When Giorgia Maghelli studied at St. Andrews University, Scotland, for a degree in religious art, she dismissed religion. She said, \u201cReligion is not for me, as it\u2019s filled with myths and fables.\u201d At the end of her class in art history, she went to her major professor who asked, \u201cWhat did you most get out of this class?\u201d In response she said, \u201cWhat I most got out of this class is that to believe in God is quite foolish, you have to be quite ignorant, as Christianity and religion is a fable foisted on the masses to control people. It\u2019s really about a power struggle.\u201d<\/p>\n
The professor responded, \u201cThat\u2019s exactly what we intended to have you come out of the class with, that was our intent, because you can\u2019t have any confidence in the teachings of Christianity.\u201d As she left that discussion, a light dawned in her mind: \u201cWhy would you have to try to destroy something like faith and religion if it were unreal, and does not make intellectual sense? Surely you would just totally ignore it?\u201d<\/p>\n
A Holy Spirit Prompt?<\/strong><\/p>\n The professor\u2019s comment was the seed God put into her mind.<\/p>\n She returned to Italy, where she was living, and began exploring spirituality and the New Age movement. Her mother had been listening to an Adventist sermon on the internet and recommended it to her daughter. Knowing it was an Adventist preacher, it kind of lodged in this young woman\u2019s head. It made some sense but didn\u2019t impress her and didn\u2019t change her life.<\/p>\n Returning one weekend to Edinburgh for a wedding due to take place on Saturday afternoon, she decided to do some shopping in the morning. To get to the shopping centre, she got on a bus. She got on the wrong bus (the wrong bus for her\u2014but the right bus for God). The fellow sitting next to her had a Bible in his hand. He was an African young adult going to a Scottish church; she was Irish. They got talking and she enquired as to where he was going. \u201cI\u2019m going to the Seventh-day Adventist church,\u201d he replied.<\/p>\n Bingo!<\/p>\n “God is Love”<\/strong><\/p>\n She remembered that internet sermon, and said to the young man, \u201cI\u2019m going with you, and I\u2019ve got to explore this thing called religion. What\u2019s that book you\u2019ve got in your hand?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPatriarchs and Prophets. You can have the book,\u201d he replied.<\/p>\n She took that book in her hand and read the first paragraph. \u201cGod is love.\u201d It described God\u2019s created world, the origin of evil, and the magnificence of creation. \u201cI don\u2019t know who this woman Ellen White is, but she must have been inspired; her writing blows me away,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n As she read that first paragraph, she was moved to tears\u2014secular, postmodern, godless, but longing in her heart to know Christ, longing to be filled spiritually. She was searching for something, even though she did not know what she was searching for, because postmodern men and women have a hole in their hearts. As Augustine said, \u201cLord, our hearts will never find rest until they find rest in you!\u201d<\/p>\n Giorgia found that trying to fill up an empty self with self is foolish because you never fill self with self; you only fill self with God. After she read the chapter of Patriarchs and Prophets, her heart was touched. She began seeking.<\/p>\n Dublin 2014<\/strong><\/p>\n I was teaching Sabbath School in the Dublin Ranelagh church when Giorgia and her mother Mary walked into the Sabbath School class, and began to attend our meetings. Both have since been baptised! I thank God for my African brother in Edinburgh who gave his Irish sister a book.<\/p>\n I thank God for British and Irish men and women who are giving our literature to their friends, neighbours and working associates, because it makes all the difference in the world.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Edingburgh-Bus.jpg\")