Next week, twenty-seven students and four leaders will scatter across the Atlantic, carrying stories of hope to a land rich in history but weary in spirit. Their destination is Isernia, a quiet mountain town in central Italy, where centuries of tradition sit heavy in the air. And yet, among its youth, the fire of faith flickers low.

We go because of a man named Don Enzo, a priest with a deep ache in his heart. He sees what others overlook: teenagers raised under the gaze of cathedrals, yet untouched by the love of a living God. His dream is bold: to awaken a generation to a faith that breathes, moves, and loves. And he’s invited us to help.

For two weeks, our team will enter classrooms in Isernia and nearby towns—Venafro, Trivento, and Agnone—meeting nearly 2,000 high school students. In a nation where religion is studied like history but rarely encountered like a relationship, we’ll offer something different: testimony.

Ten teachers have made space for us during the weekly hour of “religion class.” Not a lesson plan, but a window into personal faith. In pairs, our students will share fifteen-minute stories of how love found them. Then they’ll guide conversations around a simple, universal theme:

“IS LOVE: A Voice to Young People.”

What does love mean to you? Where do you find it? How do you give it?

These questions are not rhetorical. They are doorways to something deeper. Our students will share how love is not just an idea or a feeling, but a Person. A presence that meets you in your pain. A Savior who gives purpose to your life.

But this isn’t just a mission. It’s a sacred exchange. Our students will stay in the homes of Italian church members, eat at their tables, walk their cobblestone streets, and learn their rhythms of life. In turn, students from the British School, many of whom don’t profess faith, will translate for us and engage the conversations themselves. Together they’ll wrestle with questions of love, identity, and truth in a way that transcends language and culture.

At the end of the first week, we’ll host something new: a ninety-minute “zero meeting” outside of school. There will be music, food, and small groups. But more than that, there will be space for young Italians to encounter the Jesus who meets them not in cathedrals, but in quiet conversations where love has a name.

This first meeting is only the beginning. Don Enzo and his team will carry it forward with monthly gatherings in all four towns. The seed we plant, he will water.

We hope to harvest something, too. Moments of worship in small mountain churches. Conversations with thirty-five engaged couples preparing for marriage at the Eureka Center. A baptism in the parish of Macchia d’Isernia, joyful and intimate. Even an olive harvest, where we’ll gather fruit from old trees and watch oil flow—an ancient picture of how something ordinary is pressed and made radiant.

Yes, there will be missteps. Language barriers. Awkward silences. Laughter that bridges difference. There will be moments when a teenager, far from home, realizes that love crosses borders and faith does, too.

Would you pray with us?

Pray that the Holy Spirit would not be confined to tradition or ritual, but would move unexpectedly and unmistakably in classrooms and homes. Pray that love would be more than a word; it would be a witness. And that every student, American and Italian, would return home seeing the world and their faith with new eyes.