Outreach to the Homeless Brings Hope in Italy
Every Home’s Ministry Director for Southern Italy, Marco Palma, wants to convey one truth to every person in his nation: “You are visible to God!”
But even in nations like Italy, where Christian traditions are baked into the culture and ministry is unrestricted, carrying Christ to 61 million people still presents challenges.
Since its inception, Every Home has strategized systematic ways to share Jesus with the world, rigorously tracking where we’ve been and where we’re going next. Everyone lives somewhere, so carrying Christ to every home is one way we have worked to ensure each person experiences a genuine encounter with Christ’s love.
But what about those who don’t have homes?
Show Jesus’s love to those who feel forgotten.
Believers serving with Every Home around the world, like Marco, have broadened their imagination and expanded the scope of their outreach to make sure no one is forgotten.
On a winter night, Marco and his team carried food, blankets, and other necessities to their homeless neighbors.
“We had many meetings where God touched hearts,” Marco writes. He recalls two men who responded to the team’s invitation to a local center where they could receive help and learn more about Jesus.
One of the men shared that he had been shot in the legs while fleeing his home in Libya. His injuries caused him significant pain, and yet, during a time of worship, he was so moved that he knelt and gave his heart to the Lord. Later, one of Marco’s team members shared that during another church service the man attended, he wanted to give the few euros he had in his pocket to the church, declaring, “God, I give you all of myself.”
Marco says the next day, the Lord miraculously provided the man with a job and a house.
During the same outreach, Marco and his team met Cristofer, who came to Italy from Poland. When the team met him, he was huddled in a corner, shaking with fear. He’d been beaten, and his attackers had stolen from him.
“When we calmed him down,” Marco shares, “he told us that he ended up on the street because of the pain of losing his young wife, who died in his arms, torn away from him by cancer. He said he was invisible to everyone.”
The team embraced Cristofer and shouldered his grief with him. They saw his broken heart, and shared the love of Jesus with him, “praying between tears and hugs.”
“You are visible to God,” the believers told Cristofer, and through their attention, words, and actions, his life was touched by the gospel.
“These are stories of men and women who are suffering,” Marco writes. “You, like the Good Samaritan, are reaching out to them.”
