Signora Sheila

We’ll have the spring time change on the last weekend of March, even though they keep talking about doing away with it. I’m not sure why they persist with it or why they call it ‘springing forward’. Losing an hour’s sleep never makes me feel springy or bouncy. My internal clock really struggles to adjust. It’s strange how one measly hour can wreak such havoc. (Surely it can’t be because I’m getting old! 😉)

Most of my followers know about the health struggles we’ve faced over the past few years. But we also had financial and material difficulties to deal with. On top of that, the church was in a time of change and transition, which is always a challenge. Yet, by the Lord’s grace we’ve kept moving forward.

Our old car kept breaking down. But, as we all know, car prices have really risen, including for used cars. Buying a different car seemed almost impossible, so we continued to pay for expensive repairs. It wasn’t a great option, but at least we still had a car!

The worst breakdown happened during our two-hour journey home from my preoperative examinations before my prolapse surgery. The car suddenly died on the autostrada. The garage that the tow truck took us to was filthy, with no seating and an unusable bathroom. I couldn’t stand for long, and it was too hot to sit in the car. We were so relieved to finally arrive home in a rental car. But the car kept breaking down.

The worst breakdown happened on our 3-hour trip home from my preoperative exams before my prolapse surgery. The car died suddenly on the autostrada (espressway). The garage the tow truck towed us to was absolutely filthy, with nowhere decent to sit and an unusable bathroom. I couldn’t stand up for long and it was too hot to sit in the car. We were were relieved but exhausted when we finally arrived home in a rental car. We went ahead and had the car repaired, but it just kept giving us problems.

The amazing gift!

If you’ve read our About page on our Mission Italia website, you know that avoid sharing our financial and material needs. However, as we kept missing church services while our car was in the garage, our need became rather obvious.

They told us that they had been praying for God to provide us a new car. We didn’t realise that they were looking for one too. Until one day they called and said, “You need to come to Lanciano tomorrow to get your new car.” (Lanciano is the town where our church is located, about an hour away.)

We were flabbergasted and couldn’t help but wonder, “What new car??” The car we just bought you,” they said.

The car that we were unable to talk them out of buying. The one we’re still speechless over! It’s one of the nicest cars we’ve ever owned and we’re so grateful. What an amazing gift and what amazing people!

Bouncing back and Catching up

I’ve remained mostly “missing in action” from the blogging world because I had so much to catch up on. Like neglected housework, for example. This week I even hope to get the windows washed!

I also had website updating and maintenance to work on. Our ministry website was quite neglected, but I’ve now updated it with a new, albeit simple, design. It’s mostly just a static informational page. But check it out at Mission Italia if you’d like to learn how our missionary call came about.

I’m also in charge of our church’s website, Chiesa Evangelica Sharon and it needed a lot of work. I discovered the Auriel theme, which I think makes a great backdrop for it. By visiting Chiesa Sharon you can learn about our church and meet a few of the people. Don’t worry – it’s in English too!

Enjoying spring

Spring is in the air here. The weather is wonderful, with lots of sunshine. Everything is greening up, and we’re enjoying the blossoming trees and spring flowers. It’s lovely to see all the yellow mimosa trees as we drive around. They always bloom early and have become the emblem of Italy’s March 8th Woman’s Day. I wish you could come enjoy springtime with us!