Churches in Italy :

1. Church in Milan

The Church in Milan began the Lord’s table in 2009 with mostly Chinese-speaking saints. Now, there are about 100 saints in the church life and 40 – 50 saints meetings on the Lord’s day in Chinese or Italian. Because the Covid situation, the saints have Zoom meetings in Chinese and Italian on Lord’s day. We hope the physical meeting will be resumed again soon.

Home Meetings

The saints usually have 4 home meetings according to different languages in a week. Due to the Covid situation, the Chinese-speaking home meetings have been proliferating. There is a meeting almost every night of the week with 2 separate meetings on Thursday night. The Italian/English speaking meetings have also been increasing. There are now 2 regular meetings per week in Italian/English. We pray that more saints would open their home with a view of being a nesting site for God to shepherd and raise up younger believers. 

Meeting Hall

Thanks to the contributions of the Body around the world, we were able to purchase a new meeting hall earlier this year. There is still the need to do some extensive remodeling in the hall. Please pray for the fellowship concerning this matter.

COVID

All of the church meetings and the home meetings are still being held online. We hope that soon it would be safe in Italy to come back together again for the real gathering together. Some of the saints have grown cold from the lack of personal face-to-face shepherding. There are a few face-to-face appointments, but it is very limited.

2. Church in Rome

The saints are meeting together on Lord’s Day and on Tuesdays for prayer. We also are having a Zoom meeting on Lord’s Day evening to take care of those who do not feel comfortable coming to the meeting hall on Lord’s Day morning. The saints have been enjoying the morning revival each week, which has been translated into Italian, and they use that to prophesy in Italian.

We have also been endeavoring to read a portion of a ministry book each week and overflow for 20 – 30 minutes out of our enjoyment. Currently we are reading The Knowledge of Life

Currently, we have one home meeting on Fridays, but we hope to have more homes open after the health restrictions are lifted. The saints are coming together to eat, pray, sing, and enjoy the Lord in the Word. We also have been reading a ministry book. This meeting is conducted mostly in Italian with translation into English for those who are still learning Italian.

We have one couple and one sister who are serving. When the restrictions are lifted, we expect to resume the distribution of English Bibles with an Italian ministry book as volunteers with Bibles for Europe. In the past, we normally would distribute 6-10 Bibles each time we would go out.

We continue to contact our neighbors, but most of them, at this time, are reluctant to go out or have other people in their homes due to the pandemic. Some of the ones we have been caring for have been hungrier and some have been more open to fellowship via Skype or Zoom.

We have been conducting a video training for two years. The saints have been greatly supplied during these times. Some of the saints who live outside of Rome have also taken hospitality to join us. The video training is usually conducted over two weekends with approximately 10 – 15 saints who sign up. The other saints join us for an open message on the Lord’s Day after the Lord’s Table.

Developing localities:

Vicenza

The city of Vicenza is the capital of the province of Vicenza located in the region of Veneto, northeast of Italy. The population of the province is around 865,000 while the city itself is around 112,000. In the city, there is a US military base making the majority of the immigrants from the US.

The initial stage of the church life in Vicenza began when a sister from Romania came to Italy in 1998. She met a local Italian to whom she was burdened to share the gospel to. In May, 2000, they became the first family in the locality of Vicenza. In 2002  the Italian brother  was baptized  during  a  visit from an American family who migrated to Rome that year. Later, with much prayer, some of the sister’s relatives migrated also in the city to work or study. Since then, the saints have brought the families or contacts to the Lord and the fellowship.

In 2011 the first sister from Vicenza went to the FTTL and in 2013, the second one followed. After finishing the training, they served in London for a few years and are now serving in Rome. In 2012 the Lord sent another family from Romania to Vicenza. Shortly after, the Lord’s day meeting, prayer meetings and home meetings became regular until this day. The two serving sisters who went to FTTL are burdened for the young people. From 2012 to 2018, three young ones from Vicenza were baptized during the WST or EYPC. During the FTTL, one of the sisters led her friend from university to  receive  the  Lord  and be  baptized in  2017. She was the first Italian sister, who became a remaining fruit, and is meeting regularly, functioning and bearing fruit among her relatives.

Now, there are around 17 saints joining the meetings in Vicenza composed of 3 families, 3 single sisters and saints from nearby cities. The weekly meetings of the church consist of prayer meeting, ministry reading, young people’s meeting (recently recovered) and Lord’s day meeting. They are also praying to begin the video training and recover the children’s meeting. Currently, the saints are laboring in taking care of the gospel contacts, the new ones and the young people, as well as sharing  the  gospel  to  colleagues  and  friends.

The burdens of prayer are mainly for the local saints to be strengthened and built up together so the Lord can gain local Italians and relatives; for the young people to be established and stirred up to love the Lord and share Him with their friends and classmates; for the shepherding of the new and young  ones;  for more families to migrate and help the saints; and for the Lord’s table to be established in Vicenza.

Torino

A city in Piedmont in the northwest of Italy. Having around 870,000 people there makes it the fourth most-populated city in the country and it has more than 2 million people living in the city’s administrative region and around 100,000 university students study there.

As of now there are 39 saints who meet together (some live in the city’s administrative region). 12 saints are young adults between 17-27 years old and 9 children between 3-12 years old.

We usually have three weekly meetings on the Lord’s day (the Lord’s day meeting and YP meeting) and on Tuesday (Prayer meeting) and in the meetings we have Italian-Chinese translation. Due to the current situation we meet using online platforms. We have just moved to another meeting place in the north of the city (30 minutes from the Porta Susa railway station).

Our burden today is that the Lord’s testimony may be fortified by strengthening , encouraging and equipping the brothers by building them up. We pray for open homes and proper mutual shepherding.

Prato

Prato is the second largest city in Toscana, Italy. There are about 80 Chinese speaking saints who are mainly involved with textile business. Due to the working limitation, about 20 saints can meet on Lord’s day from 1:30 to 4pm. One small group of saints have online Bible reading together during the week. On Wednesday night, few brothers will have fellowship together. The saints rent a meeting hall near the train station in a walking distance. It is also used for blending and fellowship among different localities. The rent is covered by the donation of the saints. Because of the epidemic situation, donations are less than before. The saints here love one another and in oneness. They serve large gatherings such as blending conferences with much grace. We also blend with the saints in Fucecchio once a month. Although the COVID situation affects seriously in this area, the saints here are all right. Thank the Lord! Only the peace He gives is the real peace. Currently, brothers and sisters use the Internet to meet. We pray the Lord will take care of this epidemic as soon as possible, so the economic condition and the church life will be restored completely.

Others

In Napoli, some Chinese speaking and Italian saints are in the fellowship with the saints in Rome. In Genova, some saints migrated there from South America and Russia are in contact with the saints in Milan and serving ones. In Catania, Sicily, there are some Chinese speaking saints who have been there for many years. The rest of saints are living in different cities in Italy. They are in fellowship with other saints and come to the conference in Italy.

Literature Work

History of the Literature Work in Italy

The translation of the ministry began in the early 2000 with an Italian brother from the south of Italy. About 2012 all the books from the Rhema-set were printed and put online, while the translation of the ministry books according to the European literature list continued steadfastly. 2012 another brother continued the translation of the books, finishing this year the third volume of the Life-Studies (John, Genesis, Galatians). In the years 2013-2016 we were able to print 3-6 new books every year, which were then distributed in book fairs and by a Christian book store (CLC), mostly from Watchman Nee. Publishing 3 more books and 10 booklets, 2017 and 2018 were dedicated to the labor on the wordlist, which issued 2019 in the building of a team for literature fellowship with regular Skype meetings to discuss certain spiritual terms and sentence structures, mostly with view and in preparation of the translation of the Recovery version of the New Testament into Italian. The team consists of 6-10 saints, who are all involved in some aspects of the literature work and who contribute to the advancement of the work. To this day 26 books and 13 booklets are available.

The team that works together on the literature consists now of one main translator and two further translators, two main editors, who faithfully have been reading through all the books since the beginning and since last year one additional proofreader, a sister, who just finished the FTT. Furthermore several saints from all over the world have been helping in various capacities with the editing. 

Beyond the team taking care of the ministry publications, there is one team laboring on the translation of the hymns, consisting of 4 saints. They gifted us with about 130 Italian hymns, which the saints are singing in the church meetings and at the conferences. 

Much labor is furthermore done in translating for the ongoing church life, such as training- and conference outlines, YP-conferences in Poland and winter school of truth, morning revival and also the audio translations of the video trainings. We are very happy to see some young saints, who grew up in Italy starting to function in this area. About 5 saints in overlapping functions do the big portion of this part of the work. 

With thankfulness toward the Lord, who alone can secure the continuation of the work, we are now praying for the forming of a team that will be able to dedicate themselves for the translation of the Recovery version of the New Testament. Furthermore we pray for the advancement of the distribution of the ministry through different channels, especially the building of a website to give access to the ministry to all Italian seekers. For several years we have been distributing the books in book fairs in different cities. With much joy we are now seeing two couples in Milan, who have come into the church life through their enjoyment of the ministry. 

If anyone would like to join the labor of the literature work, you may write an email to the following email address: info@lacorrentedivita.it

If you would like to contribute to the literature work through donation. 

Young People work

Winter School of Truth (WST) 2019 – Netherlands

In December 2019, 10 young people participated, 4 brothers and 6 sisters. These young people came from Milan (6), Vicenza (3) and Rome (1). 5 of them participated for the first time and 2 of them got baptized. 

The subject was “The Vision and Building Up of the Church”. All the YPs enjoyed the activities and shared during the group times and the meetings. It was very encouraging to them, even when they returned to their locations.

Europe Young People Conference (EYPC) 2020 

Due to the Covid, this year (2020) the European Young People’s Conference in Poland (EYPC) took place online through the Zoom platform. 

The topic for this year is “Men Who Turn The Age”. It was wonderful that 29 young people, ages 12 to 19, and 17 serving ones registered; this is the highest number who registered EYPC ever than before in Italy. Among 8 brothers and 21 sisters, 20 young people participated the first time. They formed 6 small groups. In the groups, some young people were very active in the meetings. Some who were born in the Church Life, were saved and baptized. Some of these young people continued to meet once a week to enjoy Bible reading and conference materials together after conference. 

Among these young people, 3 from Aosta, 1 from Genoa, 12 from Milan, 8 from Vicenza, 4 from Prato and 1 from Rome. Most of these young people speak at least two languages and Italian is their first language, the other languages are: Spanish, Chinese, Romanian, Russian, in addition to English that they study at school.

We pray that the Lord will raise more serving ones who speak Italian, who have the burden to take care of the young people and who can shepherd them continuously.

Conference and Blending

Italy May 2020 Conference Report

This year the Italy conference took place online due to the virus pandemic. Firstly, all the saints in Italy were encouraged to read The Glorious Church in the six weeks leading up to the conference weekend and to be prepared to share something in an overflow meeting. Then, the brothers had a feeling to cover four of the recent ITERO messages on the Will of God. The speaking of the messages were made available in Italian, Chinese, and English. The sharing of the saints in the overflow meeting and after two of the four messages took place in separate zoom meetings by language. This made it easier for the saints to share in smaller groups and without translation. The saints prophesied altogether with translation after the other two messages. The prophesying by smaller language groups proved to be a good way to encourage the saints participation and assist in their digestion of the message. The conference registration resulted in 375 devices registering from 47 countries accounting for 545 viewers, 216 of which were registered from Italy. This means 40% of the registrants were within Italy.

Building project

Milan Meeting hall and Literature Center

We received the new building in Milan on February 4th; this will be used for the meeting hall and the literature center in Italy. The building was purchased through a bankruptcy auction and has not been occupied by anyone for more than three years. Because it was used for offices, we received many desks, chairs, computers, closets, file folders and stationeries.

The old meeting hall needed to be returned to the owner at the end of March, unfortunately with the Covid-19, we had to postpone to June, therefore, after the lockdown was released, some saints in Milan coordinated together to move out and prepared the new meeting hall. In arranging the new rooms, the saints recycled and moved at least 14 tons of paper from the new meeting hall.

Now we have already prepared a room on the ground floor, which has 70 chairs to receive the saints when Covid-19 situation is stable in Lombardy. We still have to repair the bathrooms, change and repair the windows in order to comply with the regulations, move some walls to open more space for meetings, build the kitchen, prepare a children room and a brothers’ fellowship room, literature office and repair the roof.

We also changed, repaired and registered the utilities such as energy, gas, water, also internet and telephone. For the solar system, we have already done the maintenance of the system and cleared the panels through a specialized company and changed the ownership of the system.

We need to submit the new floor plan of the building with an architect to the city hall in order to change the arrangement of spaces. We also need to obtain permits for changing the purpose of usage in order to be able to give hospitality. For the project to be approved and finish all the works, there is a need for financial resources. 

Currently, the saints in Milan are still meeting through Zoom. We would like to restore the physical meeting soon with the consideration of regulations required by the government and the safety of the saints.

The saints in Milan have been working together in fellowship and oneness for the preparation of this new meeting hall. The Lord has been faithful. We trust that He will continue to supply us with everything we need to carry out His testimony in Italy.

If you feel the burden to give for this building project, please send the gift to the following account.

• Bank Name: EXTRABANCA S.p.A
• Beneficiary: LA CHIESA IN MILANO
• Account no.: 000050100089
• IBAN: IT 59 P 03399 01601 000050100089 
• Swift code: EXRRITM1

Hallelujah for the Body!