Giuseppe and Viviana Fortuna
“Our desire was to bear witness to the Gospel in our small, very Catholic town of nearly 2000 people … but the Lord guided us to Catania, a city with a population of over 300,000 and no local Christian testimony.”
Guiseppe came to know the Lord at the age of 18. He shares, “I had a good and friendly relationship with my mother, but when she became an evangelical Christian, we began quarrelling. She would always talk to me about the Lord and put small cards with Bible verses all over my bedroom. This bothered me a lot because soon what I read in those verses really began to burden my conscience, to the point that I could not sleep at night. One day my mother talked to me about going to a regional Christian gathering. During that meeting, as the gospel was preached, the Lord called me irresistibly to salvation: though my sin crushed me and I felt that the wrath of God was on me, I understood and received God’s gracious forgiveness. Later my father and my brothers were also converted.”
Viviana grew up in a Catholic family, full of religious zeal, but without the freedom of salvation. Viviana came to understand that the Catholic religion and all her devotion could not save her from God’s eternal judgment. The guilt of sin could only be erased by the blood of Jesus’ sacrifice and not by her confession to a human priest. In time, her whole family was converted to the true Saviour, Jesus Christ.
A deep and abiding desire
When Guiseppe and Viviana got engaged and then married, they soon began to sense a deep and abiding desire to serve the Lord. Guiseppe started serving as a leader of a group of young people in a Sicilian church, as well as evangelising the lost and discipling the newly converted. For the following 10 years, Guiseppe worked and studied at the Italian Theological Academy, greatly benefiting from the teachers who came from the Master’s Theological Seminary in California. It was during these years that Guiseppe and Viviana greatly deepened their knowledge of the Lord and understanding of the doctrines of the Christian faith.
Growth through the study of the Word
Living in a small town in the province of Catania, where Guiseppe was an elder of a Reformed church, their desire was to bear witness to the Gospel to the Catholic population of nearly 2000 people. Although still not fully knowing God’s specific plan, Guiseppe began a Bible study with a number of young men. These believers soon realised that they did not really know the Word of God or the God of the Word. Other people began to join in, sometimes as many as 30 people.
Whilst living in Acireale, waiting for the Lord to show us what to do and where to go, Guiseppe & Viviana considered founding a new church in the town, but the Lord guided them to Catania, a city with a population of over 300,000 and no local Christian testimony.
In 2019, they moved as a family, with their 4 children to Catania. Meanwhile, the small band of 6 people had grown to a sizeable group of believers, who regularly and joyfully met, often with the participation of unbelievers who were interested in the gospel message.
Guiseppe comments, “while we beheld the wonderful growth of our assembly, it was clear to us that it was all happening because of the work of God’s grace! We were simply privileged to be used by the Lord for the accomplishment of his redeeming plan. To God alone be the glory!”
Following the Lord in humility
It has been now six years since Guiseppe & Viviana first started meeting with those first young people to study the Word of God and five years since the founding of the “Grace and Truth Evangelical Church” of Catania. The church regularly meets on Sunday and during the week in small groups at home. Through the years the Lord has always provided them with His constant help and guidance. Difficulties are never lacking, but there are always many reasons to push forward by the strength and encouragement that the Lord provides.
Guiseppe writes, “our prayer is that our eyes will always be fixed on the Lord Jesus and his glory, that our ears will be open to hear his Word, that our hands will be ready to work, that our pride will be demolished every day, so that we may learn to follow Him in humility. And may the Lord continue to use us in the city of Catania and give us and ever-growing passion for all the souls that are dying without God.”
“Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” (Ephesians 3:20)