Marty and Gloria in Rome Springtime 2014

On April 1st we moved into Rome. We are thankful for rent prices that have come down as the economic crisis continues. This is still a bit more out of our budget but we are closer to the church meeting place and many members. However, Gloria misses the small town we used to live. We mostly use public transport and our car on Sundays or when need to pick up our teams.

We continue to see God working in peoples lives as we try to lead and guide them. Please pray for Erik who has been recently come to Christ and Dario who has walked with the Lord many years. The challenges always whatever stage of life… Erik (the one on the left)

SMALL GROUP KOINONIA

Mothers Day! We are able to bless the mothers with special program, delicious lunch and roses of appreciation and finishing the day with a “costume party”.

Baby Showers are event we can use for outreach. Pray for Carla, a young mother whom recently came to Christ. Pray for more social events opportunities like this!

Twice a month we continue with small group time to discuss about the message as we focus on teaching. The subjects since the beginning of the year is Stewardship and now The Family. “It was the best the church can do, to divide us in small groups getting to know each other better” a member shared. Pray for deep relationships to develop.

Winter Retreat “ Discovering your spiritual gifts” - Retreats help us have a more focused teaching time to develop disciples and spend quality time, although not all the congregation could go but 17 of us made it. Pray for those that still undecided to join the church as members or not.

In late May our friends from Breccia di Roma church welcomed Tim Keller. He spent an intense day speaking in various meetings and to many Pastors, also well over 200 students and for the public holding a press conference on his newly published book “The Reason for God” which now joins “The Prodigal God” all translated into Italian.

We often visit members like Sandra who live in a vacant building occupation. Sandra is a single mom, has an autistic 8 years old child and health problems. Pray that she can find more hours to work for her vitamins and medication.

Gabi and Tom got engaged on June 1st , they are planning for a wedding in early May 2015. Elliot of course is growing and adores Tom.

For Support: (Tax deductible) Checks can be sent to Orangewood Church OR:

PO Box 120963 Clermont, FL 34712 - 0963 Tel. 352-243-2030 Banzhaf/Italy project in the memo

SUMMER 2014

Summer has started in Rome, which means kids are out of school and many Italians families leave Rome because of the summer heat and many things will slow down. For the congregation this means that members also will be traveling alone with the families they work with, thus leaving the congregation with not many attendees. Traveling with the families mean that they can earn extra money. We have spent two summers here and going into our third one, where we did a lot of personal evangelism, home visitation and summer picnics, outings etc. June and July will be like previous years, but we hope to travel later. North and South America Trip – Most of you enjoy spending time with your children and grandchildren. We have not been able to have that experience for the past 3 years. Our daughter, Gabi, has a 3 year old son that doesn’t remember us as his grandparents. We would love to be able to afford a trip back home. We are so appreciative of your financial support for our ministry that we hesitate to ask for any additional help. Nevertheless, if the Lord leads you to make an air miles or an air ticket to/from Cleveland-Orlando donation for our travel, we would be forever grateful. We have been invited to attend and share on a missions conference in Peru and Ecuador in August and September, so if our trip to the USA comes through will like to go to share the “Roma Project” Do PRAY for God’s direction