite all the kids in the park. It got pretty full with about 30 kids at one time lining up!

There were ten stations for kids to participate in, and candies were the prizes. Lori Scata was the mastermind who put together the idea and several others helped make it happen by manning the stations, so thank you Bob, Lori, Renata, Rich, Keeley, Tracey, Nino, Eve, Daniel and anyone else I may have forgot to mention.

Folks naturally wanted to know who we were and why we were doing this on our own initiative. We got to share with several people, and at the request for more info about our church, we gave out a bunch of info cards with our location and service times.

A brotherly kiss, it's biblical!

The Fair in action. About 10 mins. from now it gets packed!

My beautiful bride ran the coin toss. That's our Luka there!

Keeley ran the beanbag toss. Matea is taking a shot.

Quick update/prayer requests!

Just a quick one folks.

Pray for Febo, a young man (age 15) who is taking bass guitar lessons with me. We had a wonderful talk about the Lord today, and he's got a very soft and open heart to the things of God. He really is interested in our church and may come with me to our men's meeting on Saturday, May 28, if he doesn't come before that on a Sunday. Praise God for the great and many open doors into the precious lives of the Veneto people!

We're prayerfully going to host a concert outreach in June. This could be yet another great event for reaching out to others in the area. Details to come on that!

Last, but not lest, a reminder that tomorrow evening (Wednesday the 18th) is our pizza dinner with the gang from our English Club outreach. Please pray for our time together. We want to reconnect and reinforce the friendships that began many weeks ago, and to continue to shine the love of the Lord on all who come. We expect to be about 20 or more.

Bless you, and thanks for reading and praying!

Mark

May Events

Matea wanted a strawberry so Luka delivered some face art, with permanent markers

Somehow we seem to have jumped from March strait to May. April was a blur!

May has filled up too, with some exciting things to pray for.

This Sunday, May 8 will be a special time for us. First, we have the blessing of pastor Craig Quam joining us from CC Montebelluna. Following our service is an "agape" pot luck lunch for everyone to share a meal together. Then at 4:00 PM the children from our Sunday school will be presenting a show for us all.

Wednesday, May 18 we will be going out with the whole gang from our English Club, teachers and students, for a pizza dinner. We look forward to following up with these beautiful people and getting the chance to make Christ known once again!

Sunday, May 22 we have a church picnic after service that will then lead into a community outreach in the park. We have various games and activities prepared for children in the form of a mini-carnival. Candy awards will be given out, and we look forward to meeting and sharing with the parents.

Sunday, May 29 I have the privilege of dedicating little Milena, the beautiful baby girl born to our dear Helen and Emiliano.

Please pray for these up coming events. Also, we've been really stretched these days personally and in the church. While God continues to bring new hearts into our lives and out to our services, other issues are arising from within the fellowship. In addition, on a personal level, we've been getting hit with various attacks and things that we believe are intended to discourage and distract us. We confess that we NEED your prayers, so please pray! God is good!

Bless you!
Mark

New Life in April

Last evening of The English Club

It's hard to believe April is already here. Wow! Just wanted to bring you up to speed briefly so that you can rejoice with us in what God is doing, and so you can know how to continue to pray for the work at CC Treviso.

Last week, I took the family to the "Castle" in Austria where we typically hold our retreats. The discipleship program was running and I had been asked to come share with the group. Our time was blessed and we were able to fellowship with the group from CC Bible College in Montebelluna as well.

My father-in-law and I in the bus to Krk, Croatia

Just this past Friday we headed out to Croatia for a quick overnight trip to attend a European Ministry Conference run by a church in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Their heart is to network in the Balkans, and many whom we know and love from Serbia attended, including my in-laws. It was a special treat to catch up with dear friends of old and to meet new friends that are co-laboring in the fields of Eastern Europe. Every time I am around those people or in those countries my heart is kindled for them. The Lord seems to continue to keep us involved in that part of the world.

Last Wednesday we held our sixth and final session of the English Club (see the photo at the top of this post) until Autumn comes. What a blessing it was for everyone. We are still enjoying the fruit and doors that remain open. Thank you Bob, Lori, Tracey for spear heading this outreach, and thank you to all those who pitched in or invited friends to come. The picture attached is from the last evening and we had some guests from the CC Conference Center in Millstatt Austria. Alex brought down a small group and they plugged into the evening activities. We were blessed to have them, and once again, God used the evening mightily. Please continue to pray for Sabrina, Daniela, Emanuela and her son Marco who have been out to our Sunday services for a couple of weeks now. God is stirring them, and we pray for a radical touch from the Lord in their lives. Marco is 25 and is really seeking his place in life. His mom has also shared that God is speaking to her on Sundays and Sabrina is asking a lot of questions that demonstrate her confusion over spiritual matters.

Outside of the building God continues to open doors and cross our paths with innumerable opportunities to make Christ known. These times of spreading the seeds of the gospel have refreshed my and Renata's heart in a radical way. Truly, I can't thank the Lord enough for how much he's been doing. Please pray for the following lovely people, with whom we have continued friendships and great conversations about the Lord. Some we know through our kids' school, others from the English club, but mostly from day to day life.

Vincenzo, Allesandro, Roberta, Jelena, Francesca, Allesandro (2), Marco, Paolo, Maddalena, Edoardo, Riccardo, Cristina, Francesca (2), Maria Pia, Elisa, Luca.

Thank you taking the time to catch up with us and lock arms in prayer!

Bless you,
Mark

March Madness

Just a quick update and a few things to pray for.

We leave for the castle in Austria today. I've been asked to come share with the discipleship group over the next few days. We look forward to the fellowship of the saints there and some time away with Renata and the kids. Especially after 3 months of non-stop sicknesses in the house. Please pray for our travels and for my words to be from the Lord's heart to ours.

Services in the new space have been a real blessing. One of the most important but missing elements to ministry in our old building was the opportunity for fellowship after services. But here, the congregation just flows into the fellowship hall and starts enjoying koinonia! This brings me great joy and I pray that it flourishes into stronger, healthier relationships centered on Jesus.

The English Club has been going wonderfully on Wednesday evenings. The penultimate meeting we had about 30 attendees with great conversations about the Lord afterwards. But the real treat is what we're starting to see beyond the Wednesday; the start of new friendships between believers and non-believers which lead to greater opportunities in a natural and simple way.

A few days ago we responded to an invitation to dinner at Emanuela's house. She wanted all the teachers from The English Club to join her family and a friend for homemade pizza. What an amazing evening we had talking about the Lord. Please pray for her, her friend Daniela, her partner Adolfo and their children Andrea, Mattia and Marco.

Last Saturday Pastor Jim Stewart from the CC Padova church plant came to share with our men's group. A great time in the Word! Not to mention an awesome breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, fresh toast and fresh Italian pastries! We burned off those 2,000 calories playing ping pong! Great time. Pray other men will catch the bug and join our small group.

**Prayer!

This morning we found out that our little nephew Kaleb, the son of Renata's brother, is in the hospital. He is being tested after a few strange symptoms, such as a high fever, tremors, and one hand turning blue. So far he's tested positive to a bacterial infection but more tests are being done to identify what the infection is from.

Just after hearing about Kaleb, we received a call from Helen about 30 minutes ago. She had given birth on Saturday to a beautiful little girl named Milena and we're thankful for a smooth and safe delivery. But please pray for Milena. She is already quite small and underweight and now is in the neonatal intensive care unit because she is not keeping down her feedings.

Love and blessings to you!
Mark