All About Italy
The promised Italy debrief is here! All the information you wanted to know, along with a little extra just for funzies 🙂
We were so blessed to have the opportunity to lead our third Xtreme Impact missions trip, and we were super excited to go to Italy this year! It was truly a learning experience as we got to see a completely new side of the mission field in a post-Christian society. God truly had his hand on every aspect of our trip, and we were amazed to see the wonderful group of people He put together.
Our team worked in conjunction with Saints Equipped to Evangelize, a local mission agency and Bible Institute. All of the staff members and local missionaries were amazing! Logistically speaking, this was by far the easiest and smoothest trip we’ve led with XI, although Italy proved to have its own set of challenges.
For those of you wondering what exactly we did in Italy, I’ll give a brief synopsis of a typical day. We were based in a beautiful little township in northeastern Italy (at the base of the Swiss Alps!), but we did most of our ministry in several of the surrounding cities. In the mornings we would usually do tract distribution and hand out invitations to the church plants that the local missionaries have started. Throughout the course of our time there, the missionaries said that they received multiple phone calls from people who received the invitations inquiring about the church services, which was really exciting to hear. Afterwards, we would head back to our base for lunch and riposo.
In the early afternoons we went to parks to do children’s ministry. This included puppets, stories, wordless bracelets, games, face painting, balloons, and of course, conversations with both children and parents. During one of our ministry times, a small group of our students took a walk around the park to pray for the ministry that was going on. Along the way, they met a man sitting on a park bench, started a conversation, and ended up leading the man to Christ! It was so exciting for our team to see this, since salvations are rarely seen on short term trips to such a dark country as Italy. On another day in a different park, a young Albanian girl living in Italy accepted Christ after learning about the wordless bracelet. Please be in prayer for these two people.
After park ministry, we would go back to our base for dinner and then head out to the town squares for drama ministry. Our team learned 2 different “mimes” (dramas performed to music) that portrayed the gospel message. We would begin the evening with an “attention gathering” dance routine, followed by one of the gospel dramas. Afterwards, one of our team members, with the help of a translator, would give a brief gospel message and our team would go out to talk with people in the crowds. After the crowds dissipated and new people began to walk by we would repeat the set several times. Our team members were able to have some really great conversations with the Italian people, and we are praying that God would continue to work in their lives, soften their hearts, and use those dramas to draw people to Him even now that we are gone. One afternoon we did ministry in a tourist town further away from our base, so instead of going back for dinner we ordered pizzas from a restaurant and ate in the town square. While two of our students were in the restroom, they met two 12 year old girls from Albania who were there on vacation. The girls followed them back to the square where we were eating to continue their conversation, and our students were able to lead the two girls to Christ! It was so encouraging to see our team get so excited about seeing God work in peoples’ hearts!
I’m beginning to border on rambling now, so I’ll try to wrap up. Our Italy team was so amazing, and we definitely saw the Lord working in awesome ways! We are so thankful for everyone who was praying for our team, and pictures are available on Brandon’s facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/#!/media/albums/?id=170200009)
