FOWLERS’ UPDATE FOR MAY AND JUNE 2016

Torre dell’Orso Convention

Fowlers participated with around 30 other brothers and sisters in Christ for a delightful rally held in south Italy for preaching and fellowship and mutual encouragement. Brethren, who live in a world where there are many churches in a given area, cannot appreciate these blessings, as can those who are isolated.

One baptism. This year one lady came forward to be immersed into Christ. This was easily accomplished in the hotel swimming pool and we all sang along with her “Now I belong to Jesus.”

Progress Report on our move to the States

·      Pray that we will have the strength to do the work involved, because breaking up housekeeping after 50+ years is no picnic. The prospect of a hip transplant for Enid looms on the horizon. Pray that the surgeon will be able to schedule her soon. Because of his Parkinsons, Harold can work about a half day and then he has to rest.

·      Pray that we will find buyers for our furniture. (One potential buyer checked us out)

·      Pray that we will be able to sell our pianoforte (we are dickering with a buyer for it already).

·      Pray that we will have professional movers to clear out the furniture in our apartment. We have roughly 93 cabinets. This does not include 30 bookcases for around 1600 books. Italian houses generally do not come with built-in closets, so we have to supply them ourselves.

·      Perhaps the hardest part that breaks our heart is the prospect of leaving our beloved brothers and sisters. People continue ask for instruction and counsel for local problems. Even though we say “Arrivederci” (See you later), it feels like “Addio” (goodbye forever)

Farinas’ windfall blessing

Good news about the Farina family we told you about. The police entrusted a mother and child to them as a temporary safe house. As the days passed, this endless “hospitality” became a financial burden for this family that was already financially strapped. The Farinas had to borrow or beg money to keep this increased family in food while scrimping to support themselves.

In the meantime, the social services were preparing a suitable dwelling and a job for the mother. Things moved so slowly that to the Farinas it seemed a case of the extremely poor supporting those who were even poorer.

Unbeknownst to the Farinas, the woman’s kinfolk were sending her money that she hoarded for herself. This forced the Farinas to support her while she secretly stashed money they needed for her support. The Social services furnished no help with the woman’s support even though she was, technically a ward of the city.

Through it all, the Farinas trusted the Lord to supply their needs.  God justified their faith in Him with help from our mission and some other private individuals who donated heavily.

The Farinas learned the lesson of forgiveness as they deliberately forgave their ungrateful guest the injustices she made them endure. Independently of her selfishness, they turned it over to the Lord and saw Him act with incredible answer to all their prayers.

In the meantime, Andrea worked at his factory job. You need to know that many workers throughout Italy have not been paid their full wages literally for years. Many Italians can testify how they too have been denied justice and were terrorized by various Mafia organizations. Andrea’s take home pay was being stolen by “higher ups” in the organization.

But, thank the Lord, some lawyers and a judge got on the case and exposed this corruption, getting the workers all their back pay, plus interest! Andrea was allowed to testify in court, and had the satisfaction of finally getting many years of back pay with interest. Just when getting back his pay appeared to Andrea the most unlikely event, just when the Farinas’ house guest proved quite ungrateful for their sacrifices, just when her ex husband seemed to be winning his cruel war of nerves with the Farinas, God gave them all that back pay, moved Anna and her daughter into her new apartment and gave back the Farinas’ “sequestered” apartment. (To all intents and purposes, the authorities had commandeered it with no financial help from the city). And the “white-collar” thieves may see the inside of a jail for some time to come.

Your prayers are doing good, even when you do not always hear the outcome. Thank you for keeping us on your prayer list!

Harold and Enid Fowler

hrldfowler@yahoo.com