un battesimo e roma

this sunday was the first time i was able to attend the ywam church service. it was definitely a special one, as andy restivo got baptized! it was exciting for their family, as they were able to see a confirmation of his decision to follow the Lord. there was a lot of extended family who attended, so the church was full, too. it was also exciting to see that, as usually there are not many others who attend Gesú Vive (Jesus Lives).

we came back to the base and i was invited down to the restivo's to have lunch with their family and with a few special weekend guests, as well as a family that used to go to the church here. we had a nice, loud, really good italian meal. there was some good conversation, plenty of jokes told, and group games after the meal. it was wonderful :)

that afternoon, ed, irene, and i decided to go to rome! we have off every monday because we work on saturdays, so we got a ride to rome and spent all day on monday hitting several of the tourist spots. we went to st. peter's basilica first, and then to the vatican/sistene chapel.

it was all so beautiful and so full of old art pieces, that it was overwhelming. i don't know much about art, so it was hard for me to grasp just how great all of it was, but it was beautiful, and that's all i needed to know :) we waited in line for a long time for the vatican, but once we got inside it was a lot of walking. halls and halls and halls of artwork.. all beautiful, but all tainted..

all i could think about was the story in the gospels about Jesus overturning the temple tables. He did it because of the routine people were in, the effortless sacrifices they were making, and the money-making ventures of the vendors. i felt as if the vendor stands at the vatican, the expensive live tours, and the dutiful attendance by priests and nuns from all over the world fit so well into that passage. i can't imagine that God is very happy with how things are run there.

and yet everything is so beautiful. i didn't want to be a party-spoiler with that last paragraph, but it was just something heavy on me yesterday and i couldn't really enjoy what i was seeing. oh well..

this is officially week 2 in italy.
may the experience continue...