Sunday, February 24, 2008

Sign Guy and Giuseppe

My alter ego: Sign Guy. And yes I was embarrassed by this

I figured I would start this out by showing you my alter ego, a character called Sign Guy (name invented by Lauren Roeper). We think Sign Guy would make a great character in a Donald Miller book or some great fiction. I can only imagine what the Italians think: "Did you see Sign Guy's sign today? The balloons are over the top" or "Did you see Sign Guy's beard today? That kid needs to shave." or "Holy smokes, Sign Guy shaved his head (in the future)... do you think he is depressed? Should we go talk to him?"

In much more exciting news, my buddy Giuseppe is such a cool guy (Giuseppe, if you read this, know that I write this because I enjoy hanging out with you). I met him at Villa Mira Fiori because I sat next to him on a bench and he was reading a book in English. One quick conversation later and we were hanging out to talk about tons of questions about God. At first glance, he is an intense guy but that is simply because, unlike me, he thinks quite thoroughly before he speak. Me, I tend to think as a speak, which why I often have to insert my foot into my mouth.

We have been friends, or at least meeting, for a couple months (we are friends now, I am just not sure when we made that transition from acquaintances to friends) and have talked about pretty much the whole span of topics from Old Testament Law to Who is Jesus and can he be trusted. I was pretty stoked that these past few weeks he has got to meet other people involved with Agape Italia and realize that I am not the only "weird" one but that Christ continues to change the lives of those who seek to follow Him. We had a conversation this past Thursday that I wanted to share with y'all.

I have met few people who are seeking Truth as intently as Giuseppe. Thursday night, after dinner at my apartment and a game of Italian Scrabble with another Italian and Joel, we walked to the bus stop together and talked about God and life. He shared with me that he has read Exodus, is almost done with Genesis and John is next on the list... and he is reading them in three translations, 2 in Italian and 1 in English. He has been so captivated in this that he didn't study last week, even though this is the exam month. It is so encouraging to see someone seriously considering the claims of the Bible and making the effort to seek truth. He told me that "If this is a decision I make, tomorrow, in a month, 10 years or never, I want to be sure of the decision I am making." Amen. I think the decision to follow Christ is one we should take seriously and I am excited to be a part of searching for the truth with Giuseppe. We are going to read a chapter together this next week and I will " point out when something is important," as he put it. I am looking forward to learning together with Giuseppe. Pray that God guides us both and praise God for people like Giuseppe, who are encouraging to me and make what I do here in Rome completely worth it.

Much love to you all

Random Links:
Do some good from your computer. Go to this website and help feed people who need good.
This article makes me like George Clooney. I am not one of those celebrity fanatics but even as journalism, this is a great personality profile.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the message--- most people think what I write is crazy. I guess it is, but I hope it really gets at truth in a non-sugar coated way. Looks like you're rockin' out too!

Anonymous said...

Thats great to hear about Giuseppe. I appreciate that he knows there is a decision to be made. The fact that he is reading on his own is awesome. I remember Runn said that was one of the factors that is usually true of future believers in Italy.