UPDATE FOR AUGUST 2007

August in Italy. There are not many generalizations that are true of most Italians, but this one is: August is the month for their vacations and they close down the country to enjoy them. The exceptions are people involved in the tourist industry, the police, the firemen and the hospitals, and they are busier than ever. Everyone else goes on vacation. It happens every year, so everyone is accustomed to it, except, of course, the tourists or anyone else who HAS to get something done!

Fowlers in August. We had just returned from four months of traveling in the States, so we faced four months of junk mail and a shutdown country. This was a great time to clean out our garage and make trips to the junkyard. Over the last few years termites had been working their way into wooden cabinets in our storage room. Disposing of some junk indicated how being simply "pack rats" can be confused for a "conservative, frugal spirit." We see the necessity for simplifying our lives, and, in fact, it was liberating and actually fun.
A Church That Flies. This book is now in the hands of a publisher in Rome, thanks to the cooperation with Vittorio Vitalone, preacher and writer of good books. Pray with us not merely for the book's publication, but especially for its wide distribution. Pray for the readers themselves, because we anticipate that its deep, revolutionary message can be explosive among the churches, hopefully in the positive sense. But the determined obscurantism of the "anti" mentality can torpedo its distribution among the very people who need its message most. The book is thought provoking and thinking is hard work and demands self-evaluation, all of which may come very hard for some of the very people whom we hope to reach with this study. So, we pray.
Harold?s back to preaching and teaching on (what else?) "A Church That Flies." The church at Matelica is receiving the material well, perhaps because we have advocated many of the concepts for many years now.
Summer's End Convention. 88 brothers and sisters in Christ gathered at Florence, Italy, in the Harding University site to share fellowship and learn more about Bible origins in the context of the current Da Vinci Code agitation. We rejoiced in the warmth of the fellowship accorded us there. We came home more determined than ever to publish more Bible study textbooks for the future teachers of the Word in Italy.
Enid's health. Her blood-clot and gastric reflux therapies seem to be working well, but will take some time yet. Her doctors are pleased with her progress. However, unpredictable arthritic pains in her back and legs are causing trouble. We walk for about an hour everyday to counteract the sedentary side of our work. Pray that she may be restored to normal health.
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