The Silver Lining

Tom, who lives in Bologna and will be moving with our team to Torino, lined up a reasonably priced bed & breakfast for himself and Team Torino leader Paul in our target area of Torino, when Paul went to visit to line up apartments for our arrival. 

It was a two bedroom, two bath apartment where the owner lived and opened up his home for guests to share the space with him.  When they arrived, the young owner, Mario, introduced himself saying he found out they were protestant ministers by checking online (he must have researched online from Tom's e-mail address) and proceeded to tell them that he was an athiest, but not in the strict sense, but rather in the Italian sense of having rejected the religious God of the Catholic Church.  He said he was into New Age and some Buddhist ideology, and enjoyed being at peace with the Creator through the peace and tranquility of His creation. 

By day's end, it was evident that God was at work in his life as an unexpected event left him rather disturbed and not sleeping for most of the night, as they would find out the next morning.  At breakfast, conversation turned to God and religion, and Tom briefly explained the difference between religion (i.e...man's futile attempt to answer the question, "What must I DO to be reconciled with God?") and the Gospel which declares that God did everything to make it possible for us to be forgiven and reconciled with Him through the sacrificial death of the Lord Jesus Christ.  At this point he was moved to tears and began to open up and share some more.

Mario said that he wants us to keep in touch and tell him as soon as we get into the area and start having meetings, because he wants to come and be a part of what we are doing when we get there! Mario accepted a Bible and was encouraged to begin reading in the Gospel of John.

Praise God!