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Sunday School 9:00 am
Worship Service 10:00 am

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1624 Broadway Avenue
Sheboygan, WI 53083
920.451.0991

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The Circle of life

That cool evening a small group of us were going toward the piazza, the center of the village, heading toward the seacoast, near Grosseto in Tuscany. It was certainly a touristic village, one of the many in that region. We arrived with the white van of the Mission, with our guitars and Bibles – a group of 7 or 8. Anyway… I remember the place was packed with tourists, relaxing in the breeze of the evening, eating delicious ice cream, walking around, checking out the shops, babies in strollers and children running all around. Luckily, we found a parking space; got our things out of the van and walked toward the center of the piazza. Some people started gathering to see what the attraction of the night was. We were about to set up our things as usual, with lots of people around, most of them, enjoying their vacation. We would perform with our program of songs, mimes, testimonies and a short ‘aggressive’ evangelistic message.  How much I would have wished just to relax too, with a cold cone in my hands and mingle with the hundreds of people, basically doing nothing. But it was one of those warm evening; a perfect setting for foreigners to enjoy the refreshing wind brushing over the village. All around, waves of mixed perfumes of sticky Mediterranean pine resin and the saltiness of the nearby sea, ideal setting for the residents, hoping once more for the summer season to bring as many tourists as possible. Pizzerias and Bars, filled to the brim, and waiters busy like ants serving coffee, pizza, ice cream, limoncello and the like.

So here we were, going about doing what we felt was the most important mandate to obey: preaching to as many people we could, singing inspiring songs, miming the message of Jesus, sharing personal experiences of how Jesus had changed us, and challenging the hundreds of residents and tourists with a short but powerful message. Yes, for a while we were surely an intrusion into the merited pleasure of a tourist’s routine with our noise; tourists de-stressing from work, responsibilities, and problems. We knew, deep in our hearts that as soon as we got over the embarrassment of interrupting so abruptly the summer’s ‘dolce vita’ of the villagers; our songs, mimes, and preaching could truly touch lives. The Gospel is powerful enough to penetrate even in a summer, by the warm Tuscan sea. The cocktail perfumes of sea-salt, pine resin, hot pizza, fresh from the oven and lemon scents shedding their fragrance around, was magic and captivating; still, though, not charming enough against the gentle breeze of the Spirit of God, hovering around mysteriously.

We set our instruments and props down in the center of the crowded piazza, and as usual, positioned ourselves in a semi-circle. I was standing in the middle with my guitar ready to start singing and get with our program. I had never prepared in advance what I would say after the final mime, but I was sure of myself and absolutely certain that what was sincerely preached at the end would always have an effect. Meanwhile the people started to gather around us, attracted by the novelty of the evening. One short prayer – with our eyes opened not to scare off some of the timid tourists – and here we were, ready to ‘conquer’ through our short campaign. As we were quickly praying, I saw, out of the corner of my eye, an old lady, seemingly drawing on the pavement of the road with a chalk. She was bent over and drawing a circle around our whole as well as all the people who had gathered… by now, a very large crowd.

We had seen people moved by our program and the Spirit touching souls with his power, but this time I felt something was different, not like the other times. I felt that night I was like a vulgar merchant, trying to trick customers with many captivating words in order to sell them our ‘product’. Why was I there with the rest of my group? Why were we ‘performing’ with extra items in our program, in the hope that all would work well towards the advancement of the Gospel? Wasn’t the Gospel be enough in itself? Why the need for introductory songs, persuasive mimes, testimonies shedding light on the Gospel? Isn’t the Gospel powerful enough to ‘enchant’ and save whoever and wherever? This was going through my mind in a split second, before commencing ‘to sell’ and convince the audience with our ‘product’. That evening, by the seashore of Tuscany, in a packed touristic piazza, something was not squaring in our mode of evangelism.

That evening, suddenly, I decided that there would be no songs, no mimes, no testimonies, not even my short persuasive preaching. Could God do his work just by the reading of a short Scripture in the Gospel of Matthew? Our group was ready to sing, many dozen of curious people had gathered around us waiting for the performance of the evening. As I took my small New Testament, ready to read my group seemed unbalances, unstable and confused. Was I losing it that night? Don’t the songs and the rest of the program come before the preaching? There was no time to explain…I read from the Gospel of Matthew, “Therefore, I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor about your body, what you shall put on…but seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well”. That was all! I only added, if there was anyone, moved by the Scripture and ready to receive a prayer for salvation, to physically step out toward our group to be publically prayed for. That evening, more than thirty people stepped out into the open. People we had never met before came forward in that piazza, packed with people from all over. God could certainly do his work without our best ‘selling’ efforts!

So we were all happy and surprised, and somewhat paralyzed. Something had broken our routine!  We prayed for the people and spent sometime with them before we headed home. As I was putting my guitar not used that evening, someone that I new from a local church came to me and said, ‘Did you happen to see that old lady drawing a circle on the ground with a piece of chalk.’ ‘Yes I did, before we started’ – I replied. ‘That old lady, is the local witch. She was casting a spell on our group to thwart our intentions. She was encircling the place and the people who had gathered to hear the Gospel and was magically enchanting us with an evil circle.

It was all clear now! God was not impressed by our best efforts to convince and bring salvation, in a semi-circle position in the middle of a Tuscan piazza, and neither was he afraid of a magic circle meant to destroy and thwart his plans.