Been a busy few days. We finished the leadership conference about 11:30pm on Wed then drove back to Rome. Yesterday I had time with Marco whilst Andrea prepared an amazing meal for last night - Roast Polento with cheese, roast vegetables, spinach, peas. She also dis homemade Amoretto Moose for everyone.

The meal was amazing! We had Allesandro and Lea (the pastor of our church and wife) and their two daughters, Debra and Daniella. We also had our neighbours, Roberto and Nadile and the people in the house - Andrea and I, Jess and Leah, Sophie and Harriette, Justino and Chris our newest guest.

We met Chris at the conference he's from London and has been in Spain (Madrid) for the past three years. He was staying in a hostel in the centre of Rome and came because God told him too. We thought it right to invite him to stay with us for a few days.

Today we are going to go to the gypsy camp again - hooray! And maybe Andrea and I will go on a date and have a few hours to ourselves for the first time in many months - I know that this should be a regular thing but it has been a bit hectic.

Jessica Kravits' blog has been added to the "people" section on the right.

We leave for sicily in 12 days!!!

If anything is heard about Paolo I'll post.

Chris 

Hello everyone...
It has been a very difficoult week for all of us, but Prease the Lord is almost gone. I don't have news from Cinzia about Paolo, but I belive that God is holding Paolo in His hands. I feel much better now and from what I know even Magda (Cinzia's sister) and Cinzia are the same of me.
The Lord has been good and I belive He filled our hearts with Peace. We have tryed to keep our eyes on Him insted of the storm....I would like to thank you once again for all your love and kindness to us.Cinzia and Sofia will be back tomorrow from Sicily, and this will make me "Crazy!!!". May the Lord Jesus bless all of you reachly...

P.S. Tchad and Andrea you have been one of the most wondeful blessing the Lord gave to us.Thank you guys for ALL you have done for us....We really love you!

2 days left and finally i have acess to the coveted blog!!!

This has been a memorable stay, and an adventure translating English to American into Italian. Let it be known let it be “skritten” (a new Old English Americano term with ancient roots in the Tchadic culture whilst playing UNO) that Justino has officially and legally won two rounds of UNO!!!! However, not enough to be the titleholder of the evening’s rounds of best 3 of 5, or 10 or 20, however many we truly did play. As for spoons… I am of the opinion regionally correct name for the game should be employed which would be “i cucchiai”, but only my opinion, play as you like!

Spiritually the Calvary Chapel conference has been a great treat and wonderful highlight to my stay. God continues to confirm the direction of His servants daily as we each are seeking His holy direction and purposes here in Roma.

My compliments to the chef – the spaghetti carbonara was wonderful!! Bravo & buono!!

Ciao for now!

Justino

Paolo seems to have improved a bit. He is talking againn today. Cinzia has spent the morning praying for and with him. There seems to be real apathy in the hospital towards the situation and this is very frustrating. It has taken 3 days to get a copy of his x-rays (which Paolos parents pay for) and the family now has to send them to Verona to the specialist hospital there. This is just v short as we now have eve prayers and we've had a powercut so apologies. When I have more info I will update.

Paolo critical overnight build up of blood on his brain again, very dangerous situation please pray..

It is so good to be back in Rome after a week of traveling. I started last week in England for a few days. I have always wanted to visit England ever since I was little and I was so excited to finally get the chance. I stayed one night in Oxford with Anna who was here with the team from Oxford and then two nights in Coventry with Alex and Jon who were here for a few weeks and I went into London for a little while. I loved every minute I was in England. I knew I would like it but I was surprised how much I really did at the end of my few days there. I was upset Thursday when I had to go to the train to leave. From England I met Leah who is visiting from Charleston and we went onto Paris, Venice and Pisa. All for just a few hours. We finally arrived back here Monday afternoon. The travels were a great time to refocus and really pray for open and closed doors. And of course just like God does He answers not always how we expect but He answered.

Since arriving we have been praying for the door to either open or close at my old job. Well the door is finally closed. I got an e-mail last week basically saying that they felt as though God was not calling me to go back. I was feeling that also and had a peace about that but it still came as a shock for some reason. I know it was because it is not just the end of a job but a change in certain relationships with students and other things back home. But right away God answered the prayer and I made the decision to extend my stay here in Rome. I am going to be house sitting/watchin Roberto's children for two weeks. And now I have a job interview in outside London. Which is crazy to even type right now. Right now there are doors opening around me and I need to push them see which ones are right and which ones are not. I have no idea now where I am going to be come September. The two major themes right now that I am praying into are waiting and walking on the water. Andrea sent me a verse that really showed where I was - the verse is Dt. 32:11-14. The second thing God is really saying now is how far are you willing to go? I am feeling challenged to really step out of the boat and into the water. It is incredible after spending a week away to really hear what God is saying and after waiting for Him to close doors to watch everything begin to unfold is so exciting but I know that it is going to still require some waiting.
One really cool note about today. Today I was in Paul's prison praying with Leah and just a sense of peace about everything came over me and as we read through Ephesians you could feel God's presence in there and just sense really how big He is and how big His love for us is. We walked out amazed and in awe over it.
Thank you for your prayers. It is so good to be here in Rome sorting it all out and to have the support and prayers of Tchad and Andrea has been absolutely amazing.

Cinzia is coming back on Friday as she is well enough to travel - Praise God! Paolo is in the same position as the last post. He basically need to stay in the hospital and not move, we are awaiting test results at the moment.

I'm only hearing one side of the story but there seems to be a problem with his family and Magda (Cinzia's sister and Paolo's girlfriend). They seem to be excommunicating her and also acting as though there is nothing wrong with him - getting him to sit up and having loads of people in the room. The doctor's orders are only one person at a time and sparingly at that. Seems a bit strange.

Agnese (Cinzia's other sister) arrived back from Sicily last night 5 hours late - after being 4 hours late going there!

Luca managed to hit a tyre in the road and has damaged his car. He borrowed Marco & Cinzia's and Debra drove it and had a small crash - basically a dent in the car.

Andrea and I are at a leadership conference at the moment - Mon, Tue, Wed 10am-12pm and 8pm-10:30pm. So updates will be sparodic. The teaching is really good and we'll share on here later in the week.

Jess arrived back here safely with a friend Leah. The two girls that were due to leave today are staying an extra night due to a national train strike.

Thankyou soooooooooooooooooooooo much for all that are praying for Paolo - we know that it does and is having an effect.

We've got some of the Sheffield Formees coming for a few days mission and we are excited by what God is going to do - we'll be focussing on the gypsy camp where we have fantastic relationships and have seen people coming to Christ. Fantastic.

May the Lord Jesus' presence and blessing be on all that have read these words.

Hello everyone, finally, I learn the way to write in this blog. Tchad was very kind to teach me and to give me the opportunity to write some message to you.
I'm sorry for the mistakes you will find on it, but you know that I'm not very good with English.
Anyway, I would like to thank you for all your prayer and support for us. It has been a difficoult time for us, but praise the Lord for people like you all. Your prayer has been the instrument that God used to bless, incourage and protect us during these last months.
Cinzia is getting better, but she is still in a no easy situetion. It is still very difficoult and pianfull everytime she goes to the bathroom, but we are confident that the Lord will heal her completly very soon. I'm back to Rome and I'm going to have a dinner with Tchad, Andrea and some of the guys who are here. I'm very well but I'm missing Cinzia and Sofia very much. They will be back on Friday, and I'm looking forward for that. I spoke with my sister in low about Paolo and she saied that he is quite better and the situetion seems under control. It is just wonderful what our Lord Jesus has done for him since yesterday. We will keep you informated about Paolo, but please keep him in your prayer. We love all of you and we pray that you may have all God's best in your lives. Marco

The Edge 

Larry Mullen Jr. 

Bono and Adam Clayton 

Ok normal update. We didn't get to see Salvo the other day instead we went to San Giovanni, a huge church which is one of the 5 great ancient basilicas in Rome, to listen to God. It is the oldest of the great basilicas (even than St Peter's - Vatican) and is the cathedral church of the popes (whatever that means). Andrea and I went on seperate wanderings and both of us noticed all of the odd, what we would call pagan, architecture and paintings. Check out the San Giovanni pix section on the right to see what I mean. When I got out Andrea was chatting to a Romanian street begger. I feel like we have a real afinity with this people group after spending time in the gypsy camp.

On thursday we joined a group of WYWAMs who weren't youth by any means, were all Korean but were from WYWAM Hawaii - very bizarre. They did a Korean dance and gave out Gospel tracts, again this was all at San Giovanni. I headed home feeling rough still and Andrea stayed there. Friday I had a day of rest and sleep and it was much needed. Friday night we tried to get to the cinema after a lovely dinner by Justin. However, after an hour of trying to find a road to it - we could see it a 24 giant screen Megaples by UGC - we gave up and headed home.

Saturday - our date day and chill together day. Marco came back and needed picking up and driving around Rome, all of the stuff with Paolo happened and we still went to see U2 in concert. I was shattered before we even got there.

We got to the stadium at about 5 and got in by 6:30 after a chilled beer on the grass nearby. Whne we got in it was fantastic there were probably already about 40000 people there and it wasn't even half full yet.

The openning bands were Feeder and then Ash. U2 came on at 8:30 and went on till 11:40 - over 3 hours. They all seemed very relaxed and the music was amazing but the sound set up a little poor, echos and screchings every now and again - lol.

Songs played - Vertigo, I Will Follow, The Electric Co., Elevation, New Year's Day, Beautiful Day, I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, All I Want Is You, City of Blinding Lights, Miracle Drug, Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own, Love and Peace or Else, Sunday Bloody Sunday, Bullet the Blue Sky, Miss Sarajevo, Pride, Where the Streets Have No Name, One

Then an Encore - Zoo Station, The Fly, With or Without You, All Because of You, Yahweh, Vertigo

One of the first things I noticed in the stadium was a large "Jesus is the way.." banner - check out U2 photo section on the right.

When the second song - I will follow - starts Bono spots an inflatable bottle in the audience, and realises it has got Heineken advertising on it. He says: "I don't think they need any more advertising... We want to advertise love! We want to advertise soul! Imagination!"

At the start of Elevation, a man gets up on stage, talks to Bono and then speaks to the crowd saying "Tonight Italy and Ireland are in love." Bono says in English: "Tonight, Ireland and Italy are getting married!" Obviously much applause and uproar.

There must have been loads of people that understood English because when Bono made statements in English people seemed to understand what he was on about.

"Miss Sarajevo is dedicated to all the families, all the lives destroyed, broken by what happened today in Egypt".

There was lots of reference to the Make Poverty History campaign - "Italy fans are the most generous to us as a band, but Italy is the least generous to the people of Africa. Now is the chance to do something great."

A reference was made to Pope Paul II and his support for the campaign.

Near the end of the set the first 5 Articles of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) came up on screen.

Article 1 - All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Article 2 - Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.

Article 3 - Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.

Article 4 - No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.

Article 5 - No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

Article 6 - Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.

(Full list at http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html)

Also Bono placed a gret emphasis on the Coexist logo using the Muslim Crescent Moon as the "C", the Star of David as the "X" and the Cross of Jesus as the "T", saying why can't popel get along we are all descendents of Abraham. There is no place for killing each other. (picture in U2 pix section on right).

A great evening but shattering. Had time with Marco today and the girls are cooking tonight.

Hmm just realised I have yet to mention them. 4 girls from Sheffield post A levels (one used to be in Andrea's A Team) 2 are here for a week and then travelling around Italy, and the other 2 are here for 3 weeks. They have been here 5 days so far :-).

Haemoraging has stopped. Doctors have found a malformation in his brain. They are saying that this can happen again at any time in his life. They are now saying he will be under close observation for a month - so way better that last night when they were saying he would be dead within the week.

He can talk again though is a bit disorientated. The doctors will not let him go to the specialist hospital until the blood has completely dried up that haemoraged.

Please pray that this process happens quickly and please pray that the pain lessons.

Paolo has survived the night and seems to be a bit better praise God. Cinzia has prayed with him a lot and so have many of the pastors that know the family.

The hospital is now talking about getting him to the specialist hospital in Verona.

Short update.

We now know that Paolo had a brain haemorage.

The doctors in Catania (Sicily) have told his family and Magda (Cinzia's sister) that they should just take him home as there is nothing they can do for him he will die shortly.

The doctors said there is nothing that they can do. When pressed they said that there is a specialist hospital in Verona (North Italy) that may be able to do something but they could not call them as it wasn't their responsibility.

Marco called that hospital from here and spoke to a doctor there. He called the hospital in Sicily and was told that the patient was just a bit"agitated"!! Marco had told him what the doctors had said to the family. The doctor from the specialist hospiatal was told that only the head doctor at the hospital in Sicily could authorise a move and he is away till Monday.

So it is a desperate situation where only God can do something.

Paolo has prayed with Cinzia to Jesus for healing. We are praying.

Andrea and I have tickets to U2 for this evening nad have decided to attend so there will be no update until either late tonight or tomorrow morning. We leave it to God whom I personally know by the name of "Healer."

Thankyou for prayers.

Paolo 

Hello all.

Cinzia's sister's (Magda) boyfriend has just been taken into hospital. The doctors have found a lump on his brain and say they cannot operate. He was fine 2 days ago but now struggles to talk.

His name is Paolo and as yet does not know the Lord. Please please pray into this situation. If you have any words or pictures email them to me and I will get them passed onto him.

We really want him to know the Lord's comfort at this time.

The "almost" victorious team 

Andrea's last footy match of the season 

Andrea looking gorgeous in Citta di Castello , Umbria 

Me with small pizza in Umbria 

Small hornets nest on our front gate 

Justin(o) saying Hi 

Tim doing what he does best 

The Eden guys - Jonny, Susie, Ruth, Susan, Claire, Charissa, Tim, Caroline, Scott 

Hello all that read this blog! Apologies for the delay in updating - been a tad busy. Alex and John have had there week here and they were a right blessing to us. Very willing to help and get involved.

We had good worship and prayer times with them and had fun hanging out and playing uno (particularly splash uno).

Last Thursday night Tim & Charissa and gang came from their Eden project in Swinton, Manchester to chill, eat Ice Cream and have fun. We headed back to the UK on the Friday with Alex and John on the same flight and leaving Jess to look after the house whilst the 9 Edeners were here.

We said our goodbyes at East Midland (nicely bumping into Gareth - huddle leader Form Coventry), were kindly picked up with Liz Hunt and sped up to Sheffield for Simon and Cat's wedding. The weekend was absolutely fantastic and knackering. The wedding was amazing and it was a real joy to be a part of it. It was great catching up with some of the people that we love dearly and I thought that Ronnie Daye would make a great evangelical tele-evangelist. His sermon was great.

We came back on Sunday evening courtesy of a Mr Niblock ride (and pre that a great Sunday lunch with Chris and Susan - thankyou soooooo much). But I cam back very worn out and run down - boo. God provided us with a minibus on Monday so after leaving Jess at Ciampino for a week's tarvel in Europe (well England and France) we all headed to a gorgeous beach about an hour away. Oh yeah we also picked up Justin a great guy from Florida who God has really put Rome on his heart - he's staying with us for a fortnight. The beach was awesome and the sea was like a warm bath. Been trying to get over my cold for the past couple of days.

About to head into Rome to listen to God and to meet up with Salvo a very cool guy who is a leper who has come to know the lord and is just awesome. He begs at the top of Via Nazionale and is inspirational. Please pray for him.

Other news - Cinzia and Marco headed to Sicily for Cinzia's operation - a success praise God. It was all down to the hospital in Rome who didn't sow her up properly = 9 months of agony. Cinzia felt great after the operation, however, today is in a lot of pain.

Also Chiara (Debra's mum - this is particularly for the Oxford Vineyard guys) went into hospital here in Rome a few days ago and the suspected tumour was just calcium from the water - how cool is that, I love it.

Please pray for us as we get bills sorted and removals orgainsed. Oh yeah we are off to see U2 in the Stadio Olimpico on Saturday night - Andrea's first ever concert.

New pictures above also a couple from the weekend before last when Andrea and I popped in on my parents and God parents in Umbria.

Visitors photo section being updated.

It has been a while since I last wrote but I wanted to give everyone and update. The past few weeks have been fantastic. I have felt very challenged lately now that I am half way through my time here in Rome. I came with a purpose of spending good quality time with God and to really surrender everything. I came also to really seek what God was calling me to do. Well I have a lot of possiblities in my head right now so the time has been good but nothing solid. I am still constantly seeking and waiting. A lot of waiting. I was challenged earlier in the week with a verse from 1 Kings 19 where it speaks of how God does not come inthe earthquake or fire but how he comes and speaks in a small whisper. The challenge for me is that where I find myself right now is looking for the big earhtquake or fire to hear from God and putting aside the small whispers. But they are equally important.

Another challenge came this morning during our morning prayer time. We were talking about faith and God moving and calling us to do certain things. I too often limit God - I put him in my little box and give him the guidelines. But that is not what I should be doing especially now as I wait to hear about the next season. I need to take God out of my box and let Him work the way He wants to - the way that He can. And when He calls me to do something to have faith the size of a mustard seed to do it. This week we were with a team of Americans (YEAH! people who talk like me!!!) from California. That was not the crazy part though. The crazy part was that as we got to know each other we realized that one of my best friends works for their church. It was amazing. It was so cool and proved what I am trying to say even more. I would have never imagined that anything would ever happen like that. But God being much bigger took that and showed me that He is WAY bigger. So now as I continue to my time in Rome and prepare to head back to the states in a few weeks I am going to be intentional to really hearthose small voices that come, to not limit what God can do but to pray expectantly and to remember that God is way bigger than anything I can imagine.

We hav been into the refugee camp this week also. The kids there are so great. I have really enjoyed getting to spend time with them. They are all special in their own way. I am surprised everytime I go in there and spend time with them. And the amazing God story from last week came when we went into Rome to do some homeless ministry. We ran into a guy by the name of Santo who is a lepor and homeless. He became a Christian in March. We went to give him some food and began to pray for him. He in turn pulled out his Bible and began to read Psalm 46 to us. And then started to pray for us. It was incredible to see how God took this man that the world thinks of us nothing to bless us when our purpose was to draw him closer to God and to help him with the little that we could. God used Santo to encourage and bless us as we went about serving Him in Rome. It just goes to show that God can use anyone and anything to bring people into Him presence. Thank you for your prayers! God Bless!!!

Andrea has an encounter with a very welcome visitor 

Hanna's parents, John, Jess 

Alex, Peter, Hanna 

Monday night Alex and John arrived from Coventry to spend time with God on holiday and to do mission work. Alex did Form in Coventry this past year and came when Anne Findley lead the Form guys here for a fantastic 10 days earlier in the year. He joins a growing list of repeat visitors).

Tuesday was admin day and Tuesday night Peter and Hanna and Hanna's parents arrived to crash for a couple of nights after a trip to Corsica. They are heading back to Denmark today.
Wednesday was shopping and seeing Cinzia day followed by mad admin evening with Marco and Cinzia (checking out removal prices car prices etc).

Cinzia is still sick has been to the doctors and has to have a operation. This will cost a lot of money please pray. She is heading to Sicily (possibly on Monday) Andrea may go with her or may go next week after Cat and Simon's wedding back in Sheffield.

Thursday nice chat to John and Liz Lovell on the phone with the 5 of us here. Say goodbye to the Dane's. Jess, Alex and John head to the beach. We have lunch with Brent and Hope pastor of a church in Rome centre before heading to Ostia to have time with Chuck and Chrisie and some English guys. Heard the dreadful news about the terrorist attack in London. Have good time with Chuck and Richard (OM leader). Head to beach to catch the waves for an hour with the other guys before heading home for pizza.

Friday am - Andrea gone to get Cinzia to sort out plane tickets for Sicily and packing to see my parents for the weekend in Umbria. Update done! Pix of Danes and Coventry boys above.

All the picture sections seem to be having problems am going to try and find a better host for them. Will post when this is done.

That is it I think - fully updated hooray. There should also be some pictures of the place we will have in Sicily.

Pizza Oven from God 

View towards front gate. All land is for the centro up to the houses. Mount Etna in background. 

We will be on the left and the other house will be used as a place for the church on site (Filippo's) 

Our new home for the 5 of us 

Marco, Sammy's brother, Massimo, Sammantha and son 

Marco 

Sicily - what happened.

Got there mid afternoon after a few hours delay in Rome. One hour wait in airoprt and then another couple on the plane as the air conditioning was broken. I slept through that to wake to a mini riot going on with passengers shouting abuse at the staff and I realised it was probably about 35 degrees inside the plane and everybody was a bit stressed, children were screaming everywhere and there was no respite from the heat.

Anyway eventually we got off (with the noticeable point that no stewards came offering food and drink - in fact didn't see anybody till we landed!) We got picked up at Catania airport with Filippo (Cinzia's dad) and went straight to Marco's parents house for a 3 course lunch after which I crashed on a sofa shattered. Post dose we had a chat to Filippo telling him our thoughts for Sicily - sharing everything we believed to be from God including a picture and word that Mike Breen had had for us at the TOM (The Order of Mission - in links section) weekend a few weeks previously.

Filippo, along with another 3 guys, look after some property and land that their church had bought a long time ago. On that land their church is plus another couple of houses. The land size is about 6000 square metres. We were basically going to Sicily to see whether God would give us one of those houses - very cheeky I know. Filippo is the pastor of the church.

Andrea and I had seen this property back in our short trip in April and the first thing I had noticed about it was that it had a pizza oven. This was something that had been in my heart as something I would love to have. I hadn't actually prayed specifically for a pizza oven but every now and again our dad seems to give us the desires of our heart. My other desire had been to have land to work on and fruit trees. All were here.I had also seen myself working the land with Jesus in a vision (though I semed to be doing the working) and in the vision He and I were just chatting like mates - this is the only piture/vision I have ever had of Jesus where He isn't in the "God" role. I shared all this with Andrea and Cinzia back in April and had a sneaky suspicion this was where God wanted us.

So we chatted to Filippo and it soon became clear to us that he too believed that all of the stuff we were blurting out - all the way to prophetic words on Marco and Cinzia from years ago - was truly from God. He and his wife Adele had been praying for a couple to go and live on this land (known as the centro) and help the church there. This wasn't quite what we were saying but it seemed to Filippo that it was close enough. A good start though there were the other guys to chat to too.

Post this we shared all this stuff with Marco's mum and she told me about a visitor a coupe of months prior - a prophetic lady from a church in California. This lady visited the centro and seeing the pizza oven said that the whole base was to be a place of something new and exciting coming soon and would be a massive blessing to the church (as in the wider church). How amazing is that yummy pizza.

That evening we borrowed a scooter and I sat behind Marco for an hour and a half to go to see a friend of his Massimo and his wife Samantha. We git there about 11pm and crashed out spending sunday day with them in the sea and chatting. (Photos above)

Sunday evening was church at the centro followed by a meeting with all of the guys who had a say in the centro - Filippo, Alberto, Darius and Ricardo. Marco shared the stuff leading to the calling to Sicily and I shared about the centro. The way Sicilians go on it sounds like they are having a mad fight when they are just saying "Good morning" and finding it hard to keep up with the accent I feared that we had got it all wrong and that we hadn't heard it correcly regarding the location. I prayed hard and was sure that God was saying this was the place. Afetr about an hour Alberto (wise man with a lot of say, almost as much as Filipo) told us that a year ago he had heard God telling him that the centro would become a place for a new thing and that it was timne for the "youngsters" to do something (in Italian terms youngsters could be anybody up to those in their 50's!). So it was settled God has given us the house. We will be accountable to the order of Mission and will have Adele and Filippo as wise local heads. The property all belongs to the centro and we respect that but we do not fall under their direct authority - meaning that we are free to do stuff that would otherwise need to go through them - Praise God. Exactly what we knew was what we needed to do the work there. (pix above)

Monday was a chilled day before heading back to Rome to see our beautiful wives :-).

Okay a fair bit has happened since the last update!

The end of last week was amazing. After the 24hr praying (which was real powerful) all of the spiritual attack stuff came to a head and got resolved on the Thursday morning. Once this was sorted (with the team losing two memebers) we headed into the refugee/gypsy camp with myself, Jess, Jon Senior and Chuck (minibus driver) and the 7 Oxford Vineyard crew - Andrea went to have some time with Cinzia.

The camp was fantastic. It was a scorching day and we took in a load of sweets, balls to play with and stacks of balloons to make animals, swords, hats etc out of - Jess and Euryn excelling in this later department! We did a puppet show and the team did a powerful mime after which Paul gave his testimony (amazing!). This was followed by Chuck inviting people to get to know the Jesus that heals and saves and the response was fantastic with Chuck getting swamped with three older guys and about 10 children alll wanting to know more - it really felt like God moved powerfully there.

We piled back to our house at about 5:30pm (ish), got cleaned up for small group and had small group with that leading into Luca's 30th birthday party and enough food to feed a 100 instead of the 30 or so in the house. A lot of fun.

Friday was an early start making a load of pannini (sarnies) and nipping into the centre of Rome to give food and to offer prayer to the street beggers for a few hours. I think that everybody found this a really powerful time. We split into groups and the group I was in met a beggar I have spent a bit of time with - Salvo who is a leper. We basically did a very rough bible study with him and prayed for him - absolutely fantastic.

Friday evening was crunch night and what we had been leading up to all week with regards to blessing the town where our church is - Frascati. We headed up there at 7 and did a mime in the main square (joined by Luca and Deborah, Chuck and Chrisie, and Allessandro pastor of our church) there were loads of good conversations going on afterwards. After dinner in the Cantina (fantastic dining hole) we headed out again doing the mime in the square again then in the main passagiata thoroughfare and then in the square again heading hoime sometime after midnight absolutely knackered! After each of these mimes more great conversations went on. Before each mime we worshiped in English at the top of our voices for anything between 5 minutes and 45 minutes. During one of these worship times I recieved a vision (bottom of this section).
Sat am everybody tired quick two trips to Ciampino airoprt to drop the Oxford guys off, Andrea took Marco and I to Fiumincino airport to Sicily and Jon Senior left in the evening back to the UK!

Jon if you are reading this just want to say a massive thankyou for your time here. You were a real blessing to us and your servant heart was amazing. You are in our prayers (and the hoover is working again)

Jess if you read this you are quite honestly fantastic too, and it is great having you around!


These are the visions that I saw whilst we were in Frascati last night (1st July, 2005). I very rarely have stuff like this hapenning to me.

We were on the main passiaggata walkway – in the section which is almost like a balcony looking at Rome – when I started singing (I love You Lord…?)

1 I had my eyes closed and was worshiping in the spirit whilst the rest of the team joined me in the same song. Even though my eyes where shut I started to see. The land up to the bin was the normal concrete. I could see the team singing even though they were behind me. The ground in front of the bin suddenly started to seem unreal like it was a gas or gloopy liquid, there were normal people walking around this but they were almost wading through it. All around them on the left and the right was a demonic presence. There were maybe a thousand creatures – dark shapes with no definite form – racing around in this ethereal world. There could have been ten thousand. As I looked to where the fountain was it seemed to be swallowed up in this horde of darkness. I was interceding to the king of kings to save the town. I walked out past the bin to the edge of the road, crying out to God in worship and it felt like I was bisecting the enemy,s territory. People oblivious to all this were staring at me singing. Two men were walking towards me down the passigiata walkway. I felt that I could see a brilliant light around me and where I had stepped across the pathway was a luminescent trail slowly fading back to where everybody elses was worshipping. The men were a couple of metres away when they properly saw me and they recoiled away and walked back the way that they had come. I walked back past the bin and looked back. A fire came from up the hill and swept the demonic horde downhill, washing them away in a river of fire. I heard loud shrieks of fear (but not screams). I was totally confident in God,s protection on us.

2 I saw the main square in Frascati (where the church is) well to be exact I could see up to the edge of the middle section where people normally sit and where we had done a mime and talk earlier in the evening. From the very edge of that area ran loads of small streams of blood winding through the cobbles going down hill. When they got to the exit of the square they formed a river quickly moving downhill. Whilst seeing this I felt very sick. Then I realised my ears were being filled with the screams of men and women dying.

Two minutes after this vision Chrisie (Chucks wife) told me that Frascati was a dark place and that the square had been used to strip the skin off Christians a long time ago. Basically skinning them alive. I had not and did not tell Chrisie the vision. She just told me this spontaneously as if God had given her a message.

Whilst I write this (in Sicily) God prompted me to tell Marco what I have seen he is here with me now. He is telling me that a pastor came in 2000 for the Jubilee (from Calvery Chapel) he had the same vision but with the blood coming down from the hill. He was very shocked.


Less sure about these next two visions ands they seemd to be "scrambled" and seemed to become visible whem in Massimo's house in Sicily when absolutely shattered. Would like people to comment and weigh them up.

3 I saw thirty horses. Well first I heard them their hooves clattering on stone (somehow just know there were thirty) at speed. Then I saw them coming down the steps from the park at the top of Frascati (above the car park and square trees).They were in three groups of ten.The first horses are red, scarlett red. They are huge horses far bigger than I have ever seen before. The next group are black and the third red again. None of the horses appear to have eyes. They stop in the large square below the villa at the fountain before charging up the hill towards the villa.

4 There is a groaning in the hillside near the big villa. The whole town is held under a spell being slowly poisoned by it with peoples lives fading away. Large roots on bushes are growing very rapidly. Small vents of gas are coming from the cracks in the pavement. everything is dark.

Sorry v quick post only got 5 mins. Just droppped the Oxford guys off at the airport leaving to pick up marco and adele (cinzia's mum) in few mins with Andrea. Flying from other airport.

This week has been intense. We have had the worst spiritual and mental attack on Andrea and I that took us to our limits and we have seen God do amazing things here.

I am off to Sicily with Marco now for some meetings. Please pray