The Paint Shop Has What We Need

So we are mid-project. We have just a little over a week left in Salerno so for a mid-project celebration we decided to do an "in-house BBQ." Monday was a national holiday called Festa Della Repubblica (Republic Day) so we had to mix up the schedule, freeing us up to do this BBQ. We have a visitor from America--Jutty Valiquette--who will be moving here to serve for the next three to five years and he volunteered to grill for us, as long as we got some good steaks.

He and I went to the store, got the necessary items--meat, oil, pepper, salt, tomatoes--while students went and got fixin's for salad, fruit salad, etc. Everything was lined up for an awesome evening except for one thing: Charcoal. I misread a text message from my fellow team leader, Tina, thinking she said we had charcoal when we really didn't.

7:00 pm rolls around and we begin a frantic search for charcoal around the 14 Lions. Dread is slowly coming over me as I sense that I completely dropped the ball on the charcoal. Couple this with the fact that nearly everything was closed due to the holiday so I thought we were going to have to cancel the fun we were hoping to have with all the meat so many wanted to enjoy!

Marko, the owner of the 14 Lions, took me in his car around the city to try and find something. First of all, the car ride almost took my life, but that is a story for another time. Our chances for finding a place open dwindled quickly as all the markets were closed. He said, "let's try one more time around..." and I complied of course just hoping something would happen.

Then the impossible happened. We found something open. It wasn't a market. It wasn't a place that had anything to do with food. It was the last place we could go to and it was one of the last places I would ever think to go for a large bag of charcoal. It was a paint shop. Out in the front of this shop that sold paint and wallpaper, this shop that that wasn't even supposed to be open was a 5 kg bag of charcoal, the 5 kg bag of charcoal we needed to continue our fun! And fun we had!

The reason I share this story is not because it is merely funny. I laughed when I thought of it all when it was over. What I find interesting is that Marko said this was very normal; that finding a large bag of charcoal in the front of a closing paint shop is normal. I then began to think about my trying to find blank CDs, first looking in electronic stores, not finding them there, but in print and copy stores.

Reality is that there are many quirks to Italian culture that can be frustrating to an American. CDs are purchased at electronic stores or record shops. Charcoal is purchased in stores that sell food, not paint. Then we go into idiomatic expressions in the language and that reveals a need for one to be immersed in the culture for years in order to begin grasping the way of thinking here. But we are here for weeks. Most of the people we have sent to this country have been here for short one-year terms. Very few have committed to this people long-term, to get to know them for who they are, and to present Jesus and who He is from a perspective that truly and experientially knows where they are coming from.

So this is a praise to God for those He is raising up, like Jutty and a handful of others who will be here long-term, learning this culture in a way that we have yet to really delve into. But this is also a call to prayer that God will continue to raise up laborers who will come to this country and serve long-term, getting past all the glitz and glamor that has become Italy--the country for tourism--and digging deep into the people's lives in order to show them that the joy they seek can only be fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

By His Grace,
Andrew