Winter marches on here at the beginning of February 2010. More snow beginning to come down as I write this letter. God is sure faithful isn’t He? The earth is watered, seasons come and go and the times and epochs are all in His hands. Many times the events of our time are fearful, such as the devastating earthquake in Haiti. There are some who say that everything is out of control, and/or God isn’t involved. Those who know Him are convinced otherwise. Our God works all things for our good and His glory, and He is not afraid to use catastrophic events to cause people to turn to Him, to begin to understand that there is much more than just what meets the eye in this life. Many of the reports coming out of Haiti say that the believers are praising God and in the midst of losing most of what they have they are rejoicing in the God of their salvation. What a lesson we can learn from them, that God is indeed in control and that we are in His hands, even in times of hardship. We can know that our hope is in the eternal and sovereign God of the universe. The events of this world actually serve to draw us closer to Him. Psalm 118:8 is a great verse to memorize – “It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in man.”

In January Cindy and I made a short trip back to Mestre, Italy to work on our residence renewal papers. Cindy went in to the immigration office to pick up her document, which had been ready for a couple of months, and when she looked at it they had given her two years validity! We had not expected this, but we praise God for this provision. Steve went to a different office to turn in his renewal application, since we have different expiration dates. All went well for Steve too, except that he must return to Mestre on March 2nd for the second step in the renewal process. This also was unexpected, but it turns out that Italy is finally speeding up the process for renewal. So Steve (alone) will have to make another short trip over. He will spend some time checking out the housing situation in San Dona’ and will be able to attend a meeting of Italian missionaries during those same days. He will leave Feb 27, so pray that this second trip will be successful.

In the last few days we heard from our coworker in Mestre, Mark, that the new hall where the Mestre church meets in was broken into one night. Although the front door was ruined and every drawer and cupboard was opened, Mark said that nothing was taken. It is always discouraging when this happens, so we need to pray for the congregation and the Mestre team as they look for ways to make the hall more secure. Pray that protect them from discouragement and that repairs can be made quickly.

At the moment we have two meetings set up for February to visit churches, and both require car travel for some distance. Pray for travel mercies and for God to guide as we present the ministry in Italy to our dear friends. We ask also that you would continue to pray that God would provide the needed monthly support in order to return to Italy in the summer. We are thankful that giving has increased in the last two months, and we are now around 85% of our target monthly ministry income. God is good! Pray that we can add several more churches as financial partners with us in ministry.

We thank the Lord for you! Thank you for partnering with us and for faithfully supporting us and the ministry in prayer and in financial giving. Thank you for your passion to reach Italians with the life changing message of salvation in Jesus Christ. May many come to a personal faith in Him!

In His Matchless Name,
Steve and Cindy Thompson