Stefano and Jenny Mariotti have been working hard to share the gospel with the 20,000inhabitants of Budrio, Italy, since 2010. As in any church plant, creative ideas for biblical gospel outreach are essential, and the couple found one such idea in www.answersingenesis.org.It is based on the example of the gratitude expressed to their servants by British gentry, who traditionally gave hard working staff boxes of presents the day after Christmas―hence the tradition of ‘Boxing Day’. To show the fellowship’s appreciation of the work done by public servants and community volunteers over a difficult year, the church (distributors had to have Covid passes to be able to participate) gave each of these individuals a box of chocolates, and, thanks to help from Gideons International, along with this little gift came a New Testament!  Jenny and Stefano write in their blog http://mariottiaction.blogspot.com/2021/12/boxing-day-project-box-to-say-thank-you.html:‘What a beautiful way to translate the true meaning of Christmas into practice, with the gift that God made of his Son, who became man to give himself on the cross, giving us peace with God and the new life of His resurrection!’ 

There is also an ongoing work with young people in the Budrio area, and in spite of Covid restrictions, the church was able to adapt the planned activity of games and a Christmas evangelistic message from Luke 2 (given by Stefano) for the families of the teens who come to the MySpace club, so that it went ahead safely, with Covid passes, which are a legal requirement for this kind of activity in Italy. 

In the Hungarian Church in London, nearly100 people gathered for a Christmas carol service on 5th December. Almost half of them were unbelievers! The pastor, István Salánki, never lets this kind of opportunity to preach the Gospel go by! In spite of fewer attendees than in former years (Omicron was beginning to make its presence felt in the UK capital), it was, Tünde Salánki writes, ‘a joyous occasion when we try to involve as many people as possible. The preaching is compact but very clearly evangelistic, presenting those people with the gospel who would otherwise not attend services. Due to a specially earmarked donation we were able to purchase bilingual Hungarian-English children’s Bibles and Christmas activity books which we distributed, to the delight of all families.’ A little children’s Nativity play (with Covid-affected ‘Joseph’’s understudy bribed to appear!) and lots of carol singing and poetry all attempted to bring home the wonderful Christmas story. 

In central Spain, the church in Ciudad Real managed to get most of its activities finished before Covid infection rates rose very steeply. It is not easy to hold safe meetings in their building, which is much too small and poorly-ventilated for the current congregation, though thankfully the weather was much milder than usual, and the draught through the open door was bearable.  

The three main activities consisted of an evangelistic coffee-and-cakes event for women, a young people’s social evening and meal followed by evangelistic epilogue, and a service on 26th December for the Sunday School children and their families. Paty Flores (married to Xavi Patiño, EMF worker in Ciudad Real) gave an evangelistic talk at the ladies’ Christmas meeting. There were three or four women there who have made no profession of faith in the Lord Jesus, and who listened well to the message on ‘The True Meaning of Christmas’. Pilar Herrera (wife of Luis Cano, pastor of the Ciudad Real church) told us that the gospel was presented clearly to those ladies, as it was too at the young people’s evening the following day. Thomas Birch (our EMF director’s son)spoke to these fifteen teenagers, most of whom are non-believers, after a pot-luck meal. ‘It was a great blessing’ Pilar says.

The Sunday School children of the Ciudad Real fellowship took part in the service on 26th December(with a smaller congregation than expected, as by then fears of infection had grown), telling the gospel story from Genesis to Revelation, then singing a Christmas song. Luis Cano had adapted his sermon for these little ones, focusing on the different names by which Jesus is known in the Bible, and, as Pilar reports, ‘urging the children to believe and trust in the name, the person, and the work of Jesus for their salvation’. The children went home excitedly with a little gift; their parents and friends took away a souvenir photo calendar of the Sunday School pupils. 

These are three different churches with very different kinds of approaches and methods, but each is committed to using any legitimate means to make Christ known to those around them. They are representative of all our workers, who this past Christmas, and in the face of Covid restrictions and Omicron infection rates, made every effort to use this time of the year to reach people with the gospel.

‍