So What Happened?

Hey Everybody we are finally back from Roma, Italia(Rome, Italy)! And before I say anything about the trip I would like to thank The Lord for using us and also thank you guys for your obedience to The Lord with donating, praying, encouraging, and sending us out! This whole trip would not have been possible without the Lord using every single one of you. Even if you "feel" like you didn't do much I can assure you that just agreeing and backing us up with your spirit did wonders!

I would like to say that this trip to Italy is not what I expected and probably not what you guys were expecting for us. After this trip I know that GOD will do what HE wants to do, but we are invited to help HIM hasten HIS plan and be a part of "The Big Picture". So with saying that I will confidently say we went with ONE MISSION and ONE MISSION only, to Bring more Glory and more Praise to GOD sooner! The only reason we do "mission trips" is because worship doesn't exist in all nations like it is supposed to before Jesus returns (Revelation 15:4). I'm positive that GOD's WILL will be done no matter who HE uses. And I am so thankful that HE chose this small team of 12 people to serve in a country that has turned its back on GOD because of the distorted image of Christ that "The Church" itself paints. What I expected is that I would be different and people wouldn't be open to Christ. What I didn't expect is that the students that came to the camp would be so hungry for that Love that GOD offered after the first day! And even though we didn't advertise the camp as a "christian camp" we had a lot of students come that were hungry for something real…

So If you guys are expecting an awesome testimony full of miracles and hundreds being saved then stop reading, but if you want to know the truth and hear just an awesome testimony about how GOD really worked on this trip then dive on in! Earlier I said that our main goal was/is to "Bring GOD more GLORY". But how could we do such a thing without a game plan? GOD planted a few missionaries in Rome with breaking their hearts for the Lost and hurting in that beautiful city. Peppo, Jane, Mary, and Joe are a few of the Lights over in that dark area. After spending close to two weeks with them I can see why they are there and why their hearts were broken. GOD is using these four servants to connect with walking dead among the streets of Rome. Music is a language spoken by all so, God used this vehicle to spread the Gospel in a way that can be understood by the hungry. And we did have the privilege of seeing a few lives changed, but all in all it has burdened me to pray and intercede even more for Rome with not seeing the fruit of the planted seeds. So beyond these few lives changed I know that there is a lot of unfinished work in Rome that we will see come to pass in this lifetime, if we are obedient to GOD. My heart's message behind this post is not to tell you guys how awesome the trip was just so you can have an easy heart and feel good about supporting the trip. I'm not writing this to please man. I'm writing this to set a bigger burden on your heart by telling you that Rome is still messed up in a big way. And I know that this one 12 day missions trip wasn't meant to change all of Rome. We simply did what GOD sent us to do which was go and plant seeds in different types of soil (Matthew 13:1-8). But even though we did that, I'm not content with the state of spiritual slavery that ROME is stuck in. And I'm positive GOD is not content either. Whether GOD has a plan for me to go back to Rome or not, it is not in my control, but either way there is no doubt that the people of Rome will be in my heart forever.

~Whit Hagemann for the Rome team 2011~

Camp starts tomorrow!

Hey everybody! Happy Father's Day, especially to our team members' fathers who are back in the states. Today, we had the privilege of leading worship at Rome Baptist, the host church for the camp. This particular congregation is English speaking, but serves 30 different nationalities. Congregants include missionaries on furlough, vacationers wiht a few locals thrown in. Rickey led worship with our youth team and Whit shared a powerful message with the children before Pastor Dave (of Rome Baptist) taught on bearing false witness. We opened our Bibles to Romans, chapter 14, and I was so blown away by the fact that we were sitting in the very city that the Apostle Paul was writing to. Pastor Dave mentioned that Paul's letter to the first century Romans was to clarify the truth of the Gospel, because there were many who were interpreting the Gospel in a way that suited their beliefs. And almost 2000 years after Paul's letter, many in this city do not know the One true God, His only begotten Son, and the Holy Spirit. The triune God. Rome today is no longer a Christian city. So very few call Christ their Lord. If Paul were here today, he might say, "here we go again!"

God has provided an amazing opportunity for us to share our faith through this music camp that begins tomorrow morning. Please pray for us as we begin building relationships with the campers that God will bring. Pray that their hearts will be open to the Gospel message and that the local Christians will keep their hearts ablaze with love for Christ and this message of hope will spread wide.

Verna for the Rome team

The flight over was without major incident, only one bag of camp gear was "misplaced" by the ariline. Please pray it arrives as promised this morning.

We had a wonderful homecoming dinner with the our hosts last night followed by a visit to a neighborhood gelato shop on the way home where we encountered a group of local kids. As Whit observed, it is much easier to strike up a conversation here with "stangers" so we hope to see our new friends at camp next week. Most of the team is still working on arriving in the correct time zone while our last member is in transit scheduled to be here by noon today. We are heading to the city center after lunch to promote the camp via music, frisbee and conversation.

To be continued.....