Archive for March, 2007

Un Giornaccio

You know those days that don’t seem to be made for being out of bed? Those days where really it feels like you should have taken warning and not let your feet venture forth from under the covers? Well we had one. Sunday was great! It was beautiful, felt like spring and we had a good day at church, a rousing lunch of good conversation and exquisite eggplant, went out to the park with the ragazzi (kids/guys/teens really its quite a useful word, has an intonation of youth as well as intamicy and recklessness, often used as quasi swear word by older type people) and then had a relatively good study with them! and got home by 7 at night to have an evening all to ourselves relaxing and finishing a season of 24.

Monday however we should of taken warning and stayed in bed. We got up early to go to a rather traumatic but essentially uneventful doctors appointment (don’t worry we’re not sick or in danger) it is amazingly hard no matter how much you can communicate in other situations how difficult talking to doctors in foreign languages is. I got upset during the appointment because the doctor was speaking to Matt about me in front of me instead of speaking to me, something that IS unthinkably rude in English but, however is …… the polite formal way of speaking in Italian, which it would be rude for her not to use in a patient doctor setting. Actually (cool grammatical fact of the day) in Italian when you speak to someone with whom you need to be formal you address the persons aura rather than the person, which is why the formal is always feminine even if your a guy. I didn’t realize that I had made this rather aggregious mistake until about 2 hours after the appointment had ended. So thats hours 7.30 am till 11 all spent on the doctors appointment.
Then at about 12 guess what…..we get a call from one of the other workers at the Bible School saying that the Questura (or police station) of Vicenza has called looking for us 3 times that morning. They were slightly concerned since the policeman wouldn’t say why he was looking for us just that he needed to find us. After freaking out for about 5 minutes we figured out why. About a week ago now my purse was stolen from the church building (I was stupid, you shouldn’t leave things downstairs with windows looking out on to the street and then leave the room) luckly no documents, passports or anything was in it. Anyway they used my credit card once before I blocked it but oh well that’s life. So the police had found this guy trying to use my credit card again passing himself off as a woman, and they needed me to come and declare my purse as stolen. So we went to the police station, they were nice but that is always slightly unnerving.

So we get out of the police station at like 3. And then go get some lunch that we had not managed to eat. A Kebab in fact at an Indian restaurant. We munch our kebabs and head for the grocery store. Our hard part of the day is over right…let’s breath. But then lucky us, one of the 20s we got as change from the kebab place turns out to be a fake… a counterfeit… we were hoodwinked!! and now have another reason we need to go to the Questura. Back home Milady a friend of ours from Venezuela shows up half an hour later and then I’m in full swing getting the women’s bible study together. That was nice though. Wonderful infact. God has given them enough wisdom to share with eachother that I get so much from listening and have to do very little to keep the ball and discussion rolling. They really are a group of amazing women! So back home by….11.30. Then bed … it was time to put the day behind.

I just want to praise God that he is so clearly visible and beautiful even in the giornacci though. So full of love for me that even at the end of the day I know I am loved and am reminded by those who surrond me that he is protecting me even on days of the sort. Plus hey it makes the other days much easier to deal with I suppose!

Today is good.

Your Average Sunday

We’ve been in Vicenza for about six weeks now, and even though we feel settled in, everything is still very fresh and new to our eyes. It is easy to love the group of Christians here: Despite all they have been through, they still have a heart for God and have happily supported us and actively tried to find ways to use us and whatever skills we have to grow God’s kingdom. All we’ve had to do most of the time is just to say “yes!” and go wtih the moment. Although we do have plans and ideas for what to do with this year, it has been an immense blessing to immediately get up to speed and start going. It has helped us get to know the church more quickly and given us a better idea of where we can best help out.

Anyways, the biggest thing to happen to me this past week was that I gave the Sunday morning sermon for the first time in my life. I have never really preached on Sunday before now, let alone in Italian. Moreover, public speaking has never been my strong point. Honestly, I can’t remember a time before this past year when imagining me speaking in front of a crowd didn’t send my stomach off to do cartwheels. Well, however I feel hasn’t changed what I’ve been called to do, which has been to lead Bible studies and give talks over the past year. God has grown me into the role of being able to do this task, and for that I’m incredibly thankful. It’s really neat to be able to look back on the past year and see myself changed–regardless of the significance of that change. Despite inexperience, lack of understanding, or just plain fear, God can and does grow a person into doing that which was previously impossible. So, this has been a steady process. It’s not like it was a big jump to do this (though I still had jitters) as I’ve done the same sort of thing in a more informal setting, but actially preaching on Sunday felt like some sort of threshold to be crossed, and now I’m over.

The meaning behind the title of this post and the real point of why I’m writing it isn’t some conquering of the weekly Sunday morning address, however. Instead, it’s this: After our weekend was all over and done, I couldn’t help but feeling at peace and content. Our schedule is the most busy with weekend events:

  • Saturday: Evening Bible Study
  • Sunday:
    • Italian worship
    • Bible class
    • Ghanaian worship
    • Afternoon Youth Group Meeting
  • Monday: Evening Women’s Bible Study

The peace that both Lauren and I felt was the awareness that God is actively making us into what we need to be to serve Him here, and that he won’t disappoint us. So that’s what an average Sunday is all about.