Salerno, Italy, project in university newspaper

Looks like I've been away for awhile! Too busy moving to Florida to do much posting. Two weeks without Internet doesn't help, either! But looking back through my mail, I discovered that 23 students from UCF and Mississippi State went to Salerno, Italy.

Salerno is a beautiful seaside town in southern Italy, and is known for having the one of the oldest medical schools in Europe (founded in the 800s - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schola_Medica_Salernitana)



The project students were looking for English-speaking Italians who wanted to talk about spirtual things, and wound up meeting several hundred students. They tried to bring the Scriptures into every conversation, and had several good discussions about the Lord.

One way they met students was through football (soccer) -- I'm putting a picture of the USA vs Italy teams below.

The UCF student newspaper even wrote an article about the project! Check it out at

http://www.centralfloridafuture.com/italy-trip-brings-students-together-1.1776346

Russian skeptic turns to Christ

Final update from the St. Petersburg project, with photo of some team members . . .

Our new brother, Nick (AKA Kolya or Nikolai), was on British Camp with us and was there last year as well. Last year he was one of the biggest skeptics, had read about all the contradictions in the Bible, and challenged everything! God seems to have done a big shift in his heart; he was more open to hearing our beliefs and came along to a couple of the breakfast Bible studies. He has a passion for Korea, having studied there for a while, so it was a real blessing that we had three Koreans on our team this year!

After our penultimate event - a 'feast' where Pete gave a short invitation to The Feast - Nick stayed on late and (forgive the lack of detail, I wasn't there) emerged from a side room with a couple of our team having accepted Christ! I hear he had a hearty welcome into the family from the girls living in the flat!

Hopefully - please pray for this - they'll have adequate follow-up; one of our key Russian workers, Andrey, organised a Bible study on our last morning and he's very good at keeping contact up.

The Way that Jesus did Things
So, now we're home and reflecting on the last four weeks, and the biggest thought that sticks with me is community. We had such a great atmosphere of friendship with the Russian students. It got to a point where we were taking Russian non-believing friends to translate for us - they were sharing the Gospel without having fully accepted it for themselves!

I feel that this is the way Jesus did things too - after all, his disciples didn't fully believe until after his resurrection, and yet he hung out with them until then, teaching and sharing with them, and getting them involved with his ministry. People were drawn to him, and were changed through the fellowship they had with him. Our prayer was that the students would be drawn to Jesus in us, rather than to our usefulness as English teachers!).
--- Laura

Soularium Reaches Russians

Here's an update from Laura as she wraps up the British project in St. Petersburg, along with a couple of photos of the team in action.

Before we even left Russia - 2 new members of the family! We met the first one, Sasha, won the university campus nearest our flats. Some of our team were playing guitar and worshipping, some were praying, and some were using a tool we've found to be a great conversation starter - 'Soularium'.

It's a collection of 50 images, and we ask students to respond to questions ranging from how they see their lives and how they wish their lives were, to which images they think represent God and why. It's a great way to speak to people, especially when we have a language barrier!

Lizzie and Arjen were doing Soularium with a student called Sasha and they shared with her an Agape booklet called Knowing God Personally (the Russian version is called 'The Four Spiritual Laws'...somewhat more imposing but there we go. At least it's in their own language!) Sasha decided that this really was Good News and said yes pretty much immediately! She came along to most of our get-togethers (more on those later) afterwards, and became a real part of our community.

Tomorrow . . . the story of Nikolai, a former skeptic

History of Soularium

Recently I learned a bit about how Soularium came into existence. It all began several years ago when Agape Europe commissioned a four-country study of cultural values and attitudes toward God. These countries were the UK, France, Germany and Spain.

A staff guy in Spain applied the results by combining photos with a spiritual interest questionnaire. He told some people in the States about it. Students on the TriBeCa summer project in Manhattan took it the next step, developing Soularium as we know it today.

It was so cool to learn that this tool, which is one of the most popular evangelistic tools used by CCC in America today, has European roots!

Here's a website that the Americans have developed where people can go to learn more about Soularium, and how people are responding: http://mysoularium.com/.

Soularium

Last time I mentioned the Soularium outreach used in the summer projects in France. This is a really cool approach built around photos. It assumes that everybody is on a spiritual journey of some sort. When you want to have a spiritual conversation with somebody, you spread out the 25 or so photos and ask your friend to choose three photos that represent their view of God. You might ask a follow up question regarding which photos illustrate where they are on their spiritual journely. Then you share three that represent your perspective.

This past week I have been in Durango, Colorado, talking to some students at Ft. Lewis college. Soularium has worked very well there, too. They spread the photos out on a table and engage passing students in spiritual conversations. When somebody wants to go deeper, they explain the principles of how to know God personally.

It's cool to see God using these photos both in American and in Europe. Next time, I'll share more about Soularium came into existence.

(The embedded photos show French Canadian students using Soularium in Paris).

The Most Livable City in Europe

In the late Middle Ages the Duke of Brittany built a chateau, or castle, in Nantes, France, to defend Brittany. Nowadays Nantes is known for caramels, crepes and the castle, as well as for being Time Magazine's choice for"the most livable city in Europe" http://en.wikpedia.org/wiki/Nantes/Nantes/Nantes.

This summer, the grassy grounds around the castle were a favourite place for French and American students on the Nantes summer project to talk to people about the Lord.

The Sidewalk Mike
One approach was the "Sidewalk Mike," where a video team would interview random people about whether or not they thought God might exist. At the end of the week, the clips were made into a movie and shown at an evening meeting.

Many Questions
The students also did Soularium (more on that in a future blog). Tiffany Bozart (right, with sunglasses, talking to some guys about the Lord) tells of the time she and Clare, a French student , talked to a couple of girls sitting near the fountain in Place Royale. The plaza was a typical French plaza, filled with flowers and beauty.

"We would like to talk to you about belief in God," said Tiffany, and spread out the photos of Soularium. It turned out one girl had recently tried to commit suicide. She was very open, and had lots of questions. At the end of the visit, Clare said, "I just want you to take away one thing -- God loves you very much!" The two girls were silent, and Tiffany could see they were deeply touched.

One of the coolest things about the Nantes project, says Tiffany, was that two young believers took part, who were filled with enthusiasm about the Lord. Both had come to faith through Agape, one in Nantes and one in Toulouse.

Middle East Part 2

Here's part 2 of a report from the UK on their project in the Middle East:

On Monday the guy who runs the hostel, John, arranged for our group to have a meal with the guys living there. Conversation was hard as they all spoke a foreign language which only a couple of us could understand. It’s amazing how much you can say without words, and just sharing food together was lovely. The cook had made some delicious hearty soup, with sauce and coriander and chicken, it was delicious!

A guy pointed to me, pointed upwards and then made the hand motion of "a little bit" we were having a giggle trying to figure out what he meant. We finally got someone to translate and he was trying to point to us and himself and say Child of God, when we finally got it, he gave us a big hug. It's amazing the fellowship and love that God can give you for each other. All because we both know the power of God in our lives and that the other person has that realisation too.

We all went round the table introducing ourselves, and saying a little bit about ourselves and how we had found out about Jesus. These guys’ lives make me worship God more. I didn't want to embarrass them so I was trying not to cry but they have had hard lives, and even after finding God it’s still not easy.