First Week in Italia!

I’m in Italy! This past week has been a whirlwind of experiences. We left San Francisco at 10 in the morning last Sunday and arrived in Italy around 8 pm Tuesday; about 30 hours of traveling (allowing for time changes). The city we’re in right now is Acquaviva delle Fonti, which means Fountain of the Living Water. We’re working with a local church here and staying in the houses of church members who have graciously given up their homes for us. Italy is not like the movies in most respects, but it reminds me a lot of Honduras. Except that it’s cleaner, more expensive, there’s less people walking, and it’s an ocean away from America...

Our first day here we did prayer walks throughout the city and became familiar with the area we’re in. We also tried to get over jetlag and not fall asleep during the day! On Tuesday and Thursday nights they have church, as well as Sunday, and the people of the church are very welcoming here. The congregation size is under 50 and everybody knows each other well. The real excitement began on Wednesday as we evangelized in the local market by passing out flyers for the church, talking with the sellers in their stands, and passing out balloons to children that passed by. I was also dressed up as a clown (a step of faith for me since I hate clowns because they creep me out)! It was a lot of fun as we engaged with the people around us, trying to speak broken Italian while they tried the little English or Spanish they knew, and everyone walked away smiling! Several venders even blessed us by giving us a free bag of oranges and other fruits as we walked along. One butcher gave us around 8 pounds of sausage! It was delicious :)

As the week has gone on, we’ve become accustomed here pretty well. After evangelizing in our town on Wednesday, we went to Bari (which is the capital of this province) and did the same thing there as we walked around. We tried to target young people because many are not really aware of Jesus, they are only aware of religion which they have been hurt by. We passed out many flyers and talked with a lot of people Thursday, and on Friday we went back to a park there and spent the morning passing out more balloons and talking with as many people as we could. After a while of sitting in the middle of the park, singing songs while a few of the Italians and my team members played guitar, we split up into groups and went around seeing who we could meet. The first group that the 2 Italian church members and I met was a group of 4 young men, college age, hanging out on the park bench. They were actually pretty interested in what we had to say and asked lots of questions as we stood there talking. I didn’t understand all of it so I just stood there praying as hard as I could while my friend talked with them. At the end, they sat there weighing what he said. Finally he asked them if they wanted change and wanted Jesus. And they said yes!

We meet some other really great people as we walked along, and it was encouraging that they were not turned off to us because some of us didn’t speak Italian but rather they tried harder to communicate. Since Spanish is so similar to Italian, a few of the church members who speak little or no English can still communicate with our group as I translate. There’s also a pastor from Mexico who is currently staying with the church here and he is always glad to speak in Spanish again! It’s been so awesome to know that I’m helping others as I translate, which I haven’t done in a long time and I’ve never done in these circumstances.

Church nights here are more of what I was used to back in Honduras. We have a much longer worship time, and everyone gets here early and stays late to talk and socialize. I missed this so much! On Thursday night we had a slightly different sermon though. Because I was the one teaching it! I was extremely nervous and praying the whole time through worship that the Holy Spirit would replace the words that came out of my mouth with His own, because there was no way I had a clue what I was doing. When my leaders told me they prayed about who was teaching and I was clearly the first one, it was both exhilarating and terrifying. I’ve never taught or even thought of teaching before. But early the morning before my leaders told me, I had had a dream where strangely I was teaching. It was a lesson on the disciples and church in Acts, and all the points were laid out in my mind as I saw myself saying them! It was kind of odd and I remember as I was dreaming, I was aware I was dreaming so I started praying and just asked God if sometime in the future I could give that lesson. I was thinking Stateside. But after my leaders told me that dream came to mind again and I knew I was supposed to give that same sermon I had dreamed the next night.

My teaching was perhaps the craziest thing I’ve ever done. Because I’ve never had anything like it happen to me! But I had confirmation from God, and my leaders agreed I should do it, so I did. And even as I feel my actual teaching wasn’t as good as the dream version, everyone said it was amazing. The Holy Spirit came through, as God always does. :) One church member even came up to me afterwards and said that was exactly the message that the church needed to hear and thanked me for giving it. I was dumbstruck because I had no idea what this church needed; I gave the message after only 3 days in the country! But again, I can only attribute it to God. Already I know I will love my experience here in Italy. We will stay in Bari until the 28^th and then we go to Milano. I’m excited to see what else God will do during our time here!