Church Life

It dawned on me the other week, just how transient we are as a family when it comes to church.  And I only stopped to think about it when Samuel prayed "...and tomorrow is Sunday.  I pray for church, but I don't know which one it is tomorrow."

To me, it seems ordinary and normal because we more or less have been "church hopping" for the past eight years.  Think about it.  All of the two and a half years we were on pre-field raising support brought us to new churches constantly.  Maybe we had a run of 2 or 3 weeks at our home church, but for the most part we were on the road.  When we moved to Perugia for language school, we attended one church and were consistent there for nearly two years.  Then the move up to Torino kept us stable for a while before we returned to the States for furlough and we were in a new church each week.  Then back to Italy, and we soon started up church services in Caselle that are held only twice a month.  Then back to the States for three months of church hopping.  Now Jonathan is on a preaching rotation between 3 churches in the area, so our poor kids never know where we will be come Sunday morning.  Torino, Caselle or Lanzo?

I guess that is life as a missionary and especially when working to establish a church plant.  Sometimes our kids struggle as each church provides a diverse experience for them.  But overall, they take things in stride and for that we are grateful.  It is hard to say when we might be able to give our kids the consistency of church location, but Lord willing, that will be soon.  Our current place of meeting is reaching the point of overflow.  We NEED a bigger place for sure, but until we can sustain a higher rent as a church we are forced to remain in our tight quarters.

Tomorrow is a Caselle church day...and don't feel bad if your prayers for us often sound like Samuel's for as you can see life is pretty varied from Sunday to Sunday.  We appreciate your prayers "even if you don't know which one it is this week."