We are Learning

So, one of the tough things about being the first group somewhere is the fact that, well, we are the first group. A good bit of projects this summer have been going on for previous summers, so when the students arrive, they know exactly what to do. They know what works, and what doesn't. What to talk about, what to avoid. Unfortunately, we do not have that advantage. Aside from the 3 full time staff couples here, no one has ever come here with our intentions in the past 20 years, as I have mentioned before. Which is good because we have the ability to be very flexible with what we do because no one knows if it will work or not. On the other hand, we find things that don't work so well either. The first week was amazing, we met many people and since then have met with them again. Monday of this week was a good day for me as well, seemed very promising for the rest of the week. Unfortunately, the past two days have not been as eventful as the days leading up to them. Luckily, today we were able to grab lunch with one of our friends we met last week. Don't get me wrong, we are still learning a ton and with every unsuccessful trial, we narrow down what works so in the future we will know what to do. I am going to end this blog on a good note though, and it is about Monday. Monday we were walking around and there were very few students on campus because they love to have 3-4 day weekends. But when it was getting closer to lunch we decided to walk up to this group of 4 guys standing around talking and try and start up some sort of chit-chat. We ended up getting invited to have lunch with them and talk about a wide variety of topics, including God. Like a few opinions I had gotten before, one of the guys said that he believed there was something bigger, but he did not know if it was the same God that the church talked about. He believed that if there is a God, then it is going to be inside him and not something from the church. That answer from a non-believer is better than some answers you will get from Christians about what God is. It is encouraging to see that, even though they do not know exactly what they thing, they have a good bit of it figured out. We exchanged numbers and are getting lunch later this week, and I cant wait to talk more about his beliefs. Please pray that God will open his heart and all the hearts of the other Italians that we have met and are hanging out with. Pray that God will let his light shine in our hearts like in 2 Corinthians 4:6. Pray that they will listen when we speak of the Gospel and when they do hear it, pray that they realize..."hey, that's pretty similar to what I think." Thank you all again for supporting me to get over here and while I'm here... I have seen God's love and grace though yall. Below are a few pictures from Venice...Enjoy. God Bless! Ciao!