John and Anne Goodwin

Tuscany: a holiday hot spot

…And a spiritual desert. There are evangelical oases in Pisa, Florence, Siena and some smaller towns, but there are vast areas of Tuscany with no living water. Indeed, 85% of Italy’s 8000 districts have no church, and some of these are cities of up to 50,000 people.

Although many Italians are deeply religious, very few truly know Jesus. The evangelical church makes up just 0.7% of the population. The majority of Italy’s 60 million people have never heard the gospel of grace.

As a family, there are lots of aspects we love about living in beautiful Italy; there are also plenty of challenges. Since arriving in September 2021, God has blessed us all with language, warm community relationships and a wonderful church family; we’re thankful that John and I, Daniel (2014), Lizzie (2016) and Miriam (2020) feel well settled.

We feel God’s call to stay based near Siena where we are part of Chiesa Cristiana Biblica (Christian Bible Church), and feel privileged to be involved in discipleship ministry on both a church and individual level, particularly pastoral care, children and young people’s work, and preaching. We teach English in our town, volunteer in the community and seek to build bridges with those around us, praying for opportunities to proclaim Christ as Lord.

Monteroni

A desire to reach the unreached of Italy

Italy is host to many nations, and wonderfully, we see many of these nationalities represented in the local church. However, there are some people groups we don’t see in church, and so alongside our brothers and sisters, we would love to reach these and others with the good news.

One such group is the Sienese – locals from Siena itself who have a very distinct culture built around the Palio horse race. It’s very hard to break the ranks of the Sienese, for whom their Palio team represents their identity and community.

Another group is the Gorani people who live in our town, Monteroni d’Arbia, and are originally from Southern Kosovo. There is no church amongst this ethnic group; it would be wonderful to see the gospel penetrate and transform Gorani Muslims here in Italy, and beyond.

Praying for more churches in Italy

We’d also love to partner with local Christians in church planting. We pray for gospel workers to be raised up and sent out from Siena, that the gospel might transform lives in unreached areas of the nation.

We’re delighted to have got to know Italians in different areas who have planted churches even in the last few years, and we seek to encourage them in the hard and faithful work they are doing.

We seek God’s guidance for our own part in going beyond Siena and planting a new church in the future. In particular, we dream of a church in our town, Monteroni d’Arbia.

March 2026