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Greetings in Christ from Italy! While I normally send a newsletter every other month, our month of April was so blessed that I wanted to send another update. To the right, we have two pictures of our latest confirmands- Rosa Grene and Filipe Bertolucci. They are members of our house church in Florence, but they both wanted to come to our principal church in Rome to celebrate their confirmation. Rosa Grene is from Finland and was a member of the Lutheran State Church there before moving to Florence nine months ago. Filipe Bertolucci is Italian and learned about Confessional Lutheranism from YouTube internet theologians like Rev. Bryan Wolfmueller and Dr Jordan Cooper.
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While catechism with Rosa had been rather straightforward (she had been a member of a conservative congregation in the Finnish Lutheran State church), Filipe’s catechism took over a year. Today, he is thrilled to be a Lutheran and has put his knowledge of computer science to work on making a website for our Confessional Lutheran Church of Italy. Below, you see our tradition of opening a bottle of spumante to celebrate each confirmation! Cheers!
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A few months ago, I was put in contact with a family of Brazilian Lutheran immigrants (picture at the top) who live four hours by train outside of Rome. After many months of faithfully attending our online Service of the Word broadcast, my family and I made the trip to see them in San Giovanni Rotondo (Southern Italy). We spoke to them in Italian, and they answered us in Portuguese, and we were able to communicate just fine. Celebrating the Lord’s Supper with them on their dining room table was the highlight of the trip.
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Above, we have a picture of a new man in attendance at our church in Rome, Italy. His name is Samwaeil, and he is an Egyptian Christian immigrant to Italy. He walked into our church one weekend and, since then, he has been in faithful attendance. While catechizing him will be a real challenge (he only speaks Arabic), we meet every Monday to go through the Liturgy in Italian, and we communicate through Google Translate. So far, I have learned the words abibi (my friend), yajri (run! [to catch a bus]), and fi muhin (to have a heavy brain [smart? tired? I’m not sure…]). Just this past week, I was able to help him open a bank account. It’s a blessing to help someone else with their immigration process after I had struggled so long with so many of these processes myself. Thank you for your financial partnership and prayers for our church, our missions, our confirmands, and our evangelization in Italy! God’s richest blessings!
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To support our work financially, you may send a tax deductible gift to:
The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod P.O. Box 66861
St. Louis MO 63166-6861
Or
Mission Central – LCMS World Mission
40718 Highway E 16, Mapleton, Iowa 51034
Make checks payable to The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod
OR to Mission Central
Mark checks “Support of Tyler McMiller.”
Gifts can also be given securely online at www.lcms.org/mcmiller or
https://missioncentral.us/mcmiller
Thank you for your prayers and support!
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McMiller_Italy_Apr2025.pdf
