Two years ago, we met a family from Namibia while we were in Pastor's School in Nashville. They were originally from Johannesburg, SA and had been pastoring a church in Namibia as misisonaries for a couple of years. We reconnected with them just shortly after we moved to Innsbruck and found out that they were considering moving to Milan to plant a church. The Siani family moved to Milan in December 2005. Franco was born in Italy and lived there for a few years until his family moved to South Africa. They have a heart for all of Italy and hope to plant a church in Rome as well. This is also our heart and we had a great time together, dreaming and planning our futures!
Milan is a very difficult place to plant a church. Being the financial and fashion capital of Milan (maybe the fashion capital of the world!), it is a very materialistic society. Everywhere you look, you see people of all ages who look like they just stepped out of a magazine or off a runway. People are much more interested in their appearance than they are the condition of their soul. Most people do not want to talk about spiritual things. Even Catholicism is practiced less in Milan than in most other parts of Italy. Italians are a unique people in their culture and the way they think. It really helps that Franco is Italian. He understands them because he is one of them! While things are difficult, they are encouraged and optimistic about the future! We are looking forward to developing our relationship with them and seeing how we can work together to plant churches in Italy. Please pray for them.
We did get a chance to see some of the famous sites in Milan. Enjoy the pictures and imagine yourself there! (a couple of the pictures are stock photos, they turned out better than mine)
