Well, that's definitely it for summer folks. Our classes have officially started back up, along with all of our other regular school year activities. We are all fully loaded with individual classes on Monday - Wednesday, plus this year we have added a beginners' grammar class which is offered every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday night at 9:00pm. Last night, the teachers (Ryan, Angela, & Andrea) had about 15 students, which is pretty incredible. I was a little sad at first about not having all my old students, but I decided it would be better for them if they had a variety of teachers rather than listening to same old me all the time. :)
We've also started back up again with the English Conversation class that we teach at the Florence church building. It's every Thursday night starting at 6:30pm. We have an hour lesson with grammar and conversation, and then we offer our students a simple meal that we cook there at the church. We then invite them to stay for our Bible study - in Italian - which starts at 8:00pm. We've had good response to this class, and several of our students from this class have visited the church. One of our members is a regular student of ours - Sveta, a lady from Russia, who married an Italian (who is originally from Naples). They have an adorable 4 yr old daughter named Lisa. :) The new workers have been great in helping out with this too!
Other than our English/Bible studies at the School and the Church, we have many other activities that we are involved in. I go once a week to a nearby daycare (same one as last year) and teach English to the 3-yr-olds and the 4-yr-olds. This is a little bit of a change from last year, when it was Jillian and I both teaching only the 5-yr-old class. They are so small, and the 3-yr-olds are only just beginning to learn their colors in Italian! So we are moving slower, but this week was the first week and they did a great job paying attention and repeating what I said. Some of them were so into the coloring sheets that they colored holes right through their red apples. :) So that is my schedule for every Tuesday morning from 10 - 11:30.
Also, we are partnering with the Harding Students once a semester to have a Storytime hour at the local Scandicci library. For four consecutive weeks each semester, we teach vocabulary, read a short book, and then have an activity planned to go along with the story. It's a lot of fun, and we've had great turn-outs. This week we have 40 kids aged 5-12 registered, and we are planning on doing the stories of "The Three Little Pigs" and "Little Red Riding Hood". Harding is responsible for two of the weeks, and we are responsible for the other two weeks. And again I would like to thank those of you who have sent children's English books to donate to the library - I asked the librarian about them last week, and she said she can barely keep them on the shelves! They are so grateful for the books - they only had a few before this summer, and now they can actually have a section of them at various reading levels. Thank you!
On Monday nights, we are back to our Bible studies at the Bible School. We had our women's Bible study every Monday last year, and this year the guys have started a men's Bible study. We have several English students that are coming to the Bible studies, adn they are really a blessing to our work here. We generally meet together at 6:30pm for a simple meal and then begin our study at 8:00pm. Right now we have about 12 women and 12 men that are coming.
We have a few new additions at the Bible school. Peter arrived Tuesday, and started language school yesterday! He barely had time to breathe before he was right there in the thick of things. Also, we have a new puppy! Her name is Zoey, and she adds a lot of life and joy to the Bible School.
There is always a lot going on around here, and God is blessing our work! We have some wonderful students who are genuinely interested in studying the Bible and who have such kind, giving spirits. Thank you all for your love and support - we have such generous, wonderful people who help to make all this happen. God bless you!
