If you have already read our newsletter, you know that we recently spent 12 days in Italy. It was an amazing time that we spent with friends and ministry partners as we created programs to reach the youth of Italy with Christ's love. I want to tell you a brief story that we learned while we were there.
One of the projects that we were helping to develop is called La Mia Storia (My Story). La Mia Storia is a program that aims to address issues that Italian youth face every day. This program isn't designed to sugar coat or give a lot of "fluff" when trying to help the youth. The program uses very real and personal testimonies of people that have gone through some pretty tough things in their life, and how God helped them through those times. Our team recorded several testimonies that will be shown on the La Mia Storia website (www.lamiastoria.tv). These testimonies came from people who were selling and addicted to drugs, a young single mother and her struggles with deciding what to do with the pregnancy; we even had the opportunity to record the testimony of the secretary of Italian Senate. These are just a few.
To accompany this program, OneHope designed a Book of Hope specifically for Italy, and it is called La Mia Storia. Our ministry partners in Italy distributed over 50,000 of these books in just a few days. They were allowed into the schools and talked with the kids about the hope that Christ offers.
In one of these schools was a 14 year old girl. The day the team spoke at her school and she received the Book of Hope, she sent an email to our ministry partners, using the email given on the book. She said that she was 14 years old and that she and her brother live with their grandparents, but that their grandparents didn't want them there-they are a burden to them. She felt alone, like she had no one to go to. She said that her family made her crazy. She had already tried to kill herself twice and was about to try for a third time when she received the Book of Hope. She decided to reach out to someone as a last attempt to find hope. Our partners in Italy scheduled a time to meet with her at her school and to talk to her about the hope she can have in Christ.
God is so amazing, and we rejoice that his message of love is reaching those who feel they have no hope left. Unfortunately, this story of this 14 year old with no hope is all too common. Please continue to pray not only for the youth of Italy, but for the youth in your community. They deal with things every day that some of us can't even imagine.
As we look ahead to the next few months, we are excited for what's to come. In March, Kelly is going back to St. Louis for a few days to attend her brother's wedding. In April we will head back to Albania to help lead a team that will be heading there, and we will also head back to Italy for a conference.
This will be a busy few months for us but we are excited about what God will do during our time here. As always, thank you so much for your prayers-we feel them and we need them everyday.
God bless!
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