Chiesa Italiano!

On Sunday evening, I went to a small Assemblies of God church down near the train station at the base of the cliff. This is the only non-catholic church in Orvieto. My friend and I arrived at the time services were supposed to start, but no one was there and the lights were off, and everything was locked. We wondered what was going on. In a couple minutes, a car pulled up with three sweet older ladies. They got out and one of them looked like she had a Bible in her hand. So I asked them if they were there for church, they said, "Si, si!" When I told them that we were too, they got so excited! We introduced ourselves and met each of them. We helped them open up the church, and went into their sanctuary once we got inside.

As people started showing up, the ladies kept introducing us to everyone as they came in. The pastor speaks pretty decent english, so I was able to talk with him. Then the service started. It was amazing to be there in the midst of honest praise being sung to God in Italian, surrounded by people passionately in love with Jesus. I recognized some of the tunes, but most were new to me. After the singing, the pastor asked if I wanted to say something to the congregation. I was nervous, because my Italian is not quite that good yet! But the pastor's friend translated for me. I said that while I am here to study archtitecture in Orvieto, I want to meet people who love the Lord and experience God with them here in Italy. They all said, "Amen!"

The sermon was about an hour long, and it was cool because I was able to follow along with some parts. I did not always understand what he was talking about, of course, but I did manage to understand some. That was encouraging! They invited us to stay afterwords for sort of a pot-luck meal that the members had all brought to the church. We enjoyed hanging out and eating some good food with them. (Me using my VERY limited Italian) These people are SO nice, so genuine, and so excited for us to be with them.

I started talking to the guy who played guitar during worship, telling him that I also play guitar. He offered to let me play and, of course, I accepted! They asked me to play some worship song that I knew in English. I played them "Blessed Be Your Name". They made me repeat it so the pastor could hear it. Then they asked for "Amazing Grace". The pastor asked me if I would like to play a song during one of the services! I said, that I would love to! It is so great to be around people that are so excited about the Lord! The pastor told me "You now have a family here in Italy." That really touched me. The love of Christ is so evident in their church.

So, after we jammed for a while, it was time to go. One of the ladies offered to give us a ride back to our apartment. The whole experience was about 3 and a half hours long. So amazing!

God is good. Praise Him that he has given me this Italian family!