You probably learned years ago that Renaissance means "new birth." Renaissance Reflections consider how God's eternal truths change lives today. You can contact Gary or Jennifer Williams at garywilliams@avantiitalia.org or jenniferwilliams@avantiitalia.org.

* * * *

"I was a stranger and you invited me in." - Jesus (Matthew 25:35b)

The Lord's church often fails its Creator. This time it did better.

God recently created two new love stories within the church in Florence. With what may have looked like chance encounters, He brushed the lives of two strangers briefly against those of caring Christians. Both were greeted, loved, and taught. Their decisions for Him encouraged us all.

* * * *

"I've never heard of this!" exclaimed Elsie Larouche, age 68, when she heard how to become a Christian. After a hard life journey through several countries and crises, God brought her to us for a short time.

Born in Haiti, Elsie speaks French and has lived in Mexico for over twenty years. Over the years she survived many trials as she raised three sons to adulthood. For two years, supporting herself as a language teacher, she saved her money so she could visit Italy and study Italian. Last fall, Elsie came to Florence.

Studying here, Elsie noticed a flyer advertising our weekly English worship assemblies at Pepperdine University. The night she visited, she was so shy she left before we dismissed and could meet her (people sometimes leave early when I speak). An observant twenty-year-old Pepperdine student, Diana, followed her out and got her name and email address. Weeks after I sent her a message, Elsie suddenly responded and was eager to talk. We soon had her at our Bible School for lunch and she visited a ladies' Bible study led by Carla Borja, an evangelist from Mexico, who befriended her.

As the holidays approached, Elsie was alone and running out of money. Church members shared agape meals with Elsie and encouraged her. In order to save money, she planned to spend Christmas in Sicily. When Christians prayed for her before she left, she cried. A girl urged her to take her umbrella, then another girl did also. Elsie ran away, embarrassed. She was unused to such love and attention.

Traveling back from Sicily, Elsie found the Church of Christ in Rome. Missionaries there gave her a place to stay.

Soon after Christmas, Elsie called Carla and said, "I am out of money and have to go home."

"Come stay with me," Carla said. Elsie did, for several days.

Soon Elsie was asking, "Carla, please tell me about your life. I want to know about the things you do for the Lord. You are doing what I have wanted to do for a long time. Tell me how you got to this place and how I can become like you."

Again to save money, Elsie planned to travel to Pisa on a Sunday and wait overnight in the airport for her Monday flight home. At a party for our students the Friday night before, our friend Andy Lowe, visiting from Fort Worth, heard Carla talking about Elsie. "I'll pay for a hotel room for her," said Andy. When Carla told Elsie, she cried, again embarrassed. "The Lord wants you to know that he wants to bless you," Carla explained.

A California university student, an evangelist from Mexico, a computer engineer from Fort Worth, workers at the Florence Bible School, Christians in Rome - God used many people to show Elsie love. This time, Christians loved and taught as the Lord's church should - parts of the body working together.

On Elsie's last night in Florence, Saturday, Elsie was packing as Carla and others were teaching a young girl about baptism in Carla's apartment. Elsie was at first withdrawn, then interested, then transfixed. "I always knew there was something I was missing about being baptized, but no one would explain it to me!" Elsie exclaimed. "When can I be baptized?" Her questions were simple. Innocent. Like a child's. "Can I be baptized here before I go home?"

The next morning, Sunday, we baptized Elsie into Christ (see the pictures). Carla, Andy, and others traveled with her to Pisa and found a hotel for her. "In the church of Christ, I have seen the love of God that I have never seen before," Elsie told us. "I see Christ alive in you."

Robbie Shackelford, Gary, Elsie
before the_congregation

Elsie and Gary after baptism

God is alive and at work. With Him, things are always happening. They never just happen.

* * * *

An Albanian man, Nicola, watched Else's baptism with particular interest. Befriended by an Christian American, Tamara, on a city bus in Florence, Nicola had been so self-conscious of his nationality that he lied at first and told her he was Greek. Then embarrassed as we learned the truth, he withdrew from us. In time, as the church loved him, he realized he was accepted. He is one of the many workers from impoverished countries who are coming to Italy and finding a racially prejudiced society. We had to convince him race does not matter in Christ.

A few days after Elsie's baptism, we rejoiced as we baptized Nicola. Another new Christian, Paolo (an Italian), was most responsible for befriending and teaching him (and the one who is baptizing him in the photograph).

Paolo baptizing Nicola

Nicola's baptism

* * * *

All of us have seen church behave poorly. None more so than the Apostle Paul, who listed "perils among false brethren" among his many trials (2 Corinthians 11:26). But Paul also was inspired to write that the Lord's church is no less than the way the world can now know "the manifold wisdom of God" (Ephesians 3:10). In our troubled world, where every soul is wounded and lonely, the His church shines when it loves like it should. Here in Florence, the church is small and weak, but we are learning to let God's love shine through. Even small candles shine brightly when lit.

A few days ago a lady called the Bible School and asked, "I left the Catholic Church and I have been looking for a church. I've been very disappointed so far. What kind of group are you?"

That is, indeed, the question. Pray that, for her sake, we will be the kind of group we should be.

Jesus told us simply how to prove we are who we say we are. "By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another" (John 13:35).

Keep shining.

Gary Williams
Florence Bible School
Italy