| GO VERONA |
Go Verona
This is the second phase of a three phase plan called, “Taking Christ to Italy”, which was set in motion by Team Expansion and Shively Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky. The plan was to plant three churches in the country of Italy: one in central Italy, one in northern Italy and one in southern Italy. The first church plant, called Go Ancona, was in central Italy and the city of Ancona was chosen. After much preparation stateside and the initial team attending language school, the initial team all arrived in Ancona in the fall of 2001. By the fall of 2006, the church had experienced early growth and multiplied into two home cell groups. Through God’s orchestration and leading, the next phase of Taking Christ to Italy, Go Verona, began while the first phase continued. In the future the third phase of sending a team to a southern city in Italy will begin. Email us with questions at info@goverona.org.
| Why Verona? |
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Of course, prayer was a major aspect of the choosing of Verona as the target city for "Taking Christ to Italy: Go North". However, there was much research done as well. Here are some of the criteria for choosing the target city. Criteria used for selecting target cities: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Results of the survey trip After narrowing our search down to four northern cities, Treviso, Venezia-Mestre, Verona and Parma, a prayer/survey trip was taken to help explore, pray and determine which city God was leading us toward. There were two things that happened in Verona, that did not happen in any of the other cities. We felt it was God through circumstances helping guide us toward Verona. Verona was the only city where we were invited by the churched and the unchurched. Here is the story as told by our team leader, Matt Crosser...."Upon arriving in each city, we would check into our hotel and I would immediately check email and update supporters as to how the trip was going. One of the reasons why I wanted to check email, was that weeks before the trip I had tried connect with as many ministers and missionaries in the areas where we were headed. I had not had much success hearing back from those close enough to visit while surveying. I had communicated with Elio, a young Italian minister in Verona. As I checked my email in the hotel in Verona, I was happy to see that Elio had written on the day that we arrived! He said their church was having a prayer service and asked us to come. We said, "yes", and met him and his wife downtown after walking around a bit. Elio leads the Apostolic Church, which is a small congregation of around twenty to thirty people. As we were driving to the prayer service, he told us how he and his wife have been praying and fasting for two years for more workers to come to Verona. He said this aside from the fact we are from a different denomination. He went on to say that their church joined with them and for a year has been praying and fasting for more workers to come to Verona. He said if our team came, we would be an answer to their prayers. Wow! We were invited by the churched! That was great news, but we were'nt coming to a city to heal the well, but the sick. Which meant it wasn't finalized in our heads that we should go there yet." "The next morning we split up into groups as was our custom so that we could spread out among the city to more fully seek answers to our question. We would go into cafes, coffee shops, small stores, etc... and ask questions about the spiritual state of the city we were in. In Verona, one of the guys on the survey trip, Eric, and I had stepped into a small coffee shop. We went in, ordered and started a conversation with the one barista (coffee bar tender) in the shop. Her name was Ellie and she told us how well she liked the city, that the infrastructure was very good, transportation handy, trash pick up clean, but no seaside beaches (Verona is about an hour from the sea, which is a travesty to most Italians). As we asked questions about spiritual life and the church, she replied that while she thought God might exist she herself did not go to church, then continued by giving us the reasons for her decision. We told her how my wife and I were coming to one of the four cities to share about Jesus and study the Bible with those interested. We continued to chat as we drank our cappucini and ate our pastries. As we were leaving, Ellie told us to come back and find her if we ended up choosing Verona. This was an invitation from the unchurched! This was getting exciting. Our small survey trip of seven members were growing in their excitement as we finished out the trip. Nothing else happened that way in the other cities. There were conversations of course, but nothing as clear and inviting as those." "On the train ride back to Ancona, the survey trip team made a unanimous decision. Meanwhile hundreds of believers stateside were praying for this trip and for our clarity of decision." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Statistics on Verona Verona
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