We are a little over an hour north west of Milan. Click here to see our location in Google Maps. If you look at street view, you can see our apartment, the town of Domodossola, and even much of the surrounding valleys. Although why they decided to do "street view" in our little towns and villages is a bit of a mystery.

How big is Domodossola?

Domodossola has about 18,000 residents. Our ministry area also includes the surrounding towns in the Ossola Valleys. The whole area has about 70,000 inhabitants.

With whom do you work?

We serve with CrossWorld as church planting missionaries. Practically, we work with two Italian lay (not full time) couples. Davide & Alida Falcone and their son Filippo, who is married to Sandra (an American). Davide & Alida have 6 children (Filippo is their second). Filippo and Sandra have two children that are close t Karis in age. The extended Falcone family makes up the majority of the church. It is a joy to work with these families!

Why are you missionaries in Italy? Aren’t they all “Christians” there already?

The vast majority of Italians would consider themselves Roman Catholic. While the teachings you may hear from Roman Catholics in North America may seem the same as what we as Evangelicals would believe, one needs to take into consideration that Roman Catholic teaching adapts itself to the predominant religion of the region it is in. Since in North America Protestants are in the majority, their teaching will sound more Protestant. Here in Italy, the “normal” (and official) teaching of the Roman Catholic church would not be in line with the Gospel message as explained in the Bible.

But “official” doctrine is not as important as “where the rubber hits the road”. That is, what people believe. For the Gospel is, from the start, a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. The church is the gathering together of those who have this individual relationship with God through Jesus Christ His Son. Most people, especially in Northern Italy, do not have this relationship with God. We are less concerned with what label they put on themselves than the relationship (or lack thereof) that they have with Jesus.

How did God call you to be Missionaries in Italy?

This is the "short" version. You'll have to ask us personally for the full story.

God allowed both of us, while still quite young, to see the importance and value of missions He did this mostly through our families and churches. The input of both in children's lives are VITAL to God's work of missions. He allowed us to see, over the years that this (foreign missions service), was what He would have us do with our lives.

That is how we both ended up (at different times) joining CrossWorld (UFM International at the time). At their candidate school, they got to know us and we got to know them. It was this mutual getting acquainted that led the folks at UFM to see that Scott's gifts and abilities were a good fit for the ministry in Italy.

While Scott was raising support to come to Italy, Sharon was raising support to go to Brazil. When we decided to get married, we decided that Italy would be the better place for the two for us to serve the Lord.

What is the best part about living in Italy?

Two things come to mind – food and family. We know, without a doubt, that the best food in the world is found in Italy. We love to eat. But the people here are also warm and friendly. And family is vitally important. We like the importance that family plays in the lives of Italians here. An ideal Sunday afternoon for an Italian brings this all together. They typically would get together with family, have a big (and wonderful) meal that lasts for hours while they sit around spending time together and talking up a storm. It’s wonderful!

What is the hardest part of living in Italy?

Although living in the Italian culture has its frustrations, I think the hardest part is being far away from family.

How can we help you?

You can pray! This is a very hard area to work in – very apathetic to our message. We need God to work in people’s hearts to create a spiritual thirst and draw them to Himself. You can also be a part of our financial support team (see the next question). And you can encourage us, by letting us know that you are praying.

How can we support you?

Financially supporting a missionary is a way to “invest” in something that will last for an eternity. You can pledge to send in monthly (or quarterly or annual) financial support by sending a gift in to CrossWorld along with a note indicating your pledge amount. Or you can give a “one-time” or occasional gift. In any case, click here for instructions on sending us financial support. Thank you!

When is your next home ministry (a.k.a. furlough)?

Our next time of "official" home ministry, is expected to be the summer of 2012. Scott will be taking a "mini" home ministry sometime in the fall of 2010. More details as they are available will be posted here.

Why are your “thank you” postcards mailed from the US?

Given that we pay the same price here in Italy to mail a postcard as a letter (about $1.08 to the US), we have found it is much less expensive to mail an envelope full of postcards to the US, and then have them mailed from there (about $.46 each).

I signed up for your e-mail prayer letters and updates, but I haven’t heard anything in a long time. What happened?

First of all, an easy solution. To see all of our prayer letters and updates, go to our Google Group page.

As far as why the updates have stopped coming - there are a few possibilities. Did you change your e-mail address and for get to tell us? We know that happens at times. But perhaps a more likely answer is that our e-mails are getting caught in your spam filter. To avoid this, you can add “Pray-for-the-MacLeans -at- googlegroups.com” and "Pray4Scott.n.Sharon -at- gmail.com" to your “safe senders” list or “white list”. If you don’t know what I am talking about – ask a computer savvy friend to help you.

Why don’t I see my question here?

Because I didn’t think of it as I was writing this up. Could you do me a favor and e-mail me your question so I can add it to the list. Thanks!