Written on Friday 8th May

I am writing in the lounge of Giuseppe and Rachel Palermo in Milan (big hello to Giuseppe and Rachel!). They invited me to come and encourage the believers, teach leaders and do some student evangelism for 4 days. It is so good to have good, godly, challenging conversation with believers in difficult pioneering missions situations. They have blessed me.

One comment from Rachel last night, and one observation from me:

Rachel commented in passing that Italy is a very hard place for the gospel. This is self-evidently true. Then she said "why on earth would any believer not want to come to frontier places doing mission? Do they think that God won't act for them? Do they think they will miss out on something? I am so sad for people because they won't see God work in power, and the only people who are missing out are themselves." Amen, I couldn't agree more
Coming to Italy, in fact to observe any situation where there are very few believers, is something all Christians in the UK should do. We simply don't know how good we have it. Granted things are hard for the gospel work in Britain, but not compared to here. If everyone in our churches came here to look we would never complain about anything trivial ever again. Murmuring and grumbling about minor things is a luxury that is only affordable when Christians have become comfortable. If you are tempted to moan and grumble about trivia in your church it is probably a sign that you have lost perspective on the worldwide work of God