Thursday, May 31, 2007 6:00am

Italy sure is an interesting country. This is now our third day here, and we have had some really neat experiences, quite unlike anything a lot of us have ever experienced.

After the cars got rented, we all piled in and set out for the drive to Torre Pellicci (which is about 30 miles from Torino). After getting lost several times, we finally made it to our destination at around 8pm. The girls have stayed in the house of an SDA lady named Danielle. She has groups that are coming through stay at her house all the time, and several of the other WFL groups have spent time there. She was born in France, raised in Morocco, and now is in Torre Pellicci trying to encourage the people there to return to their Waldensian heritage. The guys (Mitch, Ricky, Scott, and I) have been in a hotel that is about a five-minute walk through “downtown”. Pretty soon after our arrival, Mitch and I started receiving alerts to the presence of pollen in the area. Our allergies have been driving us both up the wall, and especially more so since my asthma has gone bonkers as well. But after lots of water, hot-and-cold showers, and just flat out WILLING it to leave, it shall soon be gone, I am confident of this.

Yesterday morning, after breakfast and worship, we headed to the school of the barbs in the Valley of Angrogna (literally, “Valley of Groans”), where the young Waldensians were trained to share their faith. We took some pictures and admired the view, then walked down to an old church with AWESOME acoustics that we just HAD to test. We sang several classic hymns, including Amazing Grace, How Great Thou Art, and Until Then. The harmonies ringing from the rafters just thrilled our souls. Add the view of the majestic Alps out the windows, and the realization that we were on the same ground that has been treaded by people who were so devoted to the Lord that they would sacrifice their very lives for His principles-- it was a truly amazing experience. Then Alonna read us a story of a time when God miraculously delivered His people from the papal armies that were set on destroying God’s people for good. Right when it seemed that the Waldensian people were trapped in the Valley of Angrogna with no way out, a fog rolled in, blinding the offenders and enabling the Waldensian armies to descend upon them with swords, rocks, and shouts, forcing them over the edge of the cliffs into the rivers below. Only a few escaped the judgement of God on that day in 1488.

After hearing the story, we hiked up the hill to a location where the Waldensians rolled rocks from. There were some houses up there that were basically built right into the rocks. So of course, we took lots of pictures.

After some lunch at Danielle’s house, we headed out again to hike to one of the biggest caves in the area that was used by the Waldensians for protection and for worship. It could have easily held 100 people comfortably. It was huge! After some pictures and some chatting, we ambled back to the cars and drove back to Danielle’s house. After supper, a few of us that wanted to see another cave walked with Scott up through some of the narrow streets and across cow pastures to the ruins of an old fortress, inside of which was the cave. It was seen in vision by Ellen White, where she described some of the atrocities that were committed within it. Many Waldensians were tortured and killed there, and a tunnel connected it with a Catholic church below. It’s existence had been unknown until about 10 years ago. Basically all that is there is a little central area that you can almost stand up in, with a tunnel that heads away for about 10 feet before a cave-in blocks the rest of the way. The walls in these places could tell so many stories, if we could but loose their lips. But the stories will go unheard as long as this world lasts. Only the return of Christ will bring all to light.

And so ended our first full day in Italy…we will see what today brings. We are going to be climbing Casteluzzo, the mountain off of which many Waldensians were thrown to their deaths for the crime of following the word of the Lord. Between my foot, my allergies, and my asthma, we’ll see how that goes!