I wanted to send you an update on this last weekend’s events. On Friday, we had our Route 66 coffeehouse which went really well! The OCC group had decorated our facility very well (especially with their limited budget!) and everyone who participated had great fun! What was really neat was that we had 21 Italians join us who don’t join us for Sunday mornings. On Saturday, we had our second video game night. We did our first one (since I’ve been here) last fall and had about 7 show up for it. This time though, we had 28 Italians come for it! My teammate Matt told me that this was the third largest event that we have ever hosted! The coolest part for me was that half of those who came for the video game night came for the first time ever! So we had a great time meeting new faces and making new friends.

A few of the first time attendees pulled me to the side and chatted with me for about an hour. They were really interested in what we are doing and what we are all about: being a community who follows Jesus and lives its faith in today’s culture. It was a grrrrreat opportunity for me to nuance certain things about faith that they really understood and could identify with. The conversation was a total God thing, in that they weren’t waiting for me to stop talking so they could get a point in, but they were actually interested in what was being said. They asked if they could come sometime on Sunday to join us, so I invited all of them and it gave me a chance to talk to them further. Divine appointments like these reaffirm for me the value of these kinds of events that bring in all kinds of people from all kinds of different backgrounds. The food was good too! Tarek had made thirteen jumbo pizzas for us and was happy to help us out. Thanks for praying this weekend, and I would ask that you keep these new friends of ours in your prayers as we continue to build relationships with them and talk about things that really matter.