Please pray for our friend Jim Miller who has been battling a horrendous kidney stone with awful pain.  They took him in for urgent care today (Cali. time) and said that if he doesn't pass it over the weekend then they may have to go after it surgically.  

GREETINGS SAINTS!  We trust this New Year finds you pressing on towards the high call of God in Christ Jesus.  This past year has been a year of many great highs and some strenuous lows for us personally and in ministry, yet, our Lord remains faithful. That is perhaps the most distinct lesson we have learned on the mission field.  Even when we are faithless, He remains faithful!  This very thing keeps us here seeking to always be refreshed in our love for Jesus, His Word, and for people, both saved and non-believing. To see the faithfulness of those of you that support us with your giving and prayers in the midst of your own share of challenges has been very humbling and honoring for us too.  Your generosity, sacrifice and labor in the spirit, affords us the privilege to continue living and ministering here.  We want to humbly thank you with all our hearts for your steadfastness and your commitment to us, and the Italian people.

LOOKING BACK:  After a summer of visitors and our annual missions conference in Austria, in September we moved the church from the city center to a zone in the suburbs where we sensed God calling us to concentrate our efforts.  That brought with it fresh excitement and new vision, but to our disappointment, we also lost some people in the move.  Currently, we are holding church services in our house, remaining steadfast in the Apostles doctrine, fellowship, prayer, and communion,  while praying and searching for a new building.  In October we hosted an outreach team from CC Triad in North Carolina breaking ground in the new neighborhood doing evangelism, clean up, sports, and a BBQ/Concert outreach. This really opened up doors for relationships with local teens.  Shortly after, in November, we hosted one of our annual interdenominational conferences.  Ken Ortize from Spokane, Washington did a wonderful job teaching on marriage.  It was a great blessing for the couples that participated and allowed us to have the teaching audio to make available.  Our desire is to publish his book in Italian also.  There just isn’t much available for the Italian church on these important topics.  In December we made our way into the city hall of our zone and obtained permission to hold a concert in an old city film hall.  Three bands from different churches played.  Getting believers together from other churches was perhaps the success of the event, but unfortunately, it wasn’t really successful in bringing in non-believers.  We had a group of us from our church that had a little Christmas caroling choir too.  That is always humbling!! 

LOOKING AHEAD:  In the coming months our focus will be trying different things in evangelism, casting our nets using different approaches to see if God might not open up to us a way that is more effective in reaching non-believers.  Please pray for the Spirits leading and blessing and for souls to be saved.  We are starting back up our midweek study, doing a married couples study once a month, looking at starting another cell group, and Jon (intern til March) is teaching the youth on Saturdays.  Jon has been a great help and blessing.  He helps with anything and everything and on Sundays he is doing the children’s ministry giving Hope the opportunity to sit and listen to the teaching.  Pray for him.  We will try to do another concert outreach in February plus show the Jesus film in Italian.  We are also looking to do some filming and interviews in Italian and get them up on the web (you tube, our site, etc…) to test the waters and activity of Romans on the web.  Later in March we will have a team of high school students visiting and doing outreach.  Continued below...

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FAMILY: Things are very active and busy to say the least.  We celebrated our 11 year wedding anniversary in October.  Time has absolutely flown by and God has just been so good to us.  Brayden is 17 months old and very … quick, cute, fun, funny and loves tormenting his big sisters while keeping us on our toes.  Isabella is in the first grade which was quite an adjustment for her… homework, writing, reading, long days etc…  She loves school lunch, is getting very tall and is very mature for her age.  She will be 7 in May.  Olivia is 4, in kindergarten and learning Italian.  She is very sweet but is also learning how to stand her ground.  Both are very creative and love to play dress-up or draw or color.  In November we were spoiled with tickets to go back to Brent’s brothers wedding in Florida and in the process had the joy of seeing family, watching the space shuttle night launch, and visited Disney and Sea World all within 6 days.  It was a dream come true in many ways, something that we could never pay for but have a God and family who love us and bless us greatly.  

Please pray for God’s continued grace upon us as well as our part in responding to that grace.  Our desire is to walk in His Spirit, love one another, love others and live out His Word yet another year.  May He grant all of us grace to do that very thing in these last days.

PRAYER REQUESTS:

• anointing on teaching and fellowship, growth and maturity
• grace, wisdom and anointing on evangelistic efforts for 09
• souls saved, new visitors to the church, disciples made – specifically these that we have been witnessing to and developing relationships with… Romina, Fabio, Valleria, Martina,Vitto, Ana (recent heart transplant), parents of girl’s friends from school
• a new building for the fellowship
• favor with city for permits for concerts, market stand, Jesus film project, rooms etc…
• Negist (traumatic allergy attack) and Paola (sinus surgery) Franco and Francesca Mongini (cancer and unknown sickness) Becky (thyroid issues) for physical healing
• Rosemary who lost her husband (heart attack) weeks before Christmas, her one daughter Necca who is 7
• Estel , Brent’s sister-in-laws dad, had a brain hemorrhage and stroke Tuesday.  Please pray for his recovery and healing, for the family and for God to use this for bringing people to himself.
• Jon during his internship, teaching youth and children’s ministry
• Our kids at school, relationships with teachers, good behavior, language development
• Hope – grace in parenting, language development, example and influence on women in the fellowship, contentment
• Brent – more Jesus, proper balance with work and family, grace in parenting, more preparation time for teaching, wisdom, discernment, and more of God’s love.

By Grace,
Brent, Hope, Isabella, Olivia, and Brayden Harrell
CC Rome Family