sorry for the delay!

ciao amici! i am so so sorry it has been so long since i have posted last. i have no excuses but i think the biggest reason is that i am so tired at the end of each day that the last thing i feel like doing is sitting in front of a computer. i am sorry though, because i know how many of you support me and like to have specific things to pray for! so here i am finally!

so before i update you on my awesome new italian friends and how ministry is going, i thought i would be a little light-hearted to begin with. last weekend, our team got to go to pisa and lucca, two cities about an hour train ride away. i got to see the leaning tower in pisa and took pictures pretending to hold it up, being a touristy as possible. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leaning_Tower_of_Pisa) the tower was great, but there wasn't very much else to do in pisa, so we went to lucca, a small city about 20 minutes away. the city is not famous for much, but it is absolutely beautiful. we ate dinner at a little cafè and walked around the city. it was the epitome of a little tuscan town and i loved it! then, on monday, since it was a holiday here in florence, we didn't go to campus because no one was there. so instead, our team got to go to the duomo (http://www.duomofirenze.it/index-eng.htm) and we went up to the top! there are over 400 stairs to climb and they are tiny stone spiral staircases the entire way up. (mom...i don't think you'd like this too much!) once we got to the very top though, we got a 360 degree view of the entire city. it was beautiful! don't worry, i have tons of pictures!

yesterday, the team got to go to siena! siena is absolutely beautiful as well! it was really neat being there and seeing how different the cities are here. florence is definitely a buzzing metropolis, which i didn't fully realize until we went to siena. it is much smaller and and more compact (if that makes any sense). while we were there, we got to meet the summer project team that is serving there this summer. it was really great to learn how ministry is there, how it is really similar and so different at the same time. please be praying for the siena team, as they are in their last week of ministry as well!

today we got to do the one thing i have been looking forward to more than anything else...i finally got to see DAVID!!!!! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_%28Michelangelo%29) words cannot express the reaction i had to the most famous sculpture in history. i was literally breathtaken...i caught myself holding my breath as i just stood there staring at it! michelangelo is the most talented artist that ever lived and i was so taken with the fact that he used his skill to glorify our God. in the accademia, the museum that houses David, there were many other facinating works of art, mainly from native florentine artists. every single painting or sculpture in the museum depicted either Jesus Christ, mary, or something else related to the christian faith. i was thinking the entire time how unfulfilling it would be to walk through the museum and see all of the paintings and not believe in God or in Christ. i was just in awe of how beautiful everything was and how amazing it was to see these artists using their abilities to attempt to capture Christ, to capture everything that life comes down to. today was by far my favorite day in florence. i could have stayed in the accademia all day! it was just amazing! (and no, i don't have a picture...the camera nazi's scared me too much!)

i know i could write forever about how ministry has been going, but i'm just going to write about 2 of my friends...

cosimo--i talked about cosimo in my last post, and since then, we have gotten to hang out with him a couple times. the first time, we met him for lunch in the mensa and stayed there talking for a couple hours. then, we went to a cafè and had some tea and stayed there talking until about 4. we talked about absolutely everything...his family, where he grew up, politics, university life, the catholic church, his beliefs...everything. then, at 4, it was time for us to go back to campus pray, so we told cosimo and asked him if he wanted to come with us. surprisingly to us, he agreed, so we went back to campus and went through our prayer sheet with him, looking up and talking about all of the scriptures. it was so neat to hear what he thought about the scriptures we read. basically, that day, we hung out with him for about 5 hours and just talked about everything. at the end of the day, we thought he might be a believer because he would agree with everything we said, but he hadn't really gotten him to spell out what he believed for us. we got to hang out with him again on thursday night. my friend sam and i went to dinner with him...funny story, while we were at dinner, he told us that he was going to the bathroom and actually went and paid for the whole check...he is awesome. after dinner, we all came back and hung out at the hotel and almost immediately started talking about spiritual things. we got to lay out the gospel for him and talked really in depth about what that means. he told us that he believes everything we said, but, like most catholics, thinks that it is prideful to say that you know for sure that you are going to heaven. it was clear that this had been engrained in his head for a long time, because no matter what scripture we told him, he would say that he agrees, but that he just can't be absolutely sure and that on the last day, God will judge him and tell him whether or not he gets to go to heaven. we sat there talking until 1am and i could tell that he wanted so badly to be sure. the conversation was amazing and i think God is definitely working in his heart. please please pray that cosimo's world would be turned upside-down with the assurance of salvation that comes with faith in Jesus. he is one of the greatest people i think i've ever met and i want so badly for him to know the Lord in the perfect and amazing way that we do. please continue to pray for his clarification and certainty in salvation!

gisella--this is a girl that i met early last week on campus. i went through our survey with her, and then we just started talking about everything else. she told me that she was very religious and a very devout catholic. the biggest difference between the catholic church and the protestant church that i have found here, is that the catholic church is teaching people that they cannot be sure of their salvation. just like cosimo, gisella would not tell me that she is 100% sure that she gets to go to heaven, even though she told me that she believes in Christ and professes him as savior. i got to go through the 4 spiritual laws of the gospel with her and we talked about some very specific verses that point to our assurance of faith, but we didn't really get anywhere. i got to hang out with her again on thursday, but we just talked about random things and just had some fun because i felt like i laid it on pretty thick the first time we talked. please pray that we get to meet again before i leave and that she too, would have confidence in the cross and the saving power of the blood of Christ. pray that the Lord would bang them over the head with the truth that it is by grace alone that we are saved! not by our own works or merit! almost everyone i have talked to cannot say this confidently. i just pray that God will overturn their previous notions and fill them with his truth! gisella invited me to her house so she can cook for me, so please pray that we get to talk about this again!

thank you all so much for praying for my while i am here in florence. ministry is definitely very hard. most italians have hard hearts to God and blinded eyes. pray for the veil of unbelief to be lifted and that they would be able to see the love and grace that God offers freely through Jesus. i would venture to say that italy is one of the most lost nations (in the sense that they have the least believers in Christ) in the entire world. praise God that he sent me here...please continue to pray for the precious souls of italy.

we have one week left of ministry and we need divine endurance. pray for my team and a strong finish. we leave for debriefing in cinque terre next monday, and i know everyone is excited about it, but we have much to do before then (or should i say, God has much to do before then!) thank you all again. your support means the world to me!

ti amo! ciao!

xoxo hayley