Our newsletter written for December 2007:
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Well, we’ve left our apartment, and all our personal possessions are distributed among 10 bags. The Fergnianis are putting us up for a few days as we settle out with the landlord and utilities company. Heading home Wednesday! What couple of years…
Well, it’s almost that time: The time for us to come home. We have one more newsletter to send out to recount our last few months here in Vicenza.
We get back to Huntsville on December 19th, where we’ll spend the next few months at temp jobs while we wait to hear where Lauren has been accepted for grad school. Then it’s off on a new adventure!
One thing we need to wrap up before we get back is funding! To make a long story short: All support needs to be recieved by Huntsville Christian by the 19th, so we kindly ask all our supporters to make sure that their final checks get in by that date. Thanks so much for all your help! God has blessed us tremendously through you, and we couldn’t have done any of this without you.
My family came to visit us about a week ago! It was fantastic, though now our 2 person apartment seem quite a bit quieter after being inundated with 4 more people for a week and a half. It was very fun though because we had saved up all these things to do with them. You know when you don’t go do the things that there are to do in the town you live in until people come to visit. Well that is what we did and it turned out great. First there was a flurry of food….there are so many good cheeses and wines and salami objects that are to expensive and heavy for everyday that are perfect to eat when there is company and no one is thinking about dieting or staying in shape.
Good food you need to try if you come to the Veneto:
Sopresa di Schio with or without garlic
Asiago cheese…all types very old to very young
Seafood if you are by the sea
and white sparkling wines!
The biggest food hit though was chocolates from our local chocolate store where they make them in the back and sell them with coffee out front….passion fruit chocolate is the best ever!
Besides the food we went to see a lot of the things we’d saved up, wanting to go see them but, putting it off based on we live here laziness. It was good to see the places, it was good to be a tourist for a week but, in some ways it drove home the fact that we are only in Italy for two more months.
While seeing Soave castle with it’s perfectly kept ramparts that give you a sweeping view of the valley, (a castle we pass every time we get on the highway and that I’ve been wanting to go see since April) was amazing it also meant that that untied up end wasn’t loose any more it was done. In some ways it felt like the store of undone things was part of our reassurance that we actually lived here and as people that live here we can always go look at it later. Soave and the museums in Vicenza itself were more like that for me. Riva del Garda and Sirmione and Aquileia were less so because they are further away I think.
So now we’ve showed off our church and our life to someone else outside of ourselves that will be apart of our life after we leave Vicenza. That part of it was really satisfying because without it when you get back you have this uncanny feeling that in everyone elses eyes you were just missing for 2 years not actually living a real life while you were gone, just gone, dormant somehow. Now that my family has seen my life I feel less like leaving is an approaching doom for my memories of being here though I do feel like it is more certain that we are leaving now.
The church is doing well. There was a baptism during the Ghanaian service this Sunday and about 3 weeks ago there was another in the Italian service. Which is something to praise God about….I’m specifically excited about them because it also is an answer to prayers that Matt and I have been praying since we got here. It is just really good to see the church grow, I do pray though that the church will be capable of supporting the new christians that have entered it, I worry about that one.
In the next couple weeks we’re really busy (by our standards) one last schebang I guess before we wind down toward packing. There is a conference, a women’s day (yay! the women are actually doing it and they are actually coming and people are actually invited from all over north italy and yay! in general) and then starting the same day as the women’s day there is a youth retreat. Pray that we get through it ok!
Well, since it’s been a few days, I probably should temper my last post’s nostalgic sentiment with info on what’s coming up for our final three months here. The first item of good news is that we successfully renewed our immigration papers and health insurance, so we can stay legally! Though what I am not looking forward to is canceling our phone service. ugh.
We have a few trips lined up to go visit places and people we haven’t managed to see. The biggest one is church in Catania, who are really wonderful and it’s a shame we haven’t been down to visit them there yet. They come to many of the conventions and youth camp, etc. which is how we know them.
Lauren’s family is coming to visit in a few weeks, which is exciting. It’s always fun to share what we are doing and play tour guides to wherever we are at the moment. Unfortunately for them (and us as we have less of an excuse to go now), they are leaving right before the largest chocolate festival in Italy–maybe Europe–which take place in Perugia. For shame.
Our biggest challenge coming up is planning for a youth retreat this December. We have done two previously, and God has been benevolent enough to let each be good times despite ourselves…(actually they were very nice!) We definitely need all of the guidance we can get to wrap up our time with the youth in that retreat, and to say goodbye while keeping the focus where it needs to be. More details about that later though…
And now we’re gone for a few days to Paris, a trip that has been at least a year and a half in the making. 40 euro plane tickets are great.
It’s strange and weird to think of going, of moving on, and in many ways it has overshadowed a lot of life at the moment. We’re just about to hit two years here, our original commitment. (Especially apparent as our permission to stay papers expire in 4 days!) I hesitate as I write these words as I find it hard to express what it feels like, this facing of what is inevitable, like we’ve been drifting down a wonderful river for a while, but things are speeding up, the current is getting rougher, and there’s an soft rushing sound that is oh very faint right now, but gets louder and louder every day.
We planned on staying two years, but are here in Vicenza until this December to make it a whole year. Two years seems like plenty of time, of course, when you are at the beginning. Yet, when you try to live a life, make friends, let them come to see Christ in you, those years go by so quickly! Next time we come, we’re moving for good I think!
The team is slowly unravelling: Going back to where we came from, picking up lives left on hold, seeking the next chapter/phase/adventure, returning to the familiar, wondering what to do next, facing another unknown. Even the program itself is in a way ending, or going through a metamorphosis I could say. All good changes, necessary for the sake of being able to continue, and more effective in using its workers, but sad in a way. Teaching English is out, sending out workers throughout Italy is in.
Maybe I shouldn’t write what I am about to as it could never replace a proper goodbye, but I guess we’ll have to make do, since life has other plans:
Here’s to you, team members, friends. It’s been a good time, and I think that in all the ups and downs we can say it was worth it, that God has worked through us, though not necessarily in the way we naively assumed he would at the beginning. He is much more cunning and subtle and wiser than any of us could have imagined!
God, you caught each one of us by surprise! We were so confident, a bit prideful of what we were going to accomplish, but you have shown us your true power, your true love for those who seek you, and have invited us be witnesses to that effect. I only wish this longing for those we have missed for so long and those we are about to leave wasn’t so strong so painful, but I guess that is what love is…
Our newsletter written for August 2007:
Click here to open the PDF.
Ok, after way too long, we’ve put some photos up of us over here! To make a long story short, I, Matt, the server monkey, spent way to long putting off setting up a photo sharing web app. In the end, we got a flickr account. Visit it here. I also put a link up in the sidebar to the right for easy reference.
Well, we in Italy are coming up on one of the strangest seasons of all in the country: Summer. In case you didn’t know, most Italians are appalled when they hear about American vacation for the first time. To them, the US is a country full of workaholics and Italy is much more sensible. Italian vacations and holidays include the following:
10 to 20 state holidays a year.
the ponte or “bridge” between a holiday and the closest weekend if said holiday does not fall on a monday or friday.
the week around easter.
the week or two around christmas
ferragosto, the two week span in August that is more exciting than Christmas to some Italians. Though officially about two weeks, this effectively includes the entire month of August, and perhaps some of July, too.
Weekends are out too once the weather turns nice in May. (There’s one family who attends the church that hasn’t been here in about a month because they have been at their mountain cabin most of the time.) And all in all it’s a bit silly–and a bit frustrating–as suddenly everyone who was very dedicatedly coming to bible studies or meetings from January to May suddenly turns into a flake.
Still, it has its perks, as we will be able to have much more time with the youth. They all about disappeared mid-May to be very studious only to show up again this last week, as say, about 100% of the evaluation of students in the Italian school system is final exams which are notoriously difficult (blech!). Because they are all done and don’t have anything to do until September, we will have fun with them.
Really, summer has the potential to be great, as everyone has a lot more free time. The biggest hurdle is to convince people that the church is worth spending time with. For various reasons, be it family, a lack of normal work hours (the normal work week is 36-40 hours, but free days aren’t necessarily Saturdays), or culture in general, we have trouble as a church having a sense of community.
The church has a hard time creating a more effective community because most people within it don’t see the point of it. Effectively, while the Sunday morning service is big enough to fill our small meeting space, the attendance of activites outside of the worship service is made up of a dedicated few.
Hopefully this summer will prove more fruitful. With the youth we are trying to provide a more welcoming environment for them to make their own.
So, we hope that summer is off to a great start back in the States, and we ask that you pray for us and the church here, especially for help in being a Christian body in more than just the abstract!
I just noticed that it had been to long since we last wrote. So to keep you guys up to date, here is a run down on why we’ve been so busy we haven’t written.
About a week after our very bad day we decided that it was about time that we went back to Florence to check up on people, students and friends, the church and our fellow avanti Italia workers. It was really good to see people if only for a couple of minutes and to tell them again that really we did love them very much and were still praying for them. It’s fun to still be able to be apart of peoples lives even if you’ve moved. Usually my moves have been so drastic as far as distance that it is nigh on impossible to even try to visit on a semi regular basis. So moving to only 3 hours away by train is a really rather lovely and refreshing experience. Anyway so while we were there we also “accomplished” some things. Matt wrote a search engine and catergorizing program for the school library, and I managed an impossible feat! I managed to get a promise of a reimbursement of 300 euro from the region of Tuscany!
As far as buracreacies go the italian one is pretty monstrous so when the guy at the insurance/health office in Vicenza told me that I had to pay for our health insurance again and that if I wanted money back from the last time I would need to ask the Region of Tuscany for a reimbursement I thought that the were sending me on the wild goose chase of all fools errands. But I thought hey it’s worth a try. So when we got to Florence I found the number for the region of Tuscany and then began to call. Twice I called and managed in those two calls to talk to close to 30 different people … the conversations went about like this…”Pronto.” “Yes I would like to speak to the person in charge of finances and reimbursements. I want to ask to be reimbursed for a double payment of health insurance in 2006. Do you know who I should speak to?” “Hold on.” “ok” “could you tell me again what you want?” “yes, I would…..blah blah blah” “Hold on.” “ok” “um…we’re not in charge of that I’ll forward your call to another department maybe they know.” repeat same conversation 15 times. So I decided that phone calls weren’t the best method. The next day I went down to the offices themselves and had the equivalent conversation in person except this time I was there in person and they knew I was american and they felt that they needed to do something. Turns out that they didn’t know who was in charge of those payments and that the account they were made to had changed anyway and wasn’t directly visible in there system but they still looked at my stuff said yes we will reimburse you and gave me a tracking number for my paper work, and asked me for address et. info so that they could send me the check. Whooo hooo! we’ll see when the check actually shows up but at least that is one step down.
Ok so after Florence we came back and had a week preparing for me to go to the Women’s Convention in Rome and for Matt’s Dad Bob and his wife Mona to come. whirl wind cleaning and food buying insued but we managed and they came and the visit was good (matt will have to write about that) and the Women’s Convention was awesome. I really love them they are my favorite conventions of the year. This time was interesting as well because I translated for about half the time for a couple of Ghanaian women from the churches who had come for the first time. It was good though I must say that I was rather tired by the end of it. When I got back Bob and Mona and Matt and I went to visit Padova. It was my first time there and I must say it really is a great city! I had alot of fun…and found the church where San Antonio was buried and went to the oldest botanical garden in the world! and saw a 500 year old or there abouts palm tree, it was planted in like 1572 or something fantastic like that! I do need to research who San Antonio is the patron saint of because I’m curious.
That brings us to last week. The week of Easter. So saturday Franco Verardi came he is a Italian missionary to Southern Italy that the church of Vicenza supports. So Saturday night the church met to here from him and encourage him and be togther with his family. Then Sunday we got up at 5:30 am to go to a sunrise service we’d been invited to on the base. Vicenza as you guys probably know from the news at least a little, has an American army base. It’s interesting though because even with all those americans living here we rarely actually see them. They tend to stick to themselves though I think if Matt and I were more involved in the discoteco scene we’d see more of them. Anyway so a couple weeks ago this american guy called up and asked to speak to the pastor. We called him back and told him we didn’t have a pastor and then he just hung up and didn’t tell us whatever he was going to tell the pastor. A week later we recieved a series of phone messages inviting the pastor to a sunrise service at the base. In the end Matt and I and Davide Fergani ended up going though all of us are under 25 and certainly not the church leaders. It was kind of cool though really quite too early! they had a black gospel choir and everything. And we got to meet the “Americans” I hadn’t realized before how many chaplains an army base would have. there are like one for every battalion or so I think.
Then later that day we went to our church and had a united service where everyone came Ghanaian and Italian. The place was packed there weren’t enough seats for everyone. That was a cool feeling. France Verardi spoke and also Abraham a preacher from Ghana that had just arrived to work with the churches with Ghanaians in the north of Italy until mid July. He’s really nice and Matt really likes what studies and sermons his given so far. I was with the little kids upstairs so I haven’t heard him yet. Then the Agape or potluck which is an interesting affair with that many people in such a small space. we do it basically in shifts because the line is long enough. After the Agape was over we got ourselves packed into cars with the raggazzi and headed up to the mountains. There were 8 from Vicenza and 6 from Aprillia and there were supposed to be 2 from Bologna but when we called them to see where they were on the road because they were already 30 minutes late they said they were still at work in Bologna and no weren’t planning on coming. This time we also had help! two adults from Aprillia to help with kitchen and crowd control and et. Milady a beautiful Venezualan women from Vicenza as cook. Marco Massini and Kelly Fann from Florence to help do Bible studies and Davide Fergani too! Marco and Kelly left on Monday morning but it was still night and day better as far as discipline than last time. We all slept for instance! counselors and raggazzi too! and all the studies went well too! Davide did his first camp devo ever and it was good. Marco and Kelly did a study Monday morning on purity and morality that was really great. Caterina, one of the girls from Vicenza, and I taught a evangelistic skit and everyone participated and had fun! Then for the grand finale….we did a passover dinner, complete with unleaven bread and all the traditional fixings of the Jewish holiday supper. It was really fun to watch the kids when they sat down to dinner and looked at there plates and saw only romaine lettuce (bitter herbs), a chicken bone (representing the lamb sacrifice) and a pile of brown stuff. “what is this dinner is this all! man … I’m actually hungry why can’t we eat something good what does this mean anyway! ” They lapped it up I have never actually seen them pay such acute attention to what was going on around them as at that dinner. They were even silent when Matt spoke! And the general excitement over the feet washing was good too. Only one most stubborn one refused. I don’t think that they will forget it any time soon anyway.
and then we came home yesterday evening. and slept. and this morning I’m writing you all this incredibly long post. Hope you have the patience to read it. God bless.
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