What light through yonder window breaks?

The repertoire of English games for my children's class has multiplied in recent weeks! Yesterday included a lively round of duck duck goose, and the kids also wanted to play telephone. "Elephant" was the only word to make it through the line unscathed. To practice giving directions (go straight, turn left, turn right, stop), we created a maze using a significant portion of the chairs, in conjunction with the story of Jesus' parents searching all over Jerusalem for him while he was in the temple. Another big hit was the application of heart tattoos (courtesy of Mardel's, via a Valentine's package from my mother), as Jesus recruited followers to spread the message of God's love.


In order to be able to properly act out the story of the capture of the Ark of the Covenant by the Philistines, the Sunday School class this morning entailed a discussion of the ark and its contents and the beginning of the construction of the various pieces. With a combination of items from my recycling bin, the park, and the church, we are well on our way to having a veritable ark!

the golden jar of manna and Aaron's staff that budded

decorating the Ten Commandments

My first overnight guest came to stay with me this weekend! Studying abroad with Pepperdine University in Florence, she knows my relatives who live in California (in the town where my family also lived for a few years), and I know her relatives in Oklahoma. I am constantly amazed at how small the world is! One afternoon we spent a few hours in Verona, less than an hour away, and that town is now probably one of my three favorites in Italy!

Verona: the Arena, the third largest Roman amphitheatre in Italy

a sampling of the beautiful, colorful architecture

Verona is the setting of Romeo and Juliet; here is Juliet's balcony

In mid-February, the weather here in Vicenza began getting warmer! Who ever thought I would be excited about 50-degree temperatures? I am eagerly anticipating the full arrival of spring. In other exciting news, I finally have internet set up in my apartment!

Home sweet home

My schedule now has additional weekly activities! Last week two new adults began studying English with me, and I have now met with each of them twice. One is the wife of my first student. The other is the son of the Russian housecleaner of a family from church; I had met her while I was staying with that family.

Also, I have begun attending a Tuesday morning women’s Bible study on the military base with my American friend Angy (at whose home I watched the Super Bowl!). Last week was a special program day, as a guest speaker from Germany challenged and comforted us with what it means to be a daughter of the King. This week was the regular small group time for the six different studies that started in January. My group is studying the book of Job; our group leader actually wrote the Bible study, and we are the first to use this material. I’m looking forward to having this encouraging time of in-depth study and fellowship each week!

As requested, here are some pictures of the inside of my apartment. The apartment was already furnished, the previous missionaries left me great kitchen and other household items, and a couple families at church are lending me some stuff, so I’m all set! God has certainly provided.

the entryway \ hallway

kitchen

bathroom

bedroom

one side of the living room

the other side of the living room

bookshelves and the fuzzy green wardrobe :)


"And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus."
Philippians 4:19

This is how we know what love is

Conveniently, the waffle-maker I inherited from the previous missionaries is heart-shaped. Thus the little ones in attendance on the Valentine’s Day’s Eve edition of the English class were in for another new treat. Italian breakfasts generally entail cereal or pastries, most certainly not eggs, meat, or waffles. A couple of the children were familiar with pancakes, and after trying this new snack, topped with honey, they wanted me to teach them how to spell out “Waffles are good” on the dry erase board. Hopefully they won’t expect me to bake a new American treat from scratch each week : ) Since doubling a recipe for six apparently produces enough waffle batter for 110 small hearts, I shared the love again on Sunday morning.

In honor of the holiday, the theme for the Saturday afternoon children’s English class was the love God shows us in providing for our needs and the love Jesus has for children. One of our activities was a scavenger hunt to find the supplies to make Valentine’s cards; I don’t think I’ve ever seen the kids as calm and quiet as when they were decorating their cards, and they used every single heart sticker available!

Two ladies from the Ukraine and Bulgaria eat lunch at the church building each Sunday, and they invited me to join them this week, insisting that I eat an excessive amount of several of their typical dishes, as Russian hymns played in the background. I enjoy the fellowship with Christians who have come to Vicenza from an interesting array of nations!

Sunday afternoon the kids from church got dressed up for Carnevale, and their parents and I went downtown to celebrate, a.k.a. throw confetti and thin streamers everywhere as we meandered through the antique market sprawled through several of the main piazzas. When kids in costumes encountered one other, they would throw confetti at each other. Our crew contained a cowboy, a pirate, Batman, King Kong, and a female devil. Fortunately the child who came to church without a costume this morning donned the full (plastic) armor of God before leaving, so at least he was able to take his stand against the devil’s schemes.

Hope you all had a lovely Valentine’s Day as well!

“This is how we know what love is:
Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.
And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.”
I John 3:16

"Throw Me Something, Mister!"

The greatest culinary undertaking of my life was baking a king cake from scratch this weekend! When I was in elementary school, my grandparents from New Orleans would send this traditional Mardi Gras delicacy along with some beads so that my class could have a party. I wanted to share this cultural experience with the children in my Saturday afternoon English class, so after we studied the story of the Tower of Babel and practiced greetings in English and Spanish, I explained the Mardi Gras festivities, and we had snack time. Carnevale (the Italian equivalent of Mardi Gras) has its own set of special desserts and is celebrated with lots of confetti (which will remain in the piazzas for weeks afterwards). Children dress up in costumes similar to Halloween in America. At the train station this afternoon, I saw a group of young people wearing capes and masks; they were probably headed to Venice, the Italian equivalent of New Orleans.



Getting to the final product was quite a saga. Finding food coloring to make the essential purple, green, and gold sugar entailed journeying to a second supermarket outside the center of town; on the return trip, I could not find the bus stop and ended up wandering in the rain for an hour with more groceries than I should have been trying to carry. C'est la vie. Buying ingredients in metric units and measuring them with American measuring spoons was also part of the fun. Since my largest measuring apparatus was a tablespoon, I learned very well that sixteen tablespoons equal one cup, and its various derivations. Thankfully, the yeast dough, cream cheese filling, icing, and colored sugar all came together in the end to create this special treat.

Since my oven has no temperature markings (and neither supermarket sells thermometers) and is a little too small for a cookie sheet, I baked the cake at church, returned home to add the icing and sugar, and then brought it back to church for the English class snack time.

A plastic baby Jesus is hidden inside each king cake. Traditionally, whoever finds the baby is responsible for providing the king cake for the next party. In this case, the lucky winner traded the plastic baby for a chocolate egg with a toy inside. The name of the king cake comes from the wise men who visited baby Jesus.

Above is the Mardi Gras coloring sheet I made! When the kids said the requisite phrase, "Throw me something, Mister!" I threw them pieces of candy. The class size doubled this week to twelve, ranging in age from five to sixteen. My Sunday school class also saw an increase, as I had nine students learning the story of Hannah and Samuel. The church has a lot of books and curriculum, which has been a helpful starting point as I seek to come up with creative ways to present each story. If you have ideas for games (Bible- or English-related), I would love to hear them!

Saturday evening was a church meeting to discuss upcoming plans; this reunion is typically held the first Saturday of each month. Several conferences are scheduled in the next few months, which should be an uplifting time for church members as well as an evangelism opportunity. The church is full of ideas of how I can help, which include periodically changing the display in the case outside the building and updating the website. I have also inherited the task of compiling the first-ever church directory. I am glad that the church is so full of enthusiasm!

Right now I am watching the New Orleans Saints in their first ever Super Bowl appearance! Yes, the game started after midnight. A wonderful American family, who is stationed here with the military and hosts a Sunday night English devotional in their home, is letting me watch the game at their house and spend the night :) GEAUX SAINTS!!!

Back by Popular Demand

Saturday I began teaching an English class for children! Our first lesson focused on the story of Noah, with vocabulary including animals and the colors of the rainbow. The class included color-coded bilingual versions of the story, animal charades, the "Noah Was a Man" song from the new Memorial Road children's cd (which the kids absolutely loved), a snack, and other games and activities. Basically, it's going to be like a two-hour Vacation Bible School each weekend. Last summer an intern had put together this class for about a dozen children, some from the church and others who have friends or grandparents who are Christians. The class was so popular that the children and parents were very eager for me to resume it. A Peruvian young lady from church came as well to help me with the energetic children :)

Sunday morning I presented the story of Ruth to my Sunday school class. The children are familiar with the beginning of the Old Testament and most recently studied Samson, so I am picking up where they left off and will continue with the major stories of the Old Testament. They already know the song with the names of all the New Testament books and enjoy searching for verses, and soon I hope to teach them the song for the books of the Old Testament!

The last couple days I was in Florence for my permesso di soggiorno appointment! When I showed up at the Questura building Monday morning, I was assigned a number. Over two hours later, I was summoned to a window only to receive another letter/number. Four hours later, I was called up to get fingerprinted and present a couple documents, which only took a few minutes. In one month I must return to the Questura to pick up my actual permesso card! David and Debbie also had their appointment Monday morning, and I was very grateful to have someone to wait with (other than the hundreds of unknown foreigners) all day in the austere room with no heating and no functioning bathrooms.

Only 254 more people to go until I get a new number!

After this adventure, I ran around Florence meeting up with various friends and students.

My friend Marcella, who owns a cooking school,

invited me to come to a class with the Harding students.

I went to the Tuesday market with one of my former (Bible School) English students.

My second tea time of the afternoon was with Tea, who is from the country of Georgia and studies English at the church building.

I have really enjoyed keeping up with my contacts in the Florence area. In a month I will return to Tuscany for the women's retreat! I just finished the Italian-to-Spanish translation for the study material to be sent to the ladies who register so that they can prepare by studying Esther, the theme for the retreat.

Last week in Vicenza it snowed three times! In the past week I have also experienced the hospitality of the Vicenza church, as a couple families invited me to meals in their homes. In the above picture taken from my living room, the church building is just to the left (out of sight) of where the road dead-ends.

Tomorrow morning a worker is scheduled to come install the phone line in my apartment! Getting internet may take a couple more weeks; in the meantime, I have become familiar with the libraries and am a card-carrying member :) I apologize for being behind in responding to e-mails, but I do enjoy hearing from you! Thank you for your prayers and support!