We finished the semester of Bible college the first week on June. Several students expressed interest in coming back for the Fall Semester which is great and we look forward to their return in September.
Right after this, we began work on the building again. Two tiling guys, Rich and Guy, came out for a couple weeks to do the tile work on the building. They did a great work and finished the entirety of the guys’ side of the bathrooms including stalls and showers, as well as most of a wall for the girls’ kitchen! Us staff worked on various projects: building a dry wall-steel framed façade wall on the back of the stage, helping further the progress of the coffee shop and improving the outdoors floral and tree appearances. We are continuing to work, and hopefully we can get the coffee shop up and running soon. The saints need their espressos!
GREAT NEWS: We are back in the building for church and our first service was a wedding! A local couple, Tonino and Valentina, invited their friends and family for their wedding on June 15th. It was a great opportunity for those folks to hear the Gospel. Church is back up and running in the building and it has been great to be back in there. I have continued in my role with audio and video.
This last week (June 23rd-29th) we hosted the Calvary Chapel Summer Camp! We had kids from Montebelluna, Feltre and Rome attend with us as we went up into the mountains with no cell service. Great way to get the kids unplugged and focused back on their relationships with the Lord. By the end of the week, six kids gave their hearts to the Lord! Many were open about their struggles, faith, and questions. I helped plan, implement and run the recreational activities for each day! This was a challenge, but it was good to complete my first camp learning what works with Italian kids.
In this last week, I have struggled at times seeing why I am called to Italy. I understand that I am called and I am not challenging that with God, but I just have wondered why – of all places in the world – did I get called to Italy for this first season as a missionary. During the summer camp and then during a church service, God has begun to help me gain perspective. Two verses that have ministered to me are these:
I Corinthians 13:12 “Now we see things imperfectly as in a cloudy mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.” (NLT)
John 13:7 “Jesus answered and said to him, ‘What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will know after this.’”
God through these two verses has spoken to me in my life situation. I am in a land, culture and language entirely and completely not my own. I only partially and incompletely understand the language and the ministry in which I am called to. But God is showing me that although right now I don’t know what I’m doing, in the future He will make me understand what I am doing and what this is for. Jesus has the best plans in mind. It is okay that I don’t understand them right now. He will reveal them to me in His good timing. Everything I’m doing now is for a purpose for more in the future.
Be thinking about what God has called you to. What are you being prepared for in the future? How is God growing you where you are now to make you more like Him for future works (Ephesians 2:10) that He has planned for you? Each of us has a purpose, calling and unique ability to do what God has called us to. Be listening to Him to see if He is calling you to something that you have been uniquely prepared for. You never know whose prayers you may answer by doing what you can do.
Point of Interest: I have integrated my Instagram page to this website. If you would like to follow what I am up to in pictures, but don't necessarily care to get on Instagram, this is right up your alley! Please check it out and see what you think. I think it may help to share in this way so that the day by day operations I post about can fill in between these monthly newsletters.
Please pray that I can learn the Italian language and continue to grow in it here. It is amazing how many tenses we use in everyday conversation in English and Italian. We forget how easy it is to explain ourselves when we don’t have to think about what to say to another person in the same language. Here, I have to remember what tense is being used, how to use it and what vocabulary I can put with it so that it makes sense. It is a challenge. A fun helpful Italian phrase I learned is: “Il mio cervello é fuso!” This literally means, “My brain is fused (fried)!”
Also, please pray that God would show me what my giftings are and how I can help here in Montebelluna and Italy.
Pray that more students would sign up for the Fall Semester.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR PRAYERS AND CONTINUED SUPPORT!
God bless,
Nathaniel Hibbs