Castles in the Air...and on the Sea!

Happy New Year! I hope you all have enjoyed the holidays and that 2011 will be an incredibly blessed year for you! My mom came to visit me for a little over two weeks, and we ran around visiting the various castles, piazzas, museums, churches, and villas in Vicenza and nearby towns that I wanted to see before leaving the country. We took day trips to Milan, Padova, and Venice and a two-day Christmas trip to Trieste, on the Adriatic Sea a few kilometers away from Slovenia! Here are some of the highlights (except for the amazing art, such as da Vinci's Last Supper fresco in Milan, where photographs are of course forbidden):

Chocolate chip cookie kids tradition comes to English class!

Milan's Duomo...

...the roof of which we climbed on (in the snow)

Piazza dell'Unita d'Italia, the largest waterfront piazza in Italy (Trieste)

feet in the Adriatic

Castello Miramare, on the sea outside Trieste

Prato della Valle, the largest piazza in Italy (Padova)

Doge's Palace with St. Mark's domes in the background (Venice)

sunset from the belltower on the Island of San Giorgio (Venice)

Year in Review

Though 2010 has not quite drawn to a close, my Christmas break has commenced, and I have begun to reflect on my year in Vicenza:

32 Saturday children's English classes

10 one-on-one English students

2 weeks of camp with a total of 94 campers

5 youth retreats

5 women's or family retreats and conferences

2 ladies' small group Bible studies on the army base

4 conferences hosted in Vicenza with guest speakers

3 potlucks with 2 children's skits

6 Old Testament Bible characters (Ruth-Elijah) examined in Sunday School

8 overnight guests in my apartment

9 congregations around Italy visited for worship or special events

3 baptisms witnessed + 4 more (heard about) of friends

1 wedding + 1 baby born in our church + 2 children's birthday parties

6 new church window displays created

5 kids babysat for extended periods of time

23 chapters of I and II Corinthians covered at our Thursday night Bible study

4 theatre, music, or chorus recitals of church members

2 natural disasters, 8 simultaneous computer viruses, 1 lingering health ailment

countless hours and meals in the homes of church members

countless conversations

countless challenges

countless blessings


I feel like my mission has been lived out as a jack-of-all-trades: children's minister, youth minister, English teacher, friend, encourager, tenant, photographer, writer...

"I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some."

~I Corinthians 9:22b

My motto during the middle of the year, as a new role outside my comfort zone was thrust upon me, became "And who is equal to such a task?" (II Corinthians 2:16b). At the missionary retreat in August, I found my answer a few verses later: "but our competence comes from God" (II Corinthians 3:5b).

With my health still sub-par all year, I am grateful that I have still been able to be here carrying out my work. My temporary thorn in the flesh has given me the opportunity to rely on God's grace and power: "But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' [...] That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong" (II Corinthians 12:9a, 10).

This following passage is a little dramatic for my situation, but I really like the idea it represents: "We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead" (II Corinthians 1:8-9).

This year, working on my own most of the time, I have learned to rely on God for everything, and He has proven Himself faithful over and over again in the little details of life as well as the big picture.

I know that God has put me in the perfect spot for now to use my gifts and talents to serve others and Him. As I bounced all over the country (and world, for that matter) in 2009 before landing in Vicenza for 2010, Paul's speech in Athens, long a favorite passage of mine, was played out in my life: "[H]e determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us" (Acts 17:26b-27).

In each location of my Avanti Italia journey, I have learned and grown so much. I look forward to seeing where God will lead me in 2011!

The Youth Retreat That Wasn't

Last weekend's youth retreat did not go at all as planned: multiple date adjustments, a last-minute location change, fewer participants than anticipated, and no concrete schedule (believe me, it wasn't for lack of trying). Nonetheless, I feel that I can say it turned out okay...

"Commit to the Lord whatever you do,

and your plans will succeed."

~Proverbs 16:3

We were supposed to go to the mountain home of a family from church, as we did for the youth weekend in September, but a meter of snow on the road leading up to the house precluded the possibility of arrival. Thus our sessions took place at the church building, leaving time for the teens to also get together with friends in town. The theme of our studies was marriage, and I was delighted at how much the teens participated in the discussions, asking questions and offering their observations. We also watched and discussed two movies demonstrating Christian faith and love, threw together some meals, and played intense rounds of UNO. Our five participants came from three different cities, and six young adult tag-team teachers and chaperones lent a hand. Due to the small turnout and laid-back nature of events, at the end we joked that we had been involved in the youth retreat that never happened :)

Wednesday was the annual December 8 convegno in Conegliano! Certain churches have staked out holidays to have youth retreats or one-day convegni, since everybody is off work on these days, and Conegliano's is always on the Immaculate Conception holiday. About 100 attendees, mostly from the Veneto region, gathered for a morning of speakers, lunch in a nearby restaurant, and an afternoon discussion session regarding the theme verses, Romans 12:1-2. Everything was translated into Twi for the large Ghanaian contingent; generally the congregations in the North have more Ghanaians than Italians. Overall the day was a wonderful time of fellowship: seeing friends and kids from camp, meeting new people, and traveling with my Vicenza family (we took the long way home and saw a couple castles and WWI monuments)!

Sunday in Vicenza we took a church picture: Our average attendance is less than the square root of that of my home church in Oklahoma, which also probably has more Christians than all the congregations in Italy combined...

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!

Because the Word of God Lives in You...

Last weekend Franco Verardi, an evangelist from Puglia (the heel of the boot) and one of the summer camp directors, came to visit. Saturday evening we had a youth conference with about a dozen participants in which he spoke about I John 2:13-14:

"I write to you, dear children,

because you have known the Father...

I write to you, young men,

because you are strong,

and the word of God lives in you,

and you have overcome the evil one."

Sunday Franco preached to a combined worship service of the Italian-speakers and the Ghanaians, and we had an agape (potluck). Having worship in a mix of Italian, English, and Twi is quite exciting...and it means the service lasts about two and a half hours. For those of us who stay til the very end, the agape is an all-day affair (we left at 5 p.m.).

If you want to mystify and enchant Italian children, start breaking up uncooked Ramen noodles into your cabbage salad. The little boys, who were running back and forth carrying the ready dishes to the serving table, all inquired as to the nature of this strange specimen and wanted to try a piece. They pronounced them delicious!

After the agape, the kids presented a timely skit of "The Wise Man Builds His House Upon the Rock." Of course they wanted to don all manner of costumes, so by the time we were ready, a lot of the little actors had been taken home by their families, and I was conscripted to portray both the wise and foolish builders.

Jesus narrates as the house is built on the rock.

The rain and the wind attack the house on the sand...

...which "fell with a great crash" (Matthew 7:27)!

Yesterday I added another student: a fourteen-year-old girl from church who is in her first year at a linguistics high school! In other English student news... Who knew the Parable of the Great Banquet (Luke 14:15-24) could provide fodder for discussion for a whole hour? That's what happens when your student is an event planner and PR specialist! (Normally she reads 3-4 stories each lesson.) Another student is coming three days in a row this week because she wants to "catch up" after missing some lessons while putting her house back together after the flood. She took a placement exam at an English school this week and jumped from level one to level five! I have no idea what sort of rating system this school uses, but I can say that, in my opinion, she definitely wins my Most Improved Student award!

This evening I went to visit a friend from Panama who recently had hip surgery; she is currently in the hospital but will soon be transferred to a rehab facility for more physical therapy.

Just when almost everything appeared to be returning to normal after the flood...yesterday the river behind the church building rose almost to the level it reached on November 1. The Red Cross tent popped up in the piazza again and the volunteers were remobilized (summoned by text message to dispense sandbags): yellow and orange neon vests dashing up and down the street. We also spotted the mayor a couple times, not to mention a plethora of TV cameras and fire trucks. In front of the church building we rigged up some nylon sheets, wooden planks, and sandbags, and all our neighbors did the same. Also in the store next door I helped move anything near ground level up to higher shelves, just in case. Every few minutes the police passed by broadcasting, "Attention! Attention! The level of the rivers is rising! Secure your belongings and cars!"

Today was really lovely and sunny, and the river has calmed down quite a bit, but since the rain is predicted to resume tomorrow, we're leaving the church barricaded, and my English lessons have thus migrated to my apartment. Please continue to pray for Vicenza! Here are some pictures from yesterday.

The river is almost to the bridge, yet again!

The green balcony is on the second floor of the church building.

through the window of the first-floor "auditorium"

through the window, broken by the flood fifteen days ago, of the store next door; contrast the red brick wall here with the second picture below

And for a basis of comparison, here are some pictures from four, four, and six days after the flood, respectively: the water was almost down to normal but still muddy!

i saw the PRESIDENT today...twice!!

This afternoon the President of Italy, Giorgio Napolitano, spoke to an admiring crowd in the piazza between my house and the church building. This piazza serves as the headquarters for the volunteer program, which has seen 2,568 lend a hand to the flood clean-up. Napolitano thanked these "angels of the mud" and was presented with an honorary neon yellow volunteer vest. Witnessing the post-flood spirit of solidarity and desire to serve has been inspiring, and seeing the head of state up-close (at a distance of 4m as he greeted volunteers after his speech) was also an unforgettable experience for this international politics enthusiast (who three years ago had done a presentation on Italy's goverment which included a slide on Napolitano)!!

President Napolitano lauding Vicenza's volunteers:

He's standing under the white part of the flag.

Then I stopped by the coffee shop where one of my English students just began working to get some hot chocolate and peruse the newspaper, where I read about the government's pledge of 300 million euro in aid to the flood-ravaged Veneto region.

Then on my way to the grocery store I came across a congestion of citizens waiting for President Napolitano to exit the building where he was meeting with local mayors, so I joined the watch party. He finally came out and waved to all his enthusiastic supporters (passing 2m away from where I was) before getting into his vehicle.

Everyone trying to get a glimpse of the President!

He's the clearest face on the center-left (no pun intended) of the photo.

The aftermath of the flood has provided the opportunity for a beautiful demonstration of Jesus' teachings. Here are my renditions of excerpts of the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:36-37) and the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 6:19-21):

Jesus: Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of [the flood]?

Expert in the law: The one who had mercy on him.

Jesus: Go and do likewise.

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where [floods] and [mud] destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where [floods] and [mud] do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

The rest of today's post is a compilation of odds and ends and updates on topics mentioned in previous posts.

My first post-flood English student invited me to go to her home for the lesson, as her zone was better off than that of the church building. The next student walked all the way from her house, which isn't particularly nearby, because some of the roads downtown were still closed to cars, and she wanted to be sure to be able to make it! Another student spent the night at my apartment Saturday, as her house was temporarily uninhabitable.


This week at church we received a letter confirming that the boxes of clothing, shoes, hygiene items, hymnals, and cash we had sent to Zambia safely arrived and have been delivered to our Christian friend in prison. Thanks to all who prayed for the safe transport of these packages!


Yesterday I went to visit my landlady's mother in the rehabilitation center where she is recovering from a stroke. She initially had not been able to speak at all, so I was pleasantly surprised at her progress: she speaks slowly but conversed quite easily and was so happy to see me. Being able to brighten her day made my day as well! She is re-learning how to write and will soon be moving home (she lives in the apartment below mine).


My French friend finished up her internship but got a two-year contract with the company, so she will be sticking around for a while! Yesterday afternoon I visited her in her new apartment.


En route to these various social calls yesterday I passed through some of the hardest-hit areas of town and was glad to see streets and businesses returning to normal.


The bathroom/plumbing accessory store next to the church building was devastated by the flood. The owners live above the store and are good friends of the church: the man is a Christian but now due to poor health is practically a shut-in, and his wife takes care of him and runs the store. One day last week I helped with the process of throwing out items ruined by the water and mud and gathering what could potentially be salvaged. Their daughter commented to me about how sad it was to see sixty years of her grandfather's and father's work in ruins. Her two boys are among the most faithful attendees of my English class, and that day I also picked them up from school and watched them for a while as the mud was being pumped out of the store's basement (the church balcony provided an optimal vantage point for this most-intriguing activity). Pray for the Magnabosco family!

The grandchildren of the above-mentioned family throw their colorful coats to the ground and re-enact the Triumphal Entry in English class!

A few Saturdays ago a group of young adults wanted to distribute flyers about our church around town, so we meandered through the annual chocolate festival proffering papers posing thought-provoking life questions and our congregation's contact info. Afterward we picked up kebabs and ate at my house, and then we talked and sang til midnight...had I been sitting in my window, I might've met the fate of Eutychus :)


My middle school English student (who once upon a time had inquired about Peter Pan's possible presence in my Bible storybook) read the Lord's Prayer several weeks ago and liked it so much that she wrote it all down in her notebook. The next week she told me that she had read it every night. This week she discovered that I will not be in Vicenza forever and immediately wanted to exchange skype names so we can talk when I'm in America!

Did y'all see the LSU-Alabama game?? Tigers unRoll Tide :)


Continuing with today's theme of random tidbits, I will close with two of my favorite pictures from October:

Autumn is my favorite season! [I just decided that this year.]


Thursday market flowers in front of the pink post office!

I Hope Heaven is Like a Gigantic Eternal Convegno and... The Rains Came Down and the Floods Came Up

Last weekend I went to a youth retreat in Aprilia (near Rome)!! Those of us coming from northern Italy met up at the Florence Bible School and journeyed to the retreat together. About forty young people ages 15-25 participated, and Vittorio Vitalone from Rome spoke on the theme of evangelism. The weekend consisted of times of singing, study, prayer, fellowship, charades, a movie, and worship and a potluck with the Aprilia congregation on Sunday. Church members hosted us in their homes for the weekend. I enjoyed getting to spend time and catch up with friends from different parts of the country. Vittorio's messages were really encouraging, and the theme verse was I Peter 3:15:

"Always be prepared to give an answer
to everyone who asks you to give the reason
for the hope that you have."

Avanti Italia workers and friends outside the Aprilia church building

all the Avanti Italia workers

some of the retreat participants and their younger siblings at church on Sunday

The highlights of the potluck were 1) the lasagna and

2) getting to hang out with the little kids from camp.

The kids insisted that I find a way to be at camp next summer. Knowing this was probably the last time I will see most of these people before I move back to the States in February made saying goodbye and heading home even harder than usual. I've gotten used to running into friends all over the country at the various convegni (retreats, meetings, conferences), and, not knowing when our paths will cross again, I can at least look forward to the reunion that will one day be like the ultimate Italian convegno, where nobody has to go home at the end, for we will already be home...and I hope all these precious souls I've been working with the last couple years are there, too!

On the way home Monday I received the news that Vicenza was flooding. Three days of rain and a sudden temperature rise that caused the snow in the mountains to melt created an unforeseen crisis worse than the flood of 1966. We got as far as Padova with no problems other than a little holiday traffic, and then what should have been an 18-minute train ride to Vicenza turned into an 8-hour saga when our train was re-routed to Verona, skipping the Vicenza train station, which was partially under water. The highways in the area were also closed. We were stuck in the Verona train station overnight until we could get out on the first train, which thankfully was able to stop in Vicenza. Thus I got home at 5:30 a.m., nineteen hours after my departure from Aprilia :)

The crazy trip home, however, provided an opportunity to already put into practice what we had learned at the retreat. In the Padova train station we befriended a traveler (Pasquale from near Naples) who up to that point had been having a worse day than we had. On our wayward train, Marco (the teen who was baptized at camp this summer) pulled out his Bible and began to read, and immediately Pasquale began to ask questions and was really interested, and Marco shared his story. Pasquale wanted to know if he could participate in these convegni, and I told him about the church nearest him (strangely enough the little town he's from is one of the places my mom and I visited in April). Marco left him an informational brochure, and they exchanged phone numbers. We don't know what may or may not come from this encounter, but it was a prime example of how evangelistic opportunities are born out of questions and curiosity, as Vittorio had outlined at the retreat. Who knows? Our tiring trip might just have been a divine deviation.

The flood came really close to but did not enter my apartment building (except for the underground storeroom of my landlords' lampstore). North, east, and south of me the streets are really muddy, and in some places the water was as high as 1.5 meters! There were 40 cm (15.75 inches) of water in the church building. The water has been pumped out, and we've mostly cleaned up the building, which is in pretty good condition, all things considered. The street in front of us flooded (and is still partially closed off), and the river behind us got higher than the level of the windows.

inside the church building, two days after the flood

All the king's horses and all the king's men
trying to put Vicenza back together again!

City workers, the army, the media, and the volunteer registration booth have all set up shop in this piazza between my house and the church building. Yesterday 200 volunteers set out to tackle mud around town: students, retirees, Scouts, and immigrants. To see photos of the zone near us on the day of the flood, I encourage you to visit the flickr link below [#1, 2, 4, 8 are just south of the piazza; #3 is the river behind the church building; #5 is the bridge; #6 is our street, and our church is almost in the picture; #7 is the piazza between my house and the church]:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/flaviomagno/sets/72157625295126634/with/5135973903/

pumping out water in a piazza at the end of my street last night

"The LORD sits enthroned over the flood;

the LORD is enthroned as King forever.

The LORD gives strength to his people;

the LORD blesses his people with peace."

Psalm 29:10-11