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Un Giornaccio

Published by Lauren on March 7, 2007 in news. 3 Comments

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

Published by Matt on March 1, 2007 in thoughts. 0 Comments

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.

The move to Vicenza

Published by Lauren on February 6, 2007 in news. 0 Comments

Moving is always interesting. The whole come and go between places and people is both heartrending and exciting … every single time. We moved to Vicenza over the span of a week. Partially this was due to the fact that the electrical company said it could take up to 3 days to turn on our gas and eletricity, so we decided why not hang out in Florence instead of a cold lightless apartment in Vicenza. Partially it was due to showing Matt’s student Joel the chruch in Prato. Showing Joel and his family the church in Prato was an enourmous success so I’m glad we stayed for that! It was really great to see them so happy in a church setting! and the Prato church is one of the most welcoming I know. They are just thrilled that you are there. No matter what language you speak or where you come from. By the time Joel left I think he had three or four phone numbers of church members just in case he might need anything.

After church in Prato we went to a dinner held by a group of Eritreans, which was really interesting. I decided Eritreans are really quite beautiful as a general rule. They are all thin and tall and dark like chocolate with almond eyes. And their food is very spicy. The church members kept warning us against eating (even though they had invited us there for lunch) because the food was spicy enough they deemed it uneddible.

So then Monday morning we got on the train after many goodbyes and packing up the last of our stuff and moved to Vicenza.

Our apartment is nice. In the most fantastic spot possible actually right on the main street of downtown in the walking district so no traffic noise. It is also only about a block from the church building. There are these wonderful grecian statue type things that are on top of the building oppostite that make our view. It has needed some cleaning. I have decided that smoking should be listed among things which most easily bring down property value. We’ll have to put up pictures! the most hilarious part of the apartment….the full wall pea green velvet armoire.

So we’ve spent the last week getting things together and getting our marching orders from the church. Health insurance, change to Vicenza…3 full mornings and more to come. Internet and phone service one morning and one afternoon and up to one month wait time. Washing machine…3 days looking and convincing our landlords to buy one like they said they would. (difficult not because they aren’t willing but more because the space for the machine is 5 cm smaller on each side than the standard washing machine size).

Now we’ve started working at the church as well. The church wants to keep it’s doors open for a period each day so we are going over every afternoon to do our work and clean up and be there. Will work on things actually happening there that people will come to instead of just having it open gradually starting with ….english lessons.

We are moving!

Published by Lauren on January 18, 2007 in news. 3 Comments

If you’ve read the newsletter you know already….we are moving! Actually we are currently actually in the process of moving (yes as I type my fingers are in motion therefor I am techincally moving and could claim that most of the time but, seriously…) we took all of our stuff to Vicenza on Monday, picked up our keys and turned on our gas and lights. Right now we are back in Florence wrapping all of the final things up (and getting our fill of Italian television since we will not be watching tv for the next year). We get on the train to move for good to Vicenza on Monday.

Everything has flown like a speeding bullet train. In mid-october I was sure moving anywhere was one of the longest shots in the world. I was so sure we would stay in Florence for our whole time even though it would have been great to go out and work with one of the churches. By mid-november the church in Vicenza is planning all of the things they could possibly do with us and we’ve vocally agreed to move into an apartment in Vicenza. It’s been two months since then now and those months have flown by as well….Christmas and saying goodbye to students and finishing work in Florence. Time telescoped big time.

Our apartment is wonderful and a blessing from God. The story goes like this….we went to Vicenza the second week of November to visit and kind of scope out the possibilities for places to live and how much they would cost and all that jazz. Thirty minutes after we start looking on Saturday morning barely after we had actually decided to go call any of the places we had circled in the ad pages, we stop into this shop owned by a Jennifer’s friend from highschool (Jennifer actually grew up in Vicenza). They say hello, How are you?, all of the appropriate questions … and then… What are you doing in Vicenza? The answer well… we are looking into apartments for Matt and Lauren (let me introduce you to Matt and Lauren, They’re great!) Hmmm…..well….you know what oddly enough we have an apartment for rent would you like to see it? it will cost ________ THE EXACT AMOUNT MATT AND LAUREN CAN AFFORD PER MONTH_________ and we go see it and it has two rooms a bathroom and a separate kitchen! unheard of on Italian apartment renting size scales for the price……and oddly enough it is only 5 minutes walk to the church as well as being on Vicenza’s most beautiful main drag. So we hmm and haw because that is what you are supposed to do right and say well we have to think about it we’ll call you later. After that we went to a rental agency and asked them what was usually available. They told us that for the price we were asking we would only ever be able to find apartments half the size and that nothing would be available now we would have to come back in January to even start looking. So God provided exactly what we needed when we needed it before we even tried our own solutions…isn’t it cool!

Next week we start this new project…pray that we do it well and that God will use us to the utmost. Pray too that we will find people at the church who will be willing to join us in working with their teenagers so that whatever we jumpstart will continue past this next year.

And just so you know our New Years resolution….communicate! so expect to see alot more of these posts….talk to you soon.

Lauren

December 2006 Newsletter

Published by Matt on January 18, 2007 in newsletters. 0 Comments

Our newsletter written for December 2006:

Click here to open the PDF.

September 2006 Newsletter

Published by Matt on January 18, 2007 in newsletters. 0 Comments

Our newsletter written for September 2006:

(backdated to September)

Click here to open the PDF.

Published by Matt on August 14, 2006 in aside. 3 Comments

Ok, the last theme was not my favorite, as it only showed one post, and didn’t show the author’s name. This one seems to be spiffy.

Salvo e Sane….ma….just a little bit tired

Published by Lauren on July 26, 2006 in news. 2 Comments

So we are finally back….back home …. back to our silly bedroom behind the silly computer room…and it is wonderful. I am ready for the best of all vacations now, the one where you sit in your room and don’t move for several weeks.

Albania…is….. absolutely gorgeous! those communist stricken, still recovering from 600 years of dictatorship people are sitting on the biggest tourist gold mine I think I’ve ever seen. We had camp in a place called Llogara (i think can’t be sure of the spelling because albanian definetly still escapes me as far as that goes…besides the other more than 20 words I learned there ways it escapes me)…Llogara is a set of mountains on the neck of a peninsula that sticks out into the Adriatic sea or the Ionian…it gets kind of fuzzy right around there which sea it is. Anyway, so this mountain is a heavily wooded, fern glade enchanted, breathe of cedar filled beauty between rocky cliffs covered with sage and thyme that look out and down onto a sparkling blue serene expanse that finds Corfu and Greece as it meets the horizon. Like I said gorgeous! the camp is in one of the valleys so to see the panorama you have to hike or drive out onto the mountain tops but the view of the mountains themselves is breathetaking.

The problem is that in Albania you really want to be able to be permanently near sighted. The things you see up close … like houses and tables and restaurants or bathrooms are not great….to which comment I have to add that I was expecting much worse. Albania is no worse off than the parts of Mexico I’ve been to which on the scale is not actually third world. I found out that the United States sends Peace Corp people there which makes me wonder if we send them to mexico which I didn’t think we did. don’t know. Any hoot.

so our three weeks or camp were best known … near Greece I remind you… for rain! It rained 3 days a week while we were there. Which was taken as proof by the people we were with that global warming was really impending upon us because they said it never rained more than 3 days a month the last 6 years they’ve done the camp. Which didn’t turn out too great for us because since it had rained so little before they really hadn’t worried about making camp water proof, rather they were worried about making it cool so … for example our out house had no roof! great idea if you don’t want the out house to get hot and stinky, bad idea if it’s poaring and you need to answer the call of nature.

So we were a little damp but over all it was a good experience. Kind of hard to talk about in a way. I don’t think I’ve processed the experience well enough to really know what I think. It’s been one of those trips that has kind of left me speechless as far as that goes. I know for sure that we were supposed to be there, why though I’m not really sure except that I hope we were an encouragement to those who needed encouraging and a light to those who needed light….I hope God reflected himself in us.

other comments: Albanian teenagers, which I think is a miss nomer I think it is just teenagers as a general rule, are difficult to get excited about anything. and I hereby give an official apology to all the people who tried to get me to do things and participate when I was 16 … you have my full sympathy now.
Roads in mountains can be very scary especially when there is a sea at the bottom of them.

oh and here is the albanian or shiepe ( I think ) that I learned;

Une jame Lauren. Une nuk flasse sheipe. Boscone. Hest. Natenamire. Mire Pafshim. Hiede. ti je maymun.

(translation: I’m Lauren. I don’t speak Albanian. Shut up. Be quiet. Good night. Good Bye. come. you are a monkey!)

(most of which I just wrote horribly wrong I know for any Albanian who may be reading this)

So I think I’m going to head toward bed now …. I’ll let matt write more and make the story of the last three weeks more full fledged.

Land of the Eagle

Published by Matt on July 7, 2006 in news. 1 Comment

Lauren and I are in Albania working at a youth camp for 3 weeks. We’re almost done with the first week (the current group of kids goes home tomorrow). It’s been pretty fun, but trying to wrangle in 30 kids that you can’t communicate with very well can make for an interesting experience. :) I was sick for a day after being referree for Wednesday afternoon’s group activities. We’ll write more about the camp when we get back! Take care, and keep these kids in your prayers. For most of them this has been the first time they have been significantly exposed to God.

Summer and Vacation

Published by Lauren on June 8, 2006 in convengo, news, scent, summer, trip and vacation. 4 Comments

And now it’s summer which seems absolutely unreal. Not only is it still cool spring weather, but I seriously couldn’t tell you where the weeks, no really I’d have to say months, have gone. Notable fact for the moment, there are an insane number of three to four day weekends in Italy from the beginning of the month of April till the beginning of June…..like 6 really….4 of which are in April. And I didn’t know about a singal one of them till three days before. Which means every week or so I said… “what you mean it’s festa?”

Now everyone has begun thinking of going to the beach on the weekends… by July all the moms who don’t work will be there for the weeks and everyone will visit them on weekends…then in August everyone will be on vacation. I’ve decided I kind of like the system. Though being gone from your own house for so long seems tiring but I guess it isn’t really gone from their own house since they all have houses in the mountains or on the beach that are actually their houses. Second notable fact, I think in general italian houses are smaller but that they tend to have more then one as a general rule…which means they kind of even out with us, unless we have a monstrosity.

I’m just getting back into the swing of things again because Matt and I just got back from traveling last Wednesday late in the night. We started out going to a convegno in Rome, at a camp ontop of the mountains outside of it actually, which was great….more exciting than we expected though since our car broke down…. the italians have decided WE’RE OK!!!! it’s so cool really…. before this it’s mostly been…well your here and well… but at the convengo they decided we were even worth talking to … which really is such a blessing … because they appreciate us at Avanti as a concept tons…they love the thought of us as far as that goes it seems…the reality though of who we are, each individual person who comes and is apart of their lives for a shortwhile is different though, and for good reason. Avanti has earned their trust, judgement, respect or otherwise and is attached to a series of old memories. We, ourselves, individually, on the other hand are an unknown young and probably on the dense side though well meaning american until we prove otherwise. So Being OK!! is a big step a wonderful one, one that means budding friendships and the ability to actually converse in their world. And I thank God hartily that it has happened not just with the Florence church ( whom I love so dearly just so everyone knows! they are incredible, awesome, human and yes, quarrelsome, but they are so dear to me!)

After the convengo Matt and I went early the next morning to catch a plane to get to the United States. The visit went really well….I love being with my family! My sister is learning to drive, my mom is looking for the next play to do with her drama class, my dad broke his foot playing soccer, my brother is beginning what looks kind of like an actual business making wooden Animai cartoon swords for people who want to look cool a comic conventions, and the dogs and cats are up to their old mischief! I love just hanging out with them all….but I missed here alot, I missed the people I’m attached to at the moment the watching them grow and be from week to week (same for my garden here!! the radishes were to big to eat when we got back). Partially that is just me… being a visitor, is hard on me from the been longer than a week to less then four weeks slot…I don’t have stuff to do I am required to sit and relax which makes me ansy after I’ve gotten all my sleep back in that first week (by 4 weeks I’ll have made up enough new projects to keep me fully satisfied).

The smell of Italy when we got back astounded me. It was the same smell that I had left, but when I walked out of the bus I realized that I had missed it. Now it is again different because the jasimine are all in bloom, wafting tantalizing enchantments through the streets. I read a book last week that talked of the US being surprisingly void of smells and scents. I don’t know if that is true. I realized though that it is certainly devoid of one scent, the scent of Italy.

Plans: Albania … for the month of July!

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