As Summer Project Continues

Girls talking some girls and a guy they met on campus.

Playing poker with some Italian friends

At the beach with some Italian friends 

America versus Italy soccer match.  We were losing bad until some Italians switched to our team.

Kevin, one of the Americans, doing some of his magic tricks

So it has been two more weeks.  It has really flown by.  This week is our last week on campus and we are really trying to get all the friends we have met to be friends with all the people that will be on STINT next year or people that are on the long term team here.  The above pictures are just a few representations of our time here.  It is hard to always have a camera on campus or remember to use it to take pictures of all our friends.  A lot of the summer project students have tagged me in pictures on facebook also.

I have met many friends in the last few weeks.  We have gotten to share a lot of our lives with them.  It is exciting to know that I will have more time here in Italy with them.  My friend Pasquale had to go back to Algeria to work.  I was very excited to give him my Bible since he did not have one and it has been hard on him to be there.  I am excited to get to spend more time with him when he comes back next month since he works one month and then is off for a month.  He is very honest and that is what I appreciate about him.  We hope to discuss more of the Bible and life when he returns.

I have gotten to become friends with two  guys named Davide who are friends.  They have been so nice to us and invited us to play soccer and to the beach as you can see in the above pictures.  Their hospitality is very encouraging.  They were really excited to talk deeper things of life and we got to share the central message of the Bible with them.  They had never really read the Bible before so were excited to hear about it and were glad we talked about it.  They said sometimes we talk about unimportant things so much it was good to talk about something important.  They are also very transparent.  Being here in Italy, I have learned more to appreciate being open and wanting to sacrifice my own needs for others.  I love how genuine the people are here.  They are open and I enjoy being open with them.

Amanda and I have gotten to encourage and be a leader to all the students this project also.  It has been great getting to know them and being there while they have grown in their faith.  It has been good getting to see them share their testimony about what God has done in their life and just the good news of Jesus Christ and how his gospel changes our lives when we trust his sacrifice and live for Him and not the world.

Please pray for the group that we can continue to spread the good news of Jesus and what he did for all of us on the cross.  Pray that we would get our friends connected with Americans that are staying in Italy longer.  Pray for Amanda that she has energy and pray for both of us to not frustrated some things that have not worked out to what we thought.