White Black Friday

Last weekend we had another round of Florentine visitors! Emily brought the two new married couples, Eric and Jessica and Ryan and Laura, to visit Vicenza and get acquainted with the Christians here. Saturday we had a wonderful lunch at the home of a family from church, and in the afternoon they cheered on our friend Marco at his soccer game while I taught a special Thanksgiving-themed English class.

The story of sharing by Barnabas and the early church was a nice segue into the tale of the first Thanksgiving. We then created feathered Indian headbands and donned them while working on the next craft: turkeys with handprint tail feathers. On each handprint we wrote something we're thankful for. The kids were particularly attentive that day and thoroughly enjoyed the crafts.

Saturday evening we walked around downtown and then came to my apartment to eat take-out pizza and chat with some of the young people from church. Emily spent the night with me, while other members hosted the two couples.

Sunday School had an unusually high attendance, and Jessica and Laura helped me out with the vivacious bunch. Having concluded our long study of Samuel/Saul/David/Solomon, we began a series on Elijah, complete with "ravens" delivering waffles to the eager children.

For Sunday lunch, we went to Marco's house. His mother, who grew up in a restaurant, has lived in several countries, and speaks five languages, served an amazing meal. We enjoyed their hospitality and company and, needless to say, were very full by the end of the afternoon, when it was time for the other Americans to head back to Florence. The couples have been visiting various congregations and are in the process of deciding where to work for their two years; please pray for their wisdom and discernment!

lunch at Marco's house

Wednesday I visited an Englishwoman from church, whom I hadn't seen in a while, in her new apartment and had lunch with two of her granddaughters.

I hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving! I am so thankful for all of you who read my blog and encourage me in my work. I of course missed gathering with relatives or helping cook meals up at church, but I reflected on my many blessings and tried to have a somewhat thematic meal: pumpkin ravioli with cream cheese sauce and sautéed spinach and red onion...and a sweet potato. Italians had told me that sweet potatoes are not available in Italia, but my mission to find one was successful, more or less. Having washed all the dirt off, I discovered that the skin was cream-colored, turning brown while cooking. I was somewhat disappointed to find out that the inside was the color of a regular potato, and it refused to finish cooking before I had to run off to my English class. Though it was a variety of sweet potato different from what I'm used to, when I finally got to eat it for dinner, I was thankful :)

Thanks to all who prayed for the atmospheric conditions around Vicenza! Though we were in a state of alert for several days, the town did not flood a second time. Work must be done around town to prevent a repeat; this week the brick wall on the riverbank opposite the church was heightened.

Today I awoke to the sight of snow! This is the first place I've lived where it's snowed as early as the day after Thanksgiving, and I'm sure there is much more to come!