Get to Know Our Missionaries: The Dorigo Family, Trieste, Italy

As a church, it’s our privilege to partner with a church planting team in Trieste, Italy. Each family serves with Pioneers in Europe and are part of the Acts 29 church planting network.

The Dorigo Family

Andrea, McKenzie, and Adrien

Andrea was born and raised in the northeast of Italy. He was baptized as a baby into the catholic church like most Italians, but as he grew older the church grew further and further from his life. He never understood the true meaning of grace or why Christ died on the cross. Sometimes he wondered about what would happen after he died, but never really found the answer. He had never met someone who spoke about Jesus the way McKenzie did. He thought that was for the elderly. An evangelical christian was something very foreign to him and honestly he didn't know that they existed. He was so intrigued by what McKenzie told him about her journey that he too wanted to understand what it meant to know Christ. About seven months after he met McKenzie he gave his life to Jesus.

McKenzie was born and raised in western New York state. She grew up in a evangelical Christian home. However, in her adolescence she struggled with her faith. It wasn't until her senior year of college as an art major where she perused the cathedrals and basilicas of Italy and she began listening to what God was teaching her. About a year or so later she returned to Italy to live with an Italian family for about seven months. It was a time that she hoped to get away and spend time with God, this family and working on her paintings. One unexpected detail was that God had someone for her to meet, Andrea.

They met in Italy in 2003 and actually spent their first evening getting to know one another right in Trieste. With Andrea being from Italy and McKenzie from the USA they didn’t speak the same language, but God had a plan. In 2004 they were married. They began frequenting an evangelical church in Italy that had been planted by missionaries. As they grew in their knowledge of the Word and matured in their faith they felt the desire to be more involved in ministry. This journey took them back and forth from Italy to the USA several times, however it was in 2007 that they had their feet pointed in the right direction. The serious need for an awakening to the Gospel in Italy became more and more apparent to them.

In 2009 they returned as life time missionaries, serving with Pioneers. Seeing also that Andrea is a national their desire is to stay on in the leadership and help plant a network of churches right in Trieste and the surrounding areas. They live in a small town outside of Trieste with their 7 year old son Adrien and their cat Picia. Art, soccer, English, summer camps, Gospel community groups and social events are just some of the things that help them in growing their relationships and sharing their faith. Through the local church and the relationships developed the vision is to have a multiplying network of Gospel centered community groups permeating the region of Friuli Venezia Giulia who are connected through different church gatherings. Along with their local church they are part of Impatto (Acts 29 Italy) which is a national church planting network. Impatto is a growing family of theologically defined and driven Gospel-centered, church-planting churches engaging, for God’s glory and by His grace, to see healthy Gospel-centered churches planted and grown throughout Italy.