a few good men: ryan's students

okay. so earlier laura did a brief round up on her students so i figured...why not give you a brief overview of mine.

(valentino & i in the boboli gardens during a lesson)

valentino has been my student since my first month at the bible school and he & i have become very close. his entire family comes to the bible school for english lessons and they are always participating in whatever event we try and host there (also, laura is teaching his youngest daughter olga). he is an art professor at the art institute in florence and is also an accomplished artist in scandicci & florence. we always have a good time together and he has blessed my life immensely. we are studying the life of christ through stories that i have translated from an italian children's bible. he could be one of the happiest people that i know and i look forward every week to seeing him because he encourages me so much.

(alessio & i studying in the library at the bible school)

this is alessio. he and i started studying this semester and we meet every monday night after our bible study at the bible school in scandicci. he is 23 years old and is a musician. he's the lead guitarist for a local band called quiet after the storm. we are reading through 'blue like jazz' together and both learning a lot in the process!

(gabrielle & i at the bible school)

gabrielle is also one of my first students. he is 35 & an architect in florence. he is a fun guy and we now get to have lessons every week at the mcdonald's very close to our new apartment (it's because he likes going there, honestly). he is very much a beginner but we both enjoy our time together and he has also helped me a lot with my italian. i'm very thankful for our friendship. we are also using the same lessons that valentino & i are are using as we study through the life of christ.

(florjan & i at the festival of the nations at the university of florence)

this is flojan (florian). he is 29 & completing his masters degree in computer science at the university in florence. he is albanian and was introduced to me by ermenita (our wonderful coworker & friend at the bible school). we have been studying since the end of last semester and he & i study both italian & english. we will speak in italian for an hour & then do our english lesson. he is brilliant and has really helped me look at things in a different perspective and challenged me to be prepared for every one of our lessons. i look forward every week to getting together with him! we are studying 'blue like jazz' by donald miller, but we never stay on topic because of the questions that he has, but i've grown to love our tangents because it allows me the opportunity to listen to him work through these biblical concepts for the first time.

the rest of my time i spend participating with two other projects: 'the gathering' & the thursday night conversation class at the church.

(eric smith teaching the thursday night conversation class)

on thursday night, we teach 5-8 students 'conversational' english using the the bible. it has opened the door for new one-on-one students. we are blessed to have several capable teachers so i am in a rotation with peter mcgraw & angela withrow. it has been a fantastic way to meet people and has also forced us to use more conversational italian which has been a blessing.

('the gathering' has become one of the main things that laura & i prepare for every week)

this is one of the main reasons we came to italy: finding a way to reach young people. every church in the country is asking the same thing of avanti workers: can you help us evangelize the youth in our city? this event is laura & i's first attempt at doing just that. i know laura gave a larger definition of what the program is but i ask that you keep this in your prayers as we try and make connections with these university & high school age students.

this week, i will start with a new student, alessandro, for the first time. he is a 22 year old university student that came to our conversation class last thursday night from scandicci. i am looking forward to studying with him and getting to know him better! laura and i are both so thankful that God has put these people in our lives and we ask that you continue to pray that he will use us everyday for His glory & that the people we come in contact with will see Him & praise Him (not us) for what is happening at the church and bible school.