Give Me Your Eyes

This week I'm teaching Kensey's students because she is in the UK. Brandon and Kristin are also in the UK for two weeks visiting churches to decide where they will work for the next 5+ years. Please pray for their safe travels! I would like to introduce you to some of our students, but I also want to maintain their privacy so won't be using their names.


A Chinese girl who is in high school has been coming for English lessons for over a year. She has read lots of Bible stories and recently asked Kensey about the overall composition of the Bible, so she made an outline of the books, authors, and genres for her. After presenting the outline, Kensey and I are going through a brief overview of the books and selecting stories for her to read. While sometimes she has seemed close to belief, at other times she is incredulous about the stories she reads. Last week she asked if the creation story came from someone's imagination. Her family has a Buddhist background.


Last Thursday afternoon a man saw a sign in the window of the church building advertising English lessons, so he came in and started talking to Chad and some Italian church members. He stayed for the Bible study that night and really enjoyed it and also came to church on Sunday. He plans to keep attending church as well as English lessons.


One of our most faithful students comes by the building often just to talk with whomever is available. His wife and three-year-old son also come with him sometimes to events at church, and he recently became Chad's new landlord.


For more about these and other students, you may read Kensey's post entitled "Nomenclature," currently the second from the top of her blog: http://www.kenseylynne3.blogspot.com/


Now that there are three of us Avanti workers here, we are hoping to acquire more English students. We also would like to get more involved in the community in order to serve and make more contacts. Please pray for opportunities and wisdom as we seek to expand our work and spread the kingdom of God in this city! While we have been generating ideas (finding a children's home or retirement center to work with, serving the homeless, or volunteering in schools), figuring out how to implement them here in Italy is the hard part. For example, right next to our apartment building is an all girls' school. A couple months ago two students killed themselves due to a new grading policy, and a group of parents stoned the school. The effects of the riot are still visible on the building and I'm sure still felt in the hearts of the students. Stories like this remind me that there are so many opportunities to reach out to people here if we only have the eyes to see them.


"Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone." ~Colossians 4:2-6


Brandon Heath's song "Give Me Your Eyes" portrays the type of vision I wish to have. You may listen to it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTsYAZvHsEQ