New Experiences and Travels

I have had had some great experiences over the past couple of weeks.  For example, my student Edoardo asked me if he could have his own Bible in English.  The request took me by surprise.  So the next week I gave him an English, thin-line, reference Bible.  I have never seen anyone's eyes light up when they received a Bible, but his eyes were alight with happiness.  I showed him how to use the reference noted in the middle and at the bottom  of the page.  During the Bible Study he used his new Bible and I used mine.  After our study he asked me if he should start reading his new Bible from the beginning or if he should just read where we were studying.  I told him that he could do either and then while he was packing up his stuff he took extra care to put his new Bible back into the box it came in and told me that he would take really good care of the Bible.  It really encouraged me.  I also got to talk with one of the students here about different religions, the little that I knew about them, but I got to share my faith with him and why I believe what I believe.

A couple of weeks ago we had a baby shower for Danielle and Luli.  Danielle is a former Avanti worker and she and Luli stayed here during December.  The ladies here planned the shower for her and we all pitched in and got them some gifts.  I have never been to a baby shower before and didn't really know what to expect, but Ermenita and Jessica planned some games to play.  One game was to guess how many M&Ms were in a jar, which Luli guessed correctly.  The other game, one of the ladies here filled 13 diapers with different things and we had to smell them and guess what was in them.  They were filled with things like onions, mint, peppermint, nutmeg, and Nutella.  She got a lot of great gifts and she told me that she felt very blessed by everyone's generosity, support, and love.

Luli and Danielle

 Above and Below: Diaper smelling game

The pictures below are some of the presents Luli and Danielle received:

Last Friday the ladies here at Avanti went to Velletri for a women's conference, so the men here did physical Friday, the library reading, and game night.  For physical Friday, we moved in the new double fridge, washer, and industrial dryer.  They were extremely heavy, but we got them moved in and set up (thanks College Church!).  At the library, we read The Giving Tree in English and did some activities with them.  They seemed to really enjoy it.  As for Game Night, we only had one person showed up for it.  We played Scrabble for about an hour and then she left.  Hopefully the next game night we will have more students.

 Above and Below: Eric doing vocabulary in the story with the kids

 Below: David reading he story to the kids

On Saturday the men had a road trip planned.  Ryan, Eric, Kyle, David, Luli, and I went to four small Tuscan towns leaving at 7:30 am.  We first went first to Montalcino.  It is a small town with a pretty cool fortress and while we were there they were having a wine festival and the streets in the main piazza. 

Ryan climbing out onto a fortress tower

 Below: from the fortress

  

Below: Luli and Me at the fortress

The next town we went to was Pienza.  There we ate lunch and had an awesome view of the valley we were in.  After lunch, a wonderful wild boar and pecorino cheese sandwich, we explored the town on our own.  I found a pretty good caffe shop on a small side street, but the funniest thing that happened to me was being pooped on by a bird!  Haha.

Below: around Pienza

Below: eating lunch at Pienza

We then drove on to Montepulciano.  It is a pretty cool town famous for their red wine, but more recently famous because one of the Twilight movies was filmed there in the main square.  Unfortunately we couldn't go into the fortress there but we got to walk around it.

  Above and Below: the fortress and grounds around it

 Above and Below: the main Piazza where the Twilight movie was filmed

We finished out the day by having dinner in Siena.  It was my second time there but the first for Ryan.  So Kyle took us on a small tour and told us interesting facts about the town in general, the Duomo, and the Piazza del Campo.  We got back to Scandicci about 10 pm.

After church on Sunday Kyle, Ryan, and I went to Pisa for the afternoon.  We had to wait 2 hours before we could go into the tower there, so we tried to go into the Duomo, the Baptistery, and the Cemetery there but they were all closed due to the fact that there was a procession for one of the saints.  But we eventually got to go into the baptistery before we went into the tower.  After we left Pisa we came back to Firenze and went to see a movie, Il Grinta (or True Grit). 

It was a good weekend.  We got to spend time with Luli, one of the men at the church here, and it was a last hoo-ra for Eric because he and Jessica moved to Tarento yesterday to work with the church down there.  I went with David to take them to the train station and was bitter-sweet to see them leave.  I will miss their company everyday but I know that they will do great things down in Tarento.

As I close out this post I ask that you will continue to pray for us over here.  Pray also for Eric and Jessica and the work that they will be doing down there and pray that God will bless them more immensely than they could ever imagine.  I know that they will be a blessing to the church down there.  Pray that we will allow God to use us here and that we will reflect God's love to everyone we meet whether our students or strangers.  I want to thank everyone for their comments, emails, letter, and facebook message that I receive.  It can be hard being over here sometimes and I thank you all for the encouragement and the prayers.  Make the most of every opportunity to serve God where ever you are.  Ciao and God bless.

Firenze, Pistoia, Ferarra, and Vicenza

Last Sunday after church, we went out to eat at a restaurant here in Scandicci called Nuovo Mexico, New Mexico in English.  Funny enough though, it doesn't serve Mexican food, its a typical Italian restaurant but the owner just liked the name.  The food there is fantastic and one of my favorite places to eat around here.  After lunch a few of us (Eric, David, Angela, Andrea, and myself) went to Pistoia, which is a town about 30 mins. away from us, for a singing service.  They invited the churches in Prato and Firenze to come as well.  I met a few people that I met before and some others I hadn't, including some of the A.I.M workers from Prato.  A.I.M. is another missionary program based in Lubbock, TX.  Everyone I met was great and it was good to spend some time singing with my brothers and sisters in Christ. 

This past weekend a few of us (Emily, Andrea, Angela, David, and I) went to Vicenza for the weekend.  Lindsay Walle, one of the A.I. workers, is about to finish here time here in Italy and we went to say goodbye to her one last time.  There are two churches in Vincenza that use the same building, one of Ghanaians and one of mainly Italians and we just happen to be there on their unity Sunday and also the Agape Sunday as well.  I met a lot of wonderful people, Italians and Ghanaians, and everyone is going to miss Lindsay so please pray for the church there and for Lindsay as well.  On the way to and from Vicenza we stopped in Fararra to see a couple of friends, Lucca and Daniella.  They were both here for the Youth Convanio in August before I arrived and went with us to Aprillia in October.  They invited us to their grandmother's house for lunch, which was AMAZING.  Lucca told me that his grandmother was the best cook in Fararra and he was right.  They fed us lunch on Saturday and then we stopped to have tea and caffe with them on Sunday.

Lucca and me

Angela with Lucca's grandparents

Every time I go overseas I am always amazed with the churches that I attend.  When I was back in the States I would always hear from missionaries about churches in other parts of the world but it didn't come alive for me until I went to Greece 5 years ago and had my first cross-cultural church experience.  It happened again when I was in Croatia and Hungary 2 years ago, and then again when I first got here.  I relived those experiences again when we had church this past Sunday with the Italians and the Ghanaians.  Ever few songs the Ghanaians would sing in their language and I would sit or stand there and listen to them and it was just an awesome experience.  I couldn't help but think that this is what heaven will be like when we are all singing together, people from different countries and cultures all worshiping God at the same time.  I smile every time i think about it.

My classes are still going well.  Edoardo still amazes me with his intellect and comprehension of what we are reading.  He understands about 95% of the words we encounter but every now and then there is a word or phrase that he doesn't understand.  Felice is making progress every week and I am glad to see him because he is eager to learn.  I found out in our first lesson that he and his wife Rossa, our cook here at the school, go ballroom dancing twice a week.  It sounds like they are pretty good and hopefully I will be able to go and watch them soon.  I have a new student for the next two weeks: Giuseppe.  He is one of David's students that I taught a couple of weeks ago and he might become one of my students for the rest of the semester, but I will have to wait and see.  I had class with him today and he and David have been talking about the temptations of Jesus in Matt. 4, which we continued to talk about; he also asked questions about where the Garden of Eden was and when Adam died.  The grammar class is going well and we had more students last week, which was encouraging.  Last week Ryan, Eric, and I got together and came up with a curriculum for the conversation class at the church.  We are going to plan 16 lessons each, 8 from the Old Testament and 8 from the New Testament, and make them into a little book.  Eric did class last week with one of his lessons and it went really well. So we will keep this format for a while.

As I said in my last post, we are starting to do a weekly activity with our students.  The first Friday of the month is movie night and last Friday we watched Despicable Me.  I ended up watching twice last week trying to find hard vocab words and idioms that they might not know such as, "I am sitting on pins and needles... pinky promise... simmer down... chillax..."  and a few others.  After the movie I asked them a few simple questions about the movie as well.  Ermenita made some cookies, the ladies here made an awesome punch, and learned how to make popcorn on the stove.  They all seemed to enjoy it and the snacks that we made for them as well.  This Friday will be the cooking school and I will let y'all know how it goes.

As for other news, Ryan and Laura have moved out of the school into their new apartment in town.  They are keeping their students that they had last semester and will be working more with the church and evangelizing at the University of Florence, so please keep them in your prayers.  In other unrelated news I have lost about 40 pounds since I arrived in Italy mainly due to the change in diet, but I have been walking a lot too.

Well, that is all for now but please continue to pray for all of us over here.  Pray for all the churches here in Italy and their ministries.  Pray that we will be real and transparent with our students and that we will show them God's love and mercy.  Pray also that everything we do will bring glory and honor to God and not for ourselves.  Thanks for taking to time to read this and keeping up with me.  I really appreciate all the comments, and emails, and facbook messages that I receive.  They are a real blessing and encouragement to me.  Ciao for now and God bless.

A New Semester

Since my last blog many things have been happening here.  I was sick in bed for a week with some type of bug.  Then we spent several days extensively cleaning the Bible school because we are hosting 17 of the HUF students again this semester since the repairs from the fire aren't complete yet.  We have done some work at the church, classes started back up, and I have taken another excursion into a small Tuscan town.

Well, as stated above, the new semester is up and running.  We started teaching classes last week and I am excited.  I am still teaching Edoardo and Felice.  Edoardo and I are doing a Bible study called Spread the Word Bible Study and right now we are looking at what the Bible says about the authority of Jesus.  He is very smart and knows English very well and I am looking forward to more classes with Edoardo.  Felice and I are reading a book called The Complete Stories of the Bible.  It is a simpler language and stays true to what the Bible says.  We started last week with Adam and Eve and continued with it this week.  I prepare a vocab list of some of the more important words in the story for the week and then for homework I give him a proverb to memorize.  I am also co-teaching the "advanced grammar" which we are calling "grammar 2" since the advanced part made a few of the students nervous.  This class is on Tuesday nights and it is basically going to be more advanced grammar than anything else.  I am still co-teaching the English conversation class at the church on Thursday nights with Ryan and we are going to do more conversation than grammar this semester and try to use the Bible as much as possible. 

Yesterday I taught one of David's students, Giuseppe.  He doesn't speak a lot of English and my Italian is limited.  We just started out by talking with each other and asking "get to know you" questions.  When he found out that I studied theology he started asking me question that I didn't expect him to ask me.  Just a few of them were, "do you believe in miracles and have you ever seen one (he was referring to supernatural events)...do you believe in demons, demon possession, and have you ever seen one...where did Jesus go when he was dead to heaven or to hell, and what did he do there...why did Jesus wait 40 days before going back to heaven."  Questions like those and a few others.  I tried to be open with him and to stay in the word of God and see what the Bible has to say on all of those subjects, but it was hard to do it in one hour with a language barrier between us.

Every Friday we do a "physical Friday" which involves cleaning around the Bible school or helping out one of the church members, but last Friday we did a work day at the church.  We have these HUGE palm trees behind the building and their branches have been falling and it can be dangerous.  So we spent the morning in the cold piling up branches while David was on scaffolding next to the tree pulling them off or cutting them off.

We have also added some new activities to our schedule.  Every Friday of the month, starting in February, we will have some activity with our students and members of the church.  The first Friday will be movie night which Ryan and I are in charge of.  The first movie will be Despicable Me, with subtitles, and we will have some questions to ask them after its over.  The next Friday is a Cooking School, with Debbie, Laura, and Erminita.  They will do American recipes for this school.  The third Friday is Game Night and we will have a plethora of games to play, which Angela is in charge of.  The last Friday is a Book Club which Emily and Andrea are in charge of and the first book will be The Pearl by Steinbeck.  These are just some things we decided to do to get to know our students better and each others students as well.

Last Saturday Ryan, Emily, and Angela drove to Aprilia to go to a summer camp planning session.  When the girls here, Erminita, Debbie, and Andrea put in a chick-flick David said that the men should do something.  So we hopped in the car and drove to Volterra, a small Tuscan town not too far from Firenze on a hill.  The views from the city are amazing and just the views on the drive up there were worth the trip.  It also has some awesome Roman ruins of an amphitheatre and forum but it has gained some recent fame because it it where some vampire book series called Twilight takes place.  I have never read them and don't really plan to.  It was extremely cold there and even snowing, although it wasn't sticking to the ground.  Volterra is also famous for their alabaster products so I bought an alabaster chess set with some of the money I got from my family for Christmas, so thanks Mom, Dad, Daniel, Megan, and Mammaw!  I have also taught Eric to play chess and one of Eric's students really wants to learn to play so hopefully I can teach him as well!  I never thought that I could use a chess set as an outreach tool!  Here are a couple of pictures from Volterra.

 One of the main squares in Volterra

Above and Below:

The Roman Forum and Amphitheatre in Volterra

 The Castle at Volterra which is now a prison.

And me at Volterra with the Countryside behind me.

The baptistery at the Duomo of Volterra 

Another building with a flat clock tower.

As always I hope that you will continue to pray for us.  Pray that God will use us for his glory and we will allow ourselves to be used and that we will make the most of every opportunity to spread the Gospel, plant seeds in people's lives, and show God's love to other people.  Pray also for our students and the churches here in Italy.  Both mean a lot to all of us here at the Bible school.  Thanks and God bless.  Ciao

Italian Holidays

Ciao everyone!  I hope that everyone had a great Christmas and New Years.  Well, the holidays here in Italy were quiet fun.  Christmas Eve I went into Firenze to get out of the house and see some of the decorations in the city.  While I was on the bus, I saw the line for Tiffany's, made up of only men who put off getting a present I guess, and it was out the door and around the corner.  It made me laugh.  As I walked around town I saw the Christmas Tree at the Duomo which was pretty cool as well as other trees in other Piazzas as well as the lights over the streets.  Christmas Day I got to open the presents that my family sent me and got to read the book I got for a couple of hours.  At noon we left to go to a church member's house, Mario, for Christmas Lunch.  It was Ryan and Laura, Matilda (a woman from church), Luli and Danielle (another couple from church who were staying at the school for the month of December), and myself.  Mario had a lot of food for us!  The first course we had a pasta with a red meat sauce, which was sheep meat.  Then we had the main course, the meat course, where we had pork, chicken, and rabbit with peas and potatoes.  It was the first time that I ever had rabbit and i really liked it.  Then we had the fruit course followed by the caffe and dessert courses.  We ate and talked the whole time and didn't get home until after 7 pm.  It was a long day, but it was a good day and a blessing to be with friends and my Christian family in Italy. 

The Christmas presents from my family

 Pictures from Christmas lunch at Mario's house:

Luli and Danille, the people who stayed at the school with us in December

Luli, Ryan, and I

Laura, Matilda, and Danielle

Ryan and Laura

Mario, the master chef, preparing the food

For New Years, I went to Milan.  I went to to the New Years party at the church there and to meet the church members.  I stayed with the missionary family, Lewis and Tammy Short and their three children.  I took the bus and when I got to the stop in Milan I was met by two teenagers from the church, Nicco and Gionfor, and the Short's seven year old daughter Miccela.  They showed me a few places in Milan; the Duomo, the castle, and the Galleria.  The Duomo in Milan is huge, one of the biggest in Italy, and the Galleria is right next to it.  The Galleria is a covered walkway, made in a cross, and has many of the biggest fashion names in the stores there and is the beginning of the fashion district in Milan.  After a while of walking around we headed to the church to get ready for the party.  The party had several members of the church there as well as many visitors that were friends of the members who came.  We ate, talked, and played games.  The games had a "Fruits of the Spirits" twist to them.  We had to walk with books on our head at different speeds to demonstrate self control, we divided into two teams with one member blind folded and we had to direct him to pick up two euros worth of change to demonstrate patience.  We played some other games like Bible Bingo, or "Tumbello" in Italian.  On Saturday, The Shorts took me on a walking tour of Milan and went to the Canal district, a few of the churches, and we tried to go to the Roman amphitheater but it was closed.  On Sunday, I met many of the other church members.  Many members of the church there are from the Philippines, one lady from China, one lady from Sri Lanka, and the rest were Italian.  They were all very nice and welcoming and it was a good experience for me.  I feel very blessed and encouraged by the people there.  I left Milan on Sunday after church and came back to Firenze last night.  

Duomo at Milan

Above and Below: inside the Duomo

The Galleria

the Castle at night

 Above and Below: Games on New Years

 Above and Below: playing Bible Bingo

Here are some of my favorite pictures from my walking tour of Milan:

At Church on Sunday morning:

After I got back to Firenze, David picked me up from the stop, the guys went to see Tron in Italian.  We went to a mall here that had a theatre, but we had some trouble with the tickets and by the time we had it straightened out we missed our time and had to wait another hour and forty minuets. So we ended up going downstairs and went bowling!  It was really fun, and David had fun with our names.  The girl at the desk had to type them in and David's name ended up being "Deven", Eric was "Erika" (don't know why), Ryan was "Elio" (suppose to be Leo, but that's not what the girl heard) and I was "Thragon" (as in Pete's Dragon).  We did get to see the movie, but i want to see it in English because it was kinda hard to follow all the dialogue. 

"Deven" going for a Strike

Eric bowling

"Elio" in the Zone

anxiously awaiting their turn

"Elio" winning the game

 As for my vacation travels, I went to San Gimignano one day and Fiesole one afternoon.  San Gimignano is a walled Medieval town in Tuscany about two hours away from Firenze.  It still has 14 of its towers remaining where as most of the other towns and cities have torn theirs down or have been destroyed.  I found myself in a former fort on top of the hill and from the wall there you can see a breathtaking view of the valley and awesome views of the town.  It is probably one of my favorite places in the world now and I plan to go back when I have another free weekend.  Fiesole is on a hill on the opposite side of Firenze and there are Etruscan ruins there, but I didn't find them.  Ryan and Laura went a few days after I did and found them, and we compared our notes.  It turns out that at a fork in the road I went left when I should have gone right like Ryan and Luara did.  If I had gone right I would, then I would have found the entrance to the ruins.  So i guess that some Saturday in the future I will try to go back.

Here are some pictures from San Gimignano:

 

Well, I ask that you will continue to pray for us over here.  Pray that we will continue to allow God to work in us and through us so that everyone we meet, whether our students or strangers in the street, we will reflect God's love and mercy.  Pray that we will also stay strong in our faith and that we will continue to grow closer to God and to the Italian people here.  Also, please keep praying for me because I have a decision to make: the church in Milan has asked me to come and work with them.  I don't know what I will do and need to think and pray about it.  Take care and God bless.  Ciao!