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Serving Jesus in Italy

We have a confession to make. We are not bloggers or hip with social media. We are on Facebook but we never think to post on there. We are clueless about sharing our lives on Tweeter, Snapgram, Instachat, or whatever they’re called. So when we were asked to write a blog about our upcoming life in Italy, one of our thoughts was: Serving the Lord overseas is going to be easy compared to having to write a blog! But as a way for the Eagle Church body to partner with us in prayer and be connected to the work, we gladly undertake this assignment.

In just a few short weeks, on October 7th, the four of us will be getting on an airplane at Chicago O’Hare to begin our journey to Italy. It is amazing looking back on this journey from taking a short-term missions trip to Italy in June 2016 to where we are today... and seeing God’s hand in every step.

The reason for taking the missions trip last year was to celebrate our 10-year wedding anniversary in 2016. We also wanted to put a stake in the ground by saying our marriage and lives are to be about seeing God glorified in the nations. For the past couple of years Italy has been facing a refugee crises that isn’t in the news much. Hopeless situations across north Africa are causing 100,000 migrants a year to make a dangerous journey, crossing the Mediterranean Sea from Libya to Europe in hope of a better life. (You can read and watch more about it about here and here.) It was within this context we did evangelism and outreach with these refugees.

While we were there, our team leader asked us to consider coming back and serving full-time. We took his suggestion to heart and came back to Indy and spent July and August prayerfully seeking the Lord’s guidance. While in this season of prayer and discernment, we sensed a release from our current ministry and the desire to be obedient where God was opening doors. We decided to take a step of faith, be obedient, and follow God to see the gospel go forth to these African refugees.

Last November we started the application process to join One Mission Society (OMS) in Greenwood and were accepted in January. Since February we’ve been on the path to depart for Italy. It has been amazing to see God’s hand in all the things we’ve had to do to prepare to leave:

  • The incredibly smooth transition from our previous ministry to OMS.
  • Selling of our house in Pike Township in less than 12 hours.  Thank you Dennis and Bonnie Barrow!!
  • Our own place to live at OMS for 4 months before leaving.
  • How donors to our previous ministry quickly transitioned their giving to OMS.
  • Raising of additional financial support in 6 weeks.
  • The margin to have times of spiritual refreshment and retreat.
  • The excellent pre-field training we received from OMS where we learned to love Christ more, each other more, and numerous other ways to serve cross-culturally. Even our kids had great training on what it means to live in another culture.
  • Receiving our visas from the Italian Consulate in Detroit a week after applying for them.

Even in the midst of seeing God’s hand clearly at work every step of the way, we are anxious about many things as we prepare to move overseas:

  • How will our kids adapt to moving away from all that’s familiar? Will they thrive? Will they struggle?
  • Will our 40 something-year old brains learn to speak enough Italian to function day-to-day?
  • Can we function in another culture?
  • How well will we connect with teammates?
  • Will we make friends in the local Italian church we will be attending or with our neighbors?

All we can do is look back on all God has done and bank on the fact He is faithful, yesterday, today and forever. We are confident we are putting ourselves in a situation to get to know God better. It will be good and hard and worth it. Thank you for linking arms, praying, cheering and being interested. We appreciate you. More to come! Ciao!!

-The Keller Family
 Paul, Kate, Benjamin, and Joseph

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