A few weeks ago, we made the move from Catania to northern Italy, now living just north of Milan. We had announced our plans back at the end of 2025, saying that we felt that God was leading us to move so that we could take our next steps in working alongside of our Pakistani friends and partners. Gina and Julia flew up first and then Ryan and Evan, although with Ryan’s parents Steve and Dianna, made the first of two trips from the southern-most part of Italy to the north. We drove a truck to Palermo, took a ferry for 20 hours up to Genoa, then drove up another three hours to our new home…then Ryan and Evan flew home did it all again!
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We wouldn’t have been able to do all of this without the support of many of you who helped in covering our expenses in making this move, as well as the amazing support of our teammates who helped us leave as well as possible, continuing on even stronger after we have left, as well as physically helping us load the truck!
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We don’t know all that God has in plan for us, but we are already beginning to see a glimpse of the steps forward. We recently created an overview of the evolution of the ministry as God has continued to open doors both in Italy, in other parts of Europe as well as in other countries around the world. The picture below gives you an idea of the next steps already underway, but you can see more information as well on our website.
Together with Sultan and members of the Apostolic Band team at Search Party, we recently had the opportunity to go to Azerbaijan, inviting our Pakistani church leaders to come and learn about the Four Fields discipleship and church planting process, the process that we have learned to see the Kingdom of God continue to grow. We were able to spend more than a week there together in training and fellowship, teaching them and diving deep into practical depth into the parable Jesus told in Mark 4:26-29. They have now taken what they have learned back and are teaching their network of churches, as well. They are reporting several new churches that have started since that time as a result, so we are excited to see the Kingdom continue to grow in one of the most difficult areas for the Gospel in the world. If you would like to stay updated on what is happening in Pakistan, be sure to check out our Pakistan page on the Search Party website. We are also hoping to hold another similar meeting in the Fall, so if you would be interested to help support this work, you can donate to it from the Donate button on that page.
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New Churches in Albania
We also had the opportunity to go to Albania to work alongside of our Costa Rican workers, Alex and Alejandra, who also brought their Costa Rican leadership team with them. It was a great opportunity to go with some of our Italian partners to work alongside of three new church plants there in Albania. The local Albanian church planters, helped along through their partnership with Alex and his team, have now planted these churches over the last two years. Exciting times and we are looking forward to seeing how God will continue to knit us together for the future, together with workers from Italy, Albania, Romania, Costa Rica, and America, all working together for the purpose of making more disciples and planting many new churches!
Even though we are expanding the work in other nations, we haven’t left behind the work in Italy. The team in Catania is strong as they lead Agape Bici and the community garden, Missione Shiloh, continuing to work to make disciples and plant new churches. Our Italian friends and partners have a church that is continuing to grow and they are working to also make disciples who will make disciples, looking to new churches that they also will plant. Another couple that we have discipled near Siricusa, in the meantime, are making disciples online and traveling to work with people in their own homes and in their own areas.
In the meantime, our teams in Rome are continuing to plant churches, both amongst refugees as well as amongst Italians, and the Search Party team in northern Italy is doing the same! You can see an overview of the work that is continuing forward, both amongst refugees as well as Italians, by visiting this overview of the work in Italy on our website.
Beyond the work above, we’ve also had the great privilege to welcome the Matthews family to come on a vision trip, and now have them joining our team from Colorado Springs in the US. They will be working along with us to be able to lead short-term teams and follow up with those teams so that the time together on mission is not only an overseas experience, but also becomes an opportunity to continue to do the work back in the team’s home town. We are super excited to welcome them!
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Grace Fellowship Church
We also had an opportunity to welcome Grace Fellowship Church from Buckeye, AZ. They have supported our work, both personally and in helping Agape Bici to launch in Catania, and by extension also in northern Italy with our partners from Sinai, for several years and it was awesome to have them visit us to learn more about all that God is doing.
