Sunday... Church in Italy

When our friend Giliola found out that Doug is a Pastor at a Protestant church she quickly told us that there was a Protestant church just around the corner from her house.  She thought that it might start at 11.  So on Sunday we headed out the door to see what church would be like in Italy

Church in Italy

The church was not very full but there were a few families.  The Pastor was a woman and she and a younger woman each gave short talk.  The scripture was on First Corinthians 13... luckily a pretty familiar section.  After the service we were going to slip out, but an older gentleman stopped us on the way out to greet us.  He had read the Corinthians passage during the service with great passion.  It turns out that this man used to be the Pastor of this congregation.  He is retired now and they are trying to get younger leadership.  As one can imagine the Protestant church in Italy is pretty small and there is a shortage of Pastoral leadership.  This gentleman, whose name is Gioele (Joel) speaks wonderful english. He quickly asked Doug if he would like to preach some Sunday although he would have to check with the committee.  Doug said he would love to preach and was quite familiar with the committee process.  We're thinking maybe in February Doug could do something at this church.  So Joel walks around the sanctuary, talks with a few people and comes back to Doug and says "how about next Sunday?" !  Um... sure!  So next Sunday Doug will be preaching (with Joel translating) at the local protestant church.  It reminded us both of our last sabbatical in Scotland when we took a ferry to Northern Ireland and Doug preached a sermon there.  It will certainly be an experience to remember!