Hello friends, we hope this finds you well! Also we hope that you had a blessed Thanksgiving. David and I visited Catania as guests at our friend Richard’s home for turkey day. Always our Lord reminds us to be thankful because of His blessings. We received a grill and were able to supplement our intake of carbs with some meat and sausages. Our schedule always keeps us very busy about His work here. God in a matter of minutes provided us with the necessary papers to do ministry in town; usually this takes weeks to get.

The doors of opportunities are swung wide here. Let me explain: I was visiting with the chief of police, to whom I shared the gospel and his entire staff one day, and they started offering me all the help that I needed.

Even one of the inspectors took me with his car wherever I needed to be, and also reiterated his willingness to help in any matter. I was blown away! God is at work.

In the midst of blessings, sometimes there is some sorrow. We had to attend the first Nigerian funeral here. Because the city was taking charge of it, it was held at a local church. Do pray for the widow — her name is Evelyn and comes to church on Sunday.

We continue to have two meetings in two different cities: Marsala and Castellammare del Golfo. Because of distances, we held the services at their camp. Usually, we gather two or three camps in one location.

On November 12, we had another four people baptized, coming from as far as Rome and North Italy to be baptized here where their journey started. I was at home sick dealing with some kind of virus that kept me out of commission for five days. David also got sick, with strep. As soon as I was healed, I took care of him with meds and fresh squeezed orange juice. We are all better now.

We always take the opportunity to share and give a bible or some kind of literature to someone that needs to hear the gospel. We were blessed to receive more than 500 pairs of brand new shoes, donated by a German company through YWAM, Youth With A Mission.

This allows us to be able to enter the camps and share with the refugees and the Italian workers there. Sometimes we have some refugees that do not speak a language that we can communicate with them. On one occasion, we had some Eritrean refugees visiting our Nigerian church. They waited outside reading the Bible in their language, Tigrigna, which I believe is the Eritrean language.

When the Lord gave us the command to go to all the world, Matt.28:18-20, He was serious; the world is coming to us instead. In this short two and half months, we had the privilege to baptize almost 60 new believers. God is at work here.

We want to thank you for partnering with us in reaching one more for Christ. David and I will be returning to the States on December 15 and would love to share with you these exciting happenings in person with you, your church, or your bible study group. More news to come.

We ask you to continue to pray for more copies of the Bible, as we are running low again.

We are planning to take a couple of trips in the new year to help with a big need in Lampedusa, the first point of arrival for the refugees before they are permitted to enter Sicily of Italy.

The only priest there asked if someone could bring bibles, a thousand at a time, and we can because of refugeebible.com. Also, we are planning a trip to Sardinia where there are more than 40 centers and they desperately need bibles.

Pray, pray, pray. We love you and are very much appreciative of your love toward God’s work here. We hope to visit with you once in the States. God bless you.

Giuseppe and Pennie Collesano

Let’s go fishing (really) for souls.