World Impact Italy 2012: Home

Yes, we're home. Things may look the same to us physically, but in many ways things will never look the same again.

And that's a good thing.

I would not venture to speak for the others on the team, but I would like to follow up with just a few reflections on our week using some verses from Philippians 1. Each morning during our team meetings, Mark Brucato spoke to us from Philippians, and now it seems fitting to go back to these words.

"I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And I am sure of this that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion in the day of Jesus Christ." Phil 1: 3-6

Prayer. This week was obviously bathed in prayer by so many of you because there is no way humanly possible that so much good could have come out of it. We stayed safe. We stayed healthy. We sincerely enjoyed each member of the team. But more than that, we were blessed to watch God do a supernatural work in the lives of many Italian youth. This is what we prayed for before we left, and God honored those prayers beyond anything we could imagine.

Joy. Our time in Italy could be summed up with just this one word. We saw joy everywhere--from the faces of the kids who came to the camp, to the Italian volunteers who took time to help us all week (some taking the week off from their jobs!) with translation and many other tasks, to the College Church kids who joyfully served with energy and enthusiasm all week long.

Partnership in the gospel. To make this week of camp happen, three churches and Youth for Christ in Bologna worked together, planning, preparing, and executing all the minute details. It was beautiful to see these humble people work together, lovingly, to make the camp happen. Each person had his or her role from shouting instructions through a bullhorn to preparing English lessons (and somehow showing us how to teach them!) to driving us all around. Our students observed true partnership for the sake of the gospel.

Good work. This was the third year that College Church has partnered with the evangelical churches in Bologna to do this camp. It seems, in talking to people who have been involved every year, that the first year was a seed-planting year--friendships were formed with the hope of our kids going back the next year. The second year (2011) was a watering year--friendships deepened, Italian kids wanted to know more about Jesus, and a small youth group called "My Space" was started. This year was a year of harvest as God softened the hearts of many Italian youth. One girl professed faith in Jesus for the first time, another rededicated her life to Jesus, and many others had profound and open conversations with College Church kids. Who knows what God has planned for the future? We don't know, but we can trust that the work He began this year and the preceding years will not end.

Thanks be to God for His good work in Italy. Please pray for the Italian kids who came to camp, especially those who are still searching, that they would truly find a relationship with Jesus.

Thank you for your partnership with us. Please pray for the College Church kids, too, as they reflect on and process this unique experience. May they be drawn even more to the hope that is only found in Christ.

- Shelly

A few photos from our last few days in Italy: