Frank and Suzie Gonzalez

You can check out the Gonzalez's blog here:

http://gonzalezmissionsgazette.blogspot.com/

Greetings From Italy,

We thank you all for your prayers they have been truly coveted! This last month has flown by and we are now into the month of February and beginning our new ministry here in Italy. We thank the Lord for all He has done for us and we are excited to see all He will do in and through us.

And away we go… When we arrived in Italy to our amazement the apartment that the Lord provided for us ahead of time was fully furnished. As we had explained before in past e-mails, in Italy when you rent a flat you have to furnish everything yourself, kitchen cabinets included! But this flat came with all of that and more, which is not normal. We thank the Lord for His way of taking care of our needs.

The week we arrived we joined the CC Church in Montebelluna in celebrating the New Year. They had times of sharing what God had done in and through their lives as well as food and fellowship The following week CC Montebelluna had a time of remodeling the church and installing a café/cappuccino bar. It then proceeded a full week of painting, tearing down and building new things. It was a great start to co-laboring with other missionaries and people from the church. Through that week we also enjoyed prepared lunches from the ladies in the fellowship that were amazing to say the least .

Our trip back: As you all know we had to return to Poland for our car registration issues. While doing so we took the opportunity to visit our friends the Kulas and Spencers in Radom. The Spencers were spending a month with them in between semesters at the Bible college in Vajta, Hungary, where they are going through the missions training program. We also took a trip up to Olsztyn, the city where we had taught a weekly home Bible study and ministered to whomever the Lord gave us opportunity to our last two years in Poland. It was a blessing to see Radek and Ula as well as Marcin and Kinga people who had become very dear friends of ours during the time we lived there. On our last night there Frank was invited to teach at one of the Baptist churches mid-week home Bible studies in Olsztyn. Needless to say we enjoyed our time in both cities. In total the drive there and back took 22 hours both ways. But we thank the Lord for His protection and a safe drive to Poland and back.

Moving forward: We have much to pray for. Frank will be teaching a class on the books of Joshua and Judges. Together we will be overseeing the dorms which translates into making sure the students obey the rules of the school when it comes to the facilities which unfortunately they don’t always do J We also will be apart of the normal functions of CC Montebelluna as well as co-laboring with the other CC’s in the area as the Lord gives opportunity. One thing we have noticed is the potential for new churches and people’s increasing desire to be fed the Word. Our hearts are to be apart of this as the Lord opens it up to us. The general heart of the team here in Montebelluna is to see nationals raised up to fill the needs of the church and to reach the people in their cities. May God do this in His timing!

Outreach Opportunities: Suzie and I enjoy taking walks through a local park for exercise most mornings. This morning the Lord placed it on Suzie’s heart to give some money to a homeless man named Gee Gee whom we have seen a few times there during our previous walks. When she asked me if it would be o.k. to give him a couple of euros I reluctantly responded, “What are we going to say to him when we give him the money? We can only speak a few words of Italian.” She replied by saying, “Let’s just trust the Lord and see what happens.” Oh me of little faith! When we approached the man and gave him a few coins he spoke to us in nearly perfect English after hearing our sad attempt to speak Italian. When we asked him how he got in his situation he told us that he had been born in Italy and then preceded to tell us the rest of his story (which will have to wait for another time). We shared with him about the love of Christ and even though we don’t believe he is born again he seems to know more about having a personal relationship with God than the average non-believing person. Some Jehovah’s Witnesses had recently approached him but he told us that they didn’t seem right to him. Praise God! He also told us that God was watching over him, that he talked to him everyday and that we needn’t worry about him. We can definitely see that God is caring for this man as he has food to eat, even enough extra to care for the puppy (Alice) he keeps as a pet, and is cared for by some others. The park attendant has actually given him a key to the washroom, which he is able to use whenever he chooses. We asked if we could continue to stop and talk with him and he said he would be delighted if we would. We also invited him to join us for church on Sunday and said that we would take him, but we are not sure if this will be something that will happen now or some time in the future. There are many things that we don’t know about this man, but Lord willing we will get to know him better and minister the love of Jesus. May the Lord make us a light to Gee Gee and show us how to minister to him. On a personal note, we praise the Lord for the opportunity to talk with this man. We see it as a little token from the Lord to be able to communicate and minster as we do not yet know the language.

Health Issues: We are blessed to report that Suzie’s feet are doing well. They are nearly back to normal, as normal as they can be for Suzie. What this means for her is that she is able to walk for longer and longer periods of time and is pain free beyond the normal healing pains and aches she will always have to deal with. Please continue to pray though as she is not yet at 100%. On another note, or body part I should say, please keep Suzie’s back in prayer. Her feet have been getting all the attention this last year but her back is getting a little jealousJ Most of you know that she is dealing with some serious back issues. Though she had corrective surgeries for her scoliosis when she was younger, there is still some of it left that the surgeries were unable to correct. This has led to all sorts of back issues in her life that are quite painful on a daily basis. Somewhere along the way she has acquired two bulging discs in her lower back. We pray that at some point the Lord will open the door to us to deal with it in a more permanent way. To avoid a standard back surgery that doctors in the States normally turn to for issues like hers we are looking into a clinic in Munich, Germany that does a laser surgery that is able to correct the problem with a recovery time of about 5 days. Through this last few years while having this problem she has done exercises she was taught by a therapist to manage her pain but obviously we want to do a bit more for it. We pray the Lord will now open the door for this as He has done with her feet.

Visas: As you know we entered Italy on tourist visas which allow us 90 days in the country within a six month period of time. It is possible to extend these visas for another 90, which we plan to do. This should take us into the latter part of June. Our plans are to then return to the States for a short trip (with all documents in hand!) to apply for our longer-term religious workers visas and then back to Italy. There will be two others applying for these visas who are working here in Montebelluna as well. Lord willing everything will go quickly and smoothly for all of us!

Suzie and I pray that this newsletter finds you all well. We thank the Lord for you and your encouraging support and pray that He would bless you and use you as you serve Him.