Crossers' Last Stand

Well, let's hope that our final days on the Ancona team, don't go down like the final days of Custer's last stand. From everything that has happened thus far, I expect quite the opposite. I anticipate a very tranquil "letting go" feeling. The girls are getting together at our house for a fun today together and the boys are getting together at Jason's house for some testosterone fun (video games), the only no shows will be Marcus and Josh. Marcus is leading our interns around in Rome as I type and Josh is on Home Assignment in the states (actually finishing up some course work at Regent Univ in Canada this week). We wish you guys were here too. Our last months have been filled with opportunities, ministry, relationship building, fun (we have loved our jobs here in Ancona) and growth. It is interesting to go through this pulling away, an experience that I am grateful didn't happen in a short band aid like rip. The time we planned in our transition has given us the opportunity to finish strong and leave behind some resources that we hope will aid the church in Ancona to grow. We will always feel a strong connection to the work here and will continue to lift the believers up before the Father. Thanks Ancona team for the fun adventure soaked ride for the past eight years. - Matt & Angie Crosser

PS - Feel free to keep up with our future work in Verona at our personal blog at www.thecrossersblog.com or our team's blog at www.goveronanews.com.

Summer Sun, Having a Blast

The Summer is in full swing. Our interns have been involved with different areas of outreach supporting our overall ministry and vision. The Rotert family will be returning towards the end of the month, where they will be transitioning into their lives here once more. Angie and myself are in the strange place of winding down our involvement with the Ancona team here. Our transition to the new team has been going very smoothly to which we are thankful. After this month, you can find us on one of two blogs, our personal one which is at http://www.thecrossersblog.com or our new team news blog at http://www.goveronanews.com. Feel free to follow along as we proceed forward with both of these church plants which support the long term plan put into place by Shively Christian Church and Team Expansion. After this month, we will still be here for a few months, but our focus will predominately be on the new church plant and team. Thanks for praying for both teams and the momentum we are seeing.

Aperitivo

Last night, after the interns helped with their first Open English session (5 Italians in attendance), we held a short aperitivo from 19-20 to introduce them to some of our friends. We had about 12 people come and enjoy some snacks and drinks and meet and chat with our interns. I was SO encouraged to see how eager they were to dive in and chat with people and as soon as it was over, to jump up, clean and put everything away...especially after a very long day. I'm proud of them and excited to see what God does through them. Earlier that day, they handed out over a hundred invitations to the July English program at two different schools. To finish off a good, but long day, we hit Tunital for a well-earned kebab.

Hard at work

Here are a couple of pics of the interns hard at work. In the first picture they are focused on learning Italian, which they will be doing every morning. Then in the next picture, Angie is getting them ready for the Kids' English Outreach they will be doing next month. Be praying that God sends many kids to this new outreach.

And then there were INTERNS!

Our team member, Josh Furnal, just barely left (yesterday morning) and right on the heels of that, our summer Pathways Interns have arrived. Four bright, excited and able interns ready to see how God will use them this summer here in Ancona. Here are a couple of pics from their first lunch.