Bruno was resting in his Venetian gondola after the long working day. It was August after the Covid epidemic and people dreamed of going somewhere, taking a trip, perhaps to Venice. This was his strongest month since he had been working. He had applied to the municipality in Venice and had become a boatman when the epidemic was passing, because many boatmen had given up due to the lack of tourists.

Resting in the boat and letting the light waves rock him, he was thinking about home. He had left relatives and friends, and had left for wherever, because his girlfriend refused to get engaged to him and then left him for a friend of his. It was hard for him, but he decided to continue in life. Although he was a car mechanic, he had skipper courses for a small yacht, which had served him in applying to be a boatman. Ironically, the boat had no engine, and he did not have to repair anything.

On that particular day, many tourists had passed, most of them couples. His ability to sing well served him wonderfully and he entertained them. An elderly couple, who spoke a language unknown to him, but from their appearance he decided they were from the Balkans, handed him, when getting off, a small brochure in Italian. It was about faith in the god.

He was not very religious. His family were very active in the local parish, but he somehow had a lukewarm attitude toward things “which I cannot see,” he used to say. Nevertheless, he had respect for the church, for the rituals, for the Bible, which he had never read. But only that much. He stood with the brochure in his hand, wondering what to do with it, because he did not want neither to read it nor to throw it away. He put it in the little bag that was on his belt, and continued thinking about home.

There was something that troubled him about this job. Outside the season he had no income, while rent and food were paid all year round. Therefore, sometimes he looked at different job advertisements. One day he came across a job as a butler who also had to work with a boat and transport people. He was curious and called. It turned out that the job was at an estate on an island in a lake in the northern part of Italy. They arranged for him to go to an interview, and they hired him. His skills were more than enough. He behaved respectfully toward people, and the work with tourists showed that he was not a conflict-prone person.

He began living there in a small purpose-built house in the northern part of the estate, far enough away from the owners’ house. They were kind upper-class people, who behaved politely but distantly. One of his main tasks turned out to be taking their daughter Lily, about eight years old, to school in the morning, taking her all the way to the school itself and then in the afternoon bringing her back.

Lily was an exact copy of her parents. She behaved extremely politely, but sufficiently haughtily. This did not bother Bruno, who looked at things from the positive side. He had found himself a quiet job that was for as long as he wanted. He had free time on Saturday and Sunday, when her parents drove the boat. They wanted to have several boats, but the municipality had restricted them because the lake was small and they did not want many boats in it. Eco problems.

Thus their time passed quietly, and Bruno and Lily spent some time together every day. Her family had an attitude toward religion similar to Bruno’s. Therefore, their common subjects only around the holidays came a little closer to the church. But the god loved them.

One day Bruno had gone to the city for shopping. Lily, already twelve years old and entering puberty, was at home on school vacation. She was walking with her two collie dogs in the large park. She was throwing them a ball, but she wanted not to be there, but somewhere with her girlfriends, and her mind was working feverishly on how to get away. By chance she came close to Bruno’s house; the door was ajar. On the estate no one touched anything. She went inside. The setting was not like in the big house, the furnishings were from Ikea, but it was clean and tidy. Paula – their maid – always passed through the little house to clean.

There were several magazines on the table; she leafed through them. They were advertising magazines from a travel agency and all were about southern Italy and included Sicily. Lily knew that Bruno was originally from Sicily and tried to understand what he needed them for. The truth was that he simply looked through them when he wanted to allow memories of home, of his beloved, even if former, to rush in. Sometimes he wanted to go to Morocco, or to Thailand. Lily came close to the desk on which there were electricity bills, a manual for repairing boat engines and several cheap adventure books. She reached out to open the drawer, remembered that she had been taught not to do it, and it was as if she froze in thought. After several seconds curiosity prevailed and she opened it. It creaked slightly and then slid on its rails. A pen, two pencils, a box of paper clips, a pencil sharpener, a notebook which she did not dare open, and at the back there was a folded sheet of paper. She took it and it turned out to be a brochure. The same brochure which the family from the Balkans had given Bruno. She opened it. She noticed that it said things about faith, about the god, which she did not understand. Then she decided to photograph it with her phone and one day decide what to do.

The events, however, developed faster than she expected, because after several days, while Paula was cleaning Bruno’s little house, she had “come across,” in quotation marks, the brochure in question. The difference was that Paula was zealous in her Catholic faith and had never seen such a brochure, as she went to mass on her day off. She went and told Lily’s parents, in fact reported it, and this caused disturbance in the otherwise peaceful home. They did not know and could not judge whether Bruno belonged to some sect. Bruno, of course, explained exactly what had happened. The family decided to ask the local priest Father Pietro. Practically they were all there together with the father.

– Father, what do you think this is? – Lily’s father asked with furrowed brows.

The father began to read and after several minutes said:

– The important thing is to follow the true faith. – And added. – Today a person can do whatever he wants, but in another time, such literature would have created problems.

Mr. Pietro went around the problem and this did not escape Lily’s sharp mind. She noticed something peculiar and unnatural in the priest’s behavior and answer. One of her girlfriends was from a Protestant family. They attended a small Baptist church near the shore. Lily called her and explained. Her mother and father then called the pastor, and he had come over to see the strange literature. The pastor began to read, then his face darkened and he declared:

– These are some complete nonsense. Where did you get this?

Lily explained, hoping that finally someone would clarify the contents of the brochure to her.

– Throw this in the trash – the pastor cut her off. – And if you want to learn something about the faith, come to church on Sunday.

Lily was more than dissatisfied with everyone’s behavior. How was it that no one wanted to explain anything to her? And why? At the end of the brochure there was a link. She went to the web address in question, it was in English, in Spanish and some unknown Balkan language, completely incomprehensible to her. Lily understood English well, but she did not know the Bible, and therefore it was very complicated for her to understand the different references to places in the Bible. She remembered, however, that there are no churches in the Bible. She began to wonder how to deal with it. She decided that if she prayed to the god, according to the prayer at the end of the brochure, perhaps it would become easier for her to understand. She did it.

The next day, Lily woke up and everything was somehow different. The things that until yesterday seemed important to her, today – vain. She decided that she wanted to know more. She bought herself a Bible and began to read. Sometimes she went to that internet page, read something and then continued with the Bible. She passed through difficult-to-read places, such as the law of Moses. But when she reached the prophets, she realized that she understood absolutely nothing. She decided to call those people who had given the brochure to Bruno.

Bruno himself was not very impressed by Lily’s new enthusiasm. To some extent he felt guilty for what had happened. Paula reasoned in the same way. Lily’s mother and father looked at the situation more philosophically, that it was better with the Bible than for her to be occupied with nonsense. So, Lily received permission to call them. On the other side of the line, a male voice politely answered in English. After a short conversation, Lily was advised to receive the holy spirit, and advised to read the books about Jesus and the deeds of the messengers.

Lily was eighteen years old when she showed up at the door of the family in Bulgaria which had given the brochure to Bruno. She had stayed in a small local hotel, could easily afford it and stay as long as she decided; her family had more than enough. Lily stayed with them for about a month. Jesus became a close and clear friend, teacher, and lord.

Years after that, she was seen in Thailand talking with a small group of people about faith in the god. Lily became part of the new generation in the faith, which left the comfort and carefreeness of the Christian religions and went to help the people in the world, so that they might believe in the god for salvation. The god continued to love Lily and now she was his servant among the nations.