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I spent the weekend in Torino. It was my first visit to Italy. It’s a shame because Chambéry and Torino have a lot of common history. They were both capital of Savoy. I was also surprised at how close they are from each other. It is only 200 km from Chambéry to Torino. The journey through the Alps is beautiful. Torino is a much bigger city than Chambéry though, probably 10 times bigger.

Huw and Alison are UFM missionaries. Huw pastors The International church of Torino. It was a joy to meet them and meet their church. There are a lot of Africans in the church, mainly from Ghana and Nigeria, but there are also a few Americans, and some other. Once the children’s went out, there were about 70-80. People were listening and I had some good discussions before and after the service.

It was good to discuss about the challenges of witnessing in Italy. It seems that the situationis quite similar on both sides of the Alps. We also talked about the advantages of ministering in an International church, but also of some of the specific challenges that International churches face.

I am now on my way back. I’ve just crossed the Alps and will soon be back in Chambéry.

If you ever go to Torino, it is worth paying a visit to Huw and Alison and the International church in Torino.

Saturday would have been chaotic on the roads leading to the Alps even if the weather would have been nice. But it snowed, and many tourists on their way to the sky resorts, or back from them got stuck for hours on the various motorways around where we live.
We wanted to avoid traffic jams at all cost, so we had decided we should be back home by Friday evening at the latest. That meant leaving Bala on Thursday morning.
We crossed England and experienced the worst of British motorways: 7 hours drive under the rain in heavy traffic.
We crossed the channel safely and slept in Calais before a long journey home: 860km to Chambéry. But we experience the best of French motorways: 10 hours drive with little traffic, and after a few hours we even saw the sun. We avoided the chaos of Saturday. It was quite fun to see pictures of the motorways we had been driving on a few hours earlier now covered in snow, and cars stuck.
But this journey has left us washed out. We are still feeling a little tired three days later.

We’re now in North Wales after a few days in the west of the country. We’ve driven 1100 miles so far, and we haven’t finished.