In The Chute For Italy

An update from Ed O’Mara, SG Church Planter relocating Italy…

In July my family is relocating to Italy to start the process of church planting and establishing Sovereign Grace Churches in Italy! (You can learn more and stay connected with us at www.omaras.org). We are in the midst of much planning. Proverbs 19:21 helps me: ‘though our plans are many, it is the purposes of the Lord that stand’. We are experiencing this in important ways and wanted to share highlights of God’s activity in our family of churches with respect to reaching Italy.

Our desire is that the Lord will establish Italian men to lead gospel-centered churches and we value teams in Sovereign Grace. So our prayer has been that the Lord would bring us gospel-partners to establish the first SGC church in Italy. In His kindness, the Lord has been answering this prayer through a friendship with Rocco Dalia and his wife, Madalina.

I met Madalina through a project to translate Sovereign Grace songs into Italian to serve the local church there. She heard we were relocating to Italy to plant churches and got me in touch with her husband, Rocco, who is finishing up seminary in the UK. His desire is to return to the north of Italy, where he grew up, to plant churches. Rocco and I built our friendship and discussed theology for a couple years. In this time he was instrumental in completing the Italian version of the Sovereign Grace website and is now working on the Statement of Faith. The Lord used these projects to convince Rocco that he belongs in SGC (and I agree!).

In the kind providence of God, after the European Development Fund was established, a decision was made to send Rocco and Madalina to Pastors College for this upcoming academic year. So while we are in Italy learning language and culture, Rocco and Madalina will be in the US learning SGC culture and values! Our hope is that they will return after Pastors College and we will plant the first SGC church in Italy in 2023/24 together! We are so thankful for the plans and purposes of God and for those who have given to the European Development Fund! It is already being used to lay important groundwork for the spread of the gospel through our family of churches in Italy!

A second important highlight is that my wife, Robin, and I just returned from Catania, Sicily, which will be our family’s landing place. The first goal of the trip was to find housing, enroll our children in schools, and explore the area where we will live.

It was a great success, on all fronts! We spent loads of time with Chiesa Grazia e Verità (Grace and Truth Church), our new church home after relocating. The church is led by, Giuseppe Fortuna, who has been an incredible help in our family’s relocation planning. Giuseppe and his elders are exploring partnership with Sovereign Grace. So in our first year in Italy we will have the opportunity to serve them as they navigate this decision. May the Lord’s will be done!

The second purpose of this trip was to serve the broader church in Sicily with a marriage conference. Larry and Gladine McCall of Christ’s Covenant Church (the SGC Church in Winona Lake, IN) joined me and Robin to lead this conference. There were over 50 couples who heard of the power of the gospel for strong marriages. It was also a terrific opportunity to connect with around 6-8 pastors from diverse backgrounds, which is not normal in Italy. Sadly, even with a sparsity of gospel-preaching churches there is much division and parochialism in the Italian Evangelical church.

These pastors relayed their sadness over this reality and an earnest desire to be united in the gospel. While not all of these pastors will have a long term interest in joining with Sovereign Grace, we could see that we left them with a palpable sense of encouragement. So this aspect of the trip was also a great success!

There is so much still ahead of us and we are just beginning to get started. But we can see the hand of God and we are deeply grateful for how that is coming through our family of churches. Your prayers, your giving to the European Development Fund, and your commitment to seeing the gospel go forward in your own community is all having a strengthening effect on us and we thank God for the privilege of partnership! May God be glorified all over the earth!