La Dolce Vita

What a week…

Without really meaning to, this week I plunged head first into a study of hope…

And of grace…

And of hopelessness…

And despair.The past few weeks so many people around me have been going through horribly hard things…

Sometimes as they talk to me it makes me feel so lost… but at the same time found.

I’m realizing that sometimes it’s when you don’t have the answers and you can’t solve the problems that you draw closest to God.

When you are weak, then He is strong.

Thinking back to college… it wasn’t so long ago – exactly one year ago this Mother’s Day… I remember great times, and I remember incredibly hard times.

Most of all I remember it was a time of great growth in my walk with Christ… but it was also an incredible struggle that came partly because of an incredible confusion along with an incredible pressure.

I felt like I needed to know exactly what I wanted to be, where I wanted to go, and where I was going to end up at for every step of my life.

I felt like I needed to have my five year plan hanging on a rope around my neck… Otherwise I was destined to be nothing.

And it was so frustrating to me, because I felt like I was surrounded by people who knew who they were and where they were going. It felt like they had it all together.

During that time a friend wrote to me and said, “God guided him [Moses] with a pillar of fire and smoke and he followed. Moses knew the final destination but the path was revealed as he went along. The same thing goes for us. We don’t know what the path will be; however, we know that the ultimate destination is eternity in Heaven”.

Those words comforted me so much. I realized I don’t have to know the steps, because God has already walked them. I don’t need my five year plan laminated, because He already has it under control.

I can’t imagine going through college having not known Christ was me every step of the way DESPITE what my major was or what job I had… Despite not having a 4.0 GPA, or being infinitely intelligent, funny, creative, or beautiful.

Because He holds it all.

My heart aches for Italy… for those college students living right in the middle of incredible beauty, fashion, art, culture, history, architecture, and food. But not having a clue about the One who fashioned those things…

For those people trying to figure life out while living in the middle of a place that searches so desperately for “la dolce vita” – the sweet life, but it is always is just beyond their reach…

I can’t imagine living life like that.

It just seems so frustrating, annoying, hopeless…

Pointless even.

They don’t know Christ – the One who created the sweet life, and He is the only One who can offer it to them…

And they haven’t even really had the chance to hear the Gospel before.

I hope… No I pray with all of my heart that our time in Italy can bring hope to Italian college students, and to everyone we encounter on every second of our entire mission.

Because I know that He can provide “la dolce vita” to everyone in a way that is beyond their comprehension – in a way that will completely blow their minds, change their lives, and provide light to their (and our) dark world… It’s my prayer that they will know that “La dolce Vita” is standing in front of them with His arms wide open, if only they will have ears to hear and a heart to believe…

Please pray that they will.

Prayer List

Howdy! For those of you that only know Italy for its food, high fashion, or naked statues, I'd like to take a moment to tell you about the mission field.

Most Italians identify themselves as Catholic but have fallen away from their church due to disillusionment and dissatisfaction with the way the Vatican plays a role in Italian politics. Talking to a few college students, we found that some were pro-religion, some anti-religion, but most expressed that they feel let down by the Catholic Church. That shows in the way "alternative" religions are spreading.

It makes Italy a very challenging area to spread the Gospel in. In a manner of speaking, it's already there, but may not be the focus or may be misinterpreted. What is clear is that Italians are seeking a direction. They long for spiritual fulfillment and will turn to whatever might be near.

We have several missionaries already in Italy, and they provided us with several items that they would like us keep in our prayers:

View Prayer List (pdf, 93k)
View Missionary's Prayer Calendar (pdf, 580k)

In case you lost or need a new copy of our training manual, you can download it from here as well:

Download Mission Training Manual (pdf, 1.1 mb)

"How can I be praying?"

We value your prayers more than anything. In addition to the specific ministry activities, here are some of our biggest requests for now:

Close individual walks with God. This is the most important part of our preparation; as we get closer to going, distractions and temptations are sure to ramp up for each of us.

Strengthened team unity. Jesus said people would know that we are his disciples by the love we have for one another. And with 17 of us in close quarters for eight days, it's important that we get along.

The people we'll meet. Pray that God would prepare the students' hearts so they'll be open to having spiritual conversations and receptive to the message of Christ's love and redemption.

Beginning to take shape

We're starting to get more details of what our ministry in Italy is going to look like.

We'll spend most of our time in Florence, where we'll work with Eikon's overseas missions partners, Greg and Charmaine Lillestrand, and help with their college ministry. We're looking at several avenues where we can meet students, get to know them, and connect them with Agape Italia:

Running English clubs or classes. For the most part, Italian students know English, but they've learned most of it from textbooks. So they're often eager to learn American idioms and slang and practice their conversational skills.

Volunteering with service projects. Social justice is a big concern, or even a passion, for many Italian students, so we'd serve alongside them. In addition to being a way to meet students, this would let us show Christ's love to the poor and hurting, and show to the students that Italy's negative view of Christians isn't always true.

Helping Agape expand within Florence. Of the 12 University of Florence campuses, the ministry is present on only two of them.

We'll also get an opportunity to work in Bologna (about an hour train ride away), where an Agape ministry is being set up. We'd be helping "decode" the area: hanging out with college students and finding out where they live, study, eat, drink and socialize. This will help Agape staffers get the ball rolling in the fall — they'll already have an idea where to spend their time.

All of this is still just a rough outline; we won't know for sure exactly what we'll be doing until we're about to leave. (And once we do get the plans nailed down, they'll probably change again.) As in any overseas ministry, flexibility will be our motto. Thanks for praying for these preparations!

Welcome!

Welcome to the Eikon Mission:Italy blog. Thanks for agreeing to be a part of our support team. Without your prayers and financial support this mission would not be possible. This blog is intended to give updates to our prayer partners as we head to Italy this Summer to support the ministry of Agape Italia, the Italian arm of Campus Crusade for Christ. Though we don't completely understand it, we believe God moves when His people pray, so we are so thankful for your desire to pray for us as we plan to be a part of this mission.

We hope this blog gives you a glimpse of what God is doing through the young singles at McKinney Church, and what God is doing around the world. Stay tuned for updates - we'll keep you posted as we go.

Chris