As I mentioned in my last post, I arrived late on the first night of the convegno. There is a retreat for all the churches in Italy once every year in August, and I was glad that I got here in time for that. I met a lot of new people and made some new friends from all over Italy. I met Ermenita and Melissa in person, who were my facebook friends before I came. :) They were very welcoming and really made me feel at home right away. Ermenita lives and attends university here in Florence, so I will be seeing a good deal of her, but Melissa lives in Catania in southern Italy. She left today, but I hope to be able to travel down there sometime to visit and she wants to come back here. I talked with Adriana and Riccardo from Aprilia (near Rome) quite a bit the last few days, and I have made a deal with them - that when I come down to Aprilia I will teach them English in two days flat. haha!
I believe there were 70-80 people altogether that attended the conference, and it lasted from Wednesday until Sunday at about 3:00pm. The theme was "I colori dell'anima", or "the colors of the spirit/soul". Several men from the different congregations presented lessons to us, such as Vittorio Vitalone from Rome, Tonio Console from Bergamo, and Robbie Shackelford. Wednesday through Friday we had lessons, sang songs together, and ate wonderful meals prepared by Angelo, Mario, Carla, Giovanni, and my mom. Saturday we all went together to a big park with beach volleyball, soccer and a swimming pool and had a picnic and spent the day there. It was very nice - the weather even cooperated and was comparatively cool and breezy.
I met several women from the churches that will attend the Convegno delle Donne (Women's Retreat) in a few weeks - September 11-13 - just outside of Rome. Tonia Vitalone from Rome is in charge of it. Mom, Sarah Bailey, Ermenita, Jill, and I will drive down together from Florence. I am looking forward to it. I believe the theme has something to do with being different but unified. I talked with Tamara Short (a missionary working in Milan) about some ideas for the weekend, and I think it will be a great thing for getting to know all the women.
Last night, Jill, Kyle Thompson, Ermenita, Chad Fetters, Melissa, Sarah and I went and got Chinese food for dinner and brought it back to the Bible School. We had a lot of fun hanging out and talking. It is fun to hear Melissa say "Sweet Kyle"..... or "sweeet -ah Kihle". Then we played Guesstures together until midnight! Melissa, Ermenita and I were on a team - which was interesting because they would guess in Italian and I would in English. Ha!
Anyway, this is really long, so I will just wrap it up by saying that I am so very happy to be here. Thanks to everyone who helped get me here! Especially Aunt Pam, Uncle Tom, Gramma, and Liz on my trip over - they had many phone calls and video conversations to accomplish. :) God bless!
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