My Blog

Visitors From Rome

Fri, 5 Jun 2009 19:43:42 -0500

After having visited Athens and reading the Scriptures that referenced that city, particularly Paul’s encounters there. I decided to do the same for Rome and it got me thinking. In Acts 2 when the Holy Spirit moved among the apostles and miraculously empowered them to speak in various languages to all the people gathered in Jerusalem for Pentecost we’re told that there were “visitors from Rome” in their midst. We’re not told if any of those visitors believed or not. Luke later tells us that there were many believers added that day, but doesn’t give any specifics. We’re left wondering. Why did he mention the visitors from Rome? Did they hear and believe?

Throughout the rest of the Bible we get little glimpses and small reports from Rome. First of two believers from Rome named Priscilla and Aquilla. Then of a debate that arose between Jew and Gentile over a man named Jesus. Then of a small church that had begun. Then Paul’s letter to strengthen this new church and finally of Paul’s adventurous and miraculous journey to Rome to stand trial and strengthen the church in Rome.

How did Rome first hear of Jesus and the gospel? Is it possible that it was from those “visitors from Rome?” Could it be that they heard and believed and returned to Rome to tell others? Could it be that all they did was hear and return to Rome to have the seed that was planted by the Spirit and the apostles then watered by another believer back home?

The guy in the picture above is Ron from Philly. Team Rusty met Ron in Barcelona where he immediately noticed something different about them and asked if they were Christians. L.A. was bummed she didn’t get to speak more with Ron. She wrote in her blog,
“The opportunity never came again for us to talk with Ron about his spiritual life, but Ron did
want to hang out with us a lot. Which was cool...but I am praying that we will run into each other
[again] so that I can ask him why he isn’t really into Christianity anymore. Be praying for that.”

Well a few days later our team is sitting in our hostel in Rome and this guy walks up and asks if he can sit down and hang out with us. I said, “Sure, what’s your name?” “My name is Ron.” I immediately knew this was going to be Ron from Philly. “No way, Ron where are you from?” “I’m from Philly.” I was blown away. My mind went straight to L.A.’s prayer and to thinking maybe God orchestrated all of this for the other team to speak to Ron about their faith and then for Ron to be here in Rome for our team to “water the seed” so to speak.

We hung out and shared stories for about an hour and made plans to tour the Vatican the next day together. But hanging out the next day never happened. Ron was a no show. I only saw him for a brief second across the room as he was leaving our hostel that night to go out. I started to feel pretty disappointed. Much like L.A., I was wondering why I didn’t press further with Ron. “How could something that seemed so divinely orchestrated turn into nothing? What happened? Should I have not waited until we were going to hang out the next day to say something? Should I have said something the night before?” Those were some of my thoughts.

But who is to say that it turned into nothing? What if all that was supposed to happen at this time was for Ron to experience grace first hand through his interaction with our teams and then later have the gospel fully explained to him by some other believer? What if Ron was a “visitor [in] Rome.” It’s so easy to limit God to only being able to rescue people through me or the way I think he should. But he is so infinitely bigger than that and wiser and although we can’t see the whole picture maybe one day there will be a church in Philly that was started by a guy named Ron who first saw the gospel in Rome and later heard it from someone else.

By the way...team Rusty went to Rome the day after we left...stayed in the same hostel...ran into Ron again....and Chase shared the gospel with him :)

Top Ten Most Fun Moments of My Trip

Tue, 2 Jun 2009 22:35:19 -0500

Today we enjoyed the peace and calm of Monterosso, one of the 5 villages among the Cinque Terre. Our team needed it, we’ve been non-stop since the beginning. We were sitting around the room coming up with every top ten list imaginable from our trip. Top ten worst beds on the trip. Top ten best meals. Top ten best sweets. Top ten most awkward moments. We had a list for everything and had a good time remembering them and making them. The list could really go on and on, but here’s my top ten fun moments....so far.

10 - “Hearing “Neeaaaalll!” (pronounced “Knee-All” with a very strong Southern accent) from Anna after everything I do
9 -Seeing Rusty walk into the Mobile airport with his 52lb backpack
8 - Riding upright-grandpa-cruiser-bikes with TJ in Amsterdam
7 - Hearing Chase say “I bet you I could.....(insert anything)”
6 - Hearing L.A. tell her “Wachovia” joke to a group of people who’ve never heard of Wachovia Bank.
5 - Experiencing Kristin’s motherly instinct at every cross-walk, “Car, car, car, car, car, car!!”
4 - Discovering the new hit single (which will be short lived) by Jeremih (spelled correctly) and having club Cinque Terre with strobing headlamps.
3 - Bryan’s commentary....anywhere...especially when he was on camera.
2 - Riding a night train to florence with Jennifer
1 - Recounting Daniel’s introduction mantra with the guys in a coffee shop in Cinque Terre. “You’re from Colorado? Do you know my friend so and so? You’re going to Greece? I’ve heard Santorini is the best island, you can stay there for 8 euros a night. Yeah a Kiwi told me.”

Honorable Mention goes to Jenn and her “He was just kidding” statement clarifying any joke on the trip and the couple who took 22 pictures of themselves jumping in front of the parthenon (as seen above)

Answered Prayer and Caravaggio Paintings

Tue, 26 May 2009 03:51:03 -0500

We prayed before we left Paris and we prayed when we arrived and then we prayed a bunch more as we met people....and God answered! We’ve met more people and had more opportunities to share our stories and point out God here in Florence than we have the whole trip. It has been amazing to see.

While we were sitting at breakfast our first morning Jennifer said out loud and very playfully, “Guys, I want to meet people!” Immediately the girl sitting behind us turned around and said, “Hey my name is Kim.” She introduced us to her friend Jason, who she was traveling with. Both are from Seattle. We spent the next two days with them and were even invited to travel to Siena with them. On one of our many trips to get gelotti, as the guys were talking with Jason and the girls were talking with Kim I prayed “God give one of us a wide open door to tell them about you, and may it be absolutely obvious!” I prayed a bit more and then dropped it when I was completely distracted by the gelotti (it has the tendency to do that).

We came back to the hostel to play cards and hang out and were joined by another friend we met. She’s an art history major at Harvard and was telling us all about the art in Florence. Somewhere in the middle of that Jason asked if all the art we were seeing had more meaning to me since I knew the biblical stories behind them. I had never thought about it, but the paintings do give us a visual and make the stories we often take for granted come alive. I told him so and asked what he thought. He said, he didn’t know very much of the Bible so when he looks at all the paintings of Biblical stories he doesn’t get it...it’s just a painting.

As we wrapped up our game of cards and we were headed to our rooms, Jason and I were walking through the lobby when I remembered there was a painting by Caravaggio of Abraham about to sacrifice Isaac in the lobby of our hostel. I pointed it out to Jason and told him that’s an example of what he was talking about, “Yeah, all I see is a guy about to kill someone and an angel stopping him,” he said. I responded, “Actually it’s one of the great stories of the Bible. Abraham was asked to sacrifice his only son - a son that God had promised to him and a son that God said would produce many nations. Abraham trusted that God was big enough to know what he was doing, that he could save Isaac, or restore Isaac or even provide another son if he wanted so he obeyed. And right as he was about to sacrifice him God stopped him....and provided a substitute. See the ram in the painting...that was the substitute for Isaac. The ram died in his place. That’s a picture of Jesus dying in our place” Up until those last two sentences I was just telling him the story...it hadn’t even dawned on me what I was doing or saying or even what Jason was thinking. It wasn’t a method, a plan, or some grand strategy. But when I said those last two sentences I instantly remembered what I had prayed earlier that day, “God give one of us a wide open door to tell them about you, and may it be absolutely obvious!”

I looked over at Jason and his mouth was wide open. “I have never heard any of that!” As I turned I saw another Caravaggio painting on the wall. This one was David holding the head of Goliath. I pointed it out and started telling him the whole story of David and Goliath and how David represented the whole nation of Israel and conquered Goliath and how that is a picture of Jesus representing us and conquering sin and death. Again, mouth wide open, “I never knew any of that.”

I’m confident you will think I’m making this up...I couldn’t believe it myself. But I turned again and on the other wall behind us was another Caravaggio painting. This one was Jesus and the disciples eating the last supper. I almost started crying when I saw it...I pointed it out to Jason and said, “And there’s Jesus at the last supper...the night before he died for your sins.” Jason said, “Wow, I never knew any of this, I’ve never heard any of this, I didn’t grow up with any of these stories, that’s amazing.” Did I mention he’s from America?

I don’t know Jason’s response, we wrapped up our conversation, I told him there were a lot more stories where those came from, and we parted ways for the evening...but I know he heard. I know it was eye opening for him. But I’ve got to be honest, it was eye opening for me - to see God answer a prayer by orchestrating things in such a way was amazing. But it was also eye opening to realize there are so many more like Jason. People who see God, Jesus, and the Bible as Jason saw those paintings - as just another “painting of some guy about to kill someone” but without any real understanding of the story. Some are content to just look at the painting, but there are many who want to know it’s meaning and understand....they’re just waiting for someone to explain it.

Who’s Ready For Some Fun!?

Sun, 24 May 2009 03:26:00 -0500

Paris is behind us. While we didn’t have very many significant conversations, we did have a great stay, made some new friends, and saw God answer some of our prayers and teach us much (in some cases instantly - it was pretty exciting).

We left Paris on a night train bound for Florence, Italy. Night trains are fun b/c of their uniqueness and the stories they provide...not so much b/c of the wonderful night’s rest you get. Our experience was full of entertainment mostly due to our 6th cabin mate who chose not to shower....in the last year, and also b/c of the 300lb piece of luggage Daniel and I were asked to put in the overhead. (When you think night train cabin - think phone booth for 6 with 6 backpacks, a 300lb piece of luggage and a years worth of b.o.). The culmination of our “fun” night train was the 5:30am arrival and layover in Milan. Like the rest of the world, Milan doesn’t open it’s businesses....bathrooms until 7am. Fun times! I’m sure Jenn will kill me, but the picture says it all! HA!

Well, we did make it to Florence and we arrived with a prayer: “God provide us ample opportunity to point you out!”

Mobilians Collide

Tue, 19 May 2009 09:08:34 -0500

“Where are you from?” She asked. “Alabama,” we said. She responded, “No way, I’m from Alabama...Mobile, Alabama.” Our response, “SHUT-UP!” “Well we’re breaking one of the cardinal rules of international travel and heading to Starbucks for breakfast, if you want to join us.” “Absolutely, I’ve been studying abroad all year in Paris and I have been desperate for human interaction.” That’s how the day began for us guys....over iced white Mokas at Starbucks with Jessica. She spent the next 6hrs tagging along with our team strolling through Athens, mailing postcards, talking about life.

In the midst of our two hour breakfast - going down the list of people we all had in common and talking SEC football - we tried to broach the subject of faith, but Jessica shut it down pretty quick and changed the subject. We went on about our conversation and hung out. Later that afternoon she brought it back up. “So you work at UM, that Christian school, and organize these trips?” She asked. “Yeah, it’s a way to get students out of the bubble for a bit, see the world, and talk with people about life and faith.” I responded. Then she asked, “Have you always been this committed to your faith?” I went on to tell her my story and ask her about her own story. She told me all about being forced to go to church, being forced to take confirmation classes. She told me she believed in Jesus but had a real problem with the actions of the church, it’s leadership, and people trying to force her to believe certain things. We spent about 2 hours talking, listening, and trying to find a new flavor magnum bar. Her closing comment on the subject of faith, Jesus, and God was...”I’ve got to be honest, I don’t know a whole lot so when someone tries to tell me I typically just shut it down and push them away - they’re just trying to preach at me anyway - you know, I think I really should go back and investigate this stuff for myself.” “That’s great, I’ll pray for you as you do...can I recommend a couple of books to you?” “Sure!”