Provide secretarial support for WEC’s Italy Branch in Ancona area.

Correspondence with missionaries, churches, families and supporters.

Maintain WEC mission archives and our contacts database. Assist directors and team leaders with letters, emails, phone calls, deliveries at the office, and take minutes of meetings.

Circulate relevant information to team members responsible to follow-up enquiries.

Qualities & Gifts Sought

You have a heart for serving mission and recruiting Italian missionaries.

You have reliable secretarial skills, and enjoy correspondence. Fluent Italian language and also functional in English.

There is possibility to improve Italian fluency to an effective level while in Perugia for the first six months.

Our ref 244

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About Italy

Located in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy shares open land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, San Marino and Vatican City.

Italy has a largely Mediterranean climate. With around 61 million inhabitants it is the fourth most populous EU member state.

History

Since classical and ancient times Italy is rich in history. The capital Rome, was founded in 753BC. In 509BC the Romans peoples began to establish themselves in the city. After Julius Caesar's death in 1st Century BC, Rome grew (over the centuries) into a massive empire stretching from Britain to the borders of Persia.

The long reign of the first emperor, Augustus (27BC-14AD), began a golden age of peace and prosperity. The Gospel of Luke mentions Augustus who decreed the census that took Joseph to Bethlehem. And read St Paul's 1st Century AD letter to the Romans here.

The Roman Empire was among the most powerful economic, cultural, political and military forces in the world of its time. At its height under Trajan, it covered 5 million square kilometres.

The Roman legacy has deeply influenced Western civilisation, shaping most of the modern world; among the many legacies of Roman dominance are the many languages derived from Latin, the numerical system, the modern Western alphabet and calendar, and the emergence of Christianity as a major world religion.  

The Renaissance began in Italy and spread to the rest of Europe, bringing a renewed interest in humanism, science, exploration and art. Italian culture flourished at this time, producing famous scholars and artists such as Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Galileo and Machiavelli.  

Since the Middle Ages, Italian explorers such as Marco Polo, Christopher Columbus, Amerigo Vespucci, John Cabot and Giovanni da Verrazzano discovered new routes to the Far East and the New World, helping to usher in the European Age of Discovery.  

Today, Italy has the 3rd largest  GDP in the Eurozone and the 8th largest in the world. Italy has a very high level of human development and it is sixth in the world for life expectancy. The country plays a prominent role in regional and global economic, military, cultural, and diplomatic affairs.

Volcanoes

There are 14 volcanoes in Italy, four of which are active. Volcano Vesuvius is most famous for the destruction of Pompeii, and Herculanum in the eruption in 79 AD. 

Tourism 

Italy is the fifth most visited country in the world, with a total of 50.7 million international arrivals in 2015. Popular places and landmarks include the Coloseum and Roman Forum, the Medici Chapels, Pompeii, Turin, Naples, Pisa and Venice.      

Art and culture

Italy has 53 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, more than any other country in the world, and has rich collections of art, culture and literature from many different periods.  

Italian architecture has also widely influenced the architecture of the world. The Italian Renaissance is said to be the golden age of painting (from 14th to mid-17th centuries).  

Italian literature began after the founding of Rome. Latin literature was, and still is, highly influential in the world, with numerous writers, poets, philosophers, and historians, such as Pliny the Elder, Pliny the Younger, Virgil, and Horace.

St Francis of Assisi (13th Century) is considered the first Italian poet by literary critics, with his religious song Canticle of the Sun.  

Italy is widely known for being the birthplace of opera. Notable composers include: Rossini, Bellini, Verdi and Puccini.  

Sport, fashion and food

The most popular sport in Italy is football. Italy's national football team is one of the world's most successful teams as it has won four FIFA World Cups (1934, 1938, 1982 and 2006). Italian clubs have won 48 major European trophies, making Italy the second most successful country in European football. 

Italian fashion has a long tradition, and is one most important in the world. Milan, Florence and Rome are Italy's main fashion capitals.

Italian cuisine is noted for its regional diversity, abundance of difference in taste, and is known to be one of the most popular in the world.

[Source: Wikipedia. Read more about this amazing nation here.]

Refugees and assylum seekers

In recent years Italy has received 1000s of refugees who have made the perilous journey across the Mediterranean Sea from Libya. In 2014, 170,000 arrived in Italy by boat from North Africa, and in 2016, 171,000 took the same route. [Source: theguardian.com]

The majority of migrants heading for Italy are fleeing poverty, wars and dictatorships in their homelands. Let’s pray for these vulnerable people, and for those helping them.  

Italy has 105 people groups and 23% of these are unreached with the good news of the gospel. The largest religion is Christianity at 81% and of these 1.8% profess to be evangelical. The next largest religions are: the non-religious at 14%, and Islam at 4%.  

[Source: Joshua Project]  

Pray with us for:
Refugees and asylum seekers
The Roman Catholic Church
Indifference to the good news of the gospel
Students – approx. 2 million – a great mission field!
Expatriate workers to help the church in Italy
A vision for world mission
An increase in the reading of Christian literature

[Source: Operation World, 2010 print edition. You can also use Operation World's online resources here.]

WEC in Italy

WEC Italia is involved in church planting among indigenous Italians. Many Italians know about Jesus but don't know him personally.

There are almost 6,000 towns and villages with no evangelical witness.

WEC Italia is also involved in reaching out to immigrants in Turin in cooperation with the local church.

We are networking to reach refugee and migrants who are flooding into Italy and to support the local churches who are beginning to get involved with refugees & migrant work. We are particularly interested in recruiting for this ministry.  

We also provide Christian literature and do prison ministry in Turin.  

Join us. Italy needs you!

Read about WEC in Italian on their Facebook page