Buon giorno!

(no pictures were taken today... mi dispiace!)

As I woke up today I didn’t realize that this would be our first day going on campus to do ministry. I thought we were just going to take a tour of the campus… so once Ryan confirmed that we were actually going to start evangelizing I honestly got really scared. The purpose for us being here is finally going to begin… woah.

We did a Bible study first and that was just really good to start the day. It was about how different people view the Bible: rule book, spiritual cup of coffee, source of wisdom, etc. Instead of viewing the Bible in all of these different ways we should just plainly see it as God’s interaction with His people. We also talked about how worship is a far greater thing then missionary work. Missions exist because worship doesn’t so we need to have our priorities in order. 1 John 4:19 talks about how we love because God loved us first. And that’s something important that we need to remember.

We then went out and got on the metro to head to il Duomo where we were going to meet Davide. Davide is a student that people on this project met a few years ago. They met him by doing exactly what we were going to do today: going up to people and talking to them about their faith. Ever since they met they’ve kept in touch which is definitely the Lord’s work.

We got to il Duomo and it was DEFINITELY a gothic cathedral. It was gorgeous! It was raining though so we went to a nearby McDonald’s to get some coffee until it was finally time to meet Davide.

We went back to il Duomo to meet up with him and he was already there. He was sooooo nice!!!!! Extremely welcoming and warm and friendly. He then took us to the Statale university which is one of the universities we’re focusing on while we’re here. This is the university he graduated from so he showed us the mess hall, different corridors, etc. He was a very good tour guide! It was then time for lunch so he took us to this sandwich shop on campus and the sandwich was so yummy! The cheese in it was SOOOO DELICIOUS! Moto bella!!! It kinda tasted like cream cheese but the man called it some name that starts with a c (I obviously forgot). After we were done with our sandwiches it was finally time to start evangelizing. AHHH. Davide took us back inside and once we were there he and Ryan went looking to buy a guitar (everyone has been wanting to do worship but Ryan hasn’t had his guitar).

Kari and I paired up. Before finally going off on our own, we prayed and that really calmed everyone down and boosted our confidences. Kari and I went to the mess hall to start. She and I sat down and discussed what tools we wanted to use first and how we would approach the students. We decided to first start with the friendship survey (basically asking how Italians view friendship). We wanted to approach students that were sitting down because this usually meant they had some time to talk whereas students walking down the corridors were usually on their way somewhere. The first 2 girls we talked to were so great. They were sisters and once was 22 and the other was 32. The 22 year old spoke little English and the 32 year old didn’t really speak any English. They asked us why we were doing what we were doing and we explained we were with Agape Italia and that it was a Christian organization. Not gonna lie it took us a while to admit that we were a Christian organization because we didn’t know how that would affect our conversation but they didn’t seem to mind so that was good. We basically got out of them that Italians really value trust and honesty. The next pair of girls we talked to were Gemma and Serena. Gemma was really spiritual and had faith in God but she didn’t like the church so she didn’t associate herself with it. (The church meaning the Catholic church). Serena also believed in God. With Gemma and Serena we did Soularium and I really feel God purposefully chose these girls to do this with. We learned so much about their spirituality which was really great. The last group of girls we met were Roberta and Erica. They were AWESOMMEEEE. Erica spoke very little English but Roberta spoke English really well! We did the friendship survey and relationship survey with them. From all 3 conversations we pretty much realized that Italian students our age are extremely similar to American students. The girls explained to us how it has now become the girl’s role to pursue the guy (they said boys are stupid). They also told us about how more and more people are choosing not to get married. Instead, people just live with each other and form a family without the title. People don’t see a point in getting married. It’s “too expensive”. That was really sad to hear but didn’t surprise me at all. I feel like the same thing is going on in America.

After spending all this time with the students and in the city it really started to feel like home. Milan is almost exactly like Boston… seriously. It’s almost scary how similar they are. The metro signs are the same, city/homey feeling, and other little things. I’m not going to be too specific just yet but I really feel the Lord is trying to tell me something… but this is definitely something I’m going to continue to pray about just because it is such a big decision.

After doing evangelism for about 2 hours we all met up again with Davide and Ryan. Ryan found an awesome guitar so yay! Davide then took us to this really cool church near the university. There was a separate chapel in the church that had been decorated with BONES! There were skulls and pieces of bone all around the walls. I mean it was organized beautifully but it was a bit strange. Kinda cool actually. Apparently these were the bones of the people that were buried at the hospital (the university used to be a hospital) so once they built the university they didn’t know what to do with the pieces. After that we went to Deutsche bank because a few of us needed to get some more cash. Then we went for some yummy gelato of course. Davide had to get back to the train station so we headed towards il Duomo. As we were walking to il Duomo this man kept following our group… all the way to il Duomo! When we finally sat on the steps to il Duomo Pat started talking to the crazy man. He finally went away. Thank you Pat for knowing Italian and possibly tiring the man out. Davide left but he said he would see us Saturday so it wasn’t too sad of a goodbye.

We then headed back to our hotel where we had a little bit of down time before debriefing about the day. Everyone’s stories were so encouraging. The Lord is definitely doing something great in this city. Some people got a few students’ contact information so that was awesome. I really hope those relationships grow into something bigger. Then we all ate dinner and just relaxed for the rest of the night. I journaled and spent a lot of time just with God because I just needed some me and Him time.

Ryan watched the final episode of Lost and after that we did worship for TWO HOURS! It was magical, as Kari would say. I love the Lord so much. :]