GLOBAL PARTNERS

How your gifts to Lott Carey make God’s love real in Italy

You were there when Baptists in Italy began looking for ways to establish a richer mutual relationship with African believers, both those living in Africa and those who have immigrated to Italy.

Through Lott Carey, you helped Italian Baptists build strong bridges between different cultures and between different styles of worship and different theological emphases. You also helped them build ties to Baptists in Zimbabwe, where Italian Baptists are now helping to finance a hospital and several important rural medical clinics.

But most especially you were there when Italian Baptists wanted to deepen their faith-based resistance to racism and other forms of social, economic, and cultural injustice.

Through Lott Carey, you were there when they wanted to help Baptists throughout Italy be strengthened and deepened by the ongoing importance of the message and vision of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

You were there, helping them organize an ambitious international gathering to explore Dr. King’s relevance for the contemporary European context where minorities are growing in number — and racism and prejudice is growing as well.

You were there, providing spirited speakers, talented gospel choirs, and biblically rooted insights. You were there, helping them develop plans to reach out in powerful ways not only to young adults and minorities throughout Italy but also to jails and churches and refugee camps.

You were there, offering abundant resources for visionary programs on conflict resolution and peacemaking at schools and universities and on the Internet. You were there, helping Italian Baptists better understand and appropriate Dr. King’s warm spirituality of nonviolent resistance to evil structures. You were there, lifting up Dr. King’s creative longing for a beloved community, a community open to all people, a community that would embody the peace and justice and unwavering solidarity with the poor that was so much a part of Jesus’ own message and witness.

Your partners in Italy are true partners in every sense of the word. Indeed, the richness of the relationship flows in every direction.

Pastors of Italian Baptist churches have shared with North American Baptists at Lott Carey’s annual gatherings in the U.S. And Lott Carey’s mission partners in Italy have joined Lott Carey’s mission partners in Guyana in exploring ways of demonstrating and delivering the good news of a risen Lord with fresh power and renewed passion.

With Lott Carey’s encouragement, Italian Baptists joined Lott Carey’s mission partners in Zimbabwe to strengthen the capacity of the Sanyati Baptist Hospital. The Italian Baptist Union is providing financial support for the hospital to retain a Zimbabwean physician and secure needed medical equipment. The hospital serves many patients with complications from HIV/AIDS. Through this partnership, you provide help and hope.

Through Lott Carey, you make God’s love real in Italy — and around the world.