Four Baptized in the Casco Bay Church of Christ!

This last Sunday (August 8th) we witnessed 4 miracles, as 3 new brothers and 1 new sister were baptized into Christ in the Atlantic Ocean after church! It was a glorious day! It was the first time for many to see 4 baptized in one day. I am reminded that on Pentecost they did it 2996 more times than we did, but every baptism is a miracle from God! God has been preparing the hearts for the word of God even before we arrived, and it was obvious that God should get all the glory - Psalm 115:1. It was our last service in the chapel, as our church attendance has already exceeded its capacity. We are moving to a beautiful auditorium on the University of Southern Maine campus which seats 230 people. Please pray that soon that auditorium will be too small for us as well.

Chris Matts and his family were having a bite to eat at the Maine Mall in South Portland when the Spirit put it on Titus' heart to share with Chris and his family. Little did Titus know that Chris had been praying to change his life and get right with God. Chris has been through many challenges in his life even though he is only 19. He had an irregular heartbeat that was threatening his life, and he had to have surgery about two years ago or else his life could be at risk. Chris's brother Joshua said at the baptism that Chris went into heart surgery and came out a changed man. It is amazing how God works in people's lives to help them realize that life is not just a given but is something precious. Having already gone through physical heart surgery, Chris went through spiritual heart surgery while studying the Bible. In many ways he was repenting before we met him, but studying the Bible helped him to complete the process. Now his mother and brother are wanting to study the Bible and come to church as well. 

Kelly Gonzales studied the Bible and in Boston while attending Pine Manor College. Unfortunately, she did truly make Jesus Lord of her life and stopped attending. Because of some life circumstances she had to move back to Portland a few years ago, where at the time there was no church. Over the course of those years God has worked on her heart, and when she heard about the church being planted in Portland Kelly saw this as a sign from God that he wanted her back. Since the team has arrived she has been diligently studying the Bible and coming to church, to make sure that this time she really makes Jesus Lord of her entire life. She is a changed woman and has surrendered all to Jesus. It is so amazing to think about how God sending a team to Maine to start a church has given Kelly a second chance to get right with him. She has truly surrendered all this time at her baptism.

Gauthier Kayamba is a 19 year-old freshman at the University of Maine. His father, Lawum Kayamba was baptized in Hartford a few years ago, and the only way to bring his family over from Congo was for them all to move to Maine. Gauthier heard from his father about him truly becoming a disciple, and decided that he wanted to learn about it. Through the encouragement of his father and after studying the Bible for himself, Gauthier realized that he was never converted, so he decided to make Jesus Lord and was baptized. He also had the opportunity to go to the ICMC in Chicago with the summer missions group. He was totally inspired to come back to change his campus for Christ. Please pray for Gauthier as his school is 2 1/2 hours away from Portland. He has committed to coming to church every week, and to staying around for fellowship each weekend. He also wants to transfer to USM Portland to be part of the church as soon as he can.

Nathan Kayamba is a 24 year old sophomore at the University of Maine in Augusta. He is also the son of Lawum Kayamba, and also was moved by his father's testimony-although his father had been a denominational preacher, he realized was not a disciple and needed to become a disciple and be baptized. Nathan is the oldest of 7 children and has endured the most hardship of all the Kayamba children, as Congo was a violent and challenging place to grow up, and not safe for his family. Nathan also went to the ICMC and has decided to transfer to school down in Portland.

God has used the summer missions crew in a powerful way and we are sad to see them leave. These 8 brothers and sisters have changed this church in less than 2 months, and provided such a spark for us as we begin this great work for God! They came from all over New England, and they have left behind 5 new brothers and sisters with many more wanting to be baptized. Titus Walelo, Chantel Filiere, Kyle Woodley, Karlee Harding, Kayla Schnell, Mike Spangler, Alex Filiere, Julia Rogers, Jessica & Howard Kellogg are going to be missed as they are returning back to their home churches. They have been a part of planting a church, and their work has had eternal impact. We would like to thank the churches all over New England that helped us by sending some of their best to Portland for the summer.

Please pray for our new brothers and sisters in Christ. Please continue to pray for the Casco Bay church as we still have 10-15 ongoing studies with many numbers of those interested in coming out to church. Pray that we can take care of our young Christians, and please pray for mature disciples to move up to help us take care of these baby Christians as I believe God wants to bring in a great harvest of souls in Maine.

Your Brother and Sister
Glenn & Danielle Petruzzi

Church Planting Update - Casco Bay Church of Christ

"For this is good and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth."  1 Timothy 2:3-4

There could not be anything more true in the Bible than this passage.  God desires all men to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth in every land and every culture.  A little less than 20 disciples have decided to move up to Portland, Maine to bring the gospel to a state they call "Vacationland."  Many of these disciples have sacrificed salaries, opportunities and comfortablity because they too desire as God does that all men be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth.

God has prepared the way for us, as in a little over a month of ministry we have 20 Bible studies and have been seeing every Sunday new faces and new stories of people desiring to know God.  The harvest is truly plentiful! We also have been blessed to have 8 summer missionaries that have sacrificed their summer to help jump-start the mission in Maine.  This past Sunday, July 25th was an incredible day as we had an over 60 in attendance at church even with some of the team not totally moved up yet. We were packed in our little chapel with no empty seats left!  God has exceeded our expectations as we rented out a chapel that has a capacity of 45.  We had many new visitors and a good amount of our studies were all there.  

Even more encouraging was having our first baptism.  David Piete, a college sophomore in Portland was baptized.  He was praying for God to help him in his life and was shared with.  Born and raised in Bangor. Maine, his parents drove down 2+ hours from Bangor to see his baptism and were impacted by the church.  He was baptized right on the beach in the ocean right near our chapel.  Please keep praying for the Casco Bay Church of Christ!  God is moving as we have 20+ Bible Studies, 4 people that desire to place membership, and 5 that could be baptized in the next two weeks.

I also visited Kayamba's group this last Sunday at 4pm.  He is a brother baptized in the Hartford church who is originally from the Congo.  He was a denominational preacher who had a Ph.D. in Theology from the Mennonite church, and was in charge of the mission effort in Congo and Africa.  He came over to Hartford CT in search of helping his family escape a war-torn country.  God moved as he realized he was not a disciple, and he was baptized and began trying to bring his family to the United States.  God opened the door for Kayamba's wife and 7 children, but only if he moved to the state of Maine!  The problem was that the church was not planted yet, and he had to wait for the planting for over 2 years.  Rather than be discouraged, Kayamba decided to start a ministry up in Maine with refugees from other countries in Africa. God has moved as he has over 30 people that meet with him on a weekly basis!

I went this last Sunday to speak to this group, and they had 33 in attendance all hungry to learn about God.  Kayamba told them that his church was the Casco Bay Church of Christ, and that this is a ministry that he just started up because God had called him to.  He told them that they will be partnering with the  Casco Bay Church of Christ very soon.  I think we could have a possible 20 bible studies.  We are going to take it slow with them but it was moving to see how the hearts of these 30+ seekers of God desiring to know God and his word.  God has been working before we even moved to Maine to prepare the way. He has been preparing a harvest of people up in Maine!

Please pray for the Casco Bay Church of Christ as our inaugural service will be on September 12th, 2010.  Beginning in the fall we have rented out a facility that holds 230+ people.  Pray that we will fill up this auditorium with many hungry souls in Portland.  

With Love
Glenn & Danielle Petruzzi

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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.