Last Sunday, we conducted a wonderful 2-hour class on the book of 1 John. I didn’t conduct it, rather, two Italian men from our ministry did and they taught it all in Italian. I had another class to teach in English. In fact, we taught 10 classes last Sunday that were each two hours long. This is part of our equipping strategy for the Body here. But what was really a thrill was to see these two Italian men exegete the wonderful riches of 1 John and place them into their native tongue for others.
We invited many Italians but didn’t have as strong of a turnout as we had expected. However, a number of folks that said they were going to come had a slew of unexpected conflicts. I told one of our fellows, “If you don’t think it’s going to be a war to even bring the Word to one person out here, you might as well not even get out of bed that day and finish a good book.”
No worries. Our men did such a good job that we rented the hotel conference room again for 12 December and we’re going to go back out and invite them all in again. It’ll be even tougher for them to refuse our smiling faces twice. 
I believe Jesus used the words, “Compel them…”
One lady, who’s a local hairdresser, committed to come to our study but went to visit her mother a few hours away over the weekend. As I passed near her work, I took the opportunity to go in and chat with her to tell her that we would be re-offering the class. When I told her about the new time, she was both grateful and receptive. Then, out of the blue, she said, “I had another invitation to go on a spiritual journey this last weekend too.” I asked, “A spiritual journey?” She replied, “Yes, it’s something a little more unique. There’s a man who lost his son in an accident some years ago who still speaks with him in Heaven. Every so often, he assembles a group and they go to Milan to receive messages from the son through the father. I’ve read two of his books and he says such beautiful things.” My answer was a bit profound at that moment when I said, “Oh?” She then asked, “What, Roberto, you don’t believe in these things?”
It was at that moment that I had a decision to make. We have been working with this lady for 17 months now and inviting her to all sorts of things. Many of our ladies frequent her salon and speak to her about the Word and the church. I could “lightly brush” her ideas aside and hope that the Word would deal directly with her in the class - or reveal to her the law of the Word of God at possible expense to “our efforts.” I chose the latter and answered, “There is a great spiritual war that is being fought between good and evil, light and darkness. And for the darkness to win, the Bible teaches us that there are many demons who masquerade as ‘angels of light’ speaking many beautiful things and deceiving many people.” To which she said, “But the father says that his son is now an angel in the heavens, do you not believe him?” Even more carefully and tenderly I shared, “Friend, apart from Jesus Christ, I cannot believe that this man’s son is now an angel. First, we don’t become angels when we die and second, there is no contact with the dead because Jesus is the only Mediator.” Her response to me was, “Oh, Roberto, don’t tell me such things…”
At that point, I pulled out my wallet and a 50 euro note — a strange occurence to have that much money on me for sure. 
I began to ask this lady if I had gone home and made this 50 euro on my computer and brought it back - would she receive it in payment for my haircut? She said she probably would. This was because she would have been fooled by the appearance of the money. But then I asked her if it would have been right and legal to which she said, “No.” In fact, I could’ve gotten us both in trouble. I shared the demonic correlation with her and she understood.
Certainly, I thought her reaction was going to be one of frustration with us and attraction to the occult. But it wasn’t. She told me that she really needed to come to our class to listen to the Word so that she would know and understand more about these areas. We didn’t lose any ground. We gained ground in the Kingdom in her life. From there, we went our ways and I’ll send one of our ladies back in to deliver a new invite to the class and invite her coworkers too.
What you the reader needs to know is that we are encountering people on a regular basis with all sorts of schemes and “angelic plans”. Simply put, many Italians are running right into diabolic activities while retaining their “catholic” name. The Roman Catholic Church doesn’t seem to mind either and in many cases seems to encourage this behavior. Please understand that when I use the word “many” I’m not using it as an over-generalization. I truly mean “many” in this place. Pray for us as we strike the match in a darkened place.
This last week, about 40 people from our ministry went to various locations throughout our region to effect - The Cappuccino Touch. This was an outreach designed to buy coffee for coffee-lovers (about 95% of the local population). What’s great about buying coffee in Italy is even though our exchange rate is aweful, coffee here is still cheaper and better than Starbucks!
Actually, the coffee was just the icebreaker. We use the coffee to surprise people who never expect anything free (including salvation) without strings attached. The cafe becomes the vehicle to meet people easily and to build bridges quickly. Each person receives a connection card and a warm greeting from most likely, the first born-again Christian they have ever met. The connection card had the last verses of the Bible on it. In summary, “The Spirit and the Bride say ‘Come!’ and to all who are thirsty ‘Come!’ and to all who would receive the free gift of the water of life … yes, says the One who testifies of these things, I am coming!”
Every person who received a connection card also found a web address directly linking them from the outreach to our church.
For those who we were able to linger and speak with, we then invited them to a special Bible study course on the 21st of November. We’ve rented a lovely hotel conference room where a study will be taught on the book of 1 John by two of our Italian men. Then, for those who come, the Italian small group (LifeTeam) will have windows of opportunity to reach to the visitors and follow them up. The LifeTeam is already established and acts as a “container” for the fruit. The people will be able to be touched through the Word and see a model of the Christian life lived out on a regular basis through the group of Italian believers.
Here is our logo of a local coffee (macchiato) that we used during the outreach.
Well, the election is over, and I lost — to Nader. Exit polls are revealing some very raw data that my write-in campaign wasn’t as effective as I had hoped. I’m ready to concede without dragging through torment those four precious people I want to take in my arms and hug. Yet I wonder if I missed something — something big — that wouldn’t allow me to connect with the other 3 voters I needed to beat Nader. I’ll have to set my hopes higher for ‘08.
I took Reilly for ice cream on election night. The difference in time zones meant that election coverage didn’t start until 12:30 a.m. and ended around 8:30 a.m. As we pulled up and parked, the car in front of us had a “Kerry-Edwards” bumper sticker on it. That’s the first sticker or banner we’ve seen. This is one privilege of living overseas. I quickly checked to see if the car belonged to a military member but it was owned by a local Italian which equally surprised me.
It’s a good thing that the States are united or the Kerry campaign would’ve picked up the overwhelming European vote. The Europeans are born and bred in socialistic liberalism. They’re fed it in humanistic schools and communally fearful of strong leadership. The group opinion goes a long way here and usually ends up at the lowest common denominator. They’re also fed a continuous, liberal media line from America. They love CNN and have never heard of Fox News. Fahrenheit 911 was a huge hit across Europe while the Passion was deliberately and quickly forgotten. When Europe overwhelmingly supports an American candidate, America should run.
However, when I talk to local Italians and share with them that Kerry is pro-abortion, pro-homosexuality, and pro-taxation their response is usually a shocked, “Really?!” They rarely, if ever, hear these things. Recently, at one luncheon with 10 Italians, only one of them had ever heard of partial-birth abortion and most didn’t even know what it was. As soon as I described how barbaric it is, they wondered why nobody had reported this. They repeatedly asked, “America has made that legal?”
National and local papers were fascinating reading as well. In Italy, there are something like 57 political parties compared to America’s dominant 2. And, while a number of US papers thinly veil their bias, Italy has long burned bias-veils. A number of them basically repeated the lines of the major US networks. This is becoming more and more common; almost like a global news network droning the same lines over and over. And yes, I’ve already read the Left Behind series (about 5 books into the series and lost interest leaving Buck in the tribulation - oh well). However, many papers were all-out insulting. One read, “Good Night America” with a darkened W grimace. Other European papers called Americans stupid and said that the rest of the world will suffer because of the ignorance of America. I doubt Israeli papers made any similar remarks.
But Europe and New York are bed-fellows. One “independent journalist” on NBC was asked why Bush was so successful. His answer was something like this, “George Bush was very successful at connecting with right-wing elements.” I yelled, “ELEMENTS! The whole country is red except for the little blue elements around major coastal cities.” I’d like to fight for the singular — one, big, red “element” in the middle. The journalist continued, “The inherent problem is that many Democrats and news media personnel do not live outside of the blue states. We don’t know what it’s like to own a pickup, own guns, and go to Nascar races.” Ya, those are our issues that we lined up to defend. I hope the journalist continues to think that way so that we can surprise him again in four years. It’s fun.
A number of Italians in our town have asked me if I’m happy over the election. I say, “Sure I am, but you know me to be happy for another Reason.” It’s so hard to say to these folks, “Politics aside” because politics is all they think about. As conservative, evangelical Baptists, we’re often travelling the road between novelty and anomaly in Europe.
It’s Election Night and I’ve decided that I’ll throw my hat in the ring. I’ve been tossing around the idea, but I’ve been internally torn about it — about 45% ‘go for it’ to 45% ’stay on the couch with the Hannity stream’ and a few point margin of sway. I’m pretty comfortable here so I’ll sit this one out but you are more than welcome to write-in vote for me.
Over the last few years I’ve heard a number of fellows say, “A nation gets who it deserves.” The more I chew on this point, the more I just don’t want to swallow it. Our nation does not get what it deserves. Kerry is much better than we deserve. Bush is much better than that.
We are a decadent nation. Step away from it for awhile and you’ll feel it when you step back in. Sin = death. One sin is death. The first sin is death. And there is no contention that our country is a grand corporate sinner. That’s tough to swallow and will never be politically correct. We don’t deserve the nation we have, and this is one evidence of a Great Grace. We don’t get who or what we deserve and thank Goodness that we don’t.
My contention is that
a nation gets what it hungers for.
That plays out negatively and positively. Negatively, if indifference rules in hand with immorality, the Judge will allow those vices to take their course and reach their own destructive ends. He will do this because the people have rejected Him as Judge. Positively (and this fills the soul with hope), even a small percentage of committed, righteous people can save a land. A little prayer, fervent and faith-filled, can go a long way. The righteous must not lose heart even though their numbers will be smaller. As the hungry pursue Heaven, they will see the plan God has for their nation. And whether that plan is good or bad, their eyes will be on their Father.
