God's Preparation
Our journey towards Italy actually started in 2008 unbeknownst to us. This is the year we moved to Colorado. We felt like we entered God’s school. God began to strip and break us in order to build us for Him.
In 2009, the Lord began to work in our hearts concerning Italy and going to serve the Lord there. In 2012, the Lord put unbelievable pressure on Sonya to start the process of gaining Italian citizenship for the boys and herself. She was amazed as soon as she started the process the pressure went away. That year the Lord began to work on us about living by faith and trusting Him to provide for us like He did for George Mueller. That was a work in progress. We fell on our faces a lot in the beginning, but the Lord was patient with us in learning how to exercise our muscle of faith. That same year the Lord put in the heart of a pastor in our church to come once a week to train Adamo and Sonya. That continued for 6 years. God provided for every expense for the citizenship. Before we could start the citizenship we had to fix some paperwork in Italy. It is a process that takes 3 years. The Lord did it in 1 year. The lady in the Italian Consulate said she has never seen this done so fast. The boys birth certificates were submitted and then it was Sonya’s turn. Sonya was told in her visit to the consulate that she needed to submit more paperwork in 1 month from 2 states. The process is fingerprints to the states bureau of Investigation, send the report she receives to the state capital for an apostille and translate the report into Italian. The Lord got it back to the consulate 2 days before due date. The lady that was helping Sonya was able to finish the paperwork before she returned to Italy for good. We understood why God put so much pressure on Sonya to start the paperwork. If any step was delayed at all the lady that had been helping us would not be able to finish it and all could be lost as the next group is very inefficient. We waited for 3 years. We wondered on and off how we would afford the trip to Chicago to the Italian Consulate because we don’t have credit cards. We knew God provided everything up to now He will provide. In August 2018, Adamo went with our son Leonardo to Costco for milk. He looked at the sky and said he hoped it would rain so he wouldn’t have to water. When he got into Costco the Lord caused a spring like hail storm to pound on Costco and our car. A friend of ours told us to call the insurance so we could get the windshield fixed and we could use the money for the salon studio God provided for. When we got told the check was in the mail Sonya received a phone call from our son Gianluca saying I think your citizenship has came through. We looked at each other and realized God provided for the trip. There was even an envelope on our door before we left with money that covered expenses we didn’t know about. The Lord is Jehovah-Jireh, God the Provider!!! Sonya became an Italian citizen November 9, 2018. The whole Lentini family is duel citizens American and Italian!
We have made it clear we did not want to go until the Lord makes it abundantly clear it is time to go. We have had to learn to trust God in every area of our lives, especially financially. We realized Jesus trained His disciples in this before they were allowed to take anything with them. Luke 22:35 “And he said to them, ‘When I sent you out with no moneybag, or knapsack or sandals, did you lack anything?’ They said, ‘Nothing’.” In 2019, it was the hardest year in learning this lesson as well as some other lessons. During the year He was making it clear it is time to go. Sometimes God will squeeze you up until you obey and do what He asks you to do. As soon as we started to walk in obedience to start moving towards moving to Lucca, Italy He began to bless us and causing things to fall into place.
Come March it will be 2 years that we have been in Italy. It really takes 2 to 3 years to get settled. We have started our association in Italy for La Casa del Ristoro. Adamo and I are trying to gain our Italian drivers license. I am still working on language learning. Our goal is that once we gain our license we can start visiting evangelical churches starting in the Tuscan region and begin to get to know the the Italian body of Christ and see how we can serve them or partner up with them to help them in their ministry.
Our journey towards Italy actually started in 2008 unbeknownst to us. This is the year we moved to Colorado. We felt like we entered God’s school. God began to strip and break us in order to build us for Him.
In 2009, the Lord began to work in our hearts concerning Italy and going to serve the Lord there. In 2012, the Lord put unbelievable pressure on Sonya to start the process of gaining Italian citizenship for the boys and herself. She was amazed as soon as she started the process the pressure went away. That year the Lord began to work on us about living by faith and trusting Him to provide for us like He did for George Mueller. That was a work in progress. We fell on our faces a lot in the beginning, but the Lord was patient with us in learning how to exercise our muscle of faith. That same year the Lord put in the heart of a pastor in our church to come once a week to train Adamo and Sonya. That continued for 6 years. God provided for every expense for the citizenship. Before we could start the citizenship we had to fix some paperwork in Italy. It is a process that takes 3 years. The Lord did it in 1 year. The lady in the Italian Consulate said she has never seen this done so fast. The boys birth certificates were submitted and then it was Sonya’s turn. Sonya was told in her visit to the consulate that she needed to submit more paperwork in 1 month from 2 states. The process is fingerprints to the states bureau of Investigation, send the report she receives to the state capital for an apostille and translate the report into Italian. The Lord got it back to the consulate 2 days before due date. The lady that was helping Sonya was able to finish the paperwork before she returned to Italy for good. We understood why God put so much pressure on Sonya to start the paperwork. If any step was delayed at all the lady that had been helping us would not be able to finish it and all could be lost as the next group is very inefficient. We waited for 3 years. We wondered on and off how we would afford the trip to Chicago to the Italian Consulate because we don’t have credit cards. We knew God provided everything up to now He will provide. In August 2018, Adamo went with our son Leonardo to Costco for milk. He looked at the sky and said he hoped it would rain so he wouldn’t have to water. When he got into Costco the Lord caused a spring like hail storm to pound on Costco and our car. A friend of ours told us to call the insurance so we could get the windshield fixed and we could use the money for the salon studio God provided for. When we got told the check was in the mail Sonya received a phone call from our son Gianluca saying I think your citizenship has came through. We looked at each other and realized God provided for the trip. There was even an envelope on our door before we left with money that covered expenses we didn’t know about. The Lord is Jehovah-Jireh, God the Provider!!! Sonya became an Italian citizen November 9, 2018. The whole Lentini family is duel citizens American and Italian!
We have made it clear we did not want to go until the Lord makes it abundantly clear it is time to go. We have had to learn to trust God in every area of our lives, especially financially. We realized Jesus trained His disciples in this before they were allowed to take anything with them. Luke 22:35 “And he said to them, ‘When I sent you out with no moneybag, or knapsack or sandals, did you lack anything?’ They said, ‘Nothing’.” In 2019, it was the hardest year in learning this lesson as well as some other lessons. During the year He was making it clear it is time to go. Sometimes God will squeeze you up until you obey and do what He asks you to do. As soon as we started to walk in obedience to start moving towards moving to Lucca, Italy He began to bless us and causing things to fall into place.
Come March it will be 2 years that we have been in Italy. It really takes 2 to 3 years to get settled. We have started our association in Italy for La Casa del Ristoro. Adamo and I are trying to gain our Italian drivers license. I am still working on language learning. Our goal is that once we gain our license we can start visiting evangelical churches starting in the Tuscan region and begin to get to know the the Italian body of Christ and see how we can serve them or partner up with them to help them in their ministry.