The Word is Alive

I had the privilege of going home for Christmas this year. It was soooo good to be in America. It was so good to see my family for Christmas, and God even worked it out so that I got to go to one of my good friend's wedding!

Last year at our Nuovo Inizio (New Beginning) conference upon first arrival to Italy, I remember one of the senior staffers telling us that our job here is to give Italians permission to read the Bible as many ways as possible. And so, things that are very common in America are incredibly rare here, such as, having a bible study. Over the break, I gave all of the girls we know, a "31 Day experiment" where, every day for 31 days it gives you a few verses to read and then questions to answer each day about how it could apply to your life. I'm really hoping that our friends have been reading and thinking about God's word on their own and am excited to hear what God has been teaching them. While I was in America, I bought my friend an English bible that she had mentioned that she wanted. Today she came over to our house and told me she was reading Genesis. She had a question which sparked an hour long discussion. It was so great to see what God has been doing in her life and mind and see the word go deeper into her life.

A Catholic friend of ours posted a note on facebook discussing the differences between Catholics and Protestants. The note discussed an array of things, how he didn't think protestants should have broken away from the church. It also noted that there weren't really that many differences between the two. But at the end his main point was challenging his fellow Catholics to read the bible as diligently as their protestant brothers and sisters. It was really encouraging to see a desire for God's word spread by doing nothing but loving and abiding in His Word! I know that many lives here would be radically changed and people would learn how to have a rich fulfilling relationship with this God that many here believe is so far away.

I have been personally doing the Experiencing God bible study. I'm only on day 3, but it has already radically changing the way I've been thinking the past few days. My greatest desire right now is that God would open my eyes to what HE is doing around me in Salerno and how HE wants me to be a part of it. We are leaving for a mid-year conference tomorrow where all of the staff for Campus Crusade in Western Europe will get together to worship God, Be instructed in the Word, and exchange ministry ideas. Please pray that the Lord would meet me and the others there in a powerful way, that we would have a fresh wind of energy, new ideas for ministry, and a deeper passion for reaching out to those in our respective locations.