Wow, sorry it has taken me so long to post, but we have been super busy! As I told you in the last post, I believe, we did not have classes this summer. I miss meeting regularly with my students, and I have tried to meet with some of my students this summer, going out for coffee, or gelato, or something else. We had a group of athletes stay with us in June and this month we had a project here in the school that we have been working on all month. Not only did we have the athletes stay with us, but we also had several people stay at the school, which I am told is normal during the summer.
In June, we had a group of athletes from Harding come and stay with us. I have written about the HUF program before and the Harding students involved in it, but this program is called BAT (Bison Athletes in Training). Many of the athletes at Harding do not have the chance to go on one of Harding's overseas programs for a semester because of their training, so this program allowed some athletes to have a cross-cultural experience. Also during June we had our first VBS here at the church in Firenze. It was Laura and Ryan's project and they did a great job. The theme was the Armor of God and we invited the kids from the churches in Firenze, Prato, and Pistoia. Although it was our first VBS, we had a great turnout. Ryan and Laura wrote a skit which we performed in Italian, and they also translated a few songs into Italian that we taught to the kids there. It was only one afternoon, but it was a good day.
And this past month we have been remolding the kitchen! David and I started the demolition while everyone else was at church camp for two weeks.We took the tiles off the walls, a light green colored tile, and had to smooth them out, which took a while. After that we started tiling the floor and then we after we grouted the floor we started tiling the walls, both are a gray colored tile. We also ran a few more electrical lines and repainted the walls above the tiles and the ceiling...writing this makes it seem easy, but we have been working on it for about 5 weeks, and it has been hard work! David has saved the school thousands of euros over the past few years by doing most of the repairs around here himself. We still have a few things left to do such as install a new light fixture, finish the electrical work, and then move in all the furniture.
We have had several visitors, as I have already said. A few couples have stayed with us and a few college students passing through traveling Europe. Some of our visitors have been angels in disguise. We had a mother, ,and daughter, Erin, stay with us for a few days. They worked at a church camp, doing repairs, in France and helped us work a few days laying tile. A friend of Emily's, Derek and his roommate Jay, helped us for a couple of weeks. At first they did some small things around the school that had been kinda neglected because of the kitchen project, mowing the lawn and cleaning outside and in. They also helped us out in the kitchen with the tiles. One of Ermenita's friends, Tracie, has been staying with us for a while as well and has been helping us clean the stainless steel counter tops that will go in the kitchen, and also has helped us paint the past couple of days. David and Debbie's eldest daughter Elizabeth and her roommate also stayed with us for a week helping us out as well. I thank God for the help that all of these people gave us and I know that he will bless them for their service and sacrifice of their vacation time to help us.
I did get to go to an interesting festival in Certaldo with my student Edoardo. It was 4 days long but we only went for one of the nights. I went with Edoardo and several of his and his girlfriend's friends so I got to practice my Italian! The festival is comprised of street performers, jugglers and mimes and other types of performances, but the night we were there, we only saw bands in the street playing, as well as other artists selling their wares. It was interesting and I think Edoardo was kinda disappointed that I didn't get to see the traditional performances. Well, that is pretty much what I have been up to lately. Tomorrow we leave for Ermenita's wedding in Albania and will be gone for 10 days or so.
Please keep all of us in your prayers as we travel this month, pray that God will watch over us and that we will not miss an opportunity to share out faith and the great things that God has done for us. Please pray that we will continue to allow God to work through us today, tomorrow, and everyday. I thank God for all of you who have continued to pray for me and the support and encouragement that I receive. I will tell you about Alabania when I return and I will also post pictures. Ciao and God bless.
