We pray and hope you continue to be excited about continuing the good work that our Lord has called us all to do together! Over the past several years He has enabled us to further God’s kingdom together. We are praying for God’s grace to continue to impact the nation of Italy with your help. As His stewards, we are responsible to make sure that we continue to reach out to those He has entrusted to us and to serve where serving is needed. We at Italy for Christ, continue to do just that.
Before I share with you what this year holds, let me share an unprecedented opportunity just given to us for this year 2015-2016. Pope Francis has just issued 2 historical statements! First one to the Mexican television, saying that he believes his papacy will be rather brief. The second one is that he has declared a year of the Jubilee from December 2015 through November 2016. This is 10 years ahead of the regular one that was planned for 2025! Usually the Jubilee happens every 25 years, and many of the supporters of IFC surely remember our many outreaches during the year 2000. We must make this year an incredible year in anticipation of another glorious Jubilee 2000! Will you help? (See the full news breaking release at the end of this letter.)
Let me outline what we have been doing this year and what is on our immediate calendar for 2015. The ministry is going great in Italy! There are so many ministry opportunities becoming open for IFC. We are trying to put everything in the bucket because the opportunities are endless for ministry work.
1. We are helping feed and clothe those who need clothing and we are feeding those who not only need bodily food but spiritual food as well.
2. On March 28th we will have a great leadership conference in Catania doing the John Maxwell course how to become a Person of Influence. Key people and businesses have shown tremendous interest in this and we are expecting participants from Messina, Ragusa, Siracusa and more. Expecting about 300 leaders to attend and many are not believers yet!
3. On March 29th we will do the Expository Preaching by Stephen Olford Institute doing the Essentials of Expository Preaching and are expecting a great number of pastors participating. The TV Station Telecolor International got wind of this work and has asked to come and video the conferences!
4. We are preparing for a huge Easter youth event for Naples and are expecting a couple thousand coming from all over for this event and will also have Bob Hoskins of OneHope coming, Ugo Martinez with Christ for the Nation, and Loren Cunningham with YWAM will also be there. It will be a three day event.
5. I met with one of the important female senators, Maria Burani, whose son is now a mayor in the city of Terracina, who wants me to go down and do a conference with the local leaders and the city council on Moral Perspective in order to change the destiny of the city like so many others who are going down the drain them due to corruption.
The ministry is surviving and we are keeping the expenses down to nothing in order to continue the evangelistic work, with a budget that is VERY limited. By the grace of our Lord we continue to do so much with so very little. We have been missing so many regular supporters and can only attribute this to the economy. We are leaning on the Lord and will continue His work. Please pray that our general fund will increase.
Now let’s look at Europe. Europe is in horrible turmoil. The dollar is stronger now with only a 12 cent difference to the Euro, yet the immorality of the new leaders continues to add more taxes to the people and have raised them constantly (nearly 115%. For home taxes alone since 2011). The vat tax alone is about to be raised up to 25%. We are facing a crisis of morality, identity, and people, especially the young people are wondering what they are here for. This opens up a highway for the Gospel giving us a chance to guide them and direct them to the most important issue that unless we know who we are and why we are here anything else is just irrelative. We can share how the gospel is the true power for living!
We have a great new way to evangelize with the crusades and then back them up with leadership conferences gaining ground in the hearts of key people who will come and hear the Word faced with the importance of the foundational truths of the pearls of the Gospel of Jesus. All the while using the current that goes against us, turning it around into energy for us to proceed and gain ground in the hearts of many many people.
Our hope is to make relevant to the nation how to bring the word of God into everyday life. It is incredible what is unveiling around us, we have an incredible opportunity for the Light of the gospel to shine as never before. Jesus is our Hope!
90% of the Italians hate what they are doing and are trying to figure out what is their passion. We need to give them back passion, potential, and profit in order to unveil God’s purpose for their life. We have the Hope, sometimes it is not easy to share this, it is always a challenge but we will continue to show them the life that they were created to live, found in Jesus Christ our Lord!
We will continue to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ to all the Italians in this generation and beyond. Will you continue your partnership and send your gift that will make this all so possible for us all over Italy. I have attached below for you a brief outline of our continued needs throughout this coming year.
Our budget for 2015 in total is $474,509 but if we do not raised enough for capital projects we will hold it at a drastically cut $347,608.50. IFC must raise the support in order to meet our obligations. Our ideal needs on a monthly basis are to raise $40,000.00 per month. We are at an average of 28,000 based on 2014 figures.
We require raising an additional $12,000 more per month and keeping that amount throughout 2015. That is $144,000 above 2014 and this year the first two months have seen an additional 12,700 shortfall for 2015. Yet the work continues at record pace, but we cannot sustain this work without additional funding.
It is our hope and prayer that this presentation of our mission and our need will challenge your mind and touch your heart in becoming a financial support partner of IFC once again for an investment that will have eternal results!
May The Lord guide you in making the right decision! And may His grace be poured out on you this glorious day.
Your Servant in Italy,
Guy Sottile and the entire IFC Team
www.italyforchrist.it (online support)
Facebook @Italy for Christ (English Reports)
1301 Shiloh Road NW, Suite 1820
Kennesaw, GA 30144