Before I share about our Sunday, I want to let you know that as I write this early Monday morning, that a thunderstorm is rolling through Catania. It is creating a beautiful symphony of echoing thunder and gently falling rain. The smell of the new water in the air combines with a fragrant flower that lines the back courtyard. It is a beautiful morning.
Now for the update.
We began our morning with the news that one of our members was not feeling well and had to stay at The Nest (our apartment for the week) during the day. While sad about her inability to join us, we are praying that she will recover quickly and will be back with the team for Monday’s return to the camp and Catania.
After breakfast, we took a trip to Belpasso; a town of 30-thousand people that sits at the base of Mount Etna. To drive through the narrow streets of this ancient city, a traveler might never know that so many can live in a space so compact. We attended a church comprised of a dozen octogenarian matriarchs and patriarchs, young families, and urban professionals. The pastor asked Shane to preach and with the help of an interpreter, he skillfully and humorously challenged to the people of this faith family to love the immigrants well.
An interesting takeaway from his message: Last year, more than 160,000 refugees entered Sicily. This year, more than 100,000 have already come to the shores with another 20,000 expected by the end of the year. In contrast, the United States has capped the number of refugees entering our country at 45,000 for 2018. To help understand the vast difference in policy, if Sicily capped their refugees to the same degree (per capita), they would only allow 700 people on their island in 2018. It was a sobering figure and telling of the openness Sicily has shown to these displaced persons and the terrible stinginess the United States has exhibited.
We were privileged to spend some time with the Alex family after services. We ate lunch with this beautiful family from the States, who are working with local churches. They have lived in Sicily almost four years. They are fluent in the language and helped tremendously with our lunch orders and subsequent Gelato!
We made a last-minute decision and changed our plans slightly for the day. As we were so close, we agreed to travel up to Mount Etna. We drove the 20-minutes up the volcano to a parking area where we hiked around a vent (not active) and took in the sites. We were only there for 45-minutes or so, but the experience was quite exciting, and the view was breathtaking.
We took a quick drive back to the nest, where we found all the electricity shut off. We changed our clothes in the dark, checked on our sick traveling partner, and loaded back in the van for an evening of walking the streets of Catania, hoping to meet refugees.
We divided into smaller groups of twos and threes and started walking in different directions. Our team met people from Iran and Somalia. The most abundant population of refugees seemed to be from Bangladesh. As French is common among these travelers, our only French-speaking team member received a real workout. She carried the day, having excellent conversations with more than half-dozen refugees. She also tried her Arabic with a couple.
We discovered that many of those we met last night have been in the country for a year or more. Tears formed in one man’s eyes as he shared with us that he had no money, no family, and no real friends. He was cautious with us, unsure of our reason for talking with him and while he was alone and frustrated, he didn’t share openly. However, he did tell us that he was hungry and so we bought him a chicken Kabab and water, and that seemed to open doors that allowed us to hear more of his story. We agreed to meet on Monday, if possible.
As the team met to debrief before returning to the apartment, everyone agreed that it had been a full day. We were tired but energized by the opportunity to make connections, show people love and make a difference in even the smallest of ways.
