Festa!

Despite a brief shower of hail this afternoon, spring seems to have finally arrived! We've been doing work in the backyard and planting flowers. It's been so much fun spending time outside preparing the yard to be a nice place to relax or have parties during the summer!

The word "festa" refers to both holidays and parties. We are now apparently in the season for lots of them! April 25 (Saturday) was Liberation Day, commemorating the Americans' rescue of Italy in World War II. That evening we had our friend Winter from Prato and our Nigerian friends from Empoli over for dinner! It was great to spend time with them, and Debbie made me an early birthday cake! Afterwards we went to a beautiful choir concert in Prato. My birthday yesterday was a fantastic and very special day! I am very blessed to have already made some wonderful friends who threw me a surprise party : ) Ermenita orchestrated the festivities, which included friends from church, English students, American and Catanian visitors to Florence, one of Sarah's delicious cakes, and thoughtful presents! May 1 (Friday) is Labor Day; my students are very excited about all these holidays because it means they get a day off from school!

Debbie departed for the States on Monday, and David will be joining her in a couple weeks. Their youngest daughter, Erica, is getting married in Searcy on May 23! They will then return to Italy in time for a conference at the Bible School the last weekend in May.

My Wednesday slate of students has changed entirely in the last week! The girlfriend of one of my students began studying with me last week; she is in high school and is very sweet. My other Wednesday students, a girlfriend and boyfriend who study together, told me today that they will be unable to come for the next month because they are very busy with all their exams. A few minutes after I found this out, another student showed up at the Bible School to take their time slot. She is the grandmother of David's eight-year-old student and wanted to come talk with me at the same time as his lesson, so it worked out perfectly!

My schedule is a combination of weekly events and different opportunities that arise. I am really enjoying getting to know the church members better and meeting more of them each week. A couple weeks ago I began helping in the children's class; when there are enough kids to have two classes, I am with the younger ones. They never cease to entertain me! Next week I will add one more English student on Tuesday. Several others have expressed an interest but have yet to set up appointments. A waitress at a local restaurant, a lady we met on the bus, and a friend of a student are all potential students!

Bologna conference on Easter Monday

Ladies' Prayer Breakfast at Liliana's

Living and Active

Building relationships with my students and seeing them encounter God's word is such a blessing! Even between the first and second weeks of studying together I have already seen progress. One student was not particularly excited about using the Bible to study English, but at the end of our second session together told me how interesting he thought the stories he'd read were and thanked me at least three times for studying with him. Another student got an English Bible so that he can make notes in the margins, and his girlfriend wants to start studying with me as well. Tuesday night I added a new student, a young lady who works in a laboratory and is studying for a Ph.D. in pharmacology. I feel privileged to be part of these people's spiritual journeys and pray that in time the small seeds I am attempting to plant will bear fruit.


"For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart." ~Hebrews 4:12


David, Debbie, and I have begun to have a short devotional and Italian study each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning. We have each selected grammatical concepts we wish to improve and are helping each other practice. These are also the days which Rosa makes lunch, so we get to converse with her as well. And Friday I helped her make home-made pasta!


Sveta invited me to her house to practice English with her Friday afternoon! She is a member of the church who studies English (her fourth language!) with David and me on Thursdays before the Bible study. I really enjoyed getting to know her better and sampling various Italian and Russian foods. Friday night at 8 p.m. was my first assemblea, a monthly meeting at church to discuss business matters and plan upcoming events. Everything was settled in record time of about half an hour; I've heard these meetings sometimes last until midnight!


Each Sunday morning a different man is responsible for the opening of the worship service, which can range from presenting an interesting thought to teaching new songs. Today we wrote cards to church members who are sick, needing encouragement, or are far away from the church either physically or emotionally. I actually haven't yet met any of the people we wrote to, though Wednesday morning I will get to meet Liliana. She was widowed a few months ago and is a shut-in, and we are having a ladies' prayer breakfast at her house! I am supposed to think of a short devotional thought to share in Italian.


Today while picking up lunch at the rosticceria, David got into a conversation with a man waiting on some chicken, and he happens to have studied English at the Bible School over ten years ago! He said he'll drop by the school later this week. I've also been in touch with a few other former and prospective students who intend to set up appointments to study with me, and I look forward to meeting them!

Buona Pasqua!

Easter in Italy is my new favorite holiday! I've heard Christ's resurrection emphasized more in the last week than I have in years, and I love how the Italians joyously celebrate this time of year. Everyone, from shopkeepers to neighbors, has been wishing each other "Buona Pasqua!" [literally "Good Passover"] for several days now, and Easter Monday is even a big deal. Friday night we went to Grassina, a town about half an hour away where the communists put on an annual procession about the Passion of the Christ. Vendors of sweets, nuts, popcorn, and balloons were abundant, and the town square looked like a county fair. We found a pizzeria for dinner, and our waitress happened to be a girl from the church in Florence! After sunset the townspeople put on a show on a hillside about Jesus' life and crucifixion. Unfortunately, excessive rain necessitated the halting of the performance right after the arrival of the magi, and it was rescheduled for Monday night. A dear family from Naples was in town this weekend, so we spent time with them on Saturday and Sunday and had a big Easter lunch with them and a couple other church members!

Today David, Debbie, and I went to a conference in Bologna, a little over an hour away. Many of the churches in Italy hold annual conferences, which are a great opportunity for people from various churches to gather together. This weekend Bologna had a youth weekend for the first time, and today was the culmination of that with a meeting for all ages. A couple young people spoke, and a great discussion ensued. A lot of the youth want to get more involved in the church and in living out their faith, and it was a very encouraging day! I was surprised and excited to get to see a few friends from Catania and some people I had met on my mission trip to Italy last summer!

Ermenita, a university student and member of the Florence church, and I are going to be working together to plan events for young adults and teenagers in the hopes of providing an avenue for encouragement and fellowship, drawing back those who don't really feel part of the church, and creating opportunities to invite friends to join us. We met together on Friday and have begun formulating ideas. Please pray for our efforts and for greater participation on the part of the young people, of which there are few!

Make New Friends But Keep the Old

The parents of the high school girl I studied with Monday brought me an Easter cake on Tuesday! They couldn't believe that we teach English for free. Easter cakes here are traditionally in the shape of a colomba (dove), and it was delicious!


One of the highlights of my week is the evening women's Bible study of Beth Moore's The Patriarchs. Though I am the only Avanti worker in Florence right now, two former Avanti workers are still in town: Sarah is the church secretary, and Kelly married an Italian and teaches English. Sometimes an Albanian lady joins our little group of Americans, which includes Debbie and Mona, and each week is so refreshing and full of new insights.


My newest English students all attend the university. Tuesday I met with the son of a man who works up at the HUF (Harding University in Florence) villa and wants to be a translator. Wednesday I studied with a girl in law school and her boyfriend. So many of my students have studied multiple languages, and I am very impressed with how much they know and how eager they are to learn!


Frankie Mitchell has been introducing me to her friends here, and I am glad to get acquainted with these ladies so that I can go visit them on a regular basis. Wednesday afternoon we went down the street to the Casa di Riposo (House of Rest). I talked with an 88-year-old widow named Anna for a long time and met a few others. The workers and nuns there were very excited to have a young new volunteer and want me to come back next week. This morning Mrs. Mitchell brought me along to visit Rosaria, who used to be a cook for HUF. She is so sweet and showed us around her house, insisted that I eat quite a few cookies, and gave me a beaded purse. Some of her children and grandchildren have studied English, and she wants me to meet them sometime. Being able to brighten a lonely woman's day simply by paying her a visit is such a joy!


"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." ~James 1:27


My friend Claire is visiting me this week! We went to Harding together and also on a mission trip to Peru a few summers ago, and she is now teaching English in Spain for a year. This afternoon we went up to Fiesole, an Etruscan town with a beautiful panorama of Florence and some Roman ruins.


The death toll from the earthquake is now up to 281 with the search continuing and aftershocks disrupting rescue attempts. Tomorrow is a mass state funeral and national day of mourning. Easter will be bleak for many in the region, so please pray for peace and healing and that good will come out of this!

Though the Mountains Quake

In case you heard about the earthquake in central Italy early this morning, I just wanted to let everyone know that I am alive and well! I am about 200 miles away from the epicenter in L'Aquila and did not feel anything. The earthquake registered at 6.3 on the Richter scale, and at least 26 towns were affected with 130+ dead, 1,500 injured, and 50,000 homeless. Please keep this area in your prayers!

"God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging."
~Psalm 46:1-3

This afternoon I met with four new English students for the first time! In addition to conversing with them to get to know them, I began studying the Gospel of Mark with each of them. The student would read a passage and ask questions about any unfamiliar words, and then we would discuss the content and proceed to the next story. The students vary in their level of English and knowledge of the Bible, and I am excited to get to know them better and see their progress! One young lady is from Marseilles and has been in Florence a few years working as a tour guide; she is from a nominally Catholic family and said she is spiritually searching. I am also studying with a high school girl, a young lady studying to be an interpreter, and a young man who is a free-lance public relations specialist. I'm looking forward to meeting more new students in the next couple days!

There and Back Again

The conferences in the four cities went well and had a pretty good attendance! Since the Catania church is the largest in the area, a group of us went to the conferences in the other cities as well to provide encouragement. Sunday was the monthly agape (from the Greek word for "love"), or potluck. Potlucks here are all-day affairs complete with a first course of pasta, a second course, dessert, coffee, and lots of fellowship. In preparation for the agape, I spent Saturday with the family I stayed with on my mission trip last summer and learned how to make eggplant parmesan! Here are some pictures of the last three weeks in Catania:

Kensey, Chad, and I with the Mitchells and Corbins

some of the young people at church

view of Mt. Etna from our apartment


the Ionian Sea

"Now listen, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money. 'Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, 'If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that.'" ~James 4:13-15

While I had intended to spend two years in Catania, plans have changed. Kensey decided for a variety of good reasons to conclude her time with Avanti Italia, and my remaining as the only American girl working in Catania would not have been the safest situation. The transition happened so suddenly due to the issue of the apartment contract. Since this is a public blog, I am not posting more details about our decision, but please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or would like to hear more about it. Though I am sad to leave that wonderful church, I truly believe that everything has worked out for the best considering the circumstances, and I learned so much in the process.

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." ~Romans 8:28

Thus I returned to Florence this week. While I contemplate the possibilities of going to work with another church and await the potential arrival of more workers with whom I could go, I am helping out here at the Bible School. This afternoon I called those on the waiting list to study English as well as Kensey's and Chad's former students from their time in Florence last fall, and I already have several appointments set up for next week! I have also been hearing a lot about volunteer opportunities in the community and ways to help out at church, so I am excited about the possibilities and hope to soon be in a weekly routine! Since I am the only Avanti worker currently in Florence, there is lots for me to do, and I am looking forward to serving however I can and planting seeds for whatever length of time I am here.