Well Done

Ciao from Italy for the last time this trip! Where has the time gone? I really feel like I just got here a week ago…not a month ago. We have spent today packing and saying our goodbyes to our Italian friends. It has been a pretty sad day but I know a lot of people are ready to be home and see their family and friends. I know I am excited to see my family. My brother, Tyler, turned 19 this past Sunday. That just seems unreal. I know I am only 21 but still, he shouldn’t be that old yet. He was in Guatemala on a mission trip on his birthday too. While I don’t like how fast he has grown up (or me for that matter), it brings me so much joy to know that he has grown up with a solid faith and foundation in Jesus Christ. He is becoming such a man of God and as a brother I couldn’t be prouder of him. He will be attending LA Tech this coming year and I am comforted in the fact that he is solid in his faith and I can only imagine the things God has in store for him over the next few years. 


While I am excited to see people like my brother and the rest of my family, I am very sad to leave the Italians. Like mentioned above, I cannot believe how time has flown by in terms of this trip, and in terms of how fast Tyler is growing up/has grown up. But I am starting to realize and see how, as we get older, time seems to go by faster and faster and then one day, life on this Earth will be over. Life is precious. We talked a lot on this trip about no regrets in regards to ministry or just in terms of taking advantage of opportunities. I know that when we go home tomorrow, we can leave knowing we did everything we could have done over the past 5 weeks. No regrets. And that is a really good thing because while I have had the opportunity to come to Italy twice to spread the gospel, those kinds of opportunities are numbered for most people. Which is why it is so important to take advantage of opportunities…especially to spread the gospel because what other action is more biblical than that? The bible is a book and there are parables and metaphors in it, but there are parts that are meant to be taken literally…one is Matthew 28:18-20 which is The Great Commission that states “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Take this literally! It has been my joy to see my team take this and run with it. Like I said in the last post, we went to Cinque Terre for debriefing and to just process everything that happened over the trip. And at the end of the debriefing we had a time of sharing just within the group and it was amazing to hear the things our team was saying about the trip. Just hearing that they see the need and they have a desire to reach Italian students was encouraging to me because they have the same heart for this place that I do. Hearing about how some of them are thinking about returning because then understand that, while work was done this summer, it is not finished. Hopefully through them this passion will spread to more and more people because the thing Bologna needs most is workers to take a step of faith and trust that God is in control and to come and do His work.

I thank you all for keeping up with my trip and I especially thank my supporters because you are the reason I am here. By giving you were doing God’s work and I could never thank you enough for what you have done. It is my prayer that God will lavish you with grace because you gave so there is room for you to receive even more! I pray that through reading my blog and through conversations I hope we have in the future, you will see the need here and your heart will break for the same students my heart breaks for. As we leave tomorrow I know that God is looking down at our team saying “Well done, my good and faithful servants!” We have brought the word of God, and his name will never fail. If you have any questions about my trip, please feel free to contact me in whatever way possible. I love you all and I love God, but only because he first loved me! God Bless Ciao!!!




“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me - put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.” -Philippians 4:8-9




Luke Wagnon
318-218-3452 
Lwagno1@tigers.lsu.edu

Last Day on Campus

Can you believe that I come home in 5 days! I can't! This won't be my last post but it will be one of my last from Bologna. This past week has been amazing. As the trip went on, we spent less time on campus meeting new people but more time following up and hanging out with the people we have met. This week I had a few meetings with Filippo from last year and a new friend named Sebastiano. Both very cool guys that I look forward to keeping in touch with once I get home. Not to mention the rest of my team has been on fire with meetings and getting the Italian students in contact with the permanent staff here. Last night we had an end of the trip party and we were able to invite all the Italians we have met and become friends with over the past 5 weeks. We had over 20 students come and eat and talk with us. It was the most students I had seen in one place in my two trips here. The Italians that are with our partner church here were amazed at the turnout. It was cool getting to see the students we met talk with the students from our church and of course we couldn't understand any because they were speaking Italian and very fast at that! I am so excited for what is to come in this city and on this campus. Last night was another big new beginning that we can work off of in future years.


This weekend we have a debriefing a few hours away from Bologna. This time is to clear the air and let everything that has happened over the past five weeks to sink in. Everything has been happening so fast it is hard to really go through each encounter and each conversation but we need to think about those things because they will keep fresh in our mind the need that is still here. It doesn't go away just because we leave to go back home to our Christian bubble. Italy needs workers. Bologna needs workers. The work is not finished.


We will be on campus for a very short time today because we will spend most of the day with our Italian friends that we have met. After we are finished on campus we will go to the park to play some soccer and basketball and then all go somewhere to watch the Brazil v. Portugal match. I am looking forward to hanging out with them for one of the last times before I leave. Please pray for the students we have met. Pray that God will soften their hearts so that they will see that God loves them unconditionally and wants a personal relationship with them. I pray that your hearts will break for the same students that my heart breaks for...the same students that I long to call my brothers and sisters in Christ. Finally, in the words of Paul writing to the Ephesians:


Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given to me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.

Time Flies

Hello all! A lot has happened since my last post. We had our first full week of ministry that was completely uninterrupted and that was wonderful. Everyday our team was meeting multiple people and getting into great conversations about God and Jesus and what the Italians believe. I have been so encouraged by the boldness of our team. While I will mostly write about the good conversations that people have, there are plenty of bad conversations as well. And when I say bad conversations, I just mean that the person was very unreceptive or rude about what we believe or would discredit the Bible and what we believe. The thing I am most impressed about our team is that even when that happens, the people on our team refuse to get mad or angry with the person, but continue to speak the truth of God's word and "kill them with kindness." For example, last week a few of our students were in a coffee shop talking to this one guy who was doing nothing but putting down God and Jesus and Christianity saying it wasn't important and things like the Bible is fiction. While they obviously disagree, they did not back down or try to minimize what they were trying to say. They continued sharing their faith and eventually shared the gospel with another Italian that was near and had been listening. I am just proud that they continued with what God wanted them to do, regardless of the obstacles that were in the way. Obviously we will not face the persecution that is written about in the bible, but we will still face verbal persecution, which is not easy to deal with. It can be discouraging, so when our team is bold in their message, despite the challenges, I am encouraged.

I have been blessed by having such a great team to work with. I never want to leave that unsaid. Since this is my first time leading a trip of this magnitude, I was hoping for the most cooperative team and I know they are an answered prayer for me. This trip has been same in some ways as last year, but different in other ways as well because I am not following, but I am being followed. While those of you that have known me for a while know that I have been involved with many leadership conferences or activities, this has been a test of all the knowledge and training I've had over the years. Not only am I sharing the gospel with the Italians, I am also building up the guys on our team so that when they return from Italy, they will be bigger men of God than when they first arrived at briefing. During the week, we have a scheduled guys night where I have content for them and we can get more intimate that during a normal conversation with out whole team. One of the main themes for our Men's time has been Proverbs 27:17 which is " As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another." While we are pouring out on campus to Italians, it is good to be able to pour into each other during these times.

We have an outreach dinner tonight where we have a bunch of Italians coming and hanging out with us. Pray that it will be a success and our lifestyles and actions will be evident to them tonight. Thank you for they prayers and please continue to pray for our team and our mission. God bless! Ciao!

First Week on Campus

So we have been here for a total of two weeks tomorrow. I can't believe the amount of progress we have made in the small amount of time we have been on campus doing ministry. The first day we were on campus brought me back to last year and I was really reminded exactly why I am here. Even with the amount of time that has passed between last year and now, my heart for these students is still as strong as the day I left. Our team has really hit the ground running. They are so confident in the message they are sharing that they cannot help but be bold in sharing the gospel. I am so lucky to have a team as excited and eager to be sharing the gospel with complete strangers. After the first day on campus we met as a team and talked about their experiences on campus. The results were amazing. After only one day, a few hours, on campus they had gotten numerous contacts and had shared the gospel multiple times. Not only did they meet people but they set up future meeting times to have lunch or get coffee and just hangout and get a little deeper into conversation. The rest of the week brought numerous stories of success in making contacts, but not without a few conversations that ended with disinterest. Those conversations are always hard to leave because we, as Christians, want so badly for these students to believe in the one true God so that when life on Earth is over, they don't have to spend eternity separated from God. But then again it is not our job to save those people. All we can do as humans is to share the gospel and let the Word of God speak. If they choose to reject it, while it is disheartening, we cannot be discouraged. We have to continue on and keep our eyes on the goal of this summer and know that we are a small part in God's perfect plan.


If you followed my blog last year, you heard about a student I met last summer named Filippo. His story is a cool one of how I met him last summer so please go back and read a little about him if you wish. Anyways, I haven't talked to him since I left last year because he did not have a facebook and for the longest time I could not find the piece of paper that had his email on it. He is one of the two main guys I had met last year and I had been praying for him by name for the past year, but I really had no idea what was going on in his life. So Friday, which for us is a half day because students leave campus after lunch for the weekend, we were once again eating at the Mensa, and I saw a familiar face sit down across the room. I contemplated whether or not it was really him because he was more clean-shaven than before, but when I got up to leave we made eye contact and then I knew. I had been reunited with Filippo! So he excitedly asked me to sit and I gladly accepted and we talked for a long time just catching up. Then we left and went to get some coffee where we stayed for another hour. Since we had met many times last summer, I did not really have to do the small talk which was nice. It really was like two friends catching up after a long time. After catching up I asked him about the past year and about the conversations we had a year ago about his spirituality. He said over the past year his views have changed a bit. He has become more open to the idea of God and what I believe. This was really good news for me because while he hasn't become a Christian, he is getting closer and becoming more open to the idea of Christianity, which is a major success in Bologna.


The first week was an overall success. We were on campus today and I met with the guys one on one to see how everything is going and I was pleased with our meetings. I am excited for what the rest of the week holds for our team. This summer has already gotten off to a great start and I know the Lord has so much in store for us. Thank you for all of your support and prayers over the past year as well as for the prayers that are to come. Pray for our team that we will stay confident in our actions and bold in our message.

God is so great....God Bless! Ciao!

First Day on Campus

It seems like we stepped off the plane forever ago. We have been here a week tomorrow and it feels like it has been a lot longer...which isn't a bad thing. We have gone through all sorts of training over here and letting the team get accustomed to the new culture and environment. Yesterday we took a train to Florence to meet at the national headquarters for Campus Crusade, better known as Agape Italia here. Yesterday morning was the last briefing time so now we get to go on campus. Everyone has been ready for this since briefing back in Dallas so now that this day has finally come, I believe we are ready to go. The time we have had with our team has been wonderful times of building up and fellowship so that we can go today and pour out to students all over campus. We will be initiating with students in the most basic form. They are in their environment, in their city, in their language, and we are going into that to bring the gospel to them. We will be walking up to the students while they are standing and talking or sitting at a cafe having an espresso, or eating at the mensa (cafeteria). We will be able to meet them, talk with them, find out what they think and how they feel about spirituality. I have told the team to be prepared for off the wall answers because this is not America. Like mentioned in my support letter and I am sure I have stated it in a previous post from last year, but Bologna is a dark place spiritually, only 4% of the entire city even goes to any kind of church, and how many of those are actual believers I don't know. The reason I say that is because the few that do go to church, go to church and get confirmed so that they can get married in the church, not because of God or Jesus.
Over the weekend, we took the hike up to San Luca (pictures on a previous blog). No sight is better that seeing God's work and how it was supposed to look. The rolling green hills with all sorts of trees...the beautiful blue sky with a mountainous backdrop. And having the sun out and shining down on all of our Lord's work was truly a sight. It is sights like those that I don't understand how people can look at something so beautiful, and not understand that it didn't just happen. God made it happen, he put everything perfectly in its place.

We are about to leave and go out on campus for the first time this trip. Pray for our team and our mission. Pray that the Spirit will guide us and give us the wisdom and boldness and confidence needed to do His work.
"Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should." - Ephesians 6:19-20