Buon giorno!

I went on a run this morning!! Kat met me downstairs in the lobby of the hotel at 6:30PM and we ran to the river and basically made a big circle. It was such a good way to see the city and appreciate it. It was amazing.

The schedule for this day was pretty much the same as the one before. We went to the national office first thing in the morning to do some more training. A Crusade staff member named Scott came and did a Bible study and also told us how to approach the college campuses. Scott is a full time missionary with Crusade in Pisa… pretty cool. First we went over Exodus 34: 29-35. He explained to us how the book of Exodus is the root of the New Testament. A lot of the New Testament alludes to the book of Exodus. Random fact: Moses is painted as horned in Renaissance art because the translation of the Bible that they had back then got the translation of “veiled” wrong. So instead of the Bible saying that he was veiled, they thought it said that he was horned. Scott also kept reminding us that what we’re doing in Milan is glorious. Not to say that it’s glorious because “we’re such good people” but glorious because the message we are sharing is glorious. Also, the world glorious means worthwhile or “weighty”. Although our role is to preach Jesus Christ, we don’t have a role in the way people see Jesus. So our role is just to present Him to people. I remember someone asking me why I needed to go on a mission trip to teach people in Italy about Jesus (because Catholicism is so prevalent here). I knew why I was coming but I didn’t really know how to answer her question, but Scott explained to us why. Jesus is depicted everywhere in Italy (in all of the artwork) but he is not depicted as glorious (worthwhile). We’re here to teach people why Jesus is worthwhile… not just a pretty painting or someone who was a good moral teacher.

There are 10 million people in Milan and 500,000 students or more at the universities. WOAH. There are only 11 of us. However, what’s comforting to me is knowing that Italians work in networks. Meaning, when you meet one person… you’re guaranteed to later meet 4 or 5 other people. So if each of us forms a relationship with one person, we’re going to most likely form a total of 55 relationships or more.

Gary then spoke to us about the different tools they were going to give us to initiate conversation. Everything looked really helpful and I can’t wait to start going on campus and using the tools they’ve given us.

After the briefing we went out to lunch to this really cute restaurant near the national office. Gary and the people on staff are really good friends with the people that work there so it was cool to see the relationships that they had formed with them. They lady was so nice and cute. I ordered potato ravioli and it was so yummy! When we got the check the lady gave us a ginormous discount because she knew the staff. Very cool how once you form a relationship with people here they treat you like family.

We went back to the hotel to drop off our stuff after eating. The next 3 hours were supposed to be for sightseeing but I was exhausted so I just napped… for 3 hours. LOL. I was supposed to wake up an hour early to journal and read but… obviously that did not happen. I didn’t feel too bad about missing the sightseeing time because I’ve already been to Florence and I had gone running this morning so I already saw the city.

We were going to Gary’s house for dinner so we all took a bus there. He lives in a small village outside of the city up in the hills. Motto bella!! The view was amazing. He lives right next to a monastery so that was really cool to see. While walking through the monastery we saw a Franciscan monk! There are only about 20 of them at the monastery.

Gary’s house was BEAUTIFUL. So frikken cute! It was exactly what I had pictured it would be. Very Italian (obviously). They have a golden retriever named Taffy so as soon as we walked up to the gates to his house Taffy ran out to greet us. Once we walked into their yard, Gary’s wife had prepared some bruschetta as an appetizer. We stood around talking for a bit. Gary has two children: Davis and Courtney. Davis is 12 and Courtney is 15. They were both so mature and well spoken for their age. Davis is the most fluent in Italian and he plays basketball. Courtney is now being homeschooled because Italian school was way too stressful. Italy is a very shame based country so Courtney explained to us how they would have oral interrogations instead of written examinations in her class. The teachers would also read everyone’s grade out loud so all the students knew who was doing poorly. I would want to be homeschooled too if that was the way school was! Courtney and Davis both have done a good job adjusting to the new culture, however the first year was the hardest (of course). Courtney is leaving for Ethiopia in 3 weeks for her own summer project so she was pretty excited about that. Gary’s wife made a delicious penne pesto pasta with green beans and potato. Mmmmm. Then for dessert we had chocolate cake with homemade whipped cream! MMMMMM!

We then took the bus back to the city and I of course went right to bed. Apparently the second day of jet lag is the worst. The day before I wasn’t that tired so I was like “great! I haven’t been affected by jet lag!” But today, EVERYONE was sooooo exhausted.