I feel the need to inform anyone and everyone of one little phrase in Italian. Tutto a posto. Literally translated I would say it means "all in place". They use it like "Is everything going okay?" And the response is "Si, tutto a posto" - "Yes, everything's going okay." Just a little edition to enrich your Italian vocabulary, and one that I didn't know after having studied Italian for two years! :)
Well, we're coming up on the season of change....spring. The Harding students from the spring semester have come and gone - we will miss them! They were a great group, and I feel like we got to know them well. We've had several visitors come through already, such as Ivo, Danny & Bernetta Crow, Rhetta Dean, Mark Slagle, Jeff Hopper, to name a few, and many more to come. My grandaddy arrives tomorrow morning, and he will be staying a month or so, helping dad out with some repairs to the school and preaching every Sunday that he's here (surprise, surprise!).
All of the Avanti workers attended a youth retreat last Saturday in Bologna. It was really great - there were about 40 young people in attendance. The retreat lasted from Friday to Monday, but we were only able to go on Saturday. Franco Verardi spoke and presented some thoughts, and then we all discussed them.
Monday was the Day of Liberation from Fascism here in Italy, which is a national holiday. Andrea, Angela and I (being part of the world-renowned Scandicci band) played in a parade that morning and then a concert that evening. We had quite a crowd following us for the parade, which finished in a cemetery where the soldiers who died in the war for liberation were buried. It was a great day.
We are wrapping up our regular classes for the school year on May 18th. Our summer schedule is a little different than the rest of the year, and it is hard to keep a regular schedule. We have a group of athletes from Harding that are coming to stay for a month at the Bible School, so we will be kept busy cooking, cleaning, and helping them out. They will be here until the end of June. The last week in June and the first week of July is the kids' summer camp. Ryan, Laura, Angela and I will all be participating this year as counselors and Bible class teachers, as well as activity group leaders. Laura and Ryan will also be the camp nurses. I had a really good experience with camp last year and felt like I really got to know the kids better because of it, so I'm looking forward to returning this year. Also Ryan and Laura have begun planning a VBS for around June 18th for the cities of Florence, Prato, and Pistoia. The theme will be "The Armor of God".
There's not much new going on outside of that - just our normal schedule and activities. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers! I love you!
27 April 2011
04 April 2011
"Red fish, red fish, in the sea" and "Little Boat on the Water"
..... two enormous hits with the kids at the daycare - something incredible, seeing as I made them up on the spot about two minutes before teaching them to the kiddies. Simple is best! Cheesy is better! :) Everything is going great here in Scandicci, our classes are as full as ever and our new activity schedule is a big hit. I'd say we average at least 10 students at movie night, 7 students at Book Club, and Cooking USA is overflowing - usually about 15 students or so. Game Night is the only area that's taking a while to catch on, but we're not giving up on it!
So much to tell about. Back in February we participated in the women's convegno which was held in Velletri, a town near Rome. It was wonderful to spend time with women from all over Italy and all over the world. We had about 55 participants, and this year our theme was "The Beatitudes of Our Time". We broke into 8 discussion groups (one for each beatitude) and there were two group leaders per group to guide the conversation. Ermenita and I were group leaders together, and we were responsible for "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness...". Everyone had great things to say and interesting comments to jumpstart our thinking caps.
We said "goodbye" to the two married couples, Eric and Jessica and Ryan and Laura. I say "goodbye", because Ryan and Laura didn't really go anywhere. They moved into an apartment in Brozzi, a suburb of Florence and are still working with the church in Florence. We get to see them all the time still! :) Jessica and Eric moved down to Taranto to work with the churches in that area. From what I hear they are doing really well down there and the people love them. We miss them around here though!
Because of some repairs going on at the villa, we had Harding students living with us at the Bible School this semester, which was different and fun. They were great to have around - we're gonna miss them too!
We just have about a month and a half of classes left until we break for the summer, so we're trying to make these last 6 weeks count. Thanks to everyone for the encouragement that we get from all of you! We appreciate your thoughts and prayers!
So much to tell about. Back in February we participated in the women's convegno which was held in Velletri, a town near Rome. It was wonderful to spend time with women from all over Italy and all over the world. We had about 55 participants, and this year our theme was "The Beatitudes of Our Time". We broke into 8 discussion groups (one for each beatitude) and there were two group leaders per group to guide the conversation. Ermenita and I were group leaders together, and we were responsible for "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness...". Everyone had great things to say and interesting comments to jumpstart our thinking caps.
We said "goodbye" to the two married couples, Eric and Jessica and Ryan and Laura. I say "goodbye", because Ryan and Laura didn't really go anywhere. They moved into an apartment in Brozzi, a suburb of Florence and are still working with the church in Florence. We get to see them all the time still! :) Jessica and Eric moved down to Taranto to work with the churches in that area. From what I hear they are doing really well down there and the people love them. We miss them around here though!
Because of some repairs going on at the villa, we had Harding students living with us at the Bible School this semester, which was different and fun. They were great to have around - we're gonna miss them too!
We just have about a month and a half of classes left until we break for the summer, so we're trying to make these last 6 weeks count. Thanks to everyone for the encouragement that we get from all of you! We appreciate your thoughts and prayers!
24 January 2011
Away We Go!
Hello to all!
Everyone is back from the holidays, and all hands are on deck! We each had a good time to rest and relax and get ready to dive back in. We are starting up the individual and group English/Bible classes again, but I also wanted to let you all know about some of the activities that we are planning for this coming Spring semester at the Bible School.
We are starting a rotation schedule of activities that our students can participate in and I think it's going to be a lot of fun - not only for them but for us too! Here is a small summary of what each even will be:
Movie Night – We will be showing a movie in English with Italian subtitles.
Possibility of a short quiz after the movie is over! (Ryan, Peter) 1st Friday of the month
Cooking USA – Learn to cook yummy American dishes – and eat them too!
Monthly fee: €7 (Debbie, Laura, Ermenita) 2nd Friday of the month
Game Night – Play games of all sorts with native English speakers!
(Angela, Eric, Jessica) 3rd Friday of the month
Book Club – We will be reading and discussing the book The Pearl by
John Steinbeck, a well-known American author. (Emily, Andrea) 4th Friday of the month
We also will be participating in the Women's Retreat in February, which will be held in Nettuno, a town near Rome. Laura and Ryan Stephens have been invited by the Florence church to remain and work with the congregation here, focusing on evangelization - especially towards young, college-age people. They have many projects that they have thought up and would like to start working on, so we will be participating in those events as well.
Eric and Jessica Smith have made the decision to move down to Taranto in Puglia (the bootheel of Italy), and they will be working with the congregations down there. They will be leaving at the end of February, and we will miss them!
Also, I have recently become aware that I have never really told anything about my students, so I would like to kind of introduce you to them and ask for your prayers as we study and spend time together.
Daniela - She is a receptionist at the Community Theater in downtown Florence. She studied English in middle school and
hadn't studied it since when she began studying with me last year. She is about 40 years old, and both of her parents
are in bad health, which causes her to have to be at home a lot. She is a beginner, but we are seeing progress and it's
very encouraging!
Veronica - She is a tour guide licensed in English and French for the zones of Florence and Siena. She speaks very well and is
one of my more advanced students. We were invited to the wedding of her brother Samuele last summer, and we
have become good friends with their family. She also has begun teaching Art History at an American University in
Siena.
Giulia - She is a student at the University of Florence studying Physics (yikes!). She is the girlfriend/fiancee of one of my other
students - Lorenzo. She plays on a community volleyball team and has also recently become licensed as a referee for
volleyball. She speaks well, and we have some good discussions in our Bible studies.
Roberta - She has recently graduated from the University of Florence, and she is my age. We have a lot of fun together. She is a
sweet and thoughtful girl. She and her sister Renata have been coming to the Bible School for a long time, and are also
involved in many of the Activities at the Harding Villa with the students.
Anastazija - She is a licensed lawyer, but right now she is not practicing regularly. She own a ceramics shop in downtown
Florence, where she taught herself to make and decorate her own pottery - she is very talented! She also taught
herself English, which is very impressive as she speaks very well. She is from Croatia but has lived in Italy for 8 years
now.
Claudia - She is an English tutor and also owns her own company in which she sells different items that she has made from
recycled materials. She speaks English very well and is very involved in her church and youth group. She is a
wonderful person and always has good things to say. She comes to lessons with her friend Paolo.
Paolo - He and Claudia are two of my newest students, but we are getting along very well. Paolo is not quite at the level of
Claudia, but he is very intelligent and tries very hard. He works for a branch of General Electric here in Italy.
Lorenzo - He is a student at the University of Florence and is studying Languages. He speaks English (very well), Portugese,
Spanish, and has just begun studying French. He is the son of Sandro (who works at Harding's Villa) and Chiara (the
doctor for the HUF students) and just recently spent a semester studying at Harding in Searcy. He is also going to begin
tutoring me in Italian! Poor guy. :)
I would just like to ask that you keep our students and all of our activities with them in your prayers, that we may be a help, encouragement, and a good example to them. Thank you!
Everyone is back from the holidays, and all hands are on deck! We each had a good time to rest and relax and get ready to dive back in. We are starting up the individual and group English/Bible classes again, but I also wanted to let you all know about some of the activities that we are planning for this coming Spring semester at the Bible School.
We are starting a rotation schedule of activities that our students can participate in and I think it's going to be a lot of fun - not only for them but for us too! Here is a small summary of what each even will be:
Movie Night – We will be showing a movie in English with Italian subtitles.
Possibility of a short quiz after the movie is over! (Ryan, Peter) 1st Friday of the month
Cooking USA – Learn to cook yummy American dishes – and eat them too!
Monthly fee: €7 (Debbie, Laura, Ermenita) 2nd Friday of the month
Game Night – Play games of all sorts with native English speakers!
(Angela, Eric, Jessica) 3rd Friday of the month
Book Club – We will be reading and discussing the book The Pearl by
John Steinbeck, a well-known American author. (Emily, Andrea) 4th Friday of the month
We also will be participating in the Women's Retreat in February, which will be held in Nettuno, a town near Rome. Laura and Ryan Stephens have been invited by the Florence church to remain and work with the congregation here, focusing on evangelization - especially towards young, college-age people. They have many projects that they have thought up and would like to start working on, so we will be participating in those events as well.
Eric and Jessica Smith have made the decision to move down to Taranto in Puglia (the bootheel of Italy), and they will be working with the congregations down there. They will be leaving at the end of February, and we will miss them!
Also, I have recently become aware that I have never really told anything about my students, so I would like to kind of introduce you to them and ask for your prayers as we study and spend time together.
Daniela - She is a receptionist at the Community Theater in downtown Florence. She studied English in middle school and
hadn't studied it since when she began studying with me last year. She is about 40 years old, and both of her parents
are in bad health, which causes her to have to be at home a lot. She is a beginner, but we are seeing progress and it's
very encouraging!
Veronica - She is a tour guide licensed in English and French for the zones of Florence and Siena. She speaks very well and is
one of my more advanced students. We were invited to the wedding of her brother Samuele last summer, and we
have become good friends with their family. She also has begun teaching Art History at an American University in
Siena.
Giulia - She is a student at the University of Florence studying Physics (yikes!). She is the girlfriend/fiancee of one of my other
students - Lorenzo. She plays on a community volleyball team and has also recently become licensed as a referee for
volleyball. She speaks well, and we have some good discussions in our Bible studies.
Roberta - She has recently graduated from the University of Florence, and she is my age. We have a lot of fun together. She is a
sweet and thoughtful girl. She and her sister Renata have been coming to the Bible School for a long time, and are also
involved in many of the Activities at the Harding Villa with the students.
Anastazija - She is a licensed lawyer, but right now she is not practicing regularly. She own a ceramics shop in downtown
Florence, where she taught herself to make and decorate her own pottery - she is very talented! She also taught
herself English, which is very impressive as she speaks very well. She is from Croatia but has lived in Italy for 8 years
now.
Claudia - She is an English tutor and also owns her own company in which she sells different items that she has made from
recycled materials. She speaks English very well and is very involved in her church and youth group. She is a
wonderful person and always has good things to say. She comes to lessons with her friend Paolo.
Paolo - He and Claudia are two of my newest students, but we are getting along very well. Paolo is not quite at the level of
Claudia, but he is very intelligent and tries very hard. He works for a branch of General Electric here in Italy.
Lorenzo - He is a student at the University of Florence and is studying Languages. He speaks English (very well), Portugese,
Spanish, and has just begun studying French. He is the son of Sandro (who works at Harding's Villa) and Chiara (the
doctor for the HUF students) and just recently spent a semester studying at Harding in Searcy. He is also going to begin
tutoring me in Italian! Poor guy. :)
I would just like to ask that you keep our students and all of our activities with them in your prayers, that we may be a help, encouragement, and a good example to them. Thank you!
10 January 2011
Home for the Holidays
I spent the last four weeks traveling around, visiting family, and most of all EATING. Good grief. I don’t know if I’ll ever want to eat again.
I flew into Memphis and was met at the airport by dad. We stayed in a hotel with mom that night, and the next day we headed to Nashville to visit my sister Elizabeth. She just moved there last summer, and it was fun to see her house and meet her roommates (in real life, not just on Skype). We spent about 4 or 5 days there, spending time with her and some of my dad’s family that lives there or near there. We ate dinner at my Aunt Beth and Uncle Mark’s house with the whole gang, and it was really good to see everyone.
Then we drove through Searcy on our way to Galveston and spent one night there. In Galveston we visited my little sister and brother-in-law and their two dogs, Kira and Tripp. They have a really cute house that is about two seconds from the beach, where they go regularly with their dogs and/or surfboards. We had fun playing games and….eating. One night we made a full Italian meal – my special potato pasta, tagliata, and salad. Yum!
The next stop was Dallas (or really Flower Mound) where my mom’s family all lives. We had fun there too. We played games and…..ate. And ate some more. ☺ My uncle Tom takes us to a really nice restaurant called Texas de Brazil every year for his Christmas present to us, and it is amazing but a very dangerous all you can eat buffet. Andrea, one of the other Avanti workers, happened to be in Dallas at the same time as us and got to meet up with us for a little bit. She even brought more scarves and ties for Mom to sell at the cooking school, as did Angela.
And then we were back to Searcy! We had Woodroof Christmas in Searcy, and amazingly everyone got to come this year, except for Erica and Justin who had Christmas with Justin’s family this year. Since we are renting our house out and my grandparents sold their big house, we all stayed in the La Quinta hotel on Race Street. The first time that I remember staying in a hotel in Searcy, and a little strange. But we were very comfortable there, and we also reserved the Fellowship Room at College Church, where we played games, ate, and just spent time together. Very fun! The 3rd and 4th of January, Mom hosted another cooking school as a fundraiser for the Avanti Italia program. I believe that there were 30 in attendance the first night and 50 the second night. There was a lot to do, and she, Ermenita and all the ladies’ helping them out worked very hard. Angela even took time away from seeing her family to drive down and help out with it.
I have a special prayer request for you all – the Dawidow family in Poland (whom I stayed with for 2 weeks last December) just lost their son Mikey on January 1st to a massive heart attack. He was only around 30 years old, and he was found by his father that morning. Please pray for them in this terrible situation. They are a wonderful Christian family and give so much to others.
I’m so thankful that I had the opportunity to come home for the holidays this year. I got to see lots of my great friends and all of my family, and I feel so blessed to know that I have people that love me and are thinking about and praying for me.
I flew into Memphis and was met at the airport by dad. We stayed in a hotel with mom that night, and the next day we headed to Nashville to visit my sister Elizabeth. She just moved there last summer, and it was fun to see her house and meet her roommates (in real life, not just on Skype). We spent about 4 or 5 days there, spending time with her and some of my dad’s family that lives there or near there. We ate dinner at my Aunt Beth and Uncle Mark’s house with the whole gang, and it was really good to see everyone.
Then we drove through Searcy on our way to Galveston and spent one night there. In Galveston we visited my little sister and brother-in-law and their two dogs, Kira and Tripp. They have a really cute house that is about two seconds from the beach, where they go regularly with their dogs and/or surfboards. We had fun playing games and….eating. One night we made a full Italian meal – my special potato pasta, tagliata, and salad. Yum!
The next stop was Dallas (or really Flower Mound) where my mom’s family all lives. We had fun there too. We played games and…..ate. And ate some more. ☺ My uncle Tom takes us to a really nice restaurant called Texas de Brazil every year for his Christmas present to us, and it is amazing but a very dangerous all you can eat buffet. Andrea, one of the other Avanti workers, happened to be in Dallas at the same time as us and got to meet up with us for a little bit. She even brought more scarves and ties for Mom to sell at the cooking school, as did Angela.
And then we were back to Searcy! We had Woodroof Christmas in Searcy, and amazingly everyone got to come this year, except for Erica and Justin who had Christmas with Justin’s family this year. Since we are renting our house out and my grandparents sold their big house, we all stayed in the La Quinta hotel on Race Street. The first time that I remember staying in a hotel in Searcy, and a little strange. But we were very comfortable there, and we also reserved the Fellowship Room at College Church, where we played games, ate, and just spent time together. Very fun! The 3rd and 4th of January, Mom hosted another cooking school as a fundraiser for the Avanti Italia program. I believe that there were 30 in attendance the first night and 50 the second night. There was a lot to do, and she, Ermenita and all the ladies’ helping them out worked very hard. Angela even took time away from seeing her family to drive down and help out with it.
I have a special prayer request for you all – the Dawidow family in Poland (whom I stayed with for 2 weeks last December) just lost their son Mikey on January 1st to a massive heart attack. He was only around 30 years old, and he was found by his father that morning. Please pray for them in this terrible situation. They are a wonderful Christian family and give so much to others.
I’m so thankful that I had the opportunity to come home for the holidays this year. I got to see lots of my great friends and all of my family, and I feel so blessed to know that I have people that love me and are thinking about and praying for me.
24 November 2010
November Notes
Well, you can definitely tell it is finally winter here. Not by all the falling, changing leaves and crisp autumn air, but by the endless, endless rain! haha. The rain is posing a problem, as the Bible School clothes dryer is broken down - it's hard to get dry around here lately. We have an outside clothesline that we try to use as much as possible, but it rains and the clothes don't even have the chance to dry. Ah well!
This has been the month of weekend trips! The last month of October we went to Aprilia, a town about 40 minutes outside of Rome, for the youth retreat there, and it was great. The new guys got to meet a lot of people and make contacts that way, and we got to see some of the friends that we had already made. We ended up caravaning with 3 of our Italian friends - 2 from near Ferrara and 1 from Vicenza. Also Lindsay came down from Vicenza to ride with us. Harding let us borrow their van so that we could all drive down together - 9 people in the van and 5 in my little Panda car.
The very next weekend, Ryan, Laura, and I were back in the car and on our way back to Rome! They were invited to visit by the church there. We stayed at the house of Vittorio and Tonia Vitalone, who are such welcoming and gracious hosts. Their daughter Virginia and son Riccardo also made us feel very welcome. We had a great weekend - me seeing people again and they meeting them for the first time.
Then I had a weekend off of traveling. On Sunday the 14th we attended a concert organized by Robbie Shackelford that was held at the Florence church. A quartet (accompanied by a percussionist) of 2 different types of saxophones and 2 different clarinets played, and they were very good. We had lots of visitors and several of our students from the Bible School came.
Then just this last weekend, the two married couples (Ryan & Laura, Jessica & Eric) and I (driving) went to visit Vicenza. We left early Saturday morning and arrived in Vicenza by lunch time. We were invited to eat with Francesco Fergnani and his family (wife Lorenza and two daughters Miriam and Anna)....and let me just say that we ate well. A little tooooo well possibly. After lunch we drove to a nearby town to watch our friend Marco (who attended the youth weekend we held here at the Bible School) play in his soccer game. Then we drove back to Vicenza and met some of the young people from the church. We went and walked through downtown Vicenza and then ordered pizza to take back to Lindsay's apartment. We were housed by different families of the church - Jessica & Eric stayed at Marco's house, Ryan & Laura stayed with a young couple named Cristian & Sonja, and I had a sleep over with Lindsay, haha! On Sunday we attended the church service, and then Laura & Jessica went upstairs to help Lindsay with the kids' class while the rest of us stayed in the adult class. For Sunday lunch we were invited to Marco's house, and we ATE! His mother made a FANTASTIC meal that I think I am still full from to this day. We had pasta, delicious meat and potatoes in a kind of mustard sauce, spanish salad and coffee. It was a real shame that I was the one that had to drive home afterwards, because all I wanted to do it curl up and take an awesome nap!
On our agenda now are the preparations for our Thanksgiving meal. We have invited our students and some friend to eat with us Saturday night, and so now we are in the midst of grocery shopping, cleaning, and cooking in order to get ready for it. It's going to be a blast, with about 50 people in attendance. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone back stateside! We will be thinking of all our friends and family during this holiday season!
07 October 2010
Summer goes by in a blur, and Fall is off like a shot!
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!
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!
22 September 2010
The Newbies
Our numbers have gone from 4 to 10, and soon to be 11!! Yes, that's right. The new workers are finally here! Angela was the first to arrive, shortly followed by Andrea, then Jessica & Eric, and the day after Laura & Ryan. So in a very short time, our daily habits and goings-on here at the Bible School have changed pretty dramatically.
Now, naturally I had some misgivings as to whether this would be a mostly positive change to our routine. It's much more difficult to manage and work with 10 people as opposed to 4, and anytime time you throw strangers into the same house to live, work, eat and breathe together there's bound to be some tension and uncomfortable situations. I was very excited for the new workers to get here, but at the same time I was a little uneasy about how it would go down.
Absolutely no reason to worry! There has been minimal if ANY conflict since they arrived! They are all wonderful, helpful, and friendly people, and I can tell already that I'm going to love working with them.
After the two girls had been here for about a week or so, and the couples 2 days and 1 day respectively, we hosted a youth retreat. I was feeling bad for the two couples - coming off an international flight, with jet-lag, and being put in a situation where you don't know anyone and don't speak the language.....you can see how it could have been stressful. But they jumped head first! They were so wonderful with the Italian kids, and fortunately many of the Italians spoke English pretty well and were glad of a chance to practice. It seems like everyone went away having had a wonderful time.
Yay for new workers! :)
Now, naturally I had some misgivings as to whether this would be a mostly positive change to our routine. It's much more difficult to manage and work with 10 people as opposed to 4, and anytime time you throw strangers into the same house to live, work, eat and breathe together there's bound to be some tension and uncomfortable situations. I was very excited for the new workers to get here, but at the same time I was a little uneasy about how it would go down.
Absolutely no reason to worry! There has been minimal if ANY conflict since they arrived! They are all wonderful, helpful, and friendly people, and I can tell already that I'm going to love working with them.
After the two girls had been here for about a week or so, and the couples 2 days and 1 day respectively, we hosted a youth retreat. I was feeling bad for the two couples - coming off an international flight, with jet-lag, and being put in a situation where you don't know anyone and don't speak the language.....you can see how it could have been stressful. But they jumped head first! They were so wonderful with the Italian kids, and fortunately many of the Italians spoke English pretty well and were glad of a chance to practice. It seems like everyone went away having had a wonderful time.
Yay for new workers! :)
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