Lake Como...

Our ten days in Lake Como have proved that Italy is just as beautiful as it's reputed to be. We've enjoyed the stunning scenery as well as the passion and hospitality of the people, not to mention the food! It's true: pasta really is better in Italy.

Our time was spent doing an outreach in the town. This was the only country we've visited where our outreach was entirely based on street work. This posed a challenge for those of us who find that hard, but the week has highlighted the fact that there are many aspects to, and styles of reaching out. We learnt that praying really is as valuable as speaking to people, that listening is sometimes more necessary than talking, and most of all, our availability is our greatest ability.

"I was personally encouraged by discovering that music could be used by God in this style of outreach too. I was reluctant to play my saxophone on the street because I thought that you had to be really good to carry off street performances and I struggled to see how my average playing would help - it wasn't going to pull in crowds! But once I began to play I enjoyed the freedom of openly worshipping God in a public place and was surprised (and pleased) by the team saying that the music encouraged them as they spoke to people. I was reminded of Belgium, one of our first countries, where we heard that worship through music was powerful and made an impact on a place." (Amy)

A devotion that Tomoko shared on our last morning of planned outreach has certainly been true for us this week: 'But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things - and the things that are not - to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.' 1 Corinthians 1v 27-29

"I love street Evangelism! - and during our ten day outreach in Lake Como we got to do a lot of it! For a few days we went to the local park and then later on during the week to the Piazza. I had many great conversations; it seemed God answered my prayers of putting me at the right place at the right time. One thing I learnt during this outreach was that I truly need to know who and what I am following. During many conversations it occurred to me that people thought church was just something that you do in your free time and God was just someone you said you believed in. They didn’t realise that believing in God is about having a relationship with him. It caused me to see clearly that the relationship we have with God is really really special and so much more than a church building on Sunday or reading your bible occasionally." (Hannah)