Fellowship.

Today has been pretty much non-stop fellowship, and it is exactly what I need to be doing.

I was invited by Michael to his home for lunch today (I apologize i didn't take any pictures: he's got three boys all under the age of 11 and they're awesome.) Michael is a German-born, Italian-raised manager of the publishing house where I work and is married to an Italian-born, German-raised woman (great family). I had lunch today with him, his wife, his three boys, and a German missionary who is staying with them for a few weeks. It was great to go back and forth between German and Italian and to see his family interact together. Michael is a guy truly seeking to honor Christ in all he does, including raising his family. The three boys remind me of my own family as they showed me their talents on various musical instruments and their favorite game on the computer (and like my family, they argued over whose turn it was--some things never change). To see Michael and his wife raising up a family to love and honor the Lord is encouraging in an area that seems to closed to submitting to the Lord; I left feeling refreshed and excited for the invitation to come back and play basketball with the boys (even though I am terrible at basketball--that should change).

I just finished up a conversation with Joseph, a guy from Ghana, in the bookstore. He's been living in Europe for the past 7 years, and he told me his story of how he has gotten to where he is now. Like almost every person I meet from Africa, he has been through extreme suffering (another place I wished I had a picture; he lossed all but two of his total of 10 toes to frostbite when his ship crossing the straits between Africa and Italy capsized. He was on the high seas for two weeks and then spent 7 months in a hospital to recover from exposure and to learn to walk again. As I listened, we talked about Christ, the Cross, overcoming and living for Him in a dark world in and in spite of suffering, and family structure. In contrast to Michael's family, Joseph grew up in Africa in a system where fathers see themselves as foreigners in the home, and "the home" is usually two to four homes, where the father makes this many families at a time. As such, Joseph told me that he recognized the importance of a man of God in the home, that it is essential to have a foundation of Christ there as much as anywhere else. His testimony humbled me and encouraged me at the same time. God is doing a mighty work in Joseph, and even as he struggles to serve Christ, God is blessing him. Pray for strength for him.

Tomorrow is a holiday in Italy, and I have no idea what I'm doing tomorrow. Pray that I use the day well and that they guys I work with get some much needed rest. Both Les and Michael have been working long hours and serving people until 12:30 or 1 every night, still getting up at 7am every morning. The holiday is much needed for these guys, so pray for their spiritual and physical encouragement.

All for now. We're going to go look at my bike and see if we can get the tire to stop wobbling. God is good all the time, there's so much to be thankful for.

b