Catania, Sicily - 13 to 18 January 2010

This blog was written on 1 February 10 and I'm only now entering it on the website...

Catania, Sicily

While we were in Catania we were hosted by Pastor Octtavia's church. We slept below the church in kids' club rooms. They have a woodfired pizza oven and we basically lived off pizza while we were there. They do Nutella pizzas and have a 5kg jars of the stuff - awesomeness!

Serena and I went shopping for Pastor Octtavia's birthday and we bought lots of chocolates. Dan then made a balloon basket to hold them in, it was so cool. He was really impressed with the gift, "chuffed" if I do say so myself. We all gathered for heaps of pizza and then played this Italian game where we stand in a circle and count to however many people are in the circle, in Italian. I didn't get it, wasn't sure how you get elimÌnated. There was also another game where one person turns their back to everyone and someone hits you, then you have to guess who did it, the boys seemed to really enjoy it.

We spoke at a youth service and went evangelising in a small village the church goes to every Sunday. Not many people actually come out of their houses, but they set up a sound system and sing, talk and tell the people about Jesus. Dan and Andy made balloons for the kids and they had a great time, it was so cute. I wasn't sure if I wanted to speak and Andy said to let him know when the time came. When he first asked I said no then really felt I should. There was a worship song and during the song I had a picture of crying as I was talking and getting on my knees. Speaking was something I felt I should do once I saw it and one of the organisers wanted someone to say a simple Gospel message, and picked me. I got up to speak and had forgotten about the picture. I spoke about how much God loves them...and I cried. I really felt God's love for all of them. Before I came on outreach we had a session where they told us to ask God what He wanted to show us on outreach, God told me he'd break my heart for the lost...and He did at that moment. It was a really amazing experience and I truly felt God's heart for them.

On the Sunday night we all split into three different churches. Will, Rafa and I went to our host church. We'd all prepared something to say but we didn't feel confident about it, due to not having spoken before about what we'd written, no practice run. When we got there I also felt we weren't meant to speak, then we found out we only had 5 minutes. I got nomÌnated to speak about the Next Wave and the tour they're doing in June/July this year. It was a pretty big church and I didn't feel at all nervous.

Ellie Mc