K.F.C.: Kitchen, Friends, and Convegno

Ciao tutti!  Well here is the news since we've been back from Albania.  First, we have pretty much finished our work remolding the kitchen.  It took us roughly a month to finish, but it looks great.  We replaced the tiles on the walls and laid tiles on the floor as well, both the color gray.  After the tile were finished we painted the walls above the tiles and the ceiling white.  David, Ryan, and I also did some electrical work moving a light fixture and making new places for outlets.  Before we only had one place to plug appliances such as a hand mixer or something like that and really only counter to prepare food.  Now we have about 21 outlets and 4 stainless steel counter spaces to prepare food.  Peperdine University donated the stainless steel counter tops to us in the spring, so thank you Peperdine.  Here are some before, during, and after pictures of our work:

 Before:

 During:

 After:

This summer we also had some new friends, angels in disguise in my opinion, pass through the Bible school and help us with our work in the kitchen and other small things around the school that needed to be done but didn't have time to do them.  I have talked about those people in the last post, but I wanted to thank them again for the blessing that they were to us.  Also Kyle, the HUF graduate assistant who also lives with the school with us, celebrated his 29th birthday in August and wanted his friends to come with him on a Vespa tour through the Tuscan countryside.  It was so much fun seeing the scenery while the wind whipped through our clothes cooling from the heat of the day.  We started in San Gimignano then went to Volterra and passed through other small towns.  All 16 of us returned safe and sound from the trip, and it was such a good day. 

Me on my Vespa!

I'm sure we looked awesome as we all rode down the road

 

Debbie and Erme decided to rent a convertible instead of the Vespas

One of my favorite pictures that I took that day.

On a slightly sadder note, Emily's time ended here last week.  At church a few weeks ago we had a slide show of pictures from her time here, Debbie made a cake for her and everyone at the church, and several of her students and friends came to see her one last time.  The last few days she was here several people showed up at the door to say good-bye to her.  I think that even that is a testimony of all the great things she did here for the Kingdom of God in two years.  And Emily if you are reading this I just wanted to say, "Thank you for all the work you have done here.  I can see how God has worked through you at the school, in Florence, and even in other parts of Italy.  You are already missed here, but I know that God will bless you and that you will be a blessing to those around you in the States.  Ti voglio bene!" 

Emily on her Vespa

Emily and two of her students, Lorenzo and Gulia

Lorenzo and Gulia pretending to be glad Emily is leaving!  haha, but don't worry they really miss her

 


And speaking of friends, we got to see many of our friends and make new ones at the Convegno here in Firenze a couple of weeks ago.  It was a lot of prep work for at the church and the school, but it was a lot of fun.  It started on Wednesday and ended after an Agape meal on Sunday afternoon..  Everything was in Italian and was hard for me to follow along, but I followed well enough to get the gist.  The theme was "Bereishit" which means "in the beginning" in Hebrew.  The speakers talked about creation, beginning of Abraham, Moses, and Jesus.  It was good to worship with our brothers and sisters in Christ and get to know them better.  And I'm not going to lie, at the end of the day I was exhausted from trying to listen, speak, and think in Italian!  haha.

Next week we start back again teaching classes.  We will all have more students, since we are kinda short on teachers, but we are all looking forward to seeing our students again on a regular basis.  As always I ask that you will please keep us in your prayers.  Pray that we will be Christ to our students, friends, and even strangers that we meet so that God can work through us for his glory.  Pray also for the brothers and sisters in the churches here in Italy, and pray that God will continue to bless them and work through them.  I also wanted to thank all my friends and family for their continued support and encouragement.  All the emails, Facebook messages, and Skype conversations mean a lot to me.  God bless you and I will write more next week and let you know how classes are going.  Ciao.