Rarely a dull moment

Huw Williams | 11:52, Saturday 03 August 2013 | Turin, Italy

We often say that you never quite know who is going to turn up to the International Church of Torino (ICT). Last Sunday we had fifty guests, all from the Netherlands, all on a family camp in the mountains about an hour out of the city. With so many of our congregation away on their holidays now, I think our guests must have doubled our numbers on Sunday.

We were so glad that they wanted to join us for our service on Sunday, and it was another reminder – such as we have most weeks in one form or another – of the amazing fellowship we have as members of God's family. Here they were, of all ages and stages of life, some of them didn't speak very good English, but we muddled along and one of their leaders, Jan-Hermen, gave a little summary in Dutch every ten minutes through the sermon so that they could follow what it was we were thinking about. They didn't know many of the songs we sang, but they tried to join in, and after the service they blessed us by singing some of their own! But the most amazing thing about the morning was the incredible sense of unity we enjoyed as people who were strangers and yet brothers and sisters in the Lord. I'm convinced that nothing else could have produced such a sense of fellowship.

There's rarely a dull moment in ICT. And sometimes I wouldn't have it any other way.