An English evangelical led a German man and his Bolivian wife to Christ after he met them by seeming chance in the very highest point of St Peter’s Roman Catholic basilica in the Vatican.
Greg Downes, Director of Ministerial Training, and Dean of The Wesley Centre for Missional Engagement at the evangelical training college, Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, says:
‘I was on the cupola [dome] of Saint Peter’s basilica in the Vatican, high above the tomb of the apostle Peter (tradition tells us) recovering from the exertion of the 551 steps and slightly regretting not taking the lift. A 49-year-old tourist called Holger struck up conversation with me to ask me if I knew the residence of (fellow German) Pope Emeritus Benedict as we surveyed the scene of the Vatican gardens below. Slightly embarrassingly I did, and after pointing out the Mater ecclesiae monastery 135 metres [450 foot] below, I told them that I was an ordained minister.
