May and June, 2007
PISTOIA, ITALIA NEWSLETTER
Wow!!! Time has really passed quickly recently. My apologies for the laps in communication lately. However, we do have a number of exciting experiences to tell of how God is blessing the work in Pistoia.
Since the beginning of May we were very busy until the beginning of July. At that point our activities began to slow down a bit due to the Summer break. Vacations and people trying to wrap up work projects before vacations have taken their toll on our activities. We are looking forward to a slow down in the work so that we can catch our breath before getting after things in the month of September.
Within the church a while back we had discussed creating opportunities to fellowship with one another in the community (i.e. eat a meal together at a restaurant instead of at the building.). It is an aspect of our church life that has been greatly lacking. By always eating, gathering, and fellowshipping at the building we partially limit our visibility in the city. As a solution, an evening was organized to eat together at a Spaghetteria. Eighteen were present for the gathering and we had a wonderful time. It was very nice to be able to have the Christian fellowship in a slightly diverse setting.
Our campaign this year was from June 21st until the 26th. It was a great encouragement for us all. The group was a bit smaller as far as the number of campaigners themselves, but we were also blessed to have all of the AIMers (apprentice missionaries) from Prato helping us. The time seemed short but it was also hard work. It seemed that I was up and busy every day by 6:30 and then we wouldn't get in bed until midnight or 1:00 A.M. each night. Needless to say, we were all pretty well exhausted when all was said and done, but God kept us moving and He accomplished some wonderful things in the 5-6 days.
As usual, we did puppet shows in the park. While the turn out was very low compared to other times, we still enjoyed the opportunity to interact with some children and their parents. Unfortunately, it was a couple of weeks after school had ended and the first week of hot weather in Pistoia. After a mild Spring, temperatures were in the mid to upper 90s and the park which almost always has 10-20 kids had only two when we arrived on both days. Two things were learned from the experience: 1) we will always try to have puppet shows before school ends or after it starts in the fall and 2) offering bottles of water to the kids and parents is warmly received (no pun intended). There had initially been some concern that skeptical parents might not look kindly on drinks being offered to their children, but we only experienced positive feed back.
As was planned, fliers were distributed in mailboxes and on cars on two days. In the matter of 3 hours 5,000 fliers were gone. The approach this time was a little more direct. The fliers gave a general introduction and explanation of the church of Christ. Some of the members were very pleased with the timing as a news report was made around the same time where a Catholic scholar and an evangelical preacher discussed the true church of Christ. Obviously, their terminology was not intended to reinforce our distribution but the similar terminology may have raised some eyebrows.
Two new efforts were added to our repertoire during the campaign. One was an activity to get the church's name into the community and the other was a children's English festival. The first activity was distributing automobile air fresheners on the street corners near the church building. Labels with the church's information and a Bible verse were placed on each air freshener and about 400 deodorizers were handed out in a little over an hour. It is an activity from which one expects very little return input. The campaigners and AIMers have some fun stories about their experiences. One involved the police and another involved a car that drove past each corner to get more. A couple of days later, one of the members had already had a few of his friends asking him about it since they recognized that is was from the church where he attends.
The English festival was also well received. Stations were set up for kids to look at books, do color and activity sheets, and play with children's games and puzzles that used English. The festival was supposed to last from 5:30pm until 7:00pm. We were greatly encouraged when one lady stayed until about 9:00 and another family stayed until around 10:30. These are contacts for which we request earnest prayer. Fedele and Donatella are the parents who stayed until 10:30 and Carmella is the mother who stayed until 9:00. PLEASE pray that contact can be maintained with them and that the seed that we can plant in their hearts will grow to maturity.
As a continuation of this activity, we announced a children's English class that will start in September. Fedele and Donatella have already confirmed their daughter's involvement with this class when it begins. In addition, Fedele, a prominent member of the state police and university instructor in Florence, has asked us to let him know if we ever want help with our Italian, so we will be trying to take advantage of that as well.
Within the church itself, things have been running pretty normally, except that attendance is down a bit for the summer. Heather has been working diligently to prepare the children's curriculum for the next year two years. She and Dina have been co-teaching the class, but in the Fall they will add another teacher. Valentina will join them and they will start a monthly rotation, which will allow each of the ladies the opportunity to be present for the lessons during worship.
Now that July is over, the midweek studies have been suspended until September and my sermon preparation load has been at least doubled for the month. In the end, lesson preparation balances out and the summer load is the same as other times.
I have recently dedicated a little time to preparing a way of being in better contact with you all. Many times we have wanted to update our website. We have decided instead to go the way of the blog. http://pistoiacdc.blogspot.com/ It is a nice way to keep in touch with people more regularly and after reading newsletters, etc. comments can be left. Drop in and leave us a note!
In family news, most of us are doing well. I had my first personal experience with socialized medicine on Monday morning. I went for a bike ride on one of my normal routes and as I was returning home a car turned in front of me. I was unable to avoid it and ran into the fender. After two staples in my knee, a tetanus shot, two x-rays of my shoulder, and an evaluation by an orthopedic I got back home at around noon. I go back to have the shoulder re-evaluated after 10 days of resting it. The result could have been much worse and for that we thank God. Someone also said jokingly, that at least I struck back and dented the fender. Heather has a bit more work with the kids as a result of me not being able to help as much with diaper changes, lifting them, playing, etc. She is hanging in there though.
The first year of school ended at the end of June for Noah and, as is expected/normal, he has been wanting more attention. Without seeing his friends I think he feels a bit isolated, but he is learning to get along with his sister. Elaina is moving all over the place now. She may have started walking a little later than we thought she might, but now she cries if we are keeping her from walking. She wants to do everything her brother is doing and she wants to do it by herself. She has been keeping us extremely busy. Needless to say, we are trying to enjoy the time we have together as a family.
In financial news, we are indebted to God for always providing for us through you all. Your generosity is a tribute to your commitment to spreading the gospel in all the world. We have, however, been made aware of a deficit in our support this year. Partially this is due to the dollar being at the weakest it has ever been against the Euro. In addition to this deficit, we have found it impossible to be able to cover the cost of taxes along with our monthly expenses. The main reason for this being because we are not eligible for many of the tax deductions/exemptions that we would qualify for if we were living in the states (i.e., rent, child deductions, school costs, etc.) and Roger is ineligible to claim exemption from Social Security. Due to this, we have found ourselves trying to make up $4,000 of debt for each of the last two years. If you know of someone who would be interested in joining our partnership in this special way or a congregation that would be willing to take up an annual special collection on behalf of this work, please contact us with the information or pass our information on to them. Or, if it has been a while since your last contribution to this work, we ask that you give consideration to this.
In closing we want to thank all of you for the support and encouragement you continually give us. We know that we could not be here serving God without you. We covet your prayers regarding the church here and how we can be of assistance to them, as well as our own personal wellbeing.
In Christ's love - Roger, Heather, Noah and Elaina Mahan
http://pistoiacdc.blogspot.com/
rogermahan@juno.com
Since practically everyone is gone for the majority of August, we had a little time to get out and see what God has made. Giovanni, one of the men of the congregation, took us on a day trip about 20 miles outside of Pistoia. 
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