Ministering in Italy, Serving with Avant Ministries

Vincent was born in southern Italy and at the age of 12 he emigrated to the U.S.A. When he was 18 he trusted Christ at a construction site. Roberta came to know the Lord through the work of Operation Mobilization, which planted a church in her home town in northern Italy.  In 1975, both Roberta and Vincent were sent by their respective home churches to study at the Italian Bible Institute in Rome, Italy, where they met each other. At the end of their studies they married and moved to the USA. For the next four years Vincent got a job as a carpenter, while they waited on God for the right time to return to Italy as missionaries. In the meantime they had two children, Jonathan and Gioia.

In May 1981 their local church sent them back to Italy. Their first assignment took them to the city of Pordenone (1.5 hours north of Venice) where they saw several people come to know the Lord. Working with other missionaries they saw a church established.

August 1986, they moved to the city and province of Treviso (25 minutes north of Venice). The province has a population of 724,000 people who live in 100 cities and towns. When they arrived there wasn’t a single missionary nor a single evangelical church in the whole province. The start was not easy, but convinced that God has sent them, they put their hands to the good work. Using literature table, open air preaching, Scripture Calendar distribution (tear off sheet with a Bible verse for each day of the year) and Summer Campaigns (to name a few methods) they sown the precious seed of the Gospel.

Little by little souls began to place their trust in Christ and the church meetings moved from their house to a rented building. Beside the church they have planted, there are 3 other churches in the city of Treviso (two of which were founded by people who used to attend their fellowship).
Vincent and Roberta have the vision of seeing 8 other churches planted in the main cities of the province. In the city of Bassano, one hour north of Treviso, they led two couples to the Lord. They hope that they will become the ground work for a new church plant there.

In 2003, Vincent and some of the men of the church began distributing Scripture calendars in the small island of Burano (3500 souls). As far as they know this is the first time any type of evangelistic outreach has ever been done there.

Vincent and Roberta serve with Avant Ministries (formerly known as GMU). Their work is primarily that of planting churches who will support, govern and reproduce themselves. They seek to do this through evangelism, discipleship and leadership training. They need coworkers who are well grounded in the Word of God and who have a mind to work. A very urgent need is a single or a couple to head and develop a music ministry both in the church and for evangelistic purpose.

Address: via 2 Agosto 24 - 31022 Preganziol (TV) Italy
E-mail : vincentc.c@tin.it