Davide - A Spring Break Story

Who would have thought that the long-haired kid with the longboard strapped to his backpack and rocking shorts, a ‘stache and a soul patch was Italian. I have never met an Italian like this. But Davide was Italian, sure enough, and he spoke fantastic English. So me and two spring breakers from the first week sat down and started to chat.

Turns out Davide is a surfer who had spent the last 3-months in Hawaii. He loved American’s and speaking in English and wanted to hang out more, so I was all about it. More specific, he is a body-surfer but lest you think that is weak, he has surfed a 14-foot wave on one of his boogey boards; these aren’t your $25 Wal-mart Styrofoam boogey boards.

So the next week, Davide came to grab lunch with me and some guys from Ole Miss who were in town for their spring break week. Isaac and Gabe (Ole Miss) hit is off with him and they spent the entire afternoon together. Davide even went touring with them, because he had never been to a lot of the churches. As they spent time together, Isaac began to explain what the meaning behind churches is, why God came, what the Bible is, and who Jesus is and what he did.

The next day he got lunch with us again and spent the entire day with Isaac and the guys again. Isaac continued to walk through the basics with him, explaining that Jesus truly was God and came to live a perfect life, die as the perfect sacrifice to pay the penalty for our sins, and rose again to conquer death once and for all. And because of all this, we can have a relationship with God through Jesus and can learn about this in the love-letter that God wrote us (which we call the Bible). This was news to Davide, something he had never heard, and when he heard it and knew he could, he made a decision to follow Jesus and start this relationship with God!

I wasn’t there during most of this conversation but I met up with him the next week to hang out. He had already read through the Gospel of John and had some questions. We got the chance to hang out, talk, and it was so encouraging for me to see that he legit, for real, a new brother in Christ! I am stoked to keep talking with him, to see how God continues to help me grow through this and also how God helps him grow in this new faith.