summer schedule

oh my goodness. busy doesn't even describe it right now. but that is how we like it, after all, that is why we are here. to serve the people here.

this past week started our summer rotation of activities. it began with the arrival of the BAT group (can't remember what BAT stands for but it's a group of athletes from harding that are staying at the bible school and it's separate from HUF but they kind of do the same thing just with different teachers and they are only here for a month). we cook one big meal a day for them about 4 days a week this whole month. there are 26 of them so i have been arriving at the bible school at 10 and working with rosa and the other avanti peeps non-stop til 3ish. the other 3 days of the week are for church, preparing for vbs, hanging out with students/friends here, and the other things we are working on for the church.

our vbs is going to be june 18th here in florence.

then after the BAT group leaves we will be counselors/nurses at camp for 2 weeks somewhere in some mountains of italy.

then we will be back in florence for about 2 weeks before our trip to the states. during that time i am going to stia italy to learn the art of weaving in an effort that robbie shackelford has been planning. we are hoping that by teaching, supplying the materials, and having a time each week at the church where we can all weave together; some of the poor women in our community can come and make things and sell the things they make to have some money to provide for their families. i am really excited about this project and cannot wait to get it started. serving the poor was something that ryan and i really tried to focus on in memphis and i had been looking for a good way to do that here. i'm praying that it really goes well! what a better way to form relationships with these poor and seeking women than to sit around weaving together and getting to know each other weekly basis!

so then the 1st 3 weeks of august we will be in the states visiting family and friends and we are really excited about that too.

as soon as we return we (the church of florence) are hosting an italy wide 4 day church retreat where we will all be staying at the harding villa together, reuniting with friends from all over italy, and worshipping together. (ryan and i are teaching the kids classes at this retreat and we are also the night watchmen at the villa)

when i really break it down like that, i realize that this summer is going to fly by, but it's going to be a lot of fun and hopefully strengthen a lot of the relationships we have made here. fly through every new day here i keep reminding myself of 1 corinthians 3:7 (i'll let you go read it).

please forgive me if the blog posts become more sparse over the summer and please continue to be in prayer for the work going on here in italy and all the seeking hearts that we come in contact with daily.

what it's all about

it's impossible to explain how incredible this weekend was, but i will try. it could have possibly been the most encouraging and reinforcing times for me since i have been here as an avanti worker. i saw God working so hard in the hearts of YOUNG PEOPLE here in italy and i can't even explain how wonderful it was to witness.

so this weekend was the official florence youth retreat for the people high school age through mid-twenties in all the churches of christ of italy. we held this retreat last year in the beginning of september 2 days after ryan and i arrived in italy. that is where we quickly met and bonded with a lot of the "youth" of the churches here. i think we had 6 or 7 last year, and this weekend we had almost 25!!! over 30 including all the avanti workers. we have been planning for almost a month and it could not have gone more smoothly.

the bible school

we went to the bible school early friday morning to begin the final prep. we cleaned, cooked, set up like crazy until the kids started arriving that evening. at 7 we ate dinner together and then played real life clue.

angela had been working all week and had planned the most intricate and well thought out game of human clue that has ever been made! it was a blast!!! some of us avanti workers were the characters of the game and we were in charge of rooms that the 6 groups rotated between. in each of our rooms the groups had to do mostly silly challenges to be able to see a person, weapon, or room card. needless to say, we all had a ball and it was a great way to break the ice with all of the kids that we hadn't met before and just fun with all the ones that we were already friends with!

after that we all came together and had a devotional, we sang some new worship songs that emily had translated with her student lorenzo and then a high school student from rome, joele, led us in a devotional thought together. we shared prayer requests and prayed together and then just talked and played cards into the wee hours of the morning.

fun side note: since the harding students are here now and sleeping in the "dorm" rooms upstairs, all of us girls slept on mattresses covering the floor of the classroom and the boys slept in tents with air mattresses in the backyard. i hope the italians didn't feel too inconvenienced because i though the sleeping arrangements made it even more fun!

so saturday morning, ermenita and i got up and began laying out a "make your own sandwich" buffet and getting everything together for our outing that day, while ryan, emily, angela, and our honorary avanti member arnold helped debbie and david with their famous pancakes and bacon. we all ate breakfast together and had a devo (brought by peter) before packing up 4 vehicles with sports equipment and food for 30 people and heading to vallombrosa. vallombrosa is a little forest town about 45 minutes outside of florence and i think the photos will say enough about why we chose to spend the day there.

when we arrived to vallombrosa, we ate our picnic lunches together under a huge tree and then split up into 4 groups to translate different parts of the worship song "there's a stirring" into italian. we did this activity last year and it was one of my favorite parts of the weekend. i think i love it so much because everyone gets into it and seems to really enjoy it. i don't think american teenagers would have this much enthusiasm about translating a worship song into english. i just love to sit back and watch their brains go to work as they search for the best way to convey the words of this beautiful song about our God whom they love. it never fails that i forget what i'm doing and find myself just looking around at all of them and crying. anyway, after we did the translating, then we got to practice. beautiful doesn't even begin to describe the sound. if the weekend had ended right then, it all would have been worth it.

luckily though, it didn't! and after we practiced the song we set up a volleyball net that we brought and played volleyball together. we probably played for at least 2 hours, we just rotated teams: boys vs. girls, north vs. south, italy vs. usa, it was so much fun!

after volleyball we practiced our song a couple more times and then headed back to florence just in time to miss the downpour that hit vallombrosa. when we got back to the bible school, the kids had about an hour to freshen up while some of us avanti peeps started helping david and debbie with the meal. we grilled out with chicken, sausage and ribs (oh my goodness), we had salad, debbie made her loaded mashed potatoes, we made like 20 liters of home-made lemonade, and then had strawberry shortcake for dessert.

after the cookout, we had another devotional, this one brought to us by eric, and then we practiced all the new worship songs because we were going to teach them to the congregation sunday at church. after we sang for about an hour, everyone was exhausted. some of the group watched a movie together, david gave ryan a buzz in the backyard, and everyone crashed.

sunday morning was our monthly breakfast together before church. this was especially fun because not only were there 20+ italian kids for the members to meet, but it was also the first sunday that all the HUF students were at church and they were assigned members to meet and sit with. after our breakfast, as we all began filing into our seats in the chapel of our church, i soon started to realize that the room was absolutely packed. there was not an empty seat. not only was the church full to the brim, but some of the people that we love and pray that they will come with us to church had come: rosa (the cook at the bible school) and her husband felice, sandro (an employee at the harding villa) and his wonderful wife chiara, anna maria and her husband alan (awesome friends of ours), and massimo and andrea (2 students of the bible school). on top of those people there were about 10 random members!!!! wow is all i have to say.

i videoed as the kids and david got up to teach the new songs to the congregation and all i could do was cry. i was beside myself with joy and i could tell that so many other people were too! this is the church (as in people, not a building) that God intended, the first century church, the body of christ...family. it was. the singing was heavenly (led by ryan and giovanni) and the sermon that jim brought (translated by lorenzo) was by no coincidence on grace and so moving.

after almost an hour of meeting and talking to people after church, 100+ of us (huf students, youth retreat people, avanti workers) walked to a nearby restaurant and enjoyed a meal together.

sadly after lunch, we had to say goodbye to all the kids that had come to the retreat (except 4 from rome who were stuck in florence until this morning because of a train strike). but i said goodbye energized and encouraged that these kids had been touched and strengthened and were going to back to their homes knowing that they weren't in this alone. they didn't have weather this "not being of the world" thing by themselves. there are other people their age that are doing it too.

sunday afternoon, angela, arnold, ryan and i took one of the harding vans to wash it (that was an adventure in itself) and then we all went up to the harding villa for a devo, dinner, and a piano concert. we topped off the weekend last night playing volleyball for a couple of hours with the harding students, which was a great way to get to know them.

i am so incredibly thankful for this weekend and everything that happened and the lives that were so touched. i know that God works in spite of us and he is more powerful than anything i can imagine, but i'm so thankful that he used us to be haven for these kids so he could touch their hearts in our presence. what an incredible blessing!

mid-week encouragement

we have been blessed for about the past 3 weeks to have this man here with us in florence.

jim woodroof

he is the father of our director, david woodroof, and he was a part of the planning and teaching during our avanti training in searcy last august. we got to know him really well during those 2 weeks, and i can honestly say i don't think i have ever met someone who truly loves jesus like this man.

he made such an impact on me as a christian and i am so thankful for everything he taught us. every time we heard him speak we sat forward on the edge of our seats and soaked up every word like a sponge. he is so genuine and tender-hearted and it has been wonderful having him here these few weeks. this sunday was the first sunday he preached at florence because he has been in high demand at other churches all over italy. i'm happy to say though that we get to hear him again this sunday too as he continues his lesson on john 12:24-25.

anyway, a ton of his sermons are on this website and if you need some encouragement that "this world is not our home" you will really feel better after listening to some of these.

happy second to last week of may, the summer is almost here!

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!

the last 5 days

friday night we had an end of the year cookout at the bible school for all of our students. 70+ people originally RSVP'd but i think only about 40ish were there (probably because it started raining about an hour before). regardless of the rain, it was a wonderful time! 2 of my students, olga and sara were able to come and it was great talking to them outside of our lesson setting. ryan did video interviews of several people who study at the bible school that i am compiling into a movie so be looking for that soon on facebook. we only have this month left for one on one classes until the next semester starts back up in the fall and i will very sad to stop my lessons. i feel such a bond with my students and such an appreciation to them for letting me talk to them about jesus whether they have relationship with him or not.

kyle and angela getting ready

making a berry trifle thing

the spread

the grillmaster himself, david

some of the guests enjoying the hamburgers and hot-dogs

then saturday, we had our 2nd official "dinner party" (but actually it was lunch). we had over some of the bible school peeps (emily, peter, angela, and andrea) to get to spend some time away from the bible school with them and just recharge our batteries as a group. after lunch we walked to the park across the street from our apartment and played soccer for hours.

dessert

later that night we all went together into florence together to "notte bianco" (white night), which is just something they do one night every spring where all the stores and museums stay open all night and the city is so lit up it is supposed to look like day. we at chinese food and then just walked around; there were bands playing in the streets and light displays and videos projected on a lot of buildings. it was another great time!

then, sunday after church we had our usual monthly potluck together as a church family

and then headed to a sports park where some men from our church played soccer against a congregation in prato. ryan played and scored several goals! wooo

this picture, magnificently captured by holland smith, is the only one we have from the game (notice the hubs in the red shorts)

then yesterday for lunch, the earharts had us back out to their beautiful home in fiesole for lunch because alan's parents are here for the month and they wanted all of us to meet them. alan and anna maria are the most wonderful people to be around, both of them are so laid back and it's so relaxing to spend time with them because you know they are both just totally honest and comfortable with you and it's a great feeling. i love them!

the only picture that we took at their house yesterday: a picture of alan with 2 noodles that were on his plate and connected by his wife's hair

last but not least, last night ryan's student valentino and his wife monica and their daughter olga (who is my student) had us over for dinner. we had so much fun just talking and laughing together. they are such a wonderful family and ryan and i have both loved being a part of their lives. valentino is a very talented artist and their home is full of his and many other artist's unique works. they also have one of the most beautiful terrace gardens that i have ever seen. of course we forgot to take a group picture but we have these:

monica and i stretching in their exercise room

ryan and valentino playing pinball

food!

when my parents came to visit us a few weeks ago and they brought me a few "real simple" magazines. my favorite recipes always come from this magazine so this week i made 2 of them, with a few revisions of course.

mushroom and gruyere tart

recipe here

revisions:

• added sausage (hubs needs meat)
• only put mushrooms on half (hubs doesn't totally dig 'em)
• used edamer cheese instead of gruyere (don't have gruyere here)
• used a regular yellow onion instead of a shallot (didn't feel like buying a shallot when i had plenty of good onions at home)

it was so good and i think i'm going to use puff pastry instead of pizza crust all the time (so easy and delish!!!)

of course my presentation is not as beautiful as "real simple" but it sure tasted good

asian chicken with broccoli

recipe here

revisions:

• didn't bread the chicken, just cooked it in olive oil first and then dumped the veggies in with it to saute (breading is too much work and i felt like you wouldn't even be able to tell in this dish)
• used broccoli instead of brussel sprouts (neither one of us like those little guys)
• added carrots (had some in the fridge that needed to be used)
• used apple cider vinegar instead of rice wine (didn't make a difference)
• didn't use sesame oil (couldn't find it here and it probably didn't matter either)
• added sesame seeds (cause they're yum)
• used chili powder instead of an actual chili pepper (didn't want to buy one)

i think my revisions make it as simple as possible because before it was pretty involved.

it was perfect for both of us who were totally craving chinese food.

i will make both of these again, probably with even more variation (it's in my genes to not truly follow any recipe, thanks mom and grandmother).

easter weekend!

this was a great weekend. saturday morning, all us avanti people got up and drove to bologna for a youth retreat (youth being anyone 16 to 30ish). all our friends we have made at other retreats were there and it was a great time of fellowship and encouragement. the speaker was franco verardi, the preacher in taranto where eric and jessica recently moved. i had never heard him speak before and he did a great job. that morning he talked about our lives and our priorities and in the afternoon he talked about the temptations of jesus and how important that is to our relationship with him.

after the lessons, a group of us took a walk through bologna since most of us had never been there before. the whole day was a great time and so refreshing to see all of our friends and be encouraged together.

everyone at the retreat

lesson time

we need to be united

our good friend lucca

some of the girls

some of the boys

main piazza of bologna

gelato time

we came back late saturday night because we all wanted to be at florence church sunday for easter. church was great on sunday, we had our usual monthly fellowship breakfast together before church and then jeff hopper was here from the states and gave a great sermon.

sunday night, we had an easter cookout at the bible school and it was another wonderful time for just getting to spend time together and relax. debbie and david had some family friends visiting so they were there, keith and christy smith came with their kids, danielle and luli came, and kyle and his family friend phyllis who is visiting came.

we grilled out

we painted eggs

we talked

we ate

later that night 8 of us played apples to apples and we had so much fun. i haven't laughed that hard since my parents were here, and it was a really great end to the weekend!

hope you all had a happy easter as well!