Work and Play

Ciao tutti!  Well, as I mentioned in my last blog, may parents came to visit!  It was the first time we had seen each other in person since I left the States almost 8 months ago and it was their first time to be in Italy!  I got to take some vacation time and show them around Tuscany and Rome.  I learned more about Florence and other places we went because I had to be the tour guide!  We spent three days in Rome and saw Vatican City, The Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, The Colosseum, The Forum, Palatine Hill, and The Spanish Steps (on accident haha...sorry mom).  I could have spent all three days in the Forum, Colosseum, and Palatine Hill and still want more time to see everything!  Then I took them to one of my favorite places in the world, San Gimignano.  We walked through the town for a while enjoying the views and then went on to Siena to see the church there and the Piazza del Campo.  Mom and Dad said the bus rides through the Tuscan country side that day were well worth it.  I also took them to Pisa to see the Duomo there, the baptistery, and crypt, and of course the famous Leaning Tower.  And of course I took them around Firenze for two days.  They had a good time and it was good to spend some time with my family.  I learned more about Florence and other places we went because I had to be the tour guide!

Mom and Dad on the train to Rome

Mom and Dad at San Gimignano

A couple weeks ago, we had a bunch of the Italian young adults and teenagers here from Rome, Fararra, Bergamo, Bologna, and of course our friends Eric and Jessica from Taranto.  It also corresponded with Game Night with our students.  We played a live game of Clue!  We used rooms here in the school, we were the characters, and the students and youth were split into teams.  In every room they had to play different games administered by the characters.  Ryan was Professor Plum, Andrea was Mrs. Peacock, Laura was Miss White, Ermenita was Miss Scarlett, David was Colonel Mustard, and I was Mr. Green.  They had to do different games like the human knot, musical chairs, guess riddles, etc.  On Saturday we all went to Valambrosa, about an hour away from Firenze, for the day translating songs, eating lunch, and playing volleyball and frisbee.  Saturday night we grilled out and watched Inception in Italian.  Friday and Saturday we also had devos; one of the Italians, Joele did the devo on Friday and did a great job.  Eric did the devo on Saturday night and I did it Saturday morning.  I was very proud of Eric and Joele for speaking.  On Sunday we had so many people at church.  We had the 16 youth from the retreat, the new 35 HUF students, and everyone else who is in the church in Florence.  It was awesome to see so many people there worshiping.  We also have made some new friends.  An art student that is studying here for a month and two girls from Harding who are traveling through Europe on their own for a few week.  It has been fun to hang out with them and to get to know them a little.  We also got to hang out with our friends from A.I.M.a couple of weeks ago.  We went to see a movie, the 4th Pirates movie, and had dinner.  It was fun and good to spend time with other missionaries.  They were such an encouragement to us and, if any of them read this, thank you and God bless.  Here are some pictures from Game Night and some of my Italian friends:

My alter ego: Mr. Green!

Miss White and Professor Plum

The Nanny

Col. Mustrard

Sara and Me

My friend from Rome Giacomo

Alex from Bergamo

Viktor and Joele from Rome

Me, Andrea, and Daniela

The Smiths who are working in Taranto

Me and Marta

Me and Daniela

On Saturday night we had The Gathering, and it was Austrian Night with Arnold.  We told us a little about Austria and then cooked us an Austrian meal.  The he taught us the Austrian waltz.  I was terrible!  But it was fun.

As of yesterday we have 26 Harding athletes staying here at the school with us for a month.  Its a program called BAT and its for the athletes that wouldn't really be able to do an overseas program.  So we have been working extremely hard to get the school ready.  Our semester with our students is officially over, but i am still planning on meeting with mine as often as I can.  Its all about relationships, what we do here.  Our relationship with God, with our brothers and sisters in Christ, and with our students trying to show them Christ through our actions and our words.  So please keep us in your prayers.

April News

Hey everyone!  I know, I know its been a while since I've posted but we have had several things going on since the last post.  The weekend of Easter (or Pasqua as it is called in Italian) we went to a youth conference in Bologna.  We got to see several old friends from Farrara, Roma, Vicenza, our A.I.M. friends from Prato, and Eric and Jessica.  I also got to meet a few new people, one was a guy from Padova named Leonardo.  He is a college student and was just baptized in October.  The conference started on Saturday and lasted through Monday, but we were only to be able to be there on Saturday.  It was a good time and the speaker, Franco from southern Italy, did a really good job.  The next day for Easter we went to church and had a cookout here at the school for some of our friends.  We grilled out steaks, sausages, chicken, and ribs.  After we ate some of us played Apples To Apples and played until midnight.  It was a great night.

Me and Marco

Me and some of the men

Some of the Ladies

In other news, I have a new student!  His name is Leonardo and he is a university student.  Last week at our first class we just did a kind of get to know you talk in English asking each other questions.  Our session lasted an hour and a half.  He is curious about Christianity and was asking me questions.  At the end of the class he asked me if we could hang out besides once a week for class.  I said, "of course!" and it is something I have been wanting to do with some of my students.  Many are older than me and work a lot so they don't have a lot of time to spend outside of the lessons.  Speaking of which, I also got to hang out with my student Edoardo this week as well.  We went and got coffee last Thursday afternoon at the Piazzala Michelangelo.  That is a piazza that overlooks Florence and has amazing views of the city.  After we had coffee he took me tot he church and told me that I needed to come over to his apartment for a cookout with him and his girlfriend soon.  I have been praying that I could spend more time with my students and now God is answering that prayer.
 
A couple of weeks ago we hosted a concert at the church here in Firenze.  The concert was a high school chorus group from Decator, AL.  They were doing a tour/vacation through Italy.  One of the former students from that high school went to Harding and the HUF program and she was the one who got the choir director in touch with Robbie Shackelford.  They students did a good job and they sang beautifully.  I met some of the students and they came up to me and said, "Ciao" and I would respond with, "Ciao!  Come stai?"  and they would just look at me and I would then say, "How are you?"  Then their eyes would go wide and say, "You speak English?!"  And when I as talking in Italian with some of our students from the Bible School the choir director came up to me and said, "Thank you for coming tonight." to which I replied, "You;re welcome and y'all did a good job."  He then said, "You speak English very well." and I said, "Well I would hope so as I am from the States."  One of the parents, Terry, I talked to asked me what we did where and I got to tell him about teaching English using the Bible, about my students, about the Friday night activities and all the other things we do in Firenze and Italy.  Terry then asked me why I wanted to do mission work in Italy, and I gave him a very condensed version of my time in Greece as part of the Harding University in Greece (HUG), Croatia, and Hungry.  Apparently I got very excited talking about my students and why i wanted to serve God over here that Terry said that he could tell I had such a heart of God and people, and an enthusiasm to serve.  And then he did something I didn't even expect, he prayed for me right then and there.  I was very encouraged by that prayer and by having someone praying for me that I just met 10 mins. ago.

As part of our chores here at the school we have to help clean different areas.  Every few weeks we have to help Rossa in the kitchen by washing dishes or helping her with anything else she might need in the kitchen (it is also a great time for me to practice my Italian).  Since I like to cook, I try to pay attention to what she does and ask her questions.  One of my favorite dishes that she makes is a side dish of peppers.  I asked her to make them one week so I could learn how to cook them myself.  Since then I have made them twice and have done a pretty good job, at least the other workers here of said it was good.  Here is a picture.

And finally, my parents were here this past week!  It was very good to see them and spend some time with them, but I will have to post about that next time. 

As always, please keep us in your prayers.  Pray that we will allow ourselves to be used by God and that everyone we meet will see that there is something different about us.  Pray that we will not shy away from opportunities to share our faith with others.  Please pray that we will be encouraging and loving to each other, our students, and everyone we meet.  Ciao and God bless.

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.

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.