First Report (English Version)

Capaldi Family Italy Report Enero/Febrero 2017

The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family,

and go to the land that I will show you.

Genesis12:1

Note to readers: Sorry about the pictures that have Spanish text. I realized after editing them in Spanish that I could not change to english later. Ill fix that on the next reports.

Little time --- Lot`s going on

Thank you everyone for the wait. We have now been in Italy for a couple of months and it has been full of challenges, adventures, blessings, difficulties and emotional ups and downs. But through everything, we have seen God's hand protecting and guiding our way.

The trip

We thank God and everyone for all the great fair wells and love that we received from the church and family. It wasn't easy to say good bye but we really felt and understood that we have so many people that love, pray and support us.

Even though it was a very very long trip and a lot of heavy luggage, we didn't have any complication with our flights, travels or documents.

The welcome

When we arrived in Italy, Salvatore and Napo picked us up in Rome with two cars for all of our luggage. Napo and Angie offered us to stay at their place until we could find a house to rent. Angie and Napo didn't really know what they were getting themselves into by receiving our family of 5 in a somewhat small apartment. But they were both very patient with us and it was a true blessing being able to stay there.

The church in Caserta, which is the main church in the province, received us with open arms and we really felt welcomed. They had a special meeting on Sunday for us where we were able to share our testimony.

The church in Marcianise, which is the new mission that we are going to support also received us the first Sunday that we arrived. We also gave our testimony and met everyone. We have had many invitations from the different churches including pastor Traetino the apostle of Reconziliacione.

First Steps...

A little after arriving we got started with everything that had to be done, which was a lot. We needed a school for our kids, a car, all of our documentation to stay legally. All of this was very tedious. It was document after document and driving around everywhere to rent a car and find the right house to rent. Without knowing the language this was all very challenging. But besides that, we were getting acquainted with new things and we had people like Salvatore (the pastor that covers Marcianise and our main contact), Angie and Napo, who were always there to help us with everything. Without people like them it seems like everything would have been impossible.

A few mishaps..

As we knew would happen we ran into some difficulties along the way. Some including:

• My oldest son Robbie had a very clumsy fall ending up with four stitches and a cracked elbow. OUCH!

• My daughter Angelina one day decided she didn't want to go to school anymore. This became complicated because she would cry a lot and strangely she would auto provoke vomiting to not have to go to school.

• Finding a house to rent happened to be a lot more difficult than we expected. Most of the houses or apartments here are 1 or 2 rooms and we couldn't find what we needed and that would help us serve our mission.

• I could not buy a car until I first received my documents which with luck takes about 3 to 4 months. This meant that I was obligated to keep on renting because of everything that we had to do and a car is more than necessary.

• All these delays were putting pressure and stress on us since we didn't want to over due our stay with Angie and Napo where we were living.

• When I arrived in Italy I went to turn on my computer but something happened to the monitor and it wouldn't turn on. I actually wrote this report from my phone which is not fun.

• The Italian bureaucracy is very tedious and every document that we needed took a long time and was very complicated. Every requirement would change from office to office depending on who you would talk to.

These mishaps I detail just as facts, not in a negative way or as a complaint. On the contrary, I thank God for testing my faith and maturity. All these things have brought us closer as a family and little by little the Lord has helped us overcome most of these challenges. We received an incredible medical treatment for my son. When we arrived at the emergency room for Robbie they only asked for his name and treated him for everything he needed which included, stitches, x-rays and a cast. All of which they didn't charge us. Also, thanks to the time that we spent in search for a house, the Lord gave us a better idea of where we should live and start planting.

Going forward

By miracle, we found a house in a city called Santa Maria close to Caserta. We were looking in that area since there are no churches and its a college city, which we think can bring good opportunity for ministering. The house we found was at a decent price and confortable. Most of all, it's at a good location and very good for having people over for home churches and team meetings which was what we were looking for.

Finding a house helped us advance faster. The place that we found was abandoned for a long time so we had to clean and fix up a lot.

Thank God my daughter Anghelina came out of her faze and now goes to school without a problem. Robbie got his stitches and cast out which made him and us very happy. We are now taking full advantage of the house for having people over and it has been a central meeting place to minister and have meetings.

Ministering

Parallel to all the errands and documentation that we needed we have been taking advantage of every opportunity to minister. My first conference will be Saturday, May 4th where I will be talking about Gods calling to a big group of youth and young adults. I was able to participate and give my testimony in a nacional pastors retreat. This was very helpful because I had the chance to meet in one place almost all the pastors from around Italy that are part of Reconziliacione. This has opened up many doors to minister in other places in Italy.

I am also preaching continuously in Marcianise and in home churches. We have participated in many leaders meetings and I also took a course on how to evangelize to muslims. This was helpful because of the amount of muslim refugees that are in this area.

The mission and next steps..

God is continually guiding and showing us where He wants us to be and minister. We know that no eye has seen and no ear has heard the things the Lord has for us. This also teaches us that we have to walk by faith. Like the promise God gave to Abraham in Gn 12:1 which was a land that He would show Abraham. The Lord did not show him the land all at once but showed him more and more with every step Abraham took by faith. For us it is the same. With every step we take God goes showing us His will.

Right now, as we learn the language, we are ministering in three places. We would like to start a home church in Santa Maria the city where we live. We serve and minister through conferences and however we can in the main church in Caserta and we are pastoring along side a team the church in Marcianise.

To impulse the work in Santa Maria, with the team, we managed to get a ministry that evangelizes. They bring a bus that turns into a meeting place\library that will go to the main plaza which is close to our house for around 10 days. We will be part of the evangelizing team and our house will be the main reference point for the new converts. Glory to God!

Thank you for your prayer and support.

We honestly thank God for all of your support. Please keep praying for us and the work the Lord is doing. Right now we live economically from the sum of all our supporters. Every dollar counts and we know that everyone is helping us from their hearts and for this we are immensely grateful.

Blessing from Italy,

Rob Capaldi and Family