25
~ continued ...
who deeply respect the Bible and most
are familiar with Bible passages, freely
turning them up when they were
quoted. This is a dying breed of person
in Europe and it was really nice to be
with such sincere folk.
They had already been exposed to many
of our ideas through Joseph, and we
lectured them through the promises to
Abraham, Kingdom on earth, no
immortal soul etc. We also had the
pleasure of baptizing Joseph in the
Adriactic, pictured page 24. Joseph is so
humble and yet so enthusiastic to
spread the Gospel to others, and his
wife Osha is very supportive of him.
This group are very open to being taught; the
conference room they hire has a projector,
and we wonder if anyone would like to go and
lecture them one Sunday? Italy is of course a
holiday destination and there are direct flights
from Bologna to the UK. Ideally you could
continue going through Bible Basics with
them, by showing them the powerpoint
presentations on each chapter and chatting
around them.
W
e returned to Italy in July and our visit
with Bro Joseph and his contacts
was greatly blessed. It is a pleasure to
see such humility to God’s word and
sincere desire to serve Him and His Son
in Spirit and truth. We were able to
baptize Omo, George, Mofi, Peter,
Victor, Godspower and Henry.
Our brethren are conscious of the huge
numbers of migrants now washing up on
the shores of Italy. Since the closure of
the Greek route, the majority of
migrants are now arriving by sea in Italy,
risking dangerous sea crossings in often
leaking boats. Each month, at least 20,000
migrants arrive on the Italian beaches; and at
least 700 drown each month, on average. 900
drowned in the last week of May alone, and
many boats capsize without being noticed and
reported, so the figures are likely far higher.
Bible Basics Powerpoint presentations for download
Public opinion is strongly against the migrants.
We baptized our brethren on a crowded beach
on a Saturday. There were hundreds if not
thousands of bodies lying on the packed
beach- white bodies. Our group of 10 black
males [including some other contacts] drew
quite some attention as we walked past the
sunbathers and went into the sea. The associ-
ation of black people with the beaches of Italy
was provocative and there was some severe
racism and shouting of abuse. One German
tourist ran up to us and explained she was a
Christian and was ashamed of the abuse, espe-
cially seeing we were sincere Christians
perforing a baptism in the sea. She pressed
some money into the hands of our baptismal
candidates and walked off, herself getting
scorn. God bless her. It was some of the most
primitive racism we have experienced in
Europe. It reflects the fast pace of change in
Europe and the deep divisions which are
opening up within society, which of them-
selves are enough to bring Europe down. After
the baptism we went for a cold drink but were