Not an April Fools' Joke

Monday night the church in Padova (half an hour away) hosted a concert by Chorale Harmonie, an acappella group from Marseilles! They sang in both French and English, and it was a very uplifting evening. Several of the French songs also exist in English, but not Italian, so it had been many months since I heard them, so that was a nice surprise!

In case you heard about the landslide, caused by a burst irrigation pipe, that derailed a train in northern Italy Monday morning, killing nine people... that was about two and a half hours north of me.

This morning I had another random encounter with a faraway friend! While I was in the market getting fruit, I saw a girl from Sicily (the complete opposite end of the country, an island no less, and a good fifteen or so hours away) who was here on a high school field trip, just like the other teens from camp I encountered last month!

Then in one of my English lessons this afternoon, I got to talk to a customer service representative at a bank in England, attempting to sort out some address confusion on behalf of one of my students. Never a dull moment.

This afternoon I changed out the display in the church window! Begonia had the idea from an e-mail she'd seen with a Bible on a plate, symbolizing how "man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord" (Deuteronomy 8:3b), so I found a couple verses and made a little 3D exhibit. The timing and theme of the display is somewhat ironic, since on Saturday the Ghanaians are having a day of prayer and fasting up at the church building. Here are a couple pictures, with some lovely street scenes reflected in the glass:

"I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my daily bread." ~Job 23:12b

My last post was long enough without including my latest apartment adventure, so I will close today with my April Fools' tale. At 11:30 p.m. on April 1, my electricity went out! At first I wasn't too concerned, since I was leaving town the next day, and I would have plenty of daylight to pack, since I never have to turn on my lights til dusk anyway. Then a few implications dawned on me: 1) No refrigeration. Hence a mass exodus of all my cold food to the fridge/freezer at the church building. 2) No heating during the night. 3) Ice cold mountain water shower in the morning. Having dealt with these minor inconveniences, I mentioned the problem to my landlords on my way to the train station, not knowing whether I'd have electricity upon my return from the youth retreat. To avoid the risk of burning down the whole building, I had left the power completely off, since there had been a suspicious burning smell when the electricity went out and when I had tried in vain to re-set it. Returning home Monday evening, I was delighted to find that my lights worked and noticed that a new breaker had been installed. On my way home from reclaiming my food from my surrogate fridge, I ran into my landlord, who told me that it had been repaired the day before. Props to my landlords on getting something of this magnitude accomplished on Easter, since Italy pretty much shuts down on holidays. [For example, on Easter Monday, my ladies' Bible study group leader was unable to find an open gas station.] Mission: Let there be light, 2.0 -- accomplished! And I live above a lamp store...

That's Bologna!

This weekend I went to Bologna for the second annual Easter weekend youth retreat! The Bologna church has been hosting an Easter Monday conference for all ages for thirty years, and last year they added the Saturday/Sunday portion dedicated to ages 17-33. I enjoyed meeting new people and seeing friends from the far north to the deep south and in between. About thirty young people were in attendance (not all of them made it into the picture).

The themes were "Choosing a Christian or non-Christian Partner," "How to Preserve Your Body Before and During Your Engagement," and "The Difference Between Infatuation and Love." Having an opportunity to reflect on these important but not often discussed topics was an invaluable experience for these young people. Suffice it to say I learned more about the Italian Christian mentality in these three days than I had in any comparable amount of time, as I listened to the at-times contentious debates (particularly about the first topic). It was a good practicum in loving people, most of with whom I have theological (not to mention cultural) differences.

Between the keynote speakers and discussions, we had joyous times of fellowship. Those of us coming from out of town were hospitably welcomed into the homes of church members. I stayed in Chinatown with a family who has two daughters, one a month older than me and one a few years younger. Sunday afternoon we walked around the center of Bologna, and I very narrowly escaped having my Easter Sunday lunch at McDonald's, the restaurant of choice of the group. I and a half dozen other rebels went across the street for some delightful calzones :)

the sisters in my host family!

Despite having spent several months in Italy during the last three years, this year I have felt more than ever the philosophical divides between Italy and America. In these two wonderful countries I feel that I have two homes, which also means that sometimes I cannot be completely at home in either. I have come to better understand the truth of Norwegian novelist Johan Bojer in "The Emigrants":

"If you came back, you wanted to leave again.

If you went away, you longed to come back.

Wherever you were, you could hear the call of the homeland,

like the note of a herdsman's horn far away in the hills.

You had one home out there and one over here,

and yet you were an alien in both places.

Your true abiding place was the vision of something very far off,

and your soul like the waves, always restless and forever in motion."

Last Tuesday the women's Bible study on the army base had a special program day: a traditional Passover Seder meal! A Messianic Jewish chaplain lead us through the Hebrew songs and accompanying Scripture readings, and we partook of unleavenened bread, very bitter herbs, kharoset (an apple/walnut/honey/cinnamon mixture), etc.

I love how the Italian word for Easter, Pasqua, also is the word for Passover. Though we remember Jesus' sacrifice for our salvation throughout the year, this Easter/Passover linguistic confluence is an extra reminder at this time of year how "Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed" (I Corinthians 5:7). Jesus' resurrection has so many implications, and the empty tomb is the starting point of Christianity. In his discussion of the resurrection in I Corinthians 15, Paul outlines a chain reaction of ramifications: "For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men. But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead" (verses 16-20a)!

This hope of resurrection and eternity reminds us of our true citizenship. Amidst the hall of fame of faith in Hebrews 11 are these beautiful words (verses 13-16a):

"All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead they were longing for a better country--a heavenly one."