Bologna Day 3

We began the day with a couple of team testimonies at Cafe Zamboni near campus and then a group of leaders from Apologetics was there to train us how to speak with students and debate Christianity with other views the proper way so as not to turn people off to the option of Christianity. It was awesome and I wish I had taken more notes to tell you about it.

Afterward, we headed to campus for lunch in the Mensa. Kirk and I didn't have a whole lot of luck with conversations at lunch, so we decided to finish eating and head over to the scuderia to do some surveys and soularium. We first talked to an Israeli named Nizar who was studying for an English exam, so we decided to help him with some of his English questions before starting the survey. We found that Nizar was Muslim, and he was kind enough to fill out the survey, but wasn't really interested in anything beyond that. Kirk and I surveyed a couple of girls from England, who were very sweet. Most students were happily obliged to talk to us, mostly because we're from the US and they were wondering what in the world we were doing in Bologna, which often gave us an opportunity to share about Agape Italia and our stories at times.

After we talked to those girls, I went to ITIT for coffee and debriefing with Nicole and Tricia. Can I just say that the people of Bologna are so lucky to have such wonderful Christian people in their city who have such a burden for the students and the lost. It was such an encouragement meeting such wonderful followers of Christ. We talked about how God can work in your life exponentially, especially when you may not be comfortable in full time missions work. In fact, this week has been emotionally, mentally, spiritually, and physically exhausting!! But very rewarding, as well. It's so hard to communicate with someone when you don't speak the same language, but I think it was even harder once I realized just how lost this country and it's people really are. I found myself just crying, thinking about the possibility that a lot of these students (probably 99% of them) have never had their name lifted in prayer for their health, safety, or that God would embrace them in their lack of hope and truth. It also hurt to know that a large portion do not even know who Jesus really is. They don't know the truth and it's sad to think that there has been no one there to share the gospel with them do that they may know truth and have hope that fails to exist in these student's lives.

I know a lot of Americans are completely oblivious to the huge numbers of lost people an the unreached in Europe in general, but especially Italy. And that is understanding because many people think that because the Catholic church is so prominent that people are being saved left and right..but, this isn't the case! This country needs Jesus, but they have NO idea who He really is. Please pray for this country and pray about doing missions there. We need more people to help reach these people.