(Liz & Chuck’s twins)

               Mother’s Day Celebration 2007         Edna Brooks’ Granddaughter and great grandchildren
     

                               Ann Plas & Edna Brooks;                  Eden Novisedlac      Ryan and Kimberly Yost
                               Vera Lich &Syl Scorza

Michelle Scorza and Andrew Crane were married in July
                                      

Dad, Larry David Scorza, with      Mitchell and Andrew           Grandma, Claudine Scorza
Michelle and Andrew Crane,                                                      with Michelle and Andrew
and Mom, Tambra Scorza

Michelle is great granddaughter of Nicola, granddaughter of David and Claudine and Daughter of Larry David Scorza. She is senior engineering technician for the City of Elk Grove, California.

 Here is a reprint of an article written by my grandmother, Helena Kopp-Scorza.
Printed in “The Salvation Messenger,” in Sabetha, Kansas, 1916

My Two Birthdays

January 3^rd, being my birthday, I was thinking how I had only been here in this world for a very little while compared with eternity. The Word of God says, ‘But beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” 2 Peter 3:8. It also says in another place that a thousand years is as yesterday when it is past with the Lord. We also read in other places in the Bible that our lives are just as a shadow or vapor. I was thinking of how each of us are eternally bound creatures. When we are born, God gives us the breath of life and in Him we live and move and have our being. We only live in this world a few short years. For some people it is not that long. Some lives only last a few days or less. We do not know at what day or hour we will be called from this life into eternity, the never ending eternity. We are all traveling upward to heaven to the everlasting peace and happiness which awaits us, or else we are going downward to an eternity of ruin and despair.

From day to day, dear souls, readers of The Salvation Messenger, let us realize that God in His wonderful love and mercy spares our lives. Praise the Lord – it is wonderful when we know we have a home in heaven. When we are saved, we are just as humble pilgrims here and our home is in heaven. As we sing that precious song: We’ll work till Jesus Comes and then we’ll be Gathered Home.

I was born twenty years ago. David says in Psalms 51:5 and 58:3, we are born to sin and go astray, speaking lies as soon as we are born. We know, of course, by that we are born with evil spirits in us and that we do wrong things as soon as we know to do anything. I remember when I was only a small child and would give way to the devil in many different things. I would fear Momma or Papa would punish me if I would tell them the truth about some little things I had done, or which had happened, and I would tell lies. They are all black sinful lies. I remember once I stole a black penny pencil. It was when I first started school. The devil had me planning I would steal another the next day or so. But, Praise the Lord, I didn’t carry out my plans. The next morning when we children started to school, I was trying to hold the pencil in my sleeve. It was either my brother or my sister who noticed I was trying to hide something and my sin was found out. So, I had to take the pencil back and I was so ashamed and convicted about it. It is just as the dear old Bible says, “Be sure your sin will find you out.” God knows everything we do or say. If you have ever done anything dishonest or wrong in any way, you must make them right with God’s help or they will stand against you at the judgment day. Without the help of God, we do not have the power to live right. The Bible says, “Love thinketh no evil” I Corinthians 13. I remember the many evil thoughts I had as a child. I wanted to be a good little girl but the evil spirit within would often get control. I would kneel and pray or say my prayers and would try to do good things for those around me. The sweet Spirit of God was talking and working with me.

It was when I was eleven years old; I went to the altar in a revival meeting. I was convicted and realized I was a sinner and wanted to be saved. I knelt at the altar a while but I didn’t understand the way very well and I arose, not having the real witness that my sins were forgiven. I was still in darkness but thought I was alright and professed to be a Christian. I would go to church, Sunday school, Christian Endeavor, prayer meetings and try to do the best I could do in my own strength. Jesus was not my power, strength and deliverer from Satan as He, Jesus, is now. He abides in my soul and helps me in every way to defeat the devil. I went to school and would do things wrong as other children did. When a revival would come to our town, I would be ashamed to testify as I did at the church in Sabetha. I knew there would be those who would know I did not do as I ought as a real Christian. I professed but I did not posses the Spirit of God. Each week and month and especially at New Years, I would make resolutions about trying to do better. But, the very next thing, I would be doing something wrong again. It was discouraging. So, I quit trying that way and let Jesus live through me.

We, as Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3, ‘must be born again.’ Praise the Lord, I know it is true. Jesus takes the evil spirit, the devil, out of us and forgives our sins, and fills us with His sweet Spirit from above. Glory! We are made new creatures in Christ Jesus through and through. Glory to His name! It is wonderful. We know the Spirit bears witness that we are the children of God.

I know the very day and hour I was born again of the Spirit. It was on February 18, 1912. I was sixteen years old then. We have a spiritual birthday just as much as a natural birthday, if we are saved. As soon as I realized I wasn’t really saved, I sought Jesus and found Him so dear to my soul.

A precious brother in Christ came preaching and it just seemed like God opened my ears to understand the Gospel as never before. He opened my eyes that I could see the beauties of the Gospel. Satan has the Gospel hid to the lost. The Bible says, ‘If the Gospel be hid, it is hid to them which are lost.’

Leroy, Myrtle and I realized we had only been professing and not possessing. We turned to the Lord with all our hearts and were saved. It has been just about four years now since I was saved. Salvation gives me wonderful love, joy and peace. It gets sweeter to me everyday. Dear young people, and all who are not fully saved, ‘Let Jesus come into your heart and have His way.’

Many young people seem to think religion is more for old people but it is not true. If you are without Jesus you don’t know the wonderful joy we have in the service of God. Each year is a happier New Year to me now as I go on my way to heaven. If you are not on the Holy Way, ‘come’ while there is yet opportunity. When we get the joys of salvation, the passing joys and pleasures of the world are forgotten and we don’t want them anymore. We have joys we can express from heaven. Oh, precious souls, it’s wonderful, wonderful, more than tongue or pen can tell what Jesus is to us.

Jesus has led me on from victory to victory these four years and I am saying in all things ‘amen’ to His will. He is more than life to me. Jesus is my all in all. He is my savior, sanctifier, keeper and healer. I know He heals both soul and body.  Dear souls, if you are trying to serve God in your own strength and don’t know for certain you are saved, don’t do that any longer. Let Jesus come into your heart and help you, and let Him have His way in everything. Now is the time and here is the place to get prepared. We must be clothed in the white robe of purity, ready to meet Jesus face to face at any moment.

As our Sunday school lesson was about Jesus ascending into Heaven, we know the Word says, ‘In like manner He will come again.’ Will you be ready when He comes with all His angels and ten thousand of His saints and go with Him, to be in Heaven for ever and ever. Brothers and sisters in Christ and unsaved souls, you have my prayers.

Yours for Jesus, Helena Kopp, Fairview, Kansas

Here is another article about Nicola Scorza written by Violet Collins

One hundred years ago, in 1905 my father Nicola Scorza came to America at age 17. He was sponsored by the Garcia family who took him into their home. The conditions of him living there meant that he had to attend Moody church with them. He soon found the Lord, as did his older brother Anton.  They both took every advantage of Moody. My dad took music lessons from George S. Schuler who was the author of many hymns that are in our hymn books. My dad learned how to play the piano and violin there. He also became a great student of the bible.

Having this new found faith he went back to Italy to share the good news of the gospel with his family. The Moody Sunday school class supplied him with a suitcase full of Italian language bibles. When he got to Italy, they thought he was out of his mind and that he had become a heretic. The priest burned the suitcase and the bibles. My grandmother had secretly taken one of the bibles and hidden it under her mattress. My father returned to America broken hearted, but prayed that God would somehow save his family. His brother Anton also went back to Italy with another suitcase of bibles, hoping that they would accept the gospel message. But again, the bibles were burned by the priest. My father made two trips before he was married, in order to bring the gospel to his family. 

A third brother, Uncle Joseph, came to America and found the Lord. He studied at Moody also.  When he went back to Italy, he did not bring bibles, but he sang gospel songs, hymns and also classic Italian songs. With brothers, Nicola and Anton, praying in America, the light of the gospel was first received by my grandmother. I was told that when it happened it was like an explosion in her. She told everyone about her new found faith in Christ. It was a small village, and the priest led the villagers to stone my grandmother as a heretic. She did not die. Her remark after that incident was that she was glad that she was the one stoned, and not a newer Christian. Uncle Joseph came back to America and ministered here. When he married, he and his wife went back to Italy to minister to the family there. The extended families in Italy came to know the Lord and were zealous for the Gospel. Again, Uncle Joseph returned to America where he became pastor of an Italian Reformed Church in Roseland, which is on the south side of Chicago. He was sponsored by the Dutch Reformed Church. Uncle Anton became the pastor of the Italian branch of Moody Church on Elm Street in Chicago. The three brothers in America grew in their knowledge of the Lord, as did the parents, and five other children in Italy. 

My father heard of a small group of Pentecostal believers that were meeting in a store front church.  He joined them, and was the pianist, and there he translated English speaking hymns into the Italian language. That storefront church became too small and they then worshipped at a church on Erie Street.  They soon had about 500 Italian worshippers. My father, who worked as a janitor at the YMCA, would give lessons to any child in the congregation who wanted to learn how to play the piano. He did this because he wanted young people to be able to play for the Lord. After work every night, he would take the streetcar to some church members home and give piano lessons for 50 cents an hour.  Several times in later years, I have had people come up to me and tell me that my father taught them how to play, and that they were the church pianist in different churches. My father would have been pleased. My dad also taught violin. I can remember how, in our home my sister would be at the piano, and two of my brothers and dad on the violins, with my oldest brother on the saxophone. My brother Samuel used to play saxophone solos at Midwest Bible Church where he was a member. My father taught young men how to play the violin and then they would be able to join in playing all the old gospel songs. Our living room rang with Christian music. My sister was the pianist at the Church that Rev. J. Robert Ashcroft pastored. He was the father of the former Attorney General John David Ashcroft. Side note: My husband John was a teenaged Sunday school teacher then, and John David Ashcroft was one of the young students in his class.

Uncle Frank the youngest of my dad’s siblings was preaching the gospel in Italy. He was imprisoned many times under the Mussolini regime. Usually the priest would complain to the authorities as there was many converts, and Uncle Frank would be put in prison. They finally told him that if he would leave the country they would release him from prison. The three American brothers quickly put up the funds and brought him to America. That was in 1939, just before World War II. Uncle Frank went to Northwestern Baptist Seminary in Minnesota. After the war Uncle Frank took a bride and went back to Italy as the head of the Southern European Mission. He was the translator for Billy Graham, whenever Billy spoke in Southern Europe. Uncle Frank, with help from my dad and his two brothers, was able to establish a church in Catanzaro, Italy. He also built, with the help of my grandfather, a chapel on the first floor of my grandparents’ home in San Pietro Magisano.

After World War II ended, Uncle Ernest asked help from the families in America as he wanted to establish a place in the mountains as a religious retreat for young people. Communism was sweeping the cities, and he wanted a place that young people from different villages could come away and be built up in the faith. It was our privilege to contribute to this undertaking. I was a young person at the time, and with our family we were happy to have a part in what is now Bethel Village. This is a beautiful retreat way up in the mountains of Calabria. We enjoyed seeing Bethel Village on our recent trip to Italy.

When we first got to Italy we spent five days with my cousin Dario and his wife, in Catanzaro and at his seaside home. John had the privilege of ministering in the church in city of Catanzaro on Sunday. There is a large plaque in the Catanzaro Church that lists the names of my dad and his three brothers who made possible this lighthouse for the Gospel.

            Then we went to San Pietro Magisano where we stayed in the home that my grandfather built. On the ground floor of that home is a chapel. My cousins Violetta and Elena were our hosts. Three of my cousins and a second cousin each have an apartment in this house. We stayed in Violetta’s apartment.  San Pietro is a very small village in the mountains. We were able to spend six days there, and what a pleasure. As you sit on the balcony, to the west you have nothing but mountains. There is an unobstructed view that was breathtaking. At the base of the house were fig trees, olive trees, grape vines, and then open space and mountains. To the east of the house, one block north, was a huge Catholic church that rises high above the village, and dominates the landscape. However, on Wednesday night the chapel that Uncle Frank built in my grandfather’s house, was packed with people wanting to hear the Gospel, and songs went out through the open windows for all to hear. Again John was able to minister, through an interpreter. What a blessing for John and I to be a part of this wonderful community of believers. All of my relatives, and there were many, are the only Evangelicals in the town. If you are not Catholic you are called an Evangelical.  What a great title. We wear it proudly.

Let me tell you a little bit about my father. He worked as a janitor at the YMCA for 40 years. He loved it there as he had opportunity to witness to young men. Many were despondent during the depression, but my dad loved talking to them. I know of two young men he talked out of suicide attempts. He also was an avid Cubs fan, so he made a good connection with the young men, and was able to present the Gospel to them. The best memory I have of my father is during the period of 1941 to 1945. I had just entered high school in ’41. You all know what happened on Dec.7, 1941. Then in January, my three brothers enlisted in the service and I was the only one home with my parents, as my sister had married the year before. I can visualize me sitting at one side of the dining room table doing my homework every night. My mom was at another side of the table writing three letters every day to her sons. My dad sat across from me reading his bible. He would read a chapter many times to find out what God was saying in those verses. When he found the key verse to the chapter he was satisfied, and then would study the next chapter. I will always remember the war years and the many prayers that went up at our home. I can still see my father. Dad was a lay preacher. When he wasn’t at the Italian church which now met on Wolcott Street, he was singing and preaching at a mission on 31^st street and also one mid-week service at a small group on Grand Avenue. 

My dad had a stroke in 1955, and was completely paralyzed. My mother was the best therapist, and she helped him to be able to use his legs and hands. In fact, he was able after awhile to do everything but talk. His speech did not return. After two years he was able to play the piano. One day he began to sing, and everyone was thrilled. He still could not talk, but he could sing. He went to the little Italian Mission on 31^st street and played the piano and sang a solo each Sunday. The song he was preparing to sing for his solo was “There’s No Disappointment in Heaven” the next Sunday in Sept. 1961, but God took him home with a quick heart attack as he sat in the back yard, before he could sing that song.

From my grandfather Domenic, and grandmother Josephina, there are now over 300 descendents.  There are many ministers and missionaries here and abroad. We have a Wycliffe Translator in Papua, New Guinea. My cousin James Scorza was a Missionary Pilot to Haiti, but he died of cancer several years ago.  My cousin Sylvio Scorza was the President of the Reformed Church of America in the 90’s. He is now a retired professor of a Seminary. I had cousins in Italy who were ministers. We are in many different denominations, but all with a great love for God’s work.

When I think of the result of my dad and his two brothers bringing the Good News of the Gospel to their family in Italy, I am overjoyed. They sacrificed much to bring the Gospel overseas. To worship with my cousins, and second cousins, many of us not able to communicate fully, but able to worship as one, was a thrill and a blessing for me.  When John & I returned, we remarked about how wonderful it was that my dad was so in love with Jesus that he went back to his hometown to be sure his family came to know the Lord.  From that dedication, many hundreds are now with him in heaven and there still is a multitude of Scorza family members who are in the service for the Lord in various parts of the globe. Our prayer is that we will continue to carry the Good News of the Gospel to those who have not heard.

A Modern Fairy Tale (Author Unknown)

Once upon a time there were many slaves called Willie Wonks. They were ruled by a small group of Bully Bobs, who were very cruel. The Bully Bobs were determined that the slaves would remain very poor in order to keep them from running away; while the Bully Bobs lived in extreme luxury. One day, a Willie Wonk found the secrets of the past in a cave and he learned a way to pass the secrets to many other Willie Wonks. The Willie Wonks decided to get into a boat and sail across the water to find a new place to live where they were no longer slaves to the Bully Bobs. The new country was so successful that many other Willy Wonks followed and joined the ex-slaves in their new country.

The Bully Bobs were so angry that the Willy Wonks had left and found freedom from their rule that they banned together to devise a plan to regain their rule in the new land. The Bully Bobs disguised themselves as Willie Wonks and joined the flight across the sea. There, the Bully Bobs slowly convinced the Willie Wonks that they believed in the secrets that the Willie Wonks discovered in the cave. The Bully Bobs stole everything from the Willie Wonks by using a secret plan they learned from the black angel. The black angel taught the Bully Bobs how to divide and conquer the Willie Wonks. First, the black angel taught the Bully Bobs to appear to agree with the Willie Wonks; while they secretly began to destroy the new land. The Bully Bobs took over the stores and the banks. Then, they convinced the unsuspecting Willie Wonks to elect them to government offices. The Bully Bobs banded together in secret organizations to further their plans and year after year they gained more influence; all the while, telling the Willie Wonks that they believed in freedom. The Willie Wonks were simple unsuspecting people and believed the Bully Bobs were their friends because they seemed so intelligent. The Bully Bobs followed their evil plan carefully and corrupted everything in the Willie Wonk country. The Bully Bobs destroyed the food and water to weaken the Willie Wonks. They found substances to put into the food and drinks that would cause the Willie Wonks sickness and disease. Then, the Bully Bobs took over the schools and taught the children of the Willie Wonks all of the opposites to the secrets of the past. By this time, the Willie Wonks and their children were so confused they did not realize they were being subverted and drugged with the substances the Bully Bobs had created.

The Bully Bobs banded together and pretended to be two different groups. One group supported the ideals of the Willie Wonks while the other group opposed these ideals. The Bully Bobs put on a drama for all the Willie Wonks to see on the picture device. They pretended to fight each other, while they secretly planned to regain their power over the Willie Wonks. The Willie Wonks became more and more confused. They became addicted to the evil subversion and began to believe the Bully Bobs lies. Finally, the Bully Bobs had corrupted the Willie Wonks and their children to the extent that the Willie Wonks were now willing to accept the rule of the cruel Bully Bobs again. The terrible addictions that were injected into the Willie Wonks caused all sorts of crime and violence. The picture device displayed the violence over and over again until many of the Willie Wonks did terrible things. They did not know they were being drugged and programmed for violence.

The Bully Bobs had almost completed their mission of subversion but a few Willie Wonks still believed the secrets of the past. They called in anguish to the Supreme Being to save them again from the cruel Bully Bobs.