The academic year at Centro Agape for Migrants has begun and it is even more challenging than last year in the sense that we have less volunteer teachers for teaching Italian than we had last year and a lot more refugees coming to attend free Italian lessons twice a week. Some of the newer people coming are from nations such as Eritrea and Tibet (two nations which have been hard to reach in recent years)!
Todd, the other missionary working at Centro Agape, is thinking of maybe organizing a “Thanksgiving” event in November. Please pray for the organization of this event. The bottom line is that our teaching from September 2017 to early June 2018 is in order to have a credible platform to permit us to share truths relating to the Gospel two or three times during the current academic year.
To the right is a photo of M who filled in for Elena for a few minutes last week and taught the beginners some elements of the Italian alphabet. Talking of M, we need your prayers because on the morning of the 5th October he and I will be leaving around 6:30am to go to the relevant police office and wait in line for hours (it might be 1 pm before he gets called) to find out if the Italian government is willing to give him subsidiary protection (residence for a 5 year period in light of the very real threat of persecution he would have to endure were he to be sent back to his South Asian nation of origin).
This photo is of myself and Bill Quinert at Tor Pignattara. Distribution to Bangladeshis and people from other nations such as Mali takes place there. It is always good to reach people with “How to Know God” Gospel booklets in various languages.
A missionary couple (R & J) from the USA who intend to reach out to South Asian Muslims in Rome have arrived this month. They are still trying to settle in and need to find a suitable flat relatively near to Tor Pignattara and/or to the housing area where Centro Agape is located. Please do pray for them to be able to find a suitable flat. Rome is very chaotic and it can be quite daunting for newcomers.
StudentsSome steps have been taken forward as we now have three students coming in the mornings whose knowledge of Italian language enables them to be capable of reading parts of a Bible passage in Italian and analyzing its meaning and considering elements of grammar within it. Paola and Elena are currently teaching those three (two men from Mali and one Bangladeshi woman) elements from Luke chapter 15. Your prayer for all of them, the teachers and the students are appreciated.
Sometimes at Centro Agape, on Thursdays, we have a full house, with students in one room for Italian language lessons and in the other room for English language lessons.
Another positive development has been the beginning of a Discovery Bible Study on Wednesdays (led by Todd with the participation of Masum and another man from a Muslim background, A). Please take a moment to pray for A. who has professed faith – he is in desperate need of a job and lodging.
Patrizia recently distributed copies of Holy Scriptures in the Colleferro hospital, close to where her parents live. In regards to this distribution of Scriptures she writes;
I wish to tell you, on behalf of Manuel Messali, how it went at Colleferro hospital today. We distributed 90 New Testaments to the patients, we had moments of prayer with patients – people such as Bruna, Dante and Argentina, relative of a patient. In addition we had a contact outside the hospital who wants to come and find us, he asked Manuel for our address.
1) Please pray for M and for his future. Please also pray for car repairs which need to take place before that. The mechanic is waiting for spare parts for our old large station wagon to arrive in order to begin to replace them on Tuesday (we pray the parts may arrive on Monday) so that the car might once again be functional and I may be able to use it on Thursday to take M to the police office.
2) Please pray for R & J, that they will find a suitable flat and settle in Rome
3) Please pray also for me (Andrew) health wise as I feel quite tired
4) Please pray for our volunteer teachers at Centro Agape
5) Pray for A’s urgent housing needs
6) Pray for the impact of Scripture based lessons on our Muslim students
Yours in Christ,
Andrew and Patrizia Diprose