Return to the land of your ancestors and to your kindred, and I will be with you.
Genesis 31:3
This sabbatical is designed to find place. I sometimes wonder if I was not switched at the baptismal font. A second generation son of an Italian father, how did I end up in a Northern European Midwestern Reformed Church in America congregation? Me …. a clergyman in this same denomination where I often feel misplaced and out of sync with my colleagues!
Then I learned of the Waldensians – Protestant Italian Christians whose reformed credentials predate Calvin by centuries. I have been particularly impressed with the Waldensian focus on an evangelical faith intentionally in tension with political structures. These seemed my natural brothers and sisters – like long lost kin.

This sabbatical then takes me to the land of my ancestors to live in a Waldensian guest house, Casa Cares, thirty miles southeast of Florence. I will participate in the life and ministry of this Waldensian community. On a more personal and nurturing level I will also begin the lifelong desire of exploring the place of my ancestors as an immersed learner of the language in both olive grove and classroom.