By Rick Moore
“I’m exhausted. We can’t go on like this. Something has to give.” These are the words Mr. Avila and his wife were saying right before they got their big break. The year was 2003. They asked us to bring a missionary team of a dozen or so folks to the small town of Carpegna, Italy, where they had moved to start a church. After working for three years, they only had seven members who met weekly at their home. They were Protestants starting a church in a town that claimed to be 98% Catholic. That’s why they asked for our help. Because the second Iraq War had just begun, there were mass protests in Italy against America, so we wanted to make sure they knew we came in peace. A week before we left for Italy, while walking past a kiosk in a mall, I noticed a blue ball cap with different colored doves embroidered on it. Since doves represent peace, I bought a dozen of them for our team. It is nice when everyone in a group wears the same shirt or hat when traveling through airports because it helps us to keep up with each other. We had two objectives for the trip. Every day the girls would have a gymnastics class, and the boys would have a baseball clinic. Our goal was to have a dozen children at each. It appears the good Lord had other plans.
Mr. Avila was on the youth committee for the town of Carpegna. Our first day visiting happened to be the last day of school before summer break. Hundreds of students gathered in a tent for the closing program. When the mayor and priest saw our group wearing blue ball caps with the doves, they asked me if I wanted to speak to the students. The interpreter stood on the stage with me as I shared stories of God’s love. Then, after the event was over, the mayor asked if we wanted them to leave the tent, chairs, and soundstage up while we were in town to hold meetings every night. We thought the interpreter was confused at first. None of us had any idea why they were being so generous to us. We held programs every evening. All who attended, including adults, received a glow-in-the-dark necklace with a cross. As we headed to our hotel room each night, we drove by the restaurants and laughed at just how many people were still wearing their glow-in-the-dark cross. The third day there, the priest said he heard we had access to clothes for the refugees from the war. We affirmed we did. He said he would give us a church to make into a clothing pantry. It wasn’t just any church. It was a beautiful stone building constructed in the 1200s.
What made the city leaders go from not giving Mr. Avila the time of day to giving us an entire church? By this time the baseball and gymnastic classes had grown from a dozen to hundreds of children. We contacted Operation Missions who sent us helpers because the crowds were just too big. On our last day at Carpegna, right before we left town, we stopped at what had become our favorite restaurant. While enjoying some gelato, a man pointed at my wife’s hat and said something in Italian. Mrs. Avila’s eyes got big. It finally made sense. She and my wife pulled me aside to explain what the man said, which was, “We are so glad the Pope sent you to our town.” What!? The doves on our hats were the exact same doves used by the Vatican a couple of years earlier for the year of Jubilee. The whole town thought the Pope had sent us. Who knew that Protestants and Catholics could work together? The truth is someone with even more influence than the Pope was at work. Thank you Lord for big breaks.
Rick Moore is Communication Pastor at Destiny Worship Center.
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