since last time

since the last time i blogged, there has been a lot of activity around these parts.

first of all, 2 saturdays ago (may 7th) we had a women's meeting at the bible school with all the women from the churches of the region of tuscany (florence, prato, and pistoia). we got to know each other, talked about ways to encourage each other, talked about activities we could do together in the future, and planned some things for the future. our next meeting is going to be in pistoia on june 4th.

then, that sunday night (may 8th) at "the gathering" we had the biggest turnout so far! it was so encouraging and uplifting. on the second sunday of every month we work on more recent worship songs and translating them from english to italian. then we practice, and that it the best part. the singing was so beautiful i had goosebumps. God was at work in that room and we were all blessed to be a part of it!

then, the next day, last monday, we had a going away lunch party at the bible school for andrea, who left this past saturday for ferarra. she will be working with the church there like ryan and i are doing here, particularly targeting the school/university age people. rosa made a wonderful lunch (as always) and erme made a ridiculous cake. we all gave andrea bike accessories and money to get her own bike when she gets to ferarra!

after andrea's party, angela and i took 3 of our students to the iris gardens in florence to just walk around, take it the beauty and spend some quality time together. the gardens were absolutely beautiful and it was great to spend time with these girls outside of class time.

angela and daniella

olga, maria grazia, and me

tuesday, we had all of our lessons and cleaned our apartment because tuesday night at 8 we picked up our best friends (martha and dudley carter) at the train station in florence and began 4.5 of the funnest days that the 4 of us have ever had together (except maybe for 4 fun remodeling days at their house, or really any normal day we have with them).

i won't tell you everything we did because you probably don't want to read it and then it wouldn't be as special to us, but i know as long as we are all friends (a really long time) we will talk about this trip and remember this adventure we had together.

i only took pictures one day, martha and dudley have the rest

i was more than sad to see them get on that train sunday, but i know that we will see them in august and then after that we will have many more adventures together.

thank you for coming friends, you don't know what it meant to us!