The only other full-time Campus Crusade staff in Bologna are a couple named Jesse and Tricia Marcos. Charlie has been a supporter of the Marcos' ministry for years. For the past year, we have been working to bring Charlie to Bologna. God moved in the most amazing ways! I've pasted Jesse's e-mail, giving us the update on all that had happened. I know it's a little long, but the way God moved is worth reading every word.
"INCREDIBLE!!! This morning we have no words to describe what just happened these last two days here in Bologna. I will let the words of the Brucato’s and others who have lived here speak for themselves. “Whave been here 23 years and never have we seen these kinds of crowds and never have we seen doors open like this.” If you recall we told you that when this all began, the university said; “No way he can mention God at all, nor can we mention Agape Italia.” So we had everyone praying that God would break through all of that. So the Lord KICKED DOWN those walls like none of us would have anticipated!! I want to let you know how it all went and at sometime we can fill you in on the more details.
Monday morning we had to have Charlie at the TV station for an interview on the regional morning show that covers all of Emilia-Romagna. The last question he was asked in the interview was, "What do you today?” So he could there launch into sharing that he speaks all over the world and shares the love of God. The man then closed by saying Charlie was speaking Monday at the U of Bologna. We were all horrified because that was wrong. When then they realized the mistake, they had to change it and announce it on the news--which was repeated several times in the day!! That mistake ended up being more air time to advertise it.
We then went to a press conference held at the hotel at 10AM. There the head of Astronomy at the University, who said there could be no mention about God, asked him in the interview, "What do you do now?" Again he repeated what he was doing to share Christ around the world.
Next was the scientific high school where nothing Christian is ever let in the door. This is the school where a 15 yr old student shot himself right before Charlie came. He was able to share his story in detail. Part of their testimony is his wife was suicidal. He shared that, and the students were riveted to his every word and listened intently. After he was done with his testimony and closed, the principal came up and thanked Charlie for coming and reviewed the main points he made about his story!! WOW, never in our wildest dreams in a school where atheism is their god could we have imagined this to happen!!
We were able to give them postcards with Charlie’s picture on it and that also had Youth for Christ and Agape Italia websites. We were introduced as well.
Monday night the outreach night for the community was standing room only!! Many non-Christians came, and many who are in the science community came. The exciting part was that night Charlie held nothing back. Both Charlie and his wife spoke, and wow that was POWERFUL. We had appetizers afterward and people stayed and shook his hand and talked with them.
Tuesday morning he spoke at a private high school, one of the top in the city. These students study Aeronautics and will all go to university. This school was not one we had planned on, but there was cancelation in the schedule. It happened that a connection was made two weeks ago which got us into the school. Once again standing room only!! Students heard about Youth for Christ and then heard about Agape Italia briefly. Once again in Q&A, he was asked what he does now. We were not sure how much we could say here. When asked, he took advantage of it and answered with a gospel presentation. The creativity he used was incredible but yet very clear.
Next was speaking at the U of Bologna in the Astronomy Dept and guess what. . .standing room only. The University of Bologna and everyone had told us if you have 100 – 150 that will be a GREAT success.
Everywhere he went they planned for those numbers and were shocked to see the interest. Over 120 students came, they were standing outside in the halls listening. This was set up by the university and specifically the man who said no God. After speaking, there was Q&A and the man who said no God asked Charlie to share about the challenges of life after reaching the pinnacle of his career at age 36. WOW! He who said NO GOD knew what he would say!!! Then that night at dinner, he told Charlie again to make sure he talked about his personal life.
Tuesday evening we met for dinner with all the university officials who were responsible for the evening. His lecture was to begin at 9:00PM. It was 8:55 and we were just ordering our coffee. The professor said no problem, we were on Italian time!! So we left at 9:05 walked into a room that seats 300 and it was STANDING ROOM ONLY again. It was an estimated crowd of at least 400 so you can imagine it was PACKED OUT!!!! Charlie walked into the hall. I was behind him and had not seen the crowd yet. We then heard a HUGE loud applause and were overwhelmed, as were the school officials.
He opened his talk by thanking Agape Italia for bringing him to Bologna. He then talked about how he and his wife have known Tricia and I for years, which helped Agape build credibility. The gospel went out clearly and wow, was it incredible again. We felt like we were with a ROCK STAR!! He was amazing and the crowd was not disappointed. We can promise you that crowd was all non-believers!!!!
THANKS FOR PRAYING!! Pray now for the followup of all of this and we can continue to build strong relationships with the university and these high schools!!! Wish you could have been here for it, because the ground had to be prepared for this to all happen and you have been a part of preparing the soil for God to work!! Thanks and see you soon so you can enjoy being a part of the harvest God has used you to be a part of!!"
We have been telling everyone we meet how we feel like this is a unique time in Italy's history. We really believe God is moving in unprecedented ways. We could not be more excited to a part of what He is doing. To God be the glory!!
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