Some Interesting Statistics...and a Recipe!

The first week back in Little Rock has gone well. I'm still working on getting organized after moving home, but I've enjoyed some time to catch up with family before things get busy again. In this post, I'd like to share some more statistics about the spiritual situation in Italy, just to give those of you reading a better picture of what the ministry looks like and what to pray for. Once again--thank you SO much for your prayers. God has continued to work over the last week, and I know those prayers have played a huge role everything He's doing.

I'm going to steal and repost some information from one of my teammates' websites to give you a better idea of what's going on spiritually in Italy right now : )

Why Italy?

This is a question a lot of people ask. Italy's close connection to the Catholic Church leads us to believe that this country is not as critical of a mission field as other areas of the world. However, this is not the case. The spiritual climate of Italy is surprisingly bleak. Italy has one of the worst economies in the EU. Every time a new president is elected, the government completely changes. This has happened 62 times since World War II. Corruption is so rampant that in a study on the "happiest" countries in the world, Italy ranked last.

• Population of Italy: 57,592,000
• Percentage of Protestants: 0.82%
• Percentage of Atheists: 20%
• Only 5% of Catholics practice their faith.
• There are 616 official religions in Italy. Jehovah's Witnesses are as numerous as all Evangelicals put together.
• Number of missionaries: 464 (1:124,000)
• Number of full-time magicians: 100,000 (1:575)
• Only 10% of expatriate missionaries on average return for a second term.
• Out of 33,000 cities in Italy, 31,000 have absolutely no evangelical witness.
• In northern Italy, there are 4.4 million people and only 400 evangelical Christians. That's one believer for every 10,000 people.

More about Bologna...

• The University of Bologna, Alma Mater Studiorum, is the oldest university in Western Europe.
• Bologna has a population of 500,000. This includes the 100,000 students from the university.
• Before Crusade established a presence in Italy 4 years ago, there had not been an organized Christian ministry on the campus in over 20 years.
• My team and I will be partnering with a few local evangelical churches in the city as well as TEAM (a church-planting organization) and Youth for Christ.

Here is another video about the ministry in Italy created by some students on summer project in Bologna.

Just for fun, here's a recipe for eggplant parmesan that I learned in one of my Italian cooking classes last fall in Florence. I've been able to make it with friends a couple of times over the last few weeks, and we've really enjoyed it. Try it some time and let me know what you think!

Parmigiana di melanzane

Serves: 4

Ingredients

Salt

1.5 lb eggplant (about 1 eggplant), thickly sliced

1 clove garlic, crushed

Olive oil

1 lb ripe tomatoes, peeled and chopped

1 tsp sugar

Pepper

2 tbsp chopped basil

8 oz mozzarella, diced (use fresh mozzarella if you can find it)

5 tbsp grated parmesan

Salt the eggplant slices and leave on paper towels for 30 minutes to let the juices run out.

Fry the garlic in 2 tbsp olive oil until the aroma rises. Add the tomatoes, sugar, a little salt and pepper adn the basil. Cook vigorously to reduce to a thick sauce.

Rinse and drain the eggplant slices. Dry them and deep-fry in hot oil, turning over once, and drain on absorbent paper towels.

Arrange the slices in a baking dish, cover with the tomato sauce, sprinkle with the cheeses and bake in the oven at 350 degrees fahrenheit for about 30 minutes.

Finally...keep praying for Italy! Here are a few prayer points for the week:

• First and foremost, praise God for his provision!
• Also, pray for the points listed above--especially for the students in Bologna, the staff team and my STINT team.
• Continue to pray for my transition to raising support in Little Rock. Pray that God will provide committed monthly supporters, that He'll create time for people to meet and that He'll bless conversations.

Elizabeth

John 10:10