- All right, girls, let's go,
it's time to go to school.
Have you got everything?
You got your backpacks? - Yeah, yeah.
- All right, let's go.
You got it, you got it.
(giggling)
You sure you got everything?
- Yeah. - Okay.
(door slamming)
(dramatic music)
(bells ringing)
So, a question I often get asked is, is why Rome?
Isn't that one of the most religious cities in the world?
You've got the Vatican there, you have the Pope there.
It's one of the most Christian places in the world, so,
what's the point of having someone there
planning churches and sharing the gospel
if it's already there?
That's a product of a huge misunderstanding
about Roman Catholicism.
Rome as a city is full of religion
but it's void of the gospel.
You walk around and every corner,
there's signs of this desire to do something for God,
whether you go to see the Holy Steps,
people climbing on their knees,
they're climbing and doing something
to draw closer to God, but God is this far off figure
who's at the top of these stairs figuratively speaking
and you're trying to get to Him,
showing Him how contrite your heart is.
But the gospel's the total opposite.
It's God who came down to us to grab us
and say there's nothing that you can do.
I've done it for you through Jesus Christ,
so it's Christ who steps in your place
and takes those sins from you.
And so what we see at the heart of Roman Catholicism
is a false gospel.
Rome becomes, then, one of the darkest places in the world.
You definitely realize the vastness of lostness here.
Kyra and I were married in December of 2006.
We moved up to Louisville to attend Southern Seminary.
It was there that we sensed the Lord calling us
to serve abroad.
The Lord made it very clear that Rome was the place
we were to serve, so we lived in Louisville
for two years until summer of 2009
when we moved abroad to Rome.
A few months after we arrived,
we learned about a new church plant in Rome
called Breccia di Roma and I met the pastor
and we began attending.
I serve at the church alongside Leonardo
as associate pastor.
The Lord provided for us to be able to buy our own building
and that was an extremely exciting and even significant day
because it was the first time since 1925
that in the city center of Rome,
an evangelical church or institution
had bought a piece of property.
It's in the heart of the city.
It's literally a stone's throw from the Colosseum,
it's a short drive to the Vatican City.
It's surrounded by Catholic seminaries
that are very influential worldwide.
So it's a small place but at the same time,
they're huge steps forward for the presence
of the gospel on the culture and the people who live there.
- The first time that we met,
I was impressed by Reid and Kyra and by
asking them what's your dream, what's your desire,
are you ready to die here?
And Reid and Kyra told me, "Yes, we are ready to die here.
"This is our home."
They had just arrived and they knew
that their calling was a long-term calling of God
and they certainly had counted the cost.
- We're talking about doing ministry
in a context that has been shaped by one institution
for 2,000 plus years and you don't just come in
and knock that down, even probably in one lifetime.
It takes a long commitment, it takes years,
it takes a lifetime.
(light music)
We had been living in Rome for just about six years
together when we came up on our second furlough,
so we went back to the States for two months
and we were just about ready to come back to Rome.
As we typically do before we head back
and we wanted to get together with our family, have dinner,
and just enjoy each other's company before heading back
and so we were driving northbound on a highway
heading back home and not really saying much,
just kind of reflective, I think.
And at one point, kind of noticed out of
my peripheral vision that there was something
that just kind of seemed a little bit off.
There was a big 18-wheeler that was
entering into the road perpendicularly to our vehicle
and just in a matter of a split second,
it hit us in the side and T-boned us
and rolled us over and pushed us across the northbound lanes
of this highway and then through the median
and then across the southbound lane as well,
until we hit a guard rail.
And on the impact, Kyra passed away immediately.
The hardest moment, for sure, was
the day me and the girls walked into our apartment
for the first time without Kyra.
And, you know, there's this reality that
you could just feel the absence.
(somber music)
I do remember that first time sitting down and
trying to prepare myself mentally for prayer
and talking to God and it was just a really big,
it kind of is a test of your faith.
There was definitely kind of these real moments of,
I don't even know what to say, I don't know what to do or
how to even pray.
I think it was after the funeral that
I really had time to really sit down and consider
what does the future look like for us.
- We're driving from the airport to Atlanta
and I whisper to Reid,
"Reid, the Lord needs you here in Rome,
"and I strongly encourage you to consider coming back
"and to continue to serve the cause of the gospel
"in this city."
- I really didn't even allow myself that
possibility, just knowing what it would take.
Although there was a desire
to think about going back to Rome,
it just didn't even seem feasible or possible.
Like, how am I going to come back and raise three little girls?
At the time, they were six, four, and two.
And then being a single dad who's, you know,
got a job and responsibilities to do
and knowing that there I don't have family around to help.
Thinking about going back to Rome seemed insurmountable,
really, as a possibility.
I thought about my neighbors.
I thought about our friends,
thinking about people like Luca and Helena
who are good people, but they didn't know Christ.
The Lord just totally changed my perspective on things,
being reminded of the tremendous lostness here.
And just knowing the need for a gospel reformation here
that may or may not come in my lifetime,
but I wanted to be a part of that
and wanted to contribute in some way.
The Lord made it very clear that
going back to Rome was what the Lord was calling me
and the girls to do.
But that doesn't mean it's going to be easy.
It's going to be difficult,
but if the Lord's calling me to do this,
I know that He will provide and He'll make it possible.
- Reid's decision to come back to Rome
has affected the church tremendously.
And not only for the church, but also for his friends
and non-believing neighbors.
- When he met us after the accident,
he was there with a smile
and it was so shocking for me.
There is no way to understand that if you haven't faith
because it's impossible.
- The fact that a young man would come back
in such conditions was a clear example of the way
in which the grace of God works in people's lives.
- When I met the Karr family,
I didn't believe and for me,
the important was my life and myself.
Little by little, I started to think about my life.
From that time, everything changed.
- We have seen conversions happening after
Reid's decision to come back because it was
such a powerful testimony of the gospel
working in people's lives.
- Today, our life is totally changed.
God is in every moment of our life.
Without Kyra and Reid, we would never change our life.
- If Kyra saw what ministry was like for us today,
of course her heart would overflow with joy to see
Helena and Luca coming to church, being baptized,
living their lives for God and the Lord.
She would certainly rejoice in the fruit that's come
since her passing.
If you had told me what was going to happen,
you're going to go home on furlough,
you're going to be just about to come back
but then Kyra's going to be killed in a freak accident,
and then you're going to take the girls back yourself
and raise them, I would have just laughed at you
and said that's absolutely ridiculous and crazy,
it's not possible.
Doing ministry and taking care of the girls and being a dad
and people asking me, how do you do it?
I was like, I don't know, the Lord,
it gives an opportunity to brag on the Lord
and say He's just so gracious,
He gives us the grace we need.
One lesson that I believe the Lord's taught me
more than any other is that His grace is sufficient.
No matter the challenge that He places before you,
no matter what scenario He puts you in,
you can think it's completely impossible,
but if He allows it and He puts you in it,
then He's going to provide for you.
And even when we think things are impossible,
God's grace is sufficient.