February '24 ~ Dependency
- Arin Shivvers
- Feb 7, 2024
- 8 min read
Over the past couple of months much has changed - AGAIN! It should be no surprise because life is simply a series of changes, but I will say that it sometimes still catches me off guard. Thankfully, God is growing me in a way where I can look at each change as a great opportunity for Him to work something in my heart. As humans, change can often be so unsettling. At least it is for me. I am a person who quite adores routine and consistency. Instead, change often means unfamiliar territory that places us outside of our comfort zones. And yet, this is often exactly where the Lord needs us to be so that we remember to depend on Him. One of my favorite scriptures from these past few months has been Isaiah 33:6.
“…and He will be the stability of your times,
abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge;
the fear of the Lord is Zion’s treasure.”
The Lord is the stability of my times. Changes occur, but my God always stays the same.
December
In my last update, I mentioned our Christmas Concert that we had been preparing for over the fall months. It was such a beautiful night. Calvary Chapel Feltre came down, and we hosted the concert in our building. We had a huge turnout and continue to pray that those who came and heard the gospel preached were truly impacted by the message and the worship of our Savior. It was certainly a sweet time of fellowship for our two churches.
Christmas Eve we had church in the morning, and then I jumped on a train to Ferrara. I was incredibly blessed to get to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with the Gemma family. They have always provided a home away from home for me. Calvary Chapel Ferrara held their church service that evening, so I had the sweet opportunity to play keys for their Christmas Eve service. It was so special to me this year to have gotten to spend a little bit of Christmas with the family of Christ in Feltre, Montebelluna, and Ferrara!
January
The week after Christmas, Winter Retreat final preparations kicked into high gear! We held our youth retreat the 3rd through the 6th. Typically, we take the youth up to a place in Possagno for this camp. However, because of some changes at the location, we ended up hosting it at Calvary Montebelluna. It was a year of many “firsts” for our Winter Retreat, and the few days certainly had many bumps. However, one of the most incredible aspects of the camp was the flexibility of all of the staff members and the sensitivity of our leadership to the direction of the Holy Spirit. Despite many changes each day, moment by moment, we experienced a camp impacted by the Lord. The conversations that we were able to have with the youth about sharing the gospel, apologetics, and the like honestly blew me away. They were so eager to discuss how to better share their faith and not be ashamed of the gospel of Christ (Our theme – Romans 1:16).
After the camp, we began to settle back into a bit of a normal routine in relation to our weekly ministries. For me, personally, the month of January still felt absolutely insane. I had a lot of travel, my birthday, and a dear life-long friend came to visit for a week! We also did a combined youth event on the 20th with Calvary Feltre. We took our youth up to Feltre after school and did discussion groups to further address topics that had risen at camp and questions that they wanted to spend more focused time on. Then, we took them all ice skating! There is never a dull moment with our youth group!
On a sad note, we had a missionary family decide to transition home to the States over the Christmas break. So, in January we also helped them finish moving their belongings out of their house and said our goodbyes. This was and will continue to be a difficult change.
February
This month has really just begun, but we did start it off wonderfully! On the first Saturday, we had the opportunity to host a day-conference for our church. Back in November, we held a day-conference for leaders from Montebelluna, Feltre, and Ferrara. It was sort of a precursor to being able to do the same thing on a larger scale. As we have been praying over the direction the Lord wants the church to go, in regard to what was formerly the Bible College, our heart has been to provide as much training and as many resources as we can for our church body. So, this past Saturday we held a day conference to see how many people could participate if we offered courses like such. About 105 adults registered for the event, with 16 children signing up for childcare. We had a guest speaker teach through the book of Daniel. We ran the coffee bar for the day to provide breakfast and refreshment on the breaks, and we had a wonderful volunteer team cook and serve lunch. Despite minor hiccups, the day went incredibly well, and we are absolutely thrilled to start planning to offer more of these training opportunities on a regular basis moving forward.
Looking Forward
The rest of the month of February for now seems a bit calmer. My personal goal for this month is to keep fine tuning processes at work and integrating more ministry moments with the youth and college girls into my schedule. I hope to be able to finish studying for my driver’s license and get a date on the calendar to take my written test. In March, we are already planning for our next youth event with Calvary Feltre on the 5th Saturday. This will also be the Saturday before Easter, so it will be a busy end of the month.
Practical Things
Another part of the unsettled and busy feeling I had back in January had to do with the fact that there were a couple of other big decisions being made over the course of the month. I had several meetings over the past few weeks and spent a lot of extra time in prayer. One of the biggest changes for me right now is that I am actually taking a big step of faith and beginning to rent a place of my own starting March 1st. Over these past years of serving here with the church and Bible College, I was blessed to have housing provided at very low-cost because of serving as a dorm steward for the female students. With all the changes occurring with the Bible College, this housing would not stay the same. However, this change has actually provided a perfect opportunity to take this step toward living independently and establishing my life more personally here in Montebelluna.
The Lord has been faithfully providing and preparing me for this change. However, it is a significant financial difference in my monthly expenses. I am still praying for more individuals and churches to come alongside and support me in this practical need, but I am confident that the Lord will bring the right people in the right time. One of the greatest needs right now is that almost everything I have been utilizing on a daily basis in the apartment belongs to the Bible College. So, I am in need of replacing all of these items. This includes everything from small items such as cleaning rags to big items such as a couch, a refrigerator, and a washing machine.
It is my hope that this new apartment will open up a lot of opportunities for me. I am excited to see how the Lord uses it to bless others. As I have been praying for the ability to minister more often to the youth and college girls, one of my hopes is to be able to host them more regularly and open my home the way many others have opened their home to me.
Top Left: Youth Winter Retreat - Worship Workship
Top Middle: Youth Christmas Party
Top Right: Decorating the Coffee Bar for Christmas
Bottom Left: CC Montebelluna's Women's Outting to Ljubljana, Slovenia
Bottom Right: Christmas Concert!
Prayer Requests
· Youth Ministry. As always, I ask for continued prayer for our youth. This past retreat truly was an encouragement to see how much these kids have grown in their walks with the Lord. We can see a significant amount of spiritual maturing in their lives. Pray for protection over this growth. Pray that they would continue to be able to step out in faith and be lights in their schools and spheres of influence. On the other hand, there are as always those who struggle to make the faith of their parents their own. Please be praying for some kids who truly need to encounter and experience the Lord for themselves.
· College Ministry. It has been exciting to see the individuals in this age bracket stepping up and serving in many areas of the church. Please pray that they would continue to boldly offer their hearts and hands to the ministry. It is a joy to see them pouring into the youth and the church at large in various ways. In December, a small group went on a mission trip to the Calvary Chapels in Rome. Pray that we would be able to schedule another trip and that more individuals would have the opportunity to go and serve.
· Please be praying for the future still of the Bible College. We are truly desiring to see a school of ministry in which the members of the church here can be trained and invested in for the ministry in Italy. Pray that we can figure out how to continually offer these day conferences and other courses like it in a manner that is accessible to those who have work.
· Please also continue to pray for my studies, finances, and life here in Montebelluna. I am eager to continue to invest my whole life into the ministry here. There are so many practical things that play into that, but I ask for prayer specifically for wisdom in how to best accomplish this. There are so many individuals and areas of ministry to invest in. I ask that you would join me in prayer over where to apply myself so that I do not lose the ability to effectively minister. Pray for my finances and for all of the practical processes included in renting the apartment. If you are interested in asking how you may be able to help further in this area, please do not hesitate to reach out. But, most importantly, pray that I do not become overly concerned with all of this but rather continue to trust and wait in expectation to see how the Lord provides.
* If you feel like the Lord is placing it on your heart to help with the apartment needs, I have placed here a link to an Amazon registry list. You can go on and purchase an item, and it will be shipped directly to my apartment. This is simply an easy way that some of these practical needs can be met, and you can see exactly what your generous giving would be going towards. Please feel free to share this link and the need with others who might be interested in giving in this way. Thank you all so much for your prayer and consideration!
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