Gordy’s Tour of Italy: My Favorite Visit in Italy Was Not a Tourist Spot

Our Italian trip was filled with some awesome sights and great memories. The Colosseum in Rome, the Sistine Chapel and Basilica of St. Peter in Vatican City, Leaning Tower of Pisa and Pompeii.

But my favorite event was a simple church service at the tiny Waldensian Church in Livorno, south of Pisa along the coast. The Waldensians are an Italian Protestant denomination that got their start late in the 12th century (before Martin Luther) and they merged with the Methodists in 1975 in Italy.

We sang hymns in Italian and the sermon was delivered in the native tongue with no interpretation. I don't know why this service touched me so much, but it truly did. The Italian language is beautiful, and I had tingles go up and down my spine as I stopped singing for a moment and listened to our group trying to sing in the foreign tongue and the locals belting out the songs. I can't put into words what I felt. I can only tell you the feeling of spiritual kinship was a treat for me I will never forget.

I have been touched this way during other trips, worshiping with Christians in Germany, Egypt, Israel and Tanzania. I suppose it's the realization no matter the language, we are all living our lives in hope of the same things. We all love and laugh, have good and bad days. We are all humans in search of the meaning of life and, to use a song's lyric, "and they know we are Christians by our love."