What we do in life echoes in eternity

Day 22 (6-8 Saturday) This is probably the most intimate my blog is going to get, so "Pay strict attention to what I say because I choose my words carefully and I never repeat myself," " What is your deepest fear?" This question was posed to me on the second day we were in Siena, by our resident professional question asker Karli Hagstrom. This is a bit of a conundrum when it comes to questions and is not easily answered. It took me some time to gather myself and think about what truly was my deepest fear. The first things that popped into my head were two things that I was definitely not fearful of. The first is death, and the second not knowing what to do with my life. There are a couple of reasons I do not fear death, the first being the fact that I know God will take care of me, and second because of something my pastor at Moscow CLC said, "You are indestructible if you have the life of Jesus in you." This was something that really stuck out to me, and I really took note of. It is true, god has a plan for each of our lives and as long as we are living for God, our life will not end until God has chosen it to end. As far as not fearing not knowing what I will do with my life, I know that God will reveal his plan for me on his time, and that I will figure it out eventually, just have to learn some patience. Shortly after those two things went through my mind a few other things came to mind about what my deepest fear is. If you have not noticed I am a man who likes to use quotes, so a quote has again come to mind. This quote by Marianne Williamson has probably become one of the most famous quotes in the world for three reasons, the first being it was used by Nelson Mandela in his inaugural address, second it was used in the movie Coach Carter, and third just because of the sheer magnitude of her words. "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate, our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond all measure. It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightening about shrinking so that other people will not feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God. It is not just in some of us; its in everyone. As we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give others permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others." This quote has so much power behind it, because it can do exactly what it says to do. It actually helped me to figure out what my fear was. The other thing that helped me to figure this out is another talk done by Dan Johnson called Indestructible Legacy, again using quotes he said this, which he quoted from some one, and it really struck me. "What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others." This is what my fear is, that I will not leave behind a legacy. I know that it might sound a little conceded, but it's not I care nothing about fame or glory. I fear that I will not impact this world in some sort of positive way. I fear that when I die, I will just have been a statistic, another tally in the population total. That I will not have done something to impact some ones life. That I will have done nothing to make the world better. One of my favorite movies is Kingdom of Heaven, in this movie there is a man who in his black smith shop has something branded into the wood, and it says "What man is a man who does not make the world better." There are a lot of problems in the world today, and we would all like to solve those problems, the thing is though we are the main cause of those problems. We all in some way help these problems out either actively or passively. Silence is agreement. We cannot just sit around and wait on the world to change. Michael Jackson, sang a song once and this is part of that song, "If you want to make the world a better place take a look at your self and make that change." Although it is just a song by Michael Jackson I think the message is powerful and universal. The question is though how do we do this? Dave Matthews Band has a song called "You Might Die Tryin'," and my favorite part of the song is this "To change the world, start with one step, however small the first step is hardest of all. Once you get your gait you'll be walking tall. You said you never did, because you might die tryin'." Imagine if Jesus never tried because he knew he might die trying. That is my deepest fear. I need to take that first step though, because if that one step causes someone else to step, and in turn they cause someone to step and so on, you soon have a movement. And movements can change the world. I pray that as I live my life that I will do a good enough job of emulating Christ, that I will impact a life. "Every man dies not every man truly lives." -William Wallace

Day 21 6-7 Friday So like I said for Thursday's climb we got to watch a electrical storm out over the water. But that is nothing compared to the awesomeness of the storm that I experienced on Monday. Monday evening I got to see the most amazing lightning storm ever. It was an hour of treential down poor with lightning electrifying the sky in every direction, and bone rattling thunder. The thunder roared down on us as if we stood on the floor of the colosseum some 1900 years ago waiting to fight lions. At times the lightning was so close it hurt the eyes and the thunder was defaning! It was amazing! The best part of it was that I spent the entire time on the 4th floor balcony with one of the U.S. students who lives on the forth floor getting absolutely drenched, enjoying the awesomeness of the storm together and chatting. For a while I wasn't really sure what was so amazing to me about storms but as a stood on that balcony with my face turned towards the sky letting the rain drops drum on my face it became apparent to me. It might be there power and awesomeness that they exuded, or maybe it is our total inability to do anything to stop Nature. What ever it was before, I know now what it is, and again my insight came from a chapter of Seeing and Savoring, this time Chapter 5, The Power of Jesus Christ. That day sitting on the beach Tuesday in Vernazza as April read the chapter to me that those feelings that I remembered feeling, during that fire in Wenatchee, the scenes from "Hurricane on the Bayou," and that thunderstorm, that is God, having to knock us back down a few pegs. Though he is a loving God, he does get angry and frustrated, especially when we do sinful things and act stupid. Like a good father does, He punishes us from time to time to let us know that it is not okay. From time to time we need a reminder about who is in charge and who is the all powerful one, and unfortunately the only way we seem to get it is when something beyond our controll happens, like a Natural Dissaster, or a big storm. God created everything there is an he has power over everything, the winds and the waves included. A lot of times people ask why do "bad" things happen to "good" people? Well I think that the best answer to this is illustrated to us in the book of Job, and is a story about some of the suffering Job went through. Job had just lost all ten of his children at the same time and soon he and his wife were both ridden with boils, and while his wife cursed God for what had happened it says that Job fell to the ground tore his robes, shaved his head and started to worship God! Job also says this to his wife, "Shall we indeed recieve good from God and not adversity?" (Job 2:10). This is very true, and when we look at the new testiment we see much is written on suffering. One of my favorite verses on suffering comes from 1 Peter 4, versus 12 and 13, which tell us not to be surprise if we are going through trials but we should instead rejouce that we are chose to suffer as Christ did. It also later talks about that we should suffer not for doing ill works but for doing good, because this glorifies God. Part of this glory of God, is that he is omnipotent and truealy has pwer over everytihg. Job 37:9-14 talks about how God controlls the storms and weather it is for correction or for love he causes it to happen and we should stop and consider the wonderous work of God. That is why I love storms so much because they reveal the Power and glory of God. Of course these stroms can bring about death and destruction, and devistation, but it is in these times we must ask ourselves. "Will we worship or will we curse the one who rules the World? Shall SInners dictate who should live and who should die? And say like Job 'The Lord gave and the Lord taketh away; blessed be the name of the Lord.'" (Job 1:20-21) "The storm doesn't knock down the tree it only reveals its weakness"

Day 18 - 20 (6-4 thru 6-6) Tues Thur So since we were about half way through our project we got to take a little mid project break and go and visit the Cinque Terra which is a group of 5 cities along the coast of the Ligurian Sea. It is such a beautiful place, it was a story book town. We stayed in Vernazza which is this small town built on the cliff side like the other towns, and literally has one street that runs down the center of it. This street is lined with shops and restraunts, and bars, and a pub, and allyways to access the stair ways and pathways to get to all of the houses. It is kind of hard to explain how the town is set up but basically it is just a bunch of these side walks and stair ways built up the cliff side that wrap and wined there way up to where all of the apartments and houses are at. This area is also know for it's walking/hiking trail between all five cities which is the main draw for the city. So we went there for a little 2 1/2 day break from ministry work and such. It was a nice relaxing time mentally but was rigorous physically which was quite nice. We got there about noon on Tuesday and just spent the afternoon relaxing and checking out the city, sat a little on the small beach that they have. (It was nice to see sand and water again!) Then we went and had dinner at this great place which is run by these twins, who are hilarious. Recommended by Rick Steves so you have to check it out. And then we got together as a group and just did a little teaching/training time and discussion, then some of us when back down and hung out on the break water for an hour or so and just chatted. Wednesday was the big day! We had our long hike in front of us. The towns are numbered 1 through 5 and Vernazza is number 4, so we had a long hike to get to number one. The first part of it was pretty tough but once you got to the first city it mellowed out and was a nice leisurely walk/hike. It was probably one of the most beautiful experiences I have ever had though. You are walking along this cliff with the Water on one side of you about 500 or more feet down, and then on the other side is more cliff face covered in bamboo, cacti and other random shrubbary and folliage. Their were also huge vinyards and lemon trees through out the terrain as well, and the local people just going about their day. But by far the most beautiful part about it is the brilliant turquise blue water that was crystal clear. When you were up that high some 500 feet or more, you could look down and see down to the bottom which in some places was probably about 50 feet deep. We started the climb at nine and the first part of the climb the toughest part soon seperated us in to three groups. The sprinter group, the strolling group, and the meandering group. I was in the strolling group, we were moving at a quick pace but not to fast and taking plenty of picture breaks. To hike one way and stop to take a peak at the towns took us about 2 hours, and when we got to the last town the first group was waiting to take the train back, but Steve April and I decided we were going to stroll on back as well, and Carly and Nicole joined us so we had a nice little group going. The hike back was pretty awesome, we got a little bit of rain and then it got pretty humid which wasn't so fun, but we ran into like 7 or 8 Cougs along the hike which was awesome, April was wearing a WSU shirt so we go the Go Cougs! a lot which was probably one of the high lights of the whole Italy trip. We got back to Vernazza, had time to go and have some amazing fish and chips and then take a nap while it drizzled some more, a little upsetting because it was just a tad to cold to swim. We went out for dinner again, to this other Amazing restraunt, I had Lobster and black spaghetti, it was delicious! (I miss sea food!) Then most people went and got Gelado and we met up and discussed 1 Peter 3. It was an amazing discussion, and brought a great end to the evening. Thursday some of us woke up with the Sun rise, and got ready to hike the to the last city Monterosso, which is city number 5 and supposed to be the hardest climb. And it did not dissapoint, it was hot and humid at 7 AM, which is fantastic so we were all sweating with in the first 5 minutes of the hike. (Megan Steve, Aaron and I) and it is basically this almost vertical climb with stairs, it's pretty awesome. So you hike up and up and up probably close to 1000 feet above sea level, and then you make this descent downwards, on these very nice smooth marble steps that are probably on a 60% downgrade, and they are about 2 feet wide at the most probably smaller, so you are going down this trail that you can hardly fit down, if you are more than 170 pounds and a stick figure... None of us guys are even close to it. and it had rained so the steps were a little slippery, so it was some tricky climbing. We eventually made it to the town in about 45 minutes which is about half the time it took Rick Steves, and right as we were exiting the trail this huge group of German tourists headed on the opposite direction. So we went into town had a little bite to eat were going to hike back and then the terrential down poor that we had been waiting for showed up. We had watched the electrical storm out over the water all climb, so we decided that taking the path back would not be so good. So we rode the train back, got cleaned up and then went to the Pirate Bar, which is the place owned by the twins and had the most amazing pastries and hot chocolate ever! It was unbelieveable! Of course it was still pooring so we got switched onto an earlier train and headed back to Siena early. Returning home about 4 PM which gave us enough time to shower, nap and eat before mens and womens time! All and all it was a very very relaxing trip, and very refreshing. Not to mention beautiful! "Look at your problems in the light of God's power instead of looking at God in the shadow of your problems"

Day 17th Mon (6-3) Today April and I went sharing together around the literature campus and then the Economics campus. The day we handed out fliers we were near the literature campus and we went to this cafe place to hand out fliers. So April and I thought it would be a good idea to head back there and try to meet some students, the problem was we couldn't remember how to get there and no one we talked to knew what we were trying to refer to, so we talked to one girl who is studying English, Spanish and Chinese and she tried to help us and we got her contact info and we are going to help her with her English and Spanish, we tried asking some other people but no one really knew what we were talking about exactly. So we wondered a bit more and then decided to go to the Economics campus, well on our way there we were walking down this street and then all of the sudden we found the cafeteria/restaurant thing we had been looking for completely by the grace of God it was kind of funny. We met a girl there who is studying the science of Communications, so we chatted with her for a while got her contact info and then headed of to the Economics campus. At the economics campus we ran into a third girl who was from Albania that we got to have an extended talk with and share our testimonies and the gospel. So all and all a very good day. There is something special about going out with someone and helping to share the gospel with them, and listening to them tell there testimony to another person. It always you to get to know that person on a whole new level. It lets you into their life in a very relaxed casual way and you form a connection that wasn't there before it is a great experience. It was great to here her testimony, and be there for back up on sharing the gospel, I think we were a great team, with a ton of help from God of course. "To change the world it starts with one step, however small the first step is hardest of all." -You Might Die Trying: Dave Matthews Band

Day 16 - 2 June (Sat) The highlight of my trip to Rome was the Colosseum. To know that when you walk in you walk where the Emperors of one of the greatest civilizations of all time the might Roman Empire once walked and you stood where thousands of spectators once saw man battle man and beast, where Christians were fed to lions, you can not help but be in total and complete amazement. To be only a few yards from where some of the most violent blood was spilled, just for survival and the chance to fight again and earn freedom leaves and indescribable feeling. To stand in a building that defines a culture, a civilization and history is probably the most powerful experiences of a lifetime. The best part of it was, that it was a national holiday in remembrance of the day in 1946 when Italy voted to Make itself a republic instead of a Monarchy, so we got into the Colosseum for free! As we walked up too it and into it I could not help but have the movie and the music of Gladiator playing through my head, then I got out my iPod and actually started listening to the music, to give me a full experience. Again I could have just sat in there for hours and basked in the glory of it all. It was one of the most awesome experience of my life, and I will experience it again. Its times like these where I detest the new age and modern society. Think about what would have happened if the Colosseum had been torn down fro a night club or a Stadium, or a Shopping center. It might seem a bit outlandish that this would happen, but its the same basic principle that can be applied to what happened to the Kingdom in Seattle. The Kingdome was Seattle and Seattle was the Kingdome! The Colosseum is Rome, and Rome is the Colosseum. Think about if they removed the Golden Gate Bridge from San Fransisco, or the giant Jesus statue in Rio De Janeiro. Those things define their cities, tell stories about their past, define their culture, and set up the future. Another way to look at this situation is this. Think of removing Christ and the Bible from Christianity, when this happens you have Judaism. I am not pointing to one domination in particular because tons of people who practice "Christianity," do just this and many churches for that matter. There has been talk about renovating and restore the Colosseum, which is great, I would love to see it stand as in once stood almost 2000 years ago. Along with that I would love to see the same thing done with Christianity. Restore it to it's glory in the time of Christ and the apostles, to a time almost 2000 years ago. To a time when we see the glory of following Christ, and people hadn't become weighted down with doctrines and politics, and other things that had nothing to do with their Salvation. To a time when the apostles were spreading the message of Jesus as he called them to. I would lie to see a return to a faith that was about following the God, and His son, and our personal relationship with him, not which Church we attend on Sunday, and how much money we give to charities. Jesus said "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to my father except through me. " John 14:6 (NLT). It is time that we start to remember who Jesus was. I would like to see the removal of politics from religion because Jesus was not a political figure he was a religious one. He commanded us to do exactly what he did which was the will of God, not to sit in church on Sundays and sing hymns. I am not saying going to church is a bad thing, but expecting your salvation to come from that is mere foolishness. You should attend because of your love for Christ and your conviction to learn more about him, and his father our God. There needs to be a restoration to the foundation of our faith. To our religion. It is called Christianity because we believe Jesus is the messiah and our saviour. It is time we all start becoming Christ followers, not just Sunday "Christians". I feel it is fitting that I end this blog with a quote from Gladiator as well as one from the bible. "What we do in life echoes in eternity!" -Maximus Decimus Meridius "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to my father except through me." -John 14:6 (NLT)

Today the men of the project with a little help from Megan set forth and executed the perfect plan of surprise. We cooked and served the women dinner and desert. It was so perfect I couldn't believe it. We started off with a single rose set on their plate as they were ushered in by Aaron and myself the wto servers. Peter and Steve cooked the rice and stirfry which we served after the fruit spread with bread. We then had the "owner," Jack of Ristorantè Paradiso run out and get gelato. It was such a great surprise to all of them and they really loved it. We were even able to surprise Megan, because she didn't realize that she was also going to be part of this. During the conversation they started talking about their best college memory, and they all said that this was going to be one of their fondest memories. Nicole also included that it was the sweetest thing anyone had ever done for her. IT was very nice to hear these things, but the best part is that's not why we did it. We didn't do it to get praise and glory we from them we did it because, we are called to love and serve them. It is our job to love honor and cherrish our sisters so that is what we do, we love them because He first loved us. "The problem with Christian culture is that we think of love as a commodity.We use it like money." -Blue Like Jazz

Day 14 - 31 May (Thur) I met a guy with Jack today at the medical campus from Isreal who is friends with a guy we know from church named George, who is also from Isreal. They guy we met today was quite an interesting and intruiging individual. He is an Arab Christian from Isreal, not the most common of occurances. He is from Nazareth which is in the northern part of Isreal, and it was very intersting to hear what he had to say about the war and globalization. He has an Aunt who lives in Chicago, and she was going to come visit, but she said she was worried about there being tanks in the town where he lives. His family just laughed at this because the war is more than 40 kilometers away which is quite aways he said. He thinks its funny how we portray the war because it is very much different than the actual war that is going on. When we mentioned that he knew George his first response to us was "So you are evangelist then?" Something that neither Jack or I had a good answer for, we were actually caught off guard. I have never been called and evangelist or never considered my self one, I always just thought of myself as a Christ follower doing my best to do his will. There is also a negative conotation with the word, because of televangelist and people of that nature so it is hard to just lump myself into that category. But back to Elias, which translates to Elijah in english. We started talking to him about God a little, and he said that he had his doubts, but he said that he would talk to George and think about coming to church on sunday. Jack and I have been praying and we really hope that he does come! It would be very exciting for us and also for George. Elias is an awesome guy and I hope I get to chat with him more in the future! Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Day 13 30 May (Wed) That is the title of Ch 3 in Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ, which we are reading for project. I very much like the book and even if I didn't I would recommend it anyway because of this chapter. The full title is "The Lion and the Lamb - The Excellence of Jesus Christ." The opening paragraph of this book by John Piper is amazing and spoke volumes to me. "A lion is admirable for its ferocious strength and imperial appearance. A lamb is admirable for its meekness and servant-like provision of wool for our clothing. But even more admirable is a lion-like lamb and a lamb-like lion. What makes Christ glorious, as Jonathan Edwards observed over 250 years ago, is 'an admirable conjunction of diverse excellencies'." When looking at this paragraph there are key terms that must be taken into consideration and really thought about in order to truly grasp what it is saying. The first is ferocious strength. This is pretty easy to define and describe. A little harder though is a definition of meekness. What is meekness? Where do you start when asking these questions and in answering them. The best way to answer these questions is to look at the life of our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ. We can see that his majesty is sweetened by his meekness. In his equality with God he has deep reverence for God. This makes me think of 1 Peter 1:15-17 that talks about how we must live in reverent fear of the lord. This can be incredibly hard to do but if Jesus can do it then it should be something we can all do. The lion of Judah conquered not with his ferocity, but because he was willing to act the part of the lamb. Even though he could have done anything he wanted, he submitted his will to the authority of God and was meek so that he could be strong, and could be glorified and we could be saved. Revelation 5:5-6 does a beautiful job of portraying Jesus in this light. "But one of the 24 elders said to me, 'stop weeping! Look, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the heir to David's throne, has won the victory. He is worthy to open the scroll and its seven seals. (6) Then I saw a lamb that looked as if it had been slaughtered but it now was standing between the four living beings and among the 24 elders. He had seven hours and seven eyes that represented the sevenfold spirit of God that is sent out to every part of the world." So the Lion is the Lamb, and animal that is weak and harmless and lowly and easily preyed upon and sheared naked for clothes and killed for our food. So Christ is a lamb-like Lion. This is an incredible juxtaposition of terms you don't know how it can work, by yet it does beautifully and perfectly. When you look at these two animals you see two total opposites, you see the fierce and ferocious king of the beast, a perfect predator, who is feared and revered by all. Then you have the docile domesticated lamb an animal you can let a 3 year old pet and not worry at all about it. An animal that we use for clothing and is meek and humble, and soft and kind. Yet Jesus exemplifies both at the exact same time so perfectly you can't even begin to try and come close. But that is what is so great he gives us something so perfect to strive for that while trying to be a Lion-like Lamb or a Lamb-like Lion that we can still be a lamb or a lion. IT is important to share both traits. Especially for men and myself learning to be a lamb is very important to my relationship with God but also with people around me. With friends relatives and girlfriends/ my future wife. We must be able to balance the ferocity of the lion and the meekness of the lamb. Each chapter in Seeing and Savoring ends with a pray. The one at the end of Ch 3 is one of the best prayers I have ever read and/or heard. It is a prayer within a prayer. These five sentences I feel like are a prayer in themselves, "May the power of the Lion and the love of the Lamb make our faith in Christ unshakable. So deliver us from small dreams and timid ventures and halt plans. Embolden us. Strengthen us. Make us love with fierce and humble love." It is so powerful and challenging it is amazing. I will end on this final thought. As I said earlier it is important for us to have both of these traits. The reason it is because Jesus had both of these traits at the same time. His meekness is glorified by his strength. His meekness alone wouldn't have been enough, and neither would his strenght, but with both he is glorified and is everything that we want to be. "What makes Christ glorious is an admirable conjunction of diverse excellencies." - Jonathan Edwards

Tuesday 29 May Sorry for the delay in the blogs I have been busy and haven't had a ton of time to blog, and be on a computer, so I will try and catch up. Today we went to the compo and met Giovanni, Hannah and Sara to help them hand out fliers for the bible study that they hold for anyone who is interested at the church. Right now they are doing a study on who Jesus was, so they are really trying to get students involved, so they asked us if we would be willing to help out and we said absolutely. So we split up into groups myself Melinda and April went with Sara, who doesn't speak very much English but Melinda has studied Italian a little so we got it to work. So we started walking down a street towards one of the campuses and she told us that when we handed out a flier we should say Posso la chartie questo. We had no idea what it meant at the time but we went with it, and it seemed effective so we didn't really question it. Eventually we found out that it just meant would you like to have this, which is what we figured. So we passed out fliers for a while walking up and down a street where there is a lot of student traffic then we headed to where one of the student cafeterias is and stood outside and handed out fliers out there. At one point I handed a flier out to some one and they walked a little ways then stopped and read it and came back and asked for a second one, so April and I were excited about that hoping that meant she was planing on coming that evening. So we handed out fliers and then we headed back to the hostel and hung out there for a while, and got in contact with some of our contacts, and then family B cooked dinner. They made bacon and had all of the fixings for BLT's and such and also they bought potato's and made some french fries which were amazing. The dinner was terrific it really hit the spot. That was at about 6:30, so we all ate together and then Team A got ready to go and we headed to the Bible study, Steve, Shelby, Nicole and myself. We got there and talked a little with some of the regular church attendees that we have gotten to know, prayed for the time, and hung out and waited for people to show up. The flier said that the bible study started at 8:30 but in Italian culture that really means 9 - 9:15 so that is about the time that we got started. But it's okay because the girls that came back and asked for a second flier did show up and they brought two friends along with them as well. So there were about 5 students there who weren't regular attendees. So the guest speaker who is finishing up his PhD work lead the bible study and it was pretty mellow for a while, but then the students started asking questions and sharing opinions and that is when things got interesting. The students who showed up were not what we would call believers, they did not believe in Jesus, or God for that matter, there were differing beliefs that is for sure. One female, who came back for the second flier, was particularly vocal and opinionated, so she had about a 25 minute debate with some of the people from the church on why Jesus was a revolutionary, and how him being a revolutionary was directly correlated to the fact that he is the son of God. After that there was a little down time and then a guy that was there start to ask question about different things, and one of the questions that he asked was "How can such a universal message as love be confined to the Christian faith?" Giovanni had some things to say to him and a few other people had things to say, but the one thing that was truly profound and made the best impact on him was what Hannah said, and she said something along the lines of "God created all of us, and so for that reason we were all given the capacity and desire to love, as God does, so that is how it can be justified." That is the gist of what she said I missed some of it because she spoke it in Italian, and she is our translator, so she had to stop translating and just answer in Italian. A little while after that things got pretty heated again, and Hannah did her best to try and keep up with the translations but some of the things that the students were bringing up as arguments were pretty confusing and she had trouble following along as did we when she translated. How ever I think that the most interesting part of the night is when another girl shared that her father was a priest, yes Catholic priest. We aren't entirely sure how that one exactly works out but apparently it does. Anyway she was saying that she has had a terrible experience with the church, so even thought she believed at one point she doesn't right now, because she needs to look from the outside in, and re-discover who Jesus is. I found what she had to say very interesting, and I really liked Giovanni's response which was, well at some point you have to start searching again, because if you never start searching it's hard to find anything, but you are here so I am assuming that you are starting to search some what. The guest speaker then finished up his power-point presentation that he had for his part of the study, and then it became my moment to shine. The Sunday prior to the bible study when we were at lunch I told Giovanni and Hannah about my Catholic upbringing, and about the journey I have been on since starting college to be where I am now, and they thought that it would be great if I were to share my story with everyone, so I did. After everything that had happened I got up and shared my testimony, in English with a translation. I can't be 100% positive but i felt like from the looks on the faces of the students who showed up that night that it spoke to them and got them thinking which is fantastic. That was the end of the bible study, so afterwards we chatted a little with the regulars, had a few bites to eat, and headed home. We arrived back at the Residence at about 11:45. We were there for almost 4 hours it was pretty crazy but totally worth it. "And Jesus called to them 'Come follow me and I shall make you fishers of men'" -Matthew 4:19