MISSIONARY PARTNERS
David and Loredana Standridge
MISSIONARIES TO ROME, ITALY
BIO
David was born in Italy into a missionary family. He attended college and seminary in the United States and returned to Italy as a missionary in 1986. He has now been serving in missions in Italy for 40 years. Loredana is a native Italian, and we have served together for 18 years. In 2000, David returned to the United States and directed a ministry that served churches and believers in Italy. During that time, he started the Italian Theological Academy, which was one of the TMAI schools in Europe. He also organized yearly conferences with many speakers from The Master's Seminary and Grace Community Church. One of the highlights of that ministry was helping to publish the MacArthur Study Bible in Italian. In 2013, Grace Immanuel Bible Church sent us as full-time missionaries to plant a church in Rome, Italy. We planted Vita nella Grazia (Life in Grace) nine years ago, and we are encouraged by the faithfulness and growth of the believers who attend. We continue to minister through a weekly worship service on Sunday mornings and a weekly midweek Bible study and prayer meeting. Loredana faithfully disciples the women, while David is primarily involved in preaching and teaching. We are currently still serving as the only leaders of the church, and we continue to pray for a mature couple who could come alongside us and minister with us. David continues to be involved in the publishing ministry and writes the monthly newspaper La Voce del Vangelo (The Voice of the Gospel). Hundreds of people receive our materials every month. This ministry (Cornelius Ministries) was started by David’s parents about 65 years ago. In a country with more than 30,000 cities and towns without a Gospel witness, literature has been one of the most effective ways to reach millions of Roman Catholics who have never heard the Gospel.
MISSION FIELD
After Christianity became the official religion of Rome in the late 4th century, it quickly lost its fervor for the Gospel, and was later replaced by the Roman Catholic Church. Today the Protestant church is liberal, and many of the Biblical churches are very small, with untrained leaders. Over 30,000 cities and towns in Italy have no evangelical presence at all. Today, even though 95% would claim to be Catholic, Italy is a very secular country, where, although there are some devout people who live their lives trying to merit their way into heaven, there are many who live for the pleasures of the world. Also, superstition and the occult blind many, as they try to deal with the difficulties of daily life. The church is only 500 yards away from one of the four major basilicas in Rome. They estimate that over 30 million pilgrims visited San Giovanni last year in the hope of receiving a special blessing from their devotion to a religion that gives no real hope to those who follow it. Close to 300,000 people live within a 5 mile radius from the church. Most have probably never heard a faithful presentation of the Gospel.
Wisdom and strength as David and Loredana continue to minister in Rome.
The church, Vita nella Grazia, moved to a new location in May 2026. Our desire is to reach the community around us, with more than 300,000 people living within a five-mile radius.
Our desire is to have a mature couple come alongside us and help with the ministry, as we are currently alone in the leadership of the church.
That God would continue to mature the believers and give them a growing desire to reach their families and friends with the Gospel.
PRAYER
SUPPORT
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