In Milano, Italy, we use conversational English Clubs for university students to help them with their English, develop a relationship with them and find opportunities to share the gospel. We met Cristina in English Clubs at Bicocca University in Milan the first year we were on that campus.

Cristina is the kind of person who has many friends because she takes an interest in people and loves to have fun and enjoy life. Someone recently described her as “una persona solare” (a sunny person) because she radiates sunshine to those around her.

Through Cristina, we met her boyfriend, Davide, and her parents, Ettore and Nina. We would go to their house for dinner or they would come to ours. Her mother told her, “Don’t spend time with those evangelicals — they’re dangerous!” Nina was a strong Catholic and didn’t want her daughter to be influenced away from the church. However, her daughter replied, “Mom, they’re not like that! They don’t force me to change my thinking; they’re really nice.”

After Cristina and Davide got married, we talked to them about biblical views of marriage and principles God gave us for having a great marriage, centered in Christ. We also asked them if they would like to study the Bible together with us and see what it had to say. Although Cristina had her Catholic Bible, she had not read it much, while Davide had never read the Bible at all. They agreed to meet weekly, as often as we could, in the evening after dinner. Once Cristina started working full-time, Pam would prepare the dinner and bring it to their house to give her a break and be able to start the study sooner.

“Don’t spend time with those evangelicals — they’re dangerous!”

As the months went by, Davide was asking really good questions and seemed to understand the depth of the scriptures. Cristina would take notes and reflect on them later as she had time. Once their daughter was born, there were a lot more distractions, but they continued to meet with us weekly to study the Word. We watched the movie Left Behind and discussed the end times. We saw Courageous, which inspired Davide to be a really good father to his daughter, Irene. When we saw The War Room, Cristina bought a journal and started reading the Bible every night, writing down her thoughts and also recording her prayers! They have both seen how many prayers God has answered as we have prayed specifically for their needs.

More recently we talked about baptism and what the Bible has to say about it. They had baptized their daughter as an infant, but even with controversial subjects, they are always willing to accept the Bible as their final authority. Davide’s responses to our questions seem to indicate that he may have already put his trust in Jesus as his Savior. We believe his wife is very close but still clings to her traditions, along with the Bible, as her authority.

Please pray for this couple to trust in Jesus alone as Savior and experience the abundant life he wants to give them. They will be influential in seeing many others come to know Jesus in Italy once they take that step of faith.