EPC of Plant City

Rome, Italy Chapter Concluded. Iara and I have spent the last 9 years here in Rome – the longest either of us has ever lived in one house in our entire lives!

We came to plant churches and we have done that, starting two churches and ordaining two Italian pastors to lead them.

What do we do next? We began to talk with those in leadership over us in our mission, seeking their guidance for where we should go from here. Several options presented themselves and as we were praying for God’s direction we received an invitation out of the blue to attend a conference of pastors and church planters in France who are associated with “International Christian Communities” (ICC).

ICC Eurasia was started by Col. Dan and Nancy Painter, missionaries that we sent out from Fourth Presbyterian Church, Bethesda, MD when I was the Missions Pastor there. They had a vision for planting English speaking International churches as Dan had been involved in doing that while serving in the military in various posts in Europe. He had heard from our Missions Director at Fourth that we were seeking God’s direction for our next assignment and immediately invited us to come to the conference.

That contact led to our being invited to meet and speak to a group of international families in Munich, Germany who were looking for someone to lead them.

Aerial view of Munich's Old Town

There is a fine English language church in the center of Munich led by Steve Henderson who is a member of ICC. The group that invited us to speak is a church plant from the downtown church composed of people in the north who live around an international school and for whom driving downtown was too far.

We met with them after which they unanimously asked us to come and lead them. As we prayed and sought our Mission’s counsel, we sensed that this was where God was leading us and so we accepted the call to this new mission field.

I (Dan) studied German for 4 years in college, but will need to relearn it. For Iara it will be a new language to add to her four others (Portuguese, English, Spanish, Italian). While our initial target group will be English speakers (there are scores of multinational corporations in Munich, including the European Fighter Jet Project, where the working language is English), we also plan to learn German fluently so as to reach out to that community as well.

We have found a house on the north side of Munich, about 10 minutes from the airport and will be moving there the last week of June. Come and see us!

World Food Programme (United Nations) Bible Study Group

Some of our most fruitful ministry has been our weekly Bible study at WFP where many have come to faith and grown in the Lord and after a couple of years at HQ are sent to field offices around the world. Church planting among internationals is often the most fruitful because people are more open, being separated from their home culture and family. A number of Italians also attended the study, many who were married to someone of another culture with English often being the common language even though it is not the mother tongue for either spouse.

In Munich, we found that there are many Germans who speak English and in the professional community, many multicultural marriages. In this global economy, this is the new culture (the multicultural family) that is among the most ripe for the gospel

Your gifts are very much appreciated and needed. Support can be sent to:

World Harvest Mission
Donations Processing Center
PO Box 1244
Albert Lea, MN 56007-1244
with notation for Dan and Iara Pinckney,
Acct. # 051101

In Christ,
Dan and Iara