"How Lovely On The Mountains Are The Feet Of Him Who Brings Good News..." And, there is a lot of good news from here in the Naples, Italy area. Linda and I have officially moved out of Germany to Italy. Well, maybe not until all the paperwork is finished, yuck! But, physically we've completed the task. Oh, and Wednesday the 10th of March was our 27th anniversary as missionaries with BIMI -I don't think we are "boots" anymore!

On Friday and Saturday, 12 & 13 March we packed out our Church and household goods with the help of at least 25 people from our former church and pastor, and a several other military church folks who made the trip over just to be of help. Praise The Lord, and God Bless you folks!

Three missionaries, and another man from one of the American Military churches in Germany had volunteered to drive the two 7.5 ton rental trucks to Naples, and then return them to Germany. There were two men in each truck driving in shifts for the 22 hour run each way. I met and prayed with the men, and the trucks departed shortly after 0600 on Monday morning the 15th. Linda and I had various items of business that we yet had to take care of in Germany, so several hours later we set forth from our home town of Herrieden for the last time, and set our faces towards Naples.

My car will go at least twice as fast as those trucks (on the Autobahn in Germany which has no speed limit for cars), although not quite so fast in Italy with a speed limit of 130kph (about 80mph). The trucks fell behind us just out of the Alps in northern Italy, and Linda and I drove straight through to Naples where we arrived in the wee hours of this past Tuesday, the 16th -about four hours ahead of the trucks. After off loading, and a short break they drove right back to Germany. My, what a blessing and a benefit to us they were. On the north side of the Alps the weather was terrible, but it cleared up before we got into Italy.

We expect to be able to physically move into the new house by the end of March when it's supposed to be completed; presently we're staying in a room at the church. Yesterday's church services were good, and we had two folks join the church, and a young lady visiting from Nigeria.

Please be in prayer with us as we endeavor to move the location of the church to a much more suitable place that will be attended by more American Military personnel and English speaking folks, and out of this Italian Mafia (Comorrah) controlled town of Casal di Principe. We have our eye on one building that is in a perfect location adjacent to the new NATO base in Lago Patria, and across the main street from an English school. The area also has a high concentration of American military housing.

After having an appointment on Thursday to deal with our Sojourner's Permit (necessary to stay in Italy) when we spent two hours downtown Naples (that's a major hassle) just standing around amongst scores of refugees. They told us to come back next Wednesday -"the right day"- which makes me wonder about their system that gave us the appointment last Thursday to begin with.

Saturday we went to a picnic inside a volcanic crater where Linda and I made several viable contacts amongst American .and Italian folks. I also had some of the very best BBQ ribs I've ever had, prepared by a Navy cook, which he had soaked in some special brine for a couple days first -now that's the way to make ribs!

Please note our new address:

Field Address:
Via Staffetta #141 Lago Patria
80014 Giugliano (NA) Italy
Chuck's cell phone is 011 39 366 272 7815 (TEMPORARY)

BIMI's address:
P.O. Box 9215
Chattanooga, TN 37412
Tel (423) 344-5050

God Bless you all,