25
Very many NEV Bibles and Bible Basics were
distributed, and over the period there were 27
baptisms, including brothers: Destiny, Odion,
Geoffrey, David, Wisdom, Frank, Philip,
Peter, Sunny, Shadrack, Iyare and Edos. It’s
not that we are waving some large and irre-
sistible carrot to the migrants which makes
baptism attractive. All we’re doing is giving
some food and Bible literature. The food is
only basic, and the only nice extra we some-
times offered was Evia pouring them a cup of
cold coca cola, or yams – which were cooked
by Cindy, with Dawn reading out internet
recipes to her from her phone (they are rather
hard to cook).
We can make no promise of helping them very
much materially. They are stuck in Italy with
no work and only short stay accommodation in
the camps, after which they must make their
own way with no further support. All of them
gave the same story - of horrible experiences
on the journey across the Sahara and in Libya,
seeing death close up during the sea crossing,
and vowing to God to give their lives to Him
if they survived. And these who did survive
arrive on the shores of Italy deeply impressed
with God’s grace and wanting to know more
about Him, and then they encounter us, with
our food and free Bibles and Bible teaching
sessions. It’s no wonder they are eager to join
the dots and get baptized once they grasp the
message, and they all say that their experi-
ence of God’s grace motivates them to return
to the camps and spread the message further.
There is much anti-immigrant sentiment in
Italy. They find with us that we treat them as
persons and genuinely care for them:
You can see a video of our preaching, teach-
ing, feeding and baptizing at:
And a more lengthy video of Liz and Duncan
explaining the Truth, doctrine by doctrine, to
a group of Muslim migrants at:
We are not Pentecostals, looking for miracles;
as brother Robert Roberts put it, we look for
“the ways of providence” rather than the “vis-
ible hand of God” in terms of miracles. But
~ continued ...