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.

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.

May Coffee House

So, another month, another Coffee House. For this one we had a special treat. Marco Poeta, is a well known guitarist who has been specially trained in a portugese style of music. Each guitarist who is trained in this is known as a "Fado". If you go to youtube, you can search for some clips from our Coffee House. Just search for Marco Poeta. Here is a clip from another concert he did http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3V0rJ0b4J4M. To make it a little easier to find our videos go here http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=marco+poeta+coffeehouse. Enjoy the show! And here are some drawings I made of Marco and his other guitartist, Paolo.

Encounter Coffee House: The Pincers

Well, tomorrow at our event Encounter, we are having a concert by a local group called, "The Pincers". They classify their music as folk, jazz and folk-rock. This has all the makings of being a large scale event. If our normal visitors come plus the fans of The Pincers come it couuld be a real big turnout. Remember our purpose for doing these outreaches is to build community which in turn becomes relationships. Pray that relationships are started and deepened. If you want to check out the music of The Pincers, go to their myspace page at http://myspace.com/thepincers. Tell us what you think!

Chit Chat Open English

Every Wednesday, we have an outreach called, "Chit Chat - Open English". This is for those wanting to learn English. We have had Italians come with varying levels of skill in the English language; from very basic to those who can speak fluently. We supply different levels of lessons for them to work through with us and it is an opportunity for us to spend time and build relationships with more Italians. This week, tied one other week for the most attendance at an Open English, there were seven. That may not sound like much, but I remember times where we have worked for months on an outreach and only one or two people showed up. In those times, we have learned to be not only content, but also joyful that we can have a deeper discussion with only a few that come. However, it is also exciting to see nets being thrown over and coming back stretching at the seams, stretching by Italian standards anyway!

OCC Short Term Team Arrives in a Week

A week from this Saturday, Angie and I (Matt) will go to Rome to receive the latest short term team that is coming to assist our team. This team is coming from Ozark Christian College, where everyone on our team attended. The groups are always fun and they help out the ministry greatly, all while learning about missions and how they can be involved in the future. They will be with us in Ancona for about a week, where they will minister through outreaches and prayer walks. Pray that those whom God wants to come will come and that those on the short term team would be stretched.

Baptism!

Celebrate with us because our friend, Maurizio, was baptized today. And another makes it into the Lamb's book of Life.

Go Ancona News

This is the news for the ministry of Taking Christ to Italy: Go Ancona. The ministry is a non-denominational church plant in Ancona, Italy. Look forward to reading upcoming news about the different facets of our outreach, evangelism and discipleship.

Our church is structured in groups that meet in homes. Weekly, we have two groups that meet in two different homes for fellowship, worship, mentoring, encouragement, teaching and ministering to the needs of group members and the people of the community.

As needed we plan events to focus on different aspects of the church, such as, prayer, worship and teaching. At these events lessons are planned for children as well.

We operate a free English conversational program for adults, classes for kids and a monthly American style coffee house for adults to practice English conversation in an informal atmosphere. Our coffee houses have featured themes like 'football', 'autumn', 'hawaiian luau' and christmas, as well as live music and American style coffee drinks and snacks.

Bi-annually, we plan two contact events for deepening current friendships and reconnecting with relationships of which we have lost communication. Examples of these are Family Zoo Day, Picnic in the Park, Open House at our facility and Thanksgiving Outreach. Of these all, the Thanksgiving Outreach has gone over well in attendance. Italians have seen this american holiday on TV and in films, and this way they get to experience it up close and personal.

Our children's ministry has occasional outreaches like 'movie day', Christmas carnival, bowling, spring carnival and works in conjunction with our kids' english program. Most of the events are planned around a family style of ministry, where the whole family can come together.

As you read you'll see more about our ministry. If you ever have any questions please feel free to write us at info@goancona.com.