La Bella Vita

“Yes, I think you are right… we cannot love perfectly until we experience the perfect love of God.”

We met Rino several months ago at "La Sapienza", the largest university in Europe, during our English conversation time. He also came to our Thanksgiving dinner, but since then we haven't really seen much of him. So it was quite a nice surprise to see Rino show up at our weekly meeting. It was his first time there, but he was really diving in.

The topic of the evening was - love. We started off looking at a rather bizarre paining by Mauricio Bouzas Gasque called Love Song. We then went around the room discussing what this painting communicated about love.

We followed up the discussion by watching a clip from the movie “Les Misérables”. It was the scene at the beginning of the movie when Jean Valjean, fresh from prison, is generously welcomed into the home of a trusting, loving priest. In the middle of the night the priest awakes to find Valjean stealing his silverware. Emerging from the shadows, Valjean strikes the old man and flees. The next morning, Valjean is captured and brought to the priest’s home by the police. However, instead of giving him what he deserves, the priest rescues him by claiming that the silverware was a gift, then going even farther to give him two silver candlesticks as well. This redemptive act of unconditional love is a mirror of God’s love to us in Christ, and it forever changes the course of Valjean’s life.



We closed off the meeting by discussing in small groups the meaning of 1 John 4:18-19.

"There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. We love because he first loved us."

Overall it was a very fun evening and a great conversation. Rino grasped, maybe for the first time, that God’s unconditional love is something that we can’t get, give, or experience on our own. Please pray that he would truly experience and be transformed by the unconditional love of Christ.

The Call of Discipleship

With a heavy heart, I was wandering through the old city center in Rome looking for a quiet place to pray and read my Bible. I stepped into a church halfway between the Pantheon and Piazza Navona and sitting down in an empty pew, it took me about 15 seconds to realize that I had not chosen wisely. The church (museum) was buzzing with activity and was anything but quiet. Most of the people were gathered around the chapel at the left front of the cathedral. So as I got up to leave, I decided to see what the fuss was about.

As I walked up to the chapel on the side of the church, someone inserted a coin into a box on the wall which illuminated the chapel, revealing three magnificent, nearly life sized, paintings including the one shown above: “The Calling of Saint Matthew.” All of the paintings are by Michelangelo Merisi commonly known as Caravaggio.

In the painting, we see Christ on the far right reaching out to Matthew (also called Levi) and challenging him to “Follow me.” (See Matthew 9:9-12.) Caravaggio captures Matthew at his moment of decision, with one hand pointing to himself, and one hand still grasping the coins on the table. But not only Matthew is shown here. The different reactions of the figures around the table reflect our common responses to God’s calling in our lives: surprise, indifference, astonishment, resentment, excitement, fear, etc.

As I looked at this painting and read a bit about it, the Lord really spoke to me, reminding me of my call to follow Christ. To be completely honest, I had been in a real slump facing financial difficulties, and having trouble trusting God to provide for the calling that I know He has given me. It was as if Christ was illuminating this dark place in my heart and asking, “Brian, will you follow me, or will you be consumed worrying about money?” Coming home to raise support has been a really challenging time of trusting God and relying on his grace to lead me through a crisis of discipleship, but I am truly excited to see the growth that He brings about in my life through this time as I choose to follow Him.

There is a lot more that could be said about this incredible painting, click here to watch a little video that talks a bit more about some of the symbolism in the painting.

Rome City Focus

Rome City Focus

According to the United Nations, in 2007 the world’s urban population exceeded the rural population for the first time in history, and the trend toward urbanization is expected to continue. Our world is becoming more and more urbanized and the influence of urban city centers is growing. Yet while the Gospel is advancing to un-reached people groups around the globe, the influence of the Church and the reach of the Gospel is declining in the major city centers of the world.

Rome in particular is in great need of the truth of Jesus Christ. It is a city of 4 million people with 400,000 college students and very little evangelical presence. Known as a historically Christian country, Italy is far from that today, so much so that the Pope himself has described Italy as a mission field. Recently, at “La Sapienza”, the largest university in Europe located in Rome, a scheduled visit by the Pope was cancelled due to protests and demonstrations.

Amazingly, in Italy there are over 100,000 practicing witches, nearly three times the number of Catholic priests, and Buddhism is Italy’s fastest growing religion. In many ways Italy has simply rejected its Christian heritage embracing atheism and modern paganism. The mayor of Rome was recently quoted in the New York Times as saying “There is a greater sense of fear in the people of Rome than there is a sense of hope.” The young people of Rome, students in particular, are experiencing this overwhelming sense of hopelessness. Yet we believe that Jesus Christ is the one who can bring hope to this city, who can restore the hope of these people who are in such spiritual need.

Eleven years ago the Lord intervened in my life and radically changed the direction I was heading. As a freshman at Purdue University, I prayed to receive Christ with a staff member of Campus Crusade for Christ. I didn’t know then what God was going to do with my life, but step by step the Lord began to prepare and call me to the mission field.

In 2006 I left my engineering job in Indianapolis to go overseas to Rome, Italy with Campus Crusade, to pioneer an exciting new strategy to reach the large cities of the world for Christ. I believe that this “City Focus” strategy is an answer to the missionary challenge of the future.

We are trusting the Lord with the vision of reaching Rome’s 400,000 university students with the Gospel and impacting the world for Christ through them. We want to stand in the gap for the people of Rome and do everything we can to see the Gospel advanced in this city. Would you consider partnering with us to advance the kingdom in this city? Please contact me if you would like more information.