Essere Audace..

This past weekend we went to the youth retreat in Aprilia. It is a small town close to Rome. The theme for the weekend was "How tall are you?" It was based around Ephesians 4:13.  Robbie Shackelford, the Harding University in Florence director, was the speaker. He asked questions about how do we grow spiritually, where are we going, which fruit of the spirit are we mature in and what do we need to work on.  One question that had the most interest and provoked the most discussion was, "how to act as good Christians in the world and live at peace with non Christians?"  This question was looked at from several different viewpoints. There were several responses such as love and gentleness, but it was also said that it is not possible. It was discussed how Jesus came and was so bold and totally turned the world upside down. He was not at peace with everyone. Several of the teens talked about sharing their faith, but also not being forceful, and to accept others. A dad that attended, took more of a perspective of being bold about what we believe and not just go with the flow. Being BOLD  is definitely something that teens and  a lot of people struggle with.  It can be a hard balance between boldness and love, accepting people but not condoning their lifestyle, respecting others but sharing your beliefs with confidence.  It also is very difficult here since there is such a small number of Christians in general.

                                         Potluck on Sunday                                    Some of the teens

The mother of my host family in Aprilia

One of the sons in my host family

I was very encouraged by some of the teens at the retreat who definitely are bold and really do live out what Jesus told us to do. One girl, Marta, is 21 years old, from Naples, and is studying nursing at the University of Rome. So here is just a little about her...

Every Tuesday her and a group of her friends make meals for homeless people and go to different places in Rome and hand them out. The thing that I think is so awesome about Marta and her friends is that they really know these homeless people. They know their names and about their families. One of the homeless people used to be a teacher so the group brings her books to read. Laura, an Avanti worker, went there this past Tuesday to help Marta and her friends.  Marta also feeds homeless people on her way to school. Every day she goes to the same bar (coffee shop) and so she has gotten to know the workers there. She asked them if at the end of every day, the food that they would throw away, if they would save it for her and she would get it the next morning. Then on her way to school she hands out the food to homeless people she sees. She sits down and talks with them and asks them if there is anything else they need. Marta is just such an awesome example of putting into action what God says. She is so bold. She gave one of her friends a Bible and told him they were going to read this together. And she is very persistent about it. She also walked up to a priest one day in the Vatican and said "so I looked up online that your robe costs 70 euro, why do you spend so much on your robe?" the priest responded about how he is representing the bridegroom and needs to be presentable for God. He said you would not want to wear bad clothes at your wedding...Marta just said well the man I'm going to marry is going to love me no matter what I'm wearing. I just loved hearing that. Walking up to a Catholic priest in Vatican City.

Me and Marta

The retreat was good for the teens and for us. It  got us started thinking about being more bold, and also about reaching out to homeless people more. We decided that for next Friday’s event we would make meals and invite our students and members from the church to go feed the homeless people. Our cooking school that we had this past Saturday  raised 50 Euro from selling American measuring cups, which will help in the cost of the meals.  

Me, Angela, Laura, and Ermenita before cooking school.

Cooking School

Laura teaching how to make chili.

Today at school we had Italian high school students come in and help us with conversation. One question a guy asked was if we believed in God. I said yes and  asked if he did. He said yeah but he didn't really know. I told him that I believed in the God and the Bible. I asked him what he thought about the Bible, which he responded with that he thought it was strange to believe in a book that old. I  asked if he believed in Jesus and he said yes that he thinks he existed. Then he went on to talk about how he doesn't like the Vatican and that it is very hypocritical. They have all this money but don't do any good. This thinking seems to be fairly common among young people here. They don't see faith lining up with people's lifestyles.    its a coincidence that  everyone involved in a service type project benefits in some way. That is what we hope to start doing with our outreach to the homeless.

My lessons with all my students are going really well. I was reading John with a student the other day and we read about Jesus first miracle of turning water into wine. I asked her what she thought about it and she talked about how it was so interesting that He saved the best wine for last. It talks in John 2:10 about this. So from the first miracle Jesus did, he was going against tradition and the norms of the culture. Once again, Jesus was so bold and turned everything upside down. I thought it was interesting that my student noticed that in particular. That has not really stood out to me before.

I am really looking forward to doing more service events and inviting our students. One of my students that I have spent a lot of time with talks a lot about wanting to be involved with things like that.  Seeing action really is the common thing that people crave here. Several people that I have talked to believe in God, but that is about all they know. I have always known that people are turned off to hypocriticalness, but being here I am seeing how much of an affect it has on people. From people I have talked to and after talking with other Avanti workers about their experience, people have had bad experiences with "religion" and "church”. They have not seen someone putting their words into action, so it's like they find no reason to search any further than just accepting there is a God. One of my students also struggles with why bad things happen. Which I would say is a struggle for many people.

One of my students has a good friend that I met the other day. She is the sister of Lorenzo, who is close friends with all of us here. She hasn't really ever come to the Bible School before, but she does want to learn English, but she is shy, so next week my student, her good friend, and I are planning to have coffee. She is a really sweet girl so I'm hoping she will decide to start coming, or at least hang out with her friend and I. I'm really love spending time with this student. Her English is pretty good, so we are able to talk about more things and build a deeper relationship.

That about covers what has been going on these past few days and weeks. Once again, a lot of things. Thanks you so much for your support and prayers. It means more than you know.