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Milan Campus Campaign - July, 2010

Not quite a year ago, the Silipo family moved to Milan, Italy.  It has been so encouraging to see God work in the church here.  The disciples are some of most hospitable that we have ever seen.  Italians are known throughout the world for food, family, fashion and fun!  The church is no exception to this.  We are now composed of 57 disciples, and we average between 85 to 95 in attendance every Sunday. 

A recent highlight was our campus campaign.  Thirteen students from five states came for four weeks to help us start a campus ministry.  They raised their own money for flights and for some extra Italian fun.  We are very thankful to the IMS for helping with metro passes and some money for food.  Without their support they would not have been able to come. During the campaign, we divided the students into two groups.  One group would focus on Bocconi (the top business school in Italy) and the other group went to Politecnico (a large university mainly focused on engineering, design, and many other majors). They would have daily bible talks, one on one studies, and various activities to build relationships.  They shared with tons of students every day.  Saturday was a day to visit various parts of Italy.  The universities in Milan are mainly commuter in nature, so the campuses are completely dead on the weekends.

170 Worship God in Tirana, Albania!

On March 14, 2010 the Tirana Church celebrated its 10th aniversary.  The week leading up to the aniversary service was filled with excitement, prayer, outward-focused programs and a lot of evangelizing. We had the privilege to have some brothers and sisters from Worchester and Budapest come and help us reach out to many lost souls, and to celebrate with us. That week brought back a lot of dear memories from the begining of the church, and many disciples stepped out of their "boats" because they were reminded of how God wants to use them to make an eternal impact.

On the day of the aniversary service, it was amazing to see people continuously coming and filling up the room.  In fact, we had to bring in many extra chairs because the number of visitors exceeded our expectations.  God brought 106 non-Christians to the service, so together with the disciples 170 people worshiped God in that service! Glenn Petruzzi preached a powerful message, and an Albanian sister (who came to the first service in 2000) and a Hungarian brother (who was in the original mission team) also shared from their lives.

Many people expressed the desire to study the Bible, so in the two months after the service we studied the Bible with a lot of people. This revived the faith of many of the disciples for at least two reasons: One, because they saw more visitors come to a special service than they have seen in the last 7-8 years (the harvest is plentiful, there are still many open people in Tirana). Two, because after this big service more than half of the Albanian disciples participated in a Bible study with a non-Christian.  This is something we have not experienced as a church for many years. 

"If We Build It, They Will Come"

Story of the Geneva Church of Christ (Eglise du Christ du Léman)

We surely remember the famous American drama sports film "Field of Dreams." In the movie, Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner) is a farmer who lives in rural Iowa with his wife. While walking through his cornfield, Ray hears a voice whisper, "If you build it, he will come" (often misquoted as "If you build it, they will come"), and sees a vision of a baseball field. He believes he is somehow being asked to build it. Watched by incredulous neighbors, Ray plows under his corn and builds the field.

I must say that this is a bit how I have been feeling the last couple of years, hearing the voice of God whispering "if you keep building the church, they will come!" In 2003, like many churches, our congregation went through a traumatizing year. Every month of that year, the church was losing members--from 42 down to 35, down to 30, down to 25. We couldn't see the end of it. I remember one particular church service during the fall of 2003. We were only 12 at church that Sunday. That morning I felt "maybe it's the last church service of our congregation."

But thanks be to God our savior, a few of us, with very little faith but lots of hope, kept hearing the whispering from God . . . "If you build it they will come!" And that's what we did despite our incredulous neighbors (often Christian neighbors). So we decided to dig deep in order to build high. During that process of digging and rebuilding the church, I must say that I learned and admired the Swiss way of doing things. Switzerland is a very special country in a sense that during its 800 years of history, there's never been any war except one very short little riot. These folks with four different languages and cultures have learned to "peacefully and successfully" run the country throughout the centuries!

Can't Keep It To Myself

Mark 1:45 - Instead he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere.

Have you ever had some great news that you just couldn't keep to yourself? Put yourself in the place of this man. When he met Jesus, his body was restored that had been literally falling apart. Jesus restored his relationship with his wife and children, and brought him back to all his friends who thought they would never see him again.

His opportunity to worship God was also restored. All the doubts that God loved him were taken away! It's as if we were denied the chance to pray or read our bibles, and then we were suddenly allowed to worship God again! What if all of this happened to you in an instant? As fast as you had lost everything, it was all given back to you.

Set Free! 

Mark 1:41-44 - Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!" Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured. Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning: "See that you don't tell this to anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them."

What is the key to having a life of impact? Compassion. That's it! Compassion is the fuel that allows a man to become more like his God. Compassion moves you to live beyond yourself. It moves you to do what the world would not do. 

Jesus was filled with compassion. Compassion for the sick, compassion for the hurting; compassion for the hungry, compassion for the lonely; compassion for the blind, compassion for the confused; compassion for the lost, and even compassion for his enemies (Luke 23:34). 

A New Birth

Mark 1:41-42 - Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!" Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured.

Can you imagine your world being turned upside down in the course of a couple of days? Imagine you are enjoying life with your wife and kids. Having cookouts with the neighbors, serving on the PTA, and you're even the star in your fantasy baseball group. Best of all, you love spending time in the temple worshiping your God.

Then one day you notice a blemish on your skin. Almost immediately, you are removed from your home. You say goodbye to your wife, to your children, to your neighbors. You will never be back. You will never see them again. You will never be allowed in the temple. You are banished and condemned.

Bold Humility

Mark 1:40 - A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, "If you are willing, you can make me clean." 

Talk about boldness! When you are in a crowd, how bold do you feel? Here a man with leprosy, who is not even supposed to be around other humans, runs up to Jesus! You can imagine the crowd drawing back and the insults flying at this man. He is so determined. He wants his life back!

The man fell to his knees. When was the last time I fell to my knees? That is usually the sign that I have figured out that God is God, I am a helpless man, and I need Him! Strange this doesn't happen every day. I really pray that God will fill my heart with humility, and that the task of bringing salvation to 5 billion people would be enough to bring me to my knees. 

The Main Event

Mark 1:36-39 - Simon and his companions went to look for him, and when they found him, they exclaimed: "Everyone is looking for you!" 

Jesus replied, "Let us go somewhere else--to the nearby villages--so I can preach there also. That is why I have come." So he traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons.

Simon and the gang were looking for Jesus. This comes the next morning, after healing so many the night before. There were lots of needs in the city, and guess what? The next morning there were just as many! Another crowd gathered, and Simon went to get Jesus so he could get back to the ministry.

Dear brothers and sisters,

Thank you very much for all your prayers. One more disciple was baptized today in our church here in Albania. Her name is Majlinda, she is a mother of two teenage children, and she is a very humble and faith-filled woman.

The good news is that her daughter is studying the bible, and recently even her son is coming to church. Please keep praying specially for her husband to want to visit the church, and God willing to start studying the bible as well.

We have even more people interested. God has been good, and faithful--we feel even more privileged to be in his awesome kingdom. After two students, Fatjon and Kamela, Majlinda is our third baptism so far for this year!

Who knows what God will do between now and the end of the year? Please keep remembering us in your prayers.

Vangjel and Marsela Kojku