Counting the cost

First of all, we're loving the married life! We feel so blessed by everyone who has sent us encouragements, prayed for us and was able to come to the wedding. This was such a special time. We feel the Lord has really blessed us in this season and we're so grateful for everyone He has placed by our side.

Having fun with grandma’s lift

What have we been up to?

During the month of June we went to Verona to take care of Sonia’s grandma for a week. It was a hard week, not going to lie. We both did things we have never done before. But we discovered even more how good of a team we are. It was also very healing for Sonia to be there and seeing how God is restoring her family and her grandma’s relationship. He is good!

Recently mission experience just ended. It was a summer camp we pioneered this year with “Revive” (a European movement of young people that are praying for revival) with the purpose of mobilizing young Italians to the nations. We had 11 participants and we sent two teams: one to Rome and one to Durres, Albania. 

Everyone came back so touched by what they had seen.

Some testimonies:

Especially in Albania the team talked to so many muslim people and had very good conversations about God, during street evangelism and also during prison ministries. In Rome a guy gave his life to Jesus! Some people are now connected to believers (churches or the ywam base in Durres) in both areas. Also we have seen fruits in the teams. 3 Italians! But wait, not only Italians, but 3 people from Trentino Alto Adige went for the first time on a mission trip!!! Praise God! This is what we are here to see! Italians being mobilised to the nations! Following God outside their comfort zone. Into the calling that Jesus has for them.

Another incredible thing we have seen is two of the girls from the mission experience now wanting to do a dts. Speaking of dts...

...what does the next season for us look like?

Before we were married we started praying for our future together. Wanting to have a shared vision as we both feel very strongly that we want to be missionaries for life! As we started to pray together and ask God "what is it you have for us?" we felt that we started to get some clarity. 

One thing that came up for us is that we both really want to keep investing in young people and their relationship with God. Not long after we had this conviction, the base leadership approached us on the possibility of Lucas leading the next DTS and Sonia staffing alongside him. It took us a couple months to come to a conclusion and we sought counsel from some trusted friends and family. We both knew that being involved in this school would cost us something, especially not knowing what married life would be like. 

We felt a tension, on one side a lot of people were advising to take one year for ourselves, to get to know one another and to enjoy life together, but on the other hand we felt an invitation from God to join in with what He is doing and we didn’t want to respond: “we are busy, we just got married”.

The more we shared about the possibility of DTS, the more we felt convicted that this is what God is calling us to. One verse that was coming up for us as we prayed was:

'For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Luke 14v28-30

We both knew that saying yes to dts meant paying a price. The cost was our time, our energy, our house (becoming a place for people to come and be discipled). Saying yes to Jesus is never cheap. But we both felt that Jesus is always worthy of our obedience. That indeed His way is better. That giving our lives to Him would be far more satisfying than giving it to one another. And what a privilege to do it together. 

We are so grateful we get to do this together!

After talking to our leaders we came to the conclusion that we would staff the school but not go on outreach. Lord willing, we are going to Canada for Christmas and celebrating our wedding with family and friends who could not come to Italy. We are planning to come back from Canada and go on “pastorals”, which means we will go to the outreach locations and check on the teams, pray with them and encourage them as they continue to serve the Lord. 

We are excited and expectant of what the Lord is going to do not only in the lives of

our students but also in our lives. We both feel like this is a season to dream together with God, to ask Him questions and to just enjoy the ride. He is sooooo worth following. 

Prayer requests

The neighborhood we will move in Lord willing :)

We actually have gotten an offer to move houses into a bigger apartment, a 2 bedroom 1 bathroom place in a nice neighbourhood here in Arco, Italy. The cost of rent would roughly be 100€ more a month and we would also need to give a deposit of 4500€ at the start that we would receive back after our time of renting. We feel like the Lord is opening this door for us and we are waiting for the landlord to write us a contract. Please keep praying for God's peace and wisdom to lead us in this as it would be a big change! If everything goes well, we will move there in September a couple of weeks before the dts starts.

We are also praying that people would join and financially support this mission that God has called us to! 

Please pray for our dts team as we prepare to receive students from all over the world. We believe God is specifically calling this generation to see God's glory and to present our King wherever we will go.

Alsooo we have created a group chat on whatsapp where we share little updates weekly and also prayer requests. If you would like to be a part of it, you can click here: https://chat.whatsapp.com/IBbFv320332EZsWZLiHAOU