EVENTS, ENCOURAGEMENTS AND FEARS

FRANCO MAGGIOTTO OF ALPIGNANO, ITALY

I needed to wait some time before writing you. Even though I pray for you daily, there are so many things that happen to me, one after another, that I must wait for them to finish so that I can write about them. There is much that I can't tell you because they involve people whose privacy needs to be protected at the present time. It becomes impossible to write about them all. So, time passes by. (Transl. note- Much of the significant work that is being done must remain somewhat hidden for an extended period of time to allow it to take root in the culture, otherwise the religious authorities, with any secular power at their disposal, intervene quickly to undermine, disrupt and if necessary destroy a reformational work that is based in Scripture and points people towards a free conscience and personal responsibility instead of religious enslavement.)

It appears that not only Italy but also much of Europe is following natural religion instead of turning to the revelation of God. This, as you know, leads down the wrong path. The idols of this world seem to give truth and freedom and well-being. But then we find ourselves empty-handed. The word of God seems hard but it alone brings us all that is for our good.

This has been an intense time of travelling, of meetings, of baptisms, of joys and also of difficulties and worries. Many from the community have left us; some because work has taken them far from here. We keep in close contact with these people. They visit us and talk about their work in the Lord. Others have left because they were taken in by false hopes. We continue to send our writings and our prayers to them.

Where ever they go, our brothers take a wave of newness of life and of faith that comes from the Word lived out in faith. I also had a time of deep concerns. I had to go to court to defend against false accusations. One trial seems to have gone well and the other one has been postponed for a year. All this impedes the work that the Lord has for me to do.

Through a brother in Alpignano a revolution has started that has reached all the way to Rome (we had visit from a former minister in Alpignano just for this reason) and it has started a movement of change that, according to what they tell me, is taking off in many parts of Italy. This brother is working and the Lord has granted him lucidity and faith to remain faithful and solid in the Truth. One of the sisters here is leaving to Belgium to present a project of Reform. That which interests us is the Message of Jesus and that the old and young alike understand that only through this Message is there salvation and respect for others within society.

At this time, despite the difficulties, many doors have been opened and we are about to walk through them. We hope to start with a journal and we are working right now on creating the editing and distribution. The biggest joy has been the conversions that the Lord grants us. It is wonderful to see how the Word of God changes hearts, enriches minds and gives full and complete life. It is beautiful when the brethren to whom the Lord has given the faith in our churches write or phone me from all over Italy telling me that they have been baptized. They continue in the holy struggle of the Good News that comes from the Revelation of God. (Regarding this I would like to ask the brothers and sisters that sent me emails to resend them since my computer was damaged and I wasn't able to read my emails).

Tabitha, as you may already know, has started her own school and despite the difficulties, she is a good witness. Alberto is extremely busy in writing his thesis for his university degree and is getting ready to become the Editor in Chief of our journal. Aurora and I continue daily in the road the Lord has prepared before us with his Word and in his Spirit. We trust that you continue in the Faith of He that died and resurrected for us. With great affection in the faith that unites us to Jesus, our Lord and Saviour.

I have been invited to go to Jerusalem. It is an important trip for the Word of the Lord. Pray that the Lord gives me clarity of mind in the gift of his Spirit so that all I say and do be according to His will.


OUR FEARS

"And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, 'The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature. There we saw the giants; and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight," Numbers 13:32-33.

There are times when we are asked to do something difficult and the difficulty before us threatens us like an army of giants. It is God who asks us to go forward, who desires us to be free, who wants to give us an inner "promised land" of freedom and responsibility and a societal "promised land" of peace and justice. But the ongoing possession of this land requires of us a struggle; it is a gift of God to conquer. The attitude of the explorers describes well the fear that distorts reality and that makes us see giants that aren't really there. It is fear that transforms a land where milk and honey flow into a land that devours its inhabitants. It is our same fear toward someone who is different from us because he belongs to a different people, a different faith, and a different culture. To meet another human being is a bit like entering a foreign land: it is an adventure that can cause insecurity.

But even accepting to confront ourselves can cause fear because it means not hiding behind reassuring certainties and instead looking at ourselves as we are, with all our defects and weaknesses. The two things are linked: the more we fear to look inside the more the other person disturbs us and seems like an enemy. To enter into the Promised Land it is necessary to defeat the fear of the giants, especially the ones that we find inside of us. To do this we need to receive the gift of God. It is something that does not come from us, from our life or from our neighbour with whom we grow up or the land in which we live. The biblical story tells us of a conquest to make and enemies to defeat, but its significance expands to other battles against discouragement and the lack of confidence of the person who doubts that justice can win over abuses of power, and that forgiveness can take the place of revenge.

Even in this story God forgives. God forgives a people that desire to return to slavery in Egypt. But even in forgiveness there are consequences: the people will have to wander in the desert for 40 years until there is a new generation that emerges (Num. 14:34). But God never abandons us forever. If we are not able to take the next step now, perhaps it will be necessary to turn back and look again, but the promise of God remains firm. It can be this way for us as well: we feel more secure in our known desert than in a new land that God desires to give us. And we regret the security of dependence and redemption. Is this our condition today?

The desert is also the symbolic place of encounter with God. This is how Jesus' ministry starts, with 40 days in the desert where the Spirit had taken Him to be tempted by the devil (Matt.4:1). It is a place of preparation and of meditation before facing the struggle that is about to begin. It is exactly here in this desert, with the tempter, that God's help is given to us. To feel secluded from God, according to the words of Numbers 14:34, doesn't mean abandonment; but it is a distance that allows us to face our difficulties and our fears in order to take a step in the land of promise, a step we have already put off so many times.

FRANCO, AURORA, TABITHA AND ALBERTO MAGGIOTTO.

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