Hope Harrell – Italy

Trust in the LORD, and do good; Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the LORD, And He shall give you the desires of your heart. – Psalm 37:3-4 NKJV

Hope Harrell and her husband, Brent, have served as missionaries in Rome, Italy for the past 10 years. They have three children: Isabella, 7; Olivia, 5; and Brayden, 2. Here, Hope shares their story.

The Call

Brent and I are both originally from Springfield, Missouri where we were high school sweethearts. I had his older brother in my Earth Science class my freshman year and Brent had Biology across the hall. When the bell would ring, we would all come out of class and his brother would point him out. That is how we met. It wasn’t until our senior year that we ended up together. We went to prom together. I wore something that resembled a red curtain. I have the ridiculous picture to prove it. We were very much not walking with the Lord back then, and it wasn’t until several years later after we both ended up in Idaho that God captured our hearts and radically changed our lives.

Once Brent was born again, his heart was set on nothing but Jesus. So when pastor Bob told him that a group from the college-age fellowship was going to Europe to share the gospel, Brent was all for it. I didn’t go on that first summer trip. God needed to do more work in my heart to develop my faith. I had been raised in a pretty legalistic religion and had always had that kind of “God helps those who help themselves” mentality. Church and real life seemed to be separate entities. I had yet to come to that place of realizing that there is NOTHING too big or small for God to be in control of, and that I can really trust Him with and for EVERYTHING.

Brent and I weren’t married at the time, but we would talk about our future. I had a pretty long list in my mind of what I thought I needed in a husband. There were a lot of things to make for a comfortable life on that list! So, because of my lack of faith and my need for comforts, Brent left for that first summer mission trip unsure if I was truly “the one” for him. That summer was instrumental in our first steps towards the mission field.

While the Lord was changing my heart dramatically in Boise, Brent was spending the summer in the north of Italy helping plant a new church. That was when the Lord began to impress upon Brent’s heart what a great need there was in Italy for the gospel of grace and for the teaching of God’s word. When Brent got back from that trip we knew that we were both on the same page. The Lord had “turned the light on” in my heart when it came to being assured that God is indeed able to take care of all of our needs. He had also taken my “what I need in a husband list,” wadded it up and tossed it. In its place was just one requirement: that my husband needed to be a man after God’s heart. Brent qualified. The next summer I was more than ready to go on the mission trip. That was when Brent proposed—in Venice—che romantica!!

We got married and during a third summer mission trip we made our way down to Rome. We stayed the summer in Rome, and we both saw what a great need there was and felt impressed by the Lord that we were to come back. We set our fleeces out before the Lord through several specific prayers. The Lord answered each one, solidifying His call upon our lives. We prepared ourselves for the fourth summer mission trip with the intention that we would stay for an indefinite amount of time after the rest of the team returned. That was a little more than 10 years ago.

Life on the Mission Field

My daily life in Rome consists mainly of taking care of my family and our home. I do a lot of laundry! No American dryers in these parts so it’s clothesline living around here. Most of my time is spent at home with my kids doing the daily routine. They go to an Italian public school that keeps us busy with homework and social activities with their friends. It has been a blessing to have them in the neighborhood school in that we have made several friendships with the families of our children’s schoolmates. I pray each day that I would be open to whatever the Lord would have for me that day in my little world. As for church related activities, I do the Sunday School lessons for the kids together with our assistant pastor’s daughter Tania.

The Struggle

One of the biggest challenges that I face daily is the ability to communicate in Italian the way that I would like to. Although I can speak the language on a very basic level, I find it frustrating to not be able to communicate or minister to someone without having to choose my words from my limited vocabulary. I also struggle with missing some of the basic conveniences and freedoms that the good ol’ U.S.A. has to offer, not to mention the Christian fellowship and influences that aren’t as abundant here.

The Blessing

I love knowing that I know that this is where God has asked us to be. When we were praying about God’s call on our lives, He made it abundantly clear that He wanted us to come to Italy. Over the years, whenever we have doubted or been discouraged and wondered if it wasn’t time to pack it up and do something else, He has been faithful to encourage us and reaffirm His call for us to be here. I am confident that there is no more rewarding, or safer place, than in God’s will.

Psalm 37:3-4 is a recurrent and especially meaningful passage in our lives since we have been in Italy. I don’t think I had much of a grasp on trusting in the Lord until we moved so far out of my comfort zone. The Lord has been so good to reveal his trustworthiness, to reveal His nature and character and caused me to rest in Him in a way that I never would have experienced had I not been taken out of my world of fair-weather faith. The faithfulness of God is what has sustained us and we have learned, (and are learning still), to feed upon it as long as He has us dwelling in this land.

I cannot convey how God has blessed my life with things that I never could have even imagined. There are desires that I couldn’t ever put my finger on, but when He brings them to pass, my heart is filled with satisfaction. When I seek to focus on Him, He takes care of my desires. He knows better than I do. He also knows those desires that I am keenly aware of, and I trust Him with those things knowing that He knows what is best for my life, and that I have never been disappointed in His goodness toward me yet.

My other favorite verse is John 6:66-68 where Jesus asks the disciples if they also wanted to leave Him like others who had turned away and Peter says “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” I love that Jesus is our all in all. What a relief it is to be able to stop searching the empty things of the world to find security and fulfillment and know that only in Jesus do we find all that we need for life and that abundant!

Most recently the Lord has been reminding me of the importance of abiding in Him and believing Him for the grace to do the things that He has for me each day. My husband recently was teaching from Ephesians 2:10 “For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” I love that we, as individuals, are made special by God. No one else is me, and I was not made to be someone else because God has special things that He has prepared that He desires to accomplish through me. My abiding in Him helps me to be sensitive to His voice directing my days. It is also important to keep me connected to the power source of grace to accomplish whatever He asks of me. I love that He never asks me to do something that He doesn’t give me the grace to do … even (or especially) if it is something outside of my comfort zone!

Prayer Needs

Primarily I'd like prayer for God to give Brent and me the wisdom to raise and love our children in a way that is pleasing to Him. I so desire for my children to have a sound relationship with the Lord as they grow up in a place with little outside Christian influence.

Our prayer needs as a church are for God’s blessing and provision as we transition into the new building in our own neighborhood that He has blessed us with. We would love to see new people saved and to see them growing and set free by the Word. We also need some construction work done on the building, mainly a space created for the children’s ministry. Our prayer for our neighborhood is for the Lord to do a mighty work to wake people up to their need for what Jesus alone has to offer. We would appreciate continued prayer for favor with the community, the families and teachers in our kids’ school and for divine appointments and opportunities to share God’s love and truth.

A Final Word of Encouragement

My main encouragement to the women in Boise would be to fight against gravity!! Not the kind that everyone might think of at first, that kind makes us gals try every kind of cream to get the wrinkles to slow down, but that gravitational pull that tries to pull our eyes off of heaven and get them fixed on the things of this world. This world is on its way out, and our lives are but a tiny little vapor—but not an insignificant one. God has made each of us special and has special plans for all of our lives if we are willing to surrender to His will. To be a living sacrifice is our “reasonable service.” It shouldn’t seem burdensome to be living wholeheartedly for the one who loves us so, and only wants us to surrender the control to Him so that we, and others around us, might further be blessed.