I figure it is about time to bring all of you up to date on the Avanti program.
Hopefully, you are keeping up with the work in Italy in general. If you need a source of news for the Italian churches a good one is the one Paolo Mirabelli of the Viale Ionio church in Rome puts out: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . It seems to be going well. A group of Italian Christians have formed a campaign group that goes to different cities and churches and works for a week-end. A really great initiative. Also the church in Aprilia has formed a very good chorus that goes to different congregations. To my knowledge there are six long missionary families in Italy at present. As I began to count them up I realized that all of them are in some way a result of the Avanti Italia program. They are: Lewis and Tammy Short in Milano, Jeff and Tia Brauer and a new family that just joined them in Padova, Mike Mahan in Prato and his brother in Pistoia, and Giuseppe and Jennifer Demarco in Naples. Titus and Angie Robison are making plans to go to Vicenza as soon as they complete their support. The Vicenza church is going to support them at least $800 a month. And the Nichele family will pay them 1000 euro a month to do some part time work for them.
The Avanti program continues to go well. I am sure all of you know that David and Debbie Woodroof have been in Florence directing the program since the first of January. They are doing a great job. David is learning the language exceptionally well, There are three avanti workers in Italy now: Brandon and Kristen Edwards working with the church in Catania and Katie Cross with the church in Milano. The work of these three is greatly appreciated by the congregations. In fact, the Milano congregation has convinced Katie to extend her stay at least nine months. We have seven committed for the 2008 team, all of them will hopefully attend the training in August but three of them cannot leave until January. They are all trying to raise their support. This is, of course, more difficult now with the slow economy and they will have to have at least $1200 a month.
All of you, I am sure, can imagine the struggles we are having keeping the program afloat what with the disastrous plunge of the Dollar. We would already be history if it had not been for the Lord's hand in making possible the arrangement with Harding. Just to remind you: in view of a second term HUF program Harding is planning, they agreed to pay us $3000 a month for the use of seven of the rooms in the Bible School villa. This is a great help but unfortunately it still does not cover the taxes, insurance, utilities, up keep, Rosa's salary and contributi. One mistake we made was not making the agreement with Harding in Euro. Rosa has agreed for us to cut her hours back to a minimum of two hours a day. She has agreed to this because she needs to work two more years in order to get a good retirement. Most of you know her well and are not surprised that she still does almost everything she has always done and Felice continues to keep the yard. The agreement with Harding has made it possible for us to send the new workers out to Italian churches after the three months language training. Even though it is not easy we are committed to continuing this policy.
Good news and bad news. I'll bet you have heard that before. The good news is that a brother in the Lord has committed to give Avanti $20,000 a year to be used for helping graduates who have entered the program raise their necessary support. This is a wonderful blessing and will definitely be a help. If we have as many as seven new workers each year that would be $119 a month for each worker for 24 months. It doesn't sound like a lot but it will be a big encouragement to those getting started. The bad news is we don't have that kind of donations coming in for our general operation costs. In fact, as of last month's financial report we are still $9,130 in the red. This is mostly due to the change in directorship. There were lots of costs for air fares, shipping the Woodroof's things over, the Williams things home and having three months of extra salary to pay, this to give the Williame time to find work and get resettled. By way of news in that regard, they have been living with friends in the DFW area since the last of January. Jennifer, just last week, signed a contract for a job as vice principal at a Keller high school near Ft Worth. Gary is in a training program to be certified as a hospital Chaplin. They are now looking for a house. Now back to the point.
Most good things are self perpetuating, that is those who benefit eventually are able to help pass the blessing on to others. One former workers from the very early years, Peggy Stubblefield, whom obviously the Lord has blessed, has for more than a year now been sending the program $500 a month. This has been a life savor but as you can see from the statistics is not enough to really get us back in shape. I know that some of you are probably struggling and, of course, cannot help but perhaps others are able to step in with some monthly amount. Certainly if we ever get income that is greater than our expenses, that surplus will be added to the good brother's funds for helping new workers raise what they need. I also wanted to let you know that our web site was down for a while because one of the AI workers, Matt Freels, was monotering it and he finished his two years and came home. The web site was originally set up by William Cavataio who went several years ago in the Avanti program but had to return early. He has graciously consented to take it over again and keep it up for us. If you have any suggestions about it please let us know. Spero che stiate contribuendo all'espansione del Regno.
Il Signore sia con voi
Howard
