Left: Salerno H a r b o r with Pastor Crisci in the foreground.
Right: Bright f a c e s of Christian youth in Italy. TWO YEARS IN ITALY
As an Ambassador for Christ
By Ralph G. Crisci grown into a thriving congregation there. In the latter part of 1947 as I was praying I heard a cry of a multitude of people from my native land. Obedi ent to my Lord’s command: “ Go ye into all the world, and preach the gos pel to every creature,” I took this as a divine order to return to Italy with the good news of salvation. Trusting in God—with the sustaining prayers and gifts of the saints of like precious faith—I left New York and arrived at Naples in August, 1948. Finding the Italian people ripe for harvest and hungry for love and peace, my soul rejoiced that I had forsaken all for Him, leaving my wife and chil dren in His loving care. We headed for the Gulf of Salerno with the gos pel of Jesus Christ and 30 boxes of clothing, shoes, and food donated for the needy people of Italy by the saints at home. We made our way down through the Gulf, up on the hills of the Salerno beachhead where tens of thou sands of our American boys sacrificed their lives to set Italy free. The people, for the first time in the history of these southern towns, heard the mes sage of real freedom from sin, and many passed from darkness to light and everlasting life by the cleansing blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. In my parents’ home town, the first one to accept Christ was a young stu dent of sixteen years, then a barber and his family in whose house we had meetings almost every week for the two years of my stay in Italy. I kept making the rounds of the various communities, presenting the simple way of salvation by grace through
I WAS BORN fifty years ago in the southern part of Italy, educated in the Roman religion under the tu telage of an uncle, who was a priest in the town. I observed all the rites of the Roman Catholic Church, serving Mass until I came to the United States at the age of twenty. In 1926 I felt the convicting power of the Holy Spirit, and one night, un able to go on, I cried unto the Lord, “What shall I do to have peace in my heart?” Right there the answer came from Heaven, “ Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. In the Bible you will find what to do.” The following Sunday morning I went down the street into a little Italian Methodist church where I received a Holy Bible. I went home rejoicing, with the Lord Jesus Christ in my heart, and a Bible in my hand. Since then joy and peace took the place of the heavy burdens, and I felt the presence of the Master in my soul. My sins were gone, and I was born again to die no more. From that mo ment I wanted all the Italian people to know that the Lord Jesus Christ had washed all my sins away in His blood. I was ridiculed—some laughed at me, but praise the Lord, some did believe, among whom were my wife and children. When my mother came to America I had the joy of explain ing to her the way of salvation, and she accepted Jesus Christ as her own personal Saviour at the age of 65. In 1932 the Lord called me defi nitely for the ministry. Beginning among the Italians near Boston, we established an independent Baptist church. This little group of believers —all former Roman Catholics—has
faith. We gave clothing and shoes in the name of the Lord Jesus, which re sulted in the excommunication from the Roman Church of all who accepted them, including the sister of the priest and the sexton of the church. In a city of 10,000 population, I preached in a large moving picture theater until pressure from the local clergy compelled the owner to stop me. One Sunday morning in the public square I was completely surrounded by hundreds of students begging for Gospels and New Testaments! One young man asked for a New Testa ment, and right there he publicly took Christ as his Saviour. His entire life was changed, and afterwards he led to Christ an entire family. Later, in his own town, he won to the Lord his mother, father, a brother, and thirty- seven other people. In this city alone there are now 175 Christians, among them the former president of the Communist party. This young boy was compelled by the priest in the class room, to give up his New Testament. The priest ridiculed him, tore all the pages out of the book and returned the cover to the boy, saying, “Now you keep this as a wallet.” The young boy, in the presence of 85 students, bravely answered, “ Yes, I’ll keep this as a wal let, but you never can tear away Jesus Christ from my heart.” The first one to accept Jesus Christ in this city was the nephew of the priest. In spite of threatening letters from the local priests in another town, we began a prayer meeting in the house of my cousin, who was the first one to be saved together with her hus band, and two sons. They were excom- Page Thirteen
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