Prayer Letter

Italy

Italia

Population 58 million

Growth

-0.1%

Life Expectancy    78.4

Fertility Rate         1.3

Surface Area         301,230km2 slightly larger than Arizona

97% of the population claims to believe in the Catholic Church and its traditions

Over 30,000 towns and cities have no gospel witness.

If one man preached in just one of these towns every day, with no relief, it would take him over 85 years to reach them all.

Italy is indeed one of the neediest countries in the world in terms of understanding the Gospel of God's grace. The great majority of Italians are lost and have never heard a clear presentation of the Gospel. With thousands of cities and towns where no missionary has ever been and no evangelical church ever established, there are many opportunities to reach a truly unreached people.

1,110,300 people follow a “different God” other than the one of the Catholic Church (literal words used in article published by a major national news magazine). These include 338,000 Protestants and 35,000 Jews.

400,000

Jehovah’s Witness

100,000

Movement of the Power of the Human Mind

74,000

Buddhists

25,000

Adventists

24,000

Mormons

20,000

New Age and Next Age

15,000

Hinduism

10,000

Muslim

Burial Vault of the Capuchin at Pelermo Of the 338,000 who claim to be Protestants

250,000 Pentecostals

60,000

Mainstream Historical Evangelical (Waldensians, Methodists, Lutherans etc.)

15,000

Brethren and other similar groups

8,000

Evangelicals (Non Pentecostal)

5,000

Other denominations/groups

3,000

Restoration Movement (affiliated with the Catholic Charismatic movement)

“By kissing this cross you will receive one year and 12 days of indulgence”

Indulgence - a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins (otherwise paid by suffering in purgatory).

From the Catholic Catechism.

December

Pope John Paul II closed one special door of each of the four main basilicas in Rome. These doors remained open for the year of Jubilee. According to Catholic tradition everyone who passes through each of the four doors and are in good standing with the Roman Catholic Church will have all their past sins forgiven. The next opening of these doors will be in 2025.

Italy is a missionary graveyard. 90% of all missionaries to Italy leave after their first term.

"Anthony T. Rossi, 82, Bradenton, Florida." So read one of the headings in a December 1983 issue of a Town and Country article entitled "The Most Generous Living Americans." The article described Mr. Rossi succinctly: "The Founder and former Chairman of Tropicana Products converted to ... faith (in Christ) after coming to the United States from Sicily; since then he has spent millions to further the work of Bible schools and missionary services – including the funding of a church in his native Sicily. His Aurora Foundation built the Bradenton Missionary Village, a one-hundred-acre, $10 million Florida community for retired missionaries." Thus, Town and Country had captured the life of this extraordinary man in two sentences.

Anthony T. Rossi was born in Messina, Sicily in 1900. He survived the Messina earthquake of 1908 that killed over 75,000 people, including one of his own brothers. The undereducated Rossi, blessed with an inventor's mind, came to New York City in 1921 with two suitcases and $30 in his pocket. Upon his arrival in America, Mr. Rossi was offered a job as a machinist at his uncle's shop. He quickly climbed the ladder of success as he then ran a two-car taxi business and became the chauffeur for the chairman of the Hudson Manhattan Railroad. After selling his cab business, he then embarked on several business endeavors. In succession, Mr. Rossi became owner of a grocery store, a farm, a cafeteria, a large restaurant, and a prosperous business that sold gift boxes of Florida fruit. With Mr. Rossi's next venture he created a whole new industry. In 1947 he founded Tropicana Products, Inc. and became one of the leading suppliers of fresh chilled orange juice.

However, the most important event in Mr. Rossi's life came in the 1930's. One day, while researching agriculture in a New York City public library, Mr. Rossi came across a book on the life of Christ. Someone had left it on the table where he was seated and it piqued Mr. Rossi's interest. He thought to himself, "I don't know anything about Christ except that he was a baby in the Madonna's arms and that He died on a cross. I'll read this." The book intrigued him so much that he started reading the Bible. What he read held the answers to life and his faith in Christ was born through the Word of God.

In 1952, Mr. Rossi flew to Italy to share Christ with his family. They already knew he was a successful businessman. He wanted them also to know that salvation is a gift of God's grace through faith in Christ, not the result of good works or religious practices (Eph. 2:8-9). Mr. Rossi gathered his relatives for a circle of Bible reading in the home of his older brother, Carlo. Carlo insisted that he could not change his religion. But Mr. Rossi countered, "Carlo, Per favore, we will just read from your own Bible. It is such a wonderful book. I want you to understand it better. We will learn together." Thus it was that family Bible studies became as regular as their festive meals together.

Mr. Rossi was burdened to see a Bible-teaching church established in his native Messina. He traveled every September to Sicily, spending his vacations leading the Bible studies, which grew to include friends. Then, Mr. Rossi planned for the first public meeting of Bible teaching in the Summer of 1966. Months of advertising, preparation, and study went into it. A hall was rented for the five-day conference with seating for two hundred people. Even though he was warned no one would attend in Roman Catholic Sicily, he went forward. As Mr. Rossi entered the hall, he was amazed to see two hundred and fifty people gathered in the hall. Mr. Rossi, trembling with fear before the large crowd, explained the simple gospel of God's love and salvation through faith in Christ.

After five evenings, the businessman-turned preacher saw twenty-four people courageously walk up to the platform and publicly attest to their new found faith in Christ. Many of them were from Mr. Rossi's own family. Thus the nucleus of a church was born. Mr. Rossi witnessed the development of the small congregation until it finally has grown to become a thriving church of two hundred members by the name of Chiesa Biblica Cristiana (Christian Bible Church).

A radio station was added, which proclaimed Bible messages over Italy's air waves around the clock. Missionaries began to join the work in Italy and more churches were born. Today thirteen missionaries serve in four areas of Italy with Aurora Mission. Five of these are native Italians. Several are from other countries, burdened to share the Lord with Italians. There are also those candidates who are in seminary training being prepared for their time of service. Aurora is now well positioned to share God's Word, establish churches, and equip national leaders for service..

In recent years Aurora Mission acquired property in Sicily to establish a Biblical Training Center to better equip Italian church leaders. This resident training will provide affordable, in depth study for Italians, without leaving their homeland. This will strengthen the church as its leaders receive better training.

Week long seminars are also conducted in various locations in Italy to encourage local missionaries, pastors and elders. Aurora Mission's thrust, therefore, continues to be one of reaching Italians with the priceless truths of God's Word.

The great passion that the Lord has put in my heart is to see the message revealed in the Word of God; preached with a fervent love for the Lord Jesus Christ and the church with purity, sound doctrine and absolute faithfulness to the text without any compromise or manipulations.

Our desire, through the School of Expository Preaching, is to prepare elders and pastors in accordance with the command found in 2 Timothy 2:2.

Joe Aleppo - Executive Director/President of Aurora Ministries

...And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

"What I heard here opened my eyes more to see the need of people who teach how to study and teach the truth.

I want to deepen and do better what the Lord gave me to do in my church." - S. Albanesi, Rome In my years of ministry in Italy, I have come to appreciate the dedication of many elders and pastors of local churches. Although these men had full time jobs, they studied in their free time to teach the Word of God with faithfulness.

The School of Expository Preaching is directed to the many pastors who have a desire to learn how to teach and preach the Bible more faithfully. Most of these pastors have not attended Bible school or have had any kind of formal Biblical training.

The School of Expository Preaching fills a void in Italy and will be instrumental in helping the Italian believers better prepare for ministry.

Historically, the Italian Church's pulpit ministry has been weak; our prayer is that God will use this school for His glory.

• David Standridge

"I have been challenged! Passing on the faithfulness and the perseverance in the faithful preaching and applying the Word. Being an example as men of God in holiness and truth in Christ, by grace."

-U. Reber

“Preaching the Word of God is the highest duty. The best way to accomplish handling God’s Word accurately and powerfully is through preaching that carefully explains the text of Scripture. God has placed a special burden on my heart to train Italian pastors to preach expositionally. I am grateful for the School of Expository Preaching and confident it will have an immense impact of those who participate in its training.”

Dr. MacArthur and several of the staff at The Master's Seminary have been involved with training men in Italy for several years. Pastors Carey Hardy and Phil Johnson of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, are both board members at Aurora and are very involved in the ministry in Italy. Pastor Rick Holland of Grace and Dr. Richard Mayhew, Senior Vice-President and Dean of The Master's Seminary are heavily involved in the training of Italian pastors as well.

Aurora has expressed a desire to have graduates from The Master's Seminary come on staff at the School of Expository Preaching within the next few years to begin year round instruction.

In June, 2004, Aurora will be sending two work teams to build a new structure on the grounds of the new Scoula di Predicazione Espositiva. Two metal buildings have been purchased and will be disassembled to be made into one larger structure. The first team will be in Catania, Sicily during the first half of June. Their task will be to pour the slab for the building. The second team will be there the second half of June to erect the building.

Greetings and Blessings in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ,

After hearing about this opportunity to teach in Italy in the early Fall of 2003 and much prayer we contacted Aurora in December and have been accepted to join the second work group in June.

Our purposes for desiring to go on this trip are many:

1.     An opportunity to serve the mission work there.

2.     To assist in the building project.

3.     Any ministry opportunities that may arise.

4.     To investigate the possibilities of long term mission work in Italy, and specifically at the Scoula di Predicazione Espositiva.

We have been given the opportunity to join Marco deFelice, a missionary in Rovigo, from June 12th to the 15th. While with Marco and his wife, Serena, we will get the opportunity to witness a successful church planted by Marco several years ago. After travelling back to Rome we will meet with the team from Aurora to fly to Catania Sicily where we will begin work on the building project. On the way home we will be spending time with Pastor Standridge, pastor of a church in Rome, where we may be helping with his literature ministry or other aspects of his work in Rome. All long term missionaries serve with and are mentored by Pastor Standridge for at least a year prior to their field work.

Our Prayer Requests:

First and foremost we covet your prayers that we would honor God and that He would be glorified during our trip.

Discernment and clarity in our vision and burden for the work in Italy.

For Justin and Jared while we’re away.

$3000 for the trip.

If you would like a brochure to share or place in your church bulletin, please click here to print and pass them around. Some adjustment may be needed depending on if the fonts download correctly or not.

To view our Power Point presenation, please click here.

Our sending church:

Placerita Baptist Church

Newhall, California

Donations can be sent to:

Joe Johnson

28915 North Dune Lane #102

Canyon Country, CA 91387 or  you can online here.

Sign up for our Prayer Team at PrayerTeam@SoundLife.org

Our thanks and praise in the name of Jesus,

Joe, Pam, Justin and Jared Johnson

Finally brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may run and be glorified, just as it is with you.

2 Thessalonians 3:1

SoundLife