6 Months Gone

        I cannot believe that I have already been in Italy for 6 months now!  It seems like a week ago that I arrived and it feels like yesterday I was still in language school.  I have grown a lot in my faith since I have been here and have been so blessed by the people that I have met, my students, and my teammates here with me.  And I'm sorry that it has been so long since my last update, but here is what I and my teammates have been up to for the past month.

        I have a few new students: Allasandro, Ibrahim, and Fabio.  These were Eric students that I picked up since he and Jessica moved to work with the churches in Taranto (southern Italy).  It is kinda bittersweet that they left.  I know that God will do great things with them down there but we will miss them, and already do.  Allasandro is a very advanced student in English and extremely smart.  So far our classes have run over a half hour every time, haha.  Since he is pretty advanced we are reading Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis.  We read the first chapter of that book and also the first chapter of Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis and decided that for now we will read Mere Christianity and occasionally read Screwtape Letters as a change of pace.  Fabio is more of a beginner but he knows a little English and and have not had a class with Ibrahim yet because things have come up with either for me or him.  My other classes are still going well, especially with Edoardo, and Felice.  The Thursday conversation class has boomed!  We went from having 2 or 3 students to 8!  It is incredible that we have so many people coming now.

        Our Friday night events are going well.  We have had three movie nights now.  The first one was Despicable Me, which I think I have already talked about previously, and our second one was The Blind Side.  Ryan made a power point presentation about the movie explaining that it is based on a true story and told a little about the real family in Memphis.  Then we did some vocabulary words and phrases that they would hear in the movie.  It was a little more difficult for them because of the southern accents in the movie, but with the subtitles most of our students understood very well.  The last movie night we had we watched National Treasure.  This one was easier for them to understand because the language was simpler and the vocabulary wasn't that hard.  Andrea, our resident expert on U.S. history and Government, did a presentation on the Declaration of Independence and Ryan did a brief overview of the national monuments in the movie and I did the vocabulary and the phrases in the movie.  After all the movies we ask questions about the film to make sure that they understood.  Some of the questions are harder and some are easier, but most of the time they get them right.

        At the last cooking school, Laura and Ermenita did the menu.  They cooked meatloaf, potato casserole, California cabbage, and chocolate chip cookies.  It was all very delicious!  Laura did a great job of demonstrating how to cook the recipes.  The other ladies here helped her cook and serve the dishes while Ryan and I were the dish washing crew.  A couple of weeks ago, Angela and I did the book club night (we are reading The Pearl by Steinbeck) because Emily and Andrea were in Farrara visiting the church there.  There was a smaller group than the last time, but we still had a lot of good discussion.  That Sunday we drove up to Farrara, only a couple of hours away, for church on Sunday morning.  I met a lot of new people and got to see our friend Lucca.  The people at the church there are very friendly and welcoming.  There was hardly a time when I wasn't talking to someone from the church there, haha!

        On another note, Ryan and Laura have started what they are calling "The Gathering" on Sunday nights.  It is for high school and college students.  Every week of the month they will rotate what will go on.  So one night we will have "singing and translation" nights where we will sing something in English and then translate a song from English into Italian.  Another night is "share your talent night" where someone will teach others something they are good at and another will be "reading and sharing" where we will read something from the Bible, or other Christian living type book.  And the last activity will be a "video presentation" where we will watch some type of video, like the "Numa" series, and then discuss it.  We had the first one this past Sunday and it went very well.  All the Avanti workers were there and 5 others, so all in all we had 4 different cultures represented.

        As I was reading my Bible a few days ago I came across a particular passage that I have read before but now it means a lot more to me.  It is Colossians 4:2-6 which says, "Devote yourselves to pray, being watchful and thankful.  And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains.  Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should.  Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity.  Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone."   As I close out this post I ask again that you continue to pray for us.  Pray that God will continue to use us for his glory and that we will allow ourselves to be used.  Pray also that our speech and actions with other people will bring glory to God and not for ourselves and that our speech will be filled with love, grace, and authority.  Pray also for the work Ryan and Laura are doing here in Florence and the work that Eric and Jessica are doing in Taranto.  

        To everyone reading this blog I thank you for taking the time to keep up with the work we are doing over here.  And thanks to everyone who comments here and sends me messages and post on Facebook and sends me emails.  Whether you know it or not each and every one encourages me.  And to my teammates who are reading this blog I thank you for all the encouragement and friendship that you have given me these past 6 months.  God has really blessed me with your presence here and I look forward to getting to know you all better and seeing how God will work through you.  God bless you all.