Springing Forward, Bouncing Back, and an Amazing Gift

Our Spring time change is scheduled for the last weekend of March, despite rumors circulating about canceling it. I don’t understand why they insist on doing it or why they call it “moving forward.” Losing an hour of sleep never makes me feel like I’m springing ahead. My biological clock really struggles to adjust, leaving me a bit lethargic and sleepy. It’s strange how a single hour can cause so much havoc. (It certainly can’t be because I’m getting older! 😉)

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 on our return home from a hospital 2 hours away when the car died on the autostrada (espressway). The garage we got towed to was filthy, with nowhere 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 so exhausted when we finally arrived home in a rental car. We went ahead and had the car repaired, but sadly it kept giving us problems.

The amazing gift!

If you’ve read the About page on our ministry website at Mission Italia, you know that we 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.

So our church members informed us that they had started 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.

We were unable to talk them out of buying us a car, although we tried. And we are still speechless over our new to us car! It’s one of the nicest cars we’ve ever owned and we’re so grateful. What an amazing gift and what amazing friends!

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 members. 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!

📷 Images are mine.