Occasionally God allows us to see something of the results of our efforts. I am convinced that we will know about at least 90% only in eternity.
Earlier this month, as a fruit of the local monthly pastors’ meetings which we were instrumental in starting some three years ago, we had an evangelistic evening here in Brescia, sponsored by eight or nine local churches. As well as a young Christian singer/songwriter, the main guest was Nicola Legrottaglie, an international footballer (soccer star to the Americans!) who plays in defence for Juventus and the Italian national team.
His mother is a Pentecostal believer, but he had wandered a long way from God until, three years ago, his friendship with a Brazilian team-mate who is a committed Christian brought him to a radical personal conversion. Now, in between professional commitments, he is in great demand all over Italy to give his testimony. He has also written an autobiography, Ho fatto una promessa (“I made a promise” [to God]) which is currently one of the top best-sellers in Italy, with hundreds of thousands of copies sold. What has particularly aroused the astonishment (and sometimes ridicule) of the secular media and general public is his bold statement that he has given up sex until (and if) he eventually gets married.
At our meeting  which attracted scores of unconverted friends and acquaintances (we didn’t advertise it widely for fear of difficulties if a lot more people turned up than there was room for in the 330-seat auditorium)  he recounted his life story and conversion, in a quiet, composed manner which was most impressive, and ended up with a full-scale Billy Graham-style invitation to commitment to Christ, to which a number of people responded.
In his autobiography, Nicola recounts how at the time of his conversion his professional career was at a low ebb due to a series of injuries and loss of form. His club, Juventus (just demoted in disgrace to Serie B because of the notorious match-fixing scandal  which happened while he was on loan to another club), had told him openly they had no use for him in the first team and were trying to sell him, but the deal fell through at the last moment.
At this juncture, after a meeting where he had given his testimony, a well-known Christian musician and songwriter, Corrado Salmè, gave him a prophetic word in which God promised him that if he would be faithful and walk humbly with his God, He would lift him up and enable him to play at the highest levels again. Corrado added a personal note saying he understood this to mean he would get back to playing in the national team. This was in November 2006. And in fact, less than two years later (August 2008) he was not only playing regularly for the Juventus first team, but recalled to the Italian national side for which he had last been selected back in 2002.
This is a key man who needs much support in prayer. Not only is he bringing a clear Christian and biblical message to thousands of people (mainly young, mainly male, and mainly non-churchgoing), but he could be a means of bringing other prominent public figures to a radical Christian commitment. It’s obvious he must be a prime target for spiritual attacks and temptations.
More than 15 years ago the intercession group we were part of in Pavia started to pray regularly that God would raise up His witnesses in prominent places: entertainment, sport, the media and politics. This is the second notable answer to that prayer (the first was a well-known singer and entertainer, Ornella Vanoni).
Another encouraging thing for us is that  as many of you will remember  for twenty years (1980-2001) I (Geoffrey) had a large part in producing a Christian teaching magazine, Tempi di Restaurazione. As well as writing articles for nearly every issue, I also coordinated, copy-edited, for some years did the typesetting and layout, and even took some of the cover photographs. Now a couple of years ago, at a concert in one of our network of churches, Corrado Salmè (mentioned above)  now the best-known Italian composer of Christian worship music  publicly thanked us for Tempi di Restaurazione, saying it had been a formative influence on his life and that he still jealously preserves every issue ever published. In this way we are privileged to have had a part in a chain of events now touching thousands of Italian lives.
So be encouraged! “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up” (Gal 6:9).
In Jesus Christ the Lord of all,
Geoffrey & Judith Allen