Greetings Saints,

It has been an eventful six weeks or so as we went in to Christmas and New Years hosting a team from Seattle, then moving on in to 2010!  Just before the team came I was rear-ended and sent flying into the car in front of me.  Since one of my inspections had expired without me knowing, it resulted in my car title being taken for a couple of weeks.  Two weeks and two hundred euros later we got that settled.  In the meantime the team arrived we got busy.  By God's gracious grace, one of the ladies in the fellowship who was going out of town for the holidays let us use her car.  The team was great, helpful and encouraging.  We did a few concert outreaches both in Tor Bella Monaca and Frascati, plus some special teaching on marriage and purity for singles.  Amy from the team put her artistic hand to work and painted a couple of paintings for the church in TBM (acting also as a sound absorbent on hollow walls).  She also did some handy work up in Frascati as well.  Thank you to CC East-side for all your hard work and love shared.

I had the privilege of getting away a few weeks ago to one of our European winter pastors conferences in Germany.  God always uses that time to take us aside, discipline us, bless and refresh us, then send home encouraged. I came back to Olivia (our middle child) sick with a stomach virus.  Not pretty. Brayden (our littlest) picked it up that Saturday night (of course) so we spent about ten to twelve straight days cleaning up vile messes, doing laundry out the ears, and praying not only for them two to live, but hoping and praying that the rest of us would remain untouched.  

Despite all the drama, God has continued to bless the fellowship and bring some new folks.  It has been a blast to see Romina and Fabio coming pretty consistently and bringing their kids. Please continue to pray for Fabios salvation and growth in the Word for Romina.  The past couple of weeks brought us a couple of other new visitors too. Sara seems to want to make CC Rome her church family while Giuseppe and his wife seem to be checking things out.  We are grateful to see new faces and pray for a radical outpouring on everybody coming, new and old.  On Sundays we are plodding through Acts and on Wednesdays Vincenzo has taken the baton in Proverbs.  Pray over the meetings, the teaching, for a deep work and for transformed lives.  Continued...

...Continued

Our building continues to be such a wonderful blessing and joy as we have been able to hold all of these various events according to our own needs and just spend quality time in fellowship, worship and prayer.  Pray that we could grow in numbers and in financial giving so that as we get weaned off of our home churches financial help for the building rent in the coming months we could carry the load all on our own.  This can tend to be an interesting challenge for Evangelical churches in Italy unfortunately.  We pray for that gracious work of God's Holy Spirit in maturing the body in this area.  We also pray for God to prosper people with good jobs and consistent pay so that they can honor God with the fruit of their labors.   

On the 13th of February we are kicking off a new type of outreach for us with offering English lessons and Guitar lessons for free in an effort to be a blessing as well as simply bring people in.  Pray for Claudia as she will be teaching the English lessons, for Vincenzo as he leads the guitar lessons.  The lessons will carry on every other week until mid June.  We see this as a great opportunity for many in the fellowship wanting one or the other, maybe even preparing future worship leaders.  Either way we pray for the Lord to draw people and use it for His glory and His purposes.  Pray for divine appointments as we do flyer distribution and registration for the next couple of weeks.  

Lastly, on a personal note, Hope's grandpa Lowell Bennett, who is 90, and has had an amazingly full and Jesus glorifying life, seems to be very near the end.  His lungs are super weak, taking on some fluid, and his body just seems to be giving out.  Please pray for him and the family as it is still hard to think of letting him go.  Our prayer is that God has his way and shows mercy either way.

Thanks for your faithfulness to pray and give to our efforts here in Rome.  We can't thank you enough.

By Grace,
Brent and family, CC Rome

Please pray for:

- Continued growth in the church and individual believers personal faith
- New people to be drawn into the church, and a great impact on Tor Bella Monaca
- Satan and power and principalities to be bound, rebuked, cast down... strongholds demolished, hearts and minds free to receive
- Various outreach efforts, tracts distribution, English and guitar lessons offered in the new year to bear fruit
- Provision for building to do’s: heating/air unit, hot water heater, bathroom sink, kitchen sink and cabinets/cupboards
- Salvation for: Fabio, Alina
- Growth and discipleship for: Romina, Ivano, Claudia, Raul, Rueben, Emeglia and Alessandro, Diamond and the rest attending
- Jobs for: Emeglia and Alesandro Filip, Lidia, new job for Robert
- Blessings, Unity, Provision, Leaders raised up, Grace and Anointed teaching at both CC Roma and CC Frascati, our two church plants.  Wisdom, discernment and protection for Robert, Vincenzo and Brent as they lead these flocks.  Blessings on Tania and Hope as they faithfully teach the children.  The children to really know Jesus more and more.
- Brent’s time in Germany for pastor’s conference, Hope and kids safety and sanity while he is away
- Isabella and Olivia’s schooling… grades, relationships, language acquisition, testimony to other children and their parents
- Italian driving school paid for, attended, and exams passed for Hope's driver's license
- Wisdom on what to do with our family car as ours is getting up there in wear and tear, repairs etc... God's provision
- Successful renewal with Harrell visas and paper work this year, grace, direction, and favor as we look into Citizenship process
- Personal support for the Harrell family increased, support for Robert in Frascati

Praise/Prayer CC Rome

Praise
- children's ministry wall built, room in use, a great blessing
- successful Harvest Fest outreach, many kids and parents in attendance
- Romina accepted Jesus into her heart
- weekly visitors and new faces

Prayer
- Salvation for Fabio, Alina, Ivano, Glauco, and Stefano's mom Ana
- More divine appointments, anointed evangelism, barriers broken down, preparation for outreach in Nov and Dec.
- powers and principalities bound, confounded, disarmed, unable to divide, blinders lifted
- anointing and help for Brent teaching in Italian
- grace for Hope and Tania as children's ministry grows and develops, more kids reached for Christ
- growth and maturity for those attending
- singles - purity, passion for Christ, patient/obedient hearts, protection
- development and finalization for Aquila project
- building needs: heating/air unit, kitchen and cabinets, projector
- sign drama resolved, organization and administration with association
- opportunities to help families and reach out during the holidays
- church plant in Frascati, Robert, wisdom, laborers, new converts, more support, money for chairs

Thanks for praying,

Brent

CC Rome
calvarychapelrome.org

Dear praying friends-
   Thank you for your prayers concerning our Sunday school space. The Lord has provided! With the gracious help of Calvary Chapel Montebelluna, we now have a Sunday school room to call our own! We changed our original floor plan ideas which provided the perfect solution for dividing up the space that we are currently renting. We had our first Sunday service last Sunday and it was such a blessing. It has literally been 10 years since we have had a room for the kids that had all that we needed in it! I am truly thankful.  We are going to inaugurate our new building and new room by having a little harvest party for the kids in the neighborhood this Saturday. We want to be a blessing to the kids and their parents in some way so we would ask for your continued prayers for this grand event! Thank you everybody! May God richly bless you.
Sincerely,
Hope Harrell (the oh-so-happy Sunday school teacher)