10.30.2023

"Finding people who want to follow Jesus is not our number one problem. Our problem is that we don’t have enough workers who can follow up in discipling these new believers." Everywhere we go in Italy, from Naples, to Rome and on to Milan, we hear the common refrain from ministries involved in refugee work. "We need more workers. We are praying for people to join us."

On the refugee front, in Italy there are endless opportunities to serve the nations that are arriving. According to UNHCR, 140,000+ individuals have arrived in Italy this year alone. This number has been somewhat consistent throughout the past five years. The large majority of them arrive by sea in Sicily which is where our journey through Italy began with Hearts of Hope in Messina. Here they have a center providing Bible studies and worship services as well as food and fellowship.

From Messina we continued our trek north through Italy following a trail of contacts. One migrant who met Jesus through his time in Messina had recently relocated to a town just outside of Naples. He proved to be an excellent tour guide through a small, dilapidated coastal town teeming with trash. This town provides housing for a number of refugees who are able to find jobs in either painting, construction, or agriculture. "This is the best place to start a church", he insists. A call from his father, located on the island of Malta, interrupts our conversation. Upon hearing the topic at hand his father doesn’t hesitate to add that Malta is also a great location for a church plant. While we don’t have time to further investigate either of these opportunities, we note with interest that there is potential for ministry to English speakers. These men are two of many, from English speaking communities in sub-saharan Africa. It is a very difficult thing to find an English speaking community in southern Italy. On Malta, however, English is one of the official languages. 

We are blessed by his willingness to spend the day with us. Refugees are often a transient group of people and it is a complex thing to consider what discipleship could or should look like for people like our new Ghanaian friend. 

In Naples we are told that it will be difficult to connect with ministries as the few that exist are overwhelmed by the needs they face. Both in Sicily and in Naples there exists a lot of red-line (emergency relief) type of work. The level of transiency is high. This dynamic begins to shift as we work our way north where more refugees are able to make a living and put down roots. 

In Rome, a center is providing a variety of services to refugees, from language classes and job hunting assistance, to fun community building music nights, as well as Bible studies for migrants and local university students. They struggle to follow up with discipleship as new believers spend short seasons of time with them before relocating to whatever community promises them a livelihood. They are working to disciple leaders of small groups and in this way are able to facilitate the spread of the church body throughout Italy. 

  In an undisclosed northern region of Italy another ministry works in similar ways - providing clothing and groceries for refugees and locals alike, offering education in refugee centers (a rare privilege), and discipling many micro-churches of believers from muslim majority countries. 

The refugee dynamics here, while being a lot more stable than the south, still fluctuate as evidenced by several ministries we hear from who are switching up strategies and re-evaluating their effectiveness. Those finding their way to Italy are from a wide variety of countries. In addition, Italy, while consistently receiving more refugees than Greece, flies under the radar since the influx continues at a steady rate of 100-150,000 per year. (For comparison's sake, Greece received about 37,000 in the first 10 months of this year).

We spent some time in the autonomous region of Trentino which is in the foothills of the alps. Here many refugees are able to find good paying jobs although they struggle to find housing as many locals are unwilling to rent or sell to them. “It’s a great place to raise a family. And an ideal spot for long term resettlement involvement,” we are told by a veteran missionary from another location in northern Italy. 

In Milan, a worker explains how several organizations (Christian and otherwise) have outreach times at the central train station because it is a great place to connect with refugees who are passing through on their travels north. Unfortunately, drug dealers also find these people and pay them some money to run risks for them. He wonders aloud, “How is it that the criminals can find these people but the church can’t?” 

We believe that the church can and is. But the needs are many and the workers are few. "Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that He will send forth workers into the field." Will you join us in praying for this?

~JR