Tempo estivo...

Well, well, well, hard to believe! Another month gone by and me not writing anything! Let's see if I can fill in some of the gap...

The new Harding group arrived about May 17th, so it's been fun getting to know them. We've already had them over for a BBQ and pictionary night - great times!

On May 24-26th, I went on a mission trip to Bondeno (close to Ferrara) and Milan with five other church members, some from the Rome area, some from Puglia down south. We met with the young people, cleaned the kids' class in Milan, and Vittorio and Franco gave a few seminars. In Milan we worked some with the three Harding girls doing the "Let's Start Talking" program, which was fun. It was a great trip - I loved getting to know my fellow travelers better, and I got to meet and help a lot of new people...not to mention practicing my Italian.

Also, we have been hosting an art group from ACU since May 31st, and they are fantastic. I've never met a sweeter, more thoughtful group of people. They insist on helping to clean up after dinner, are always very gracious and thankful, and to top it all off, a ton of fun! They spent 3 weeks in England before coming here, and they will stay in Italy based out off Florence until July 2nd, or sometime around then.

A sad thing that happened is that Jillian left to go home on June 2nd, and we really miss having her around. But we are happy for her and Travis and their new engagement, and we wish them all the best!

I'm getting ready to participate in the kids' summer camp starting June 27th for two weeks. For the first week, the younger session, I'll co-teach a Bible class and do arts and crafts with Lindsay. The second week I will be a co-teacher also teach English to the older kids. I've missed camp life, and I'm excited about experiencing it here in Italy. I know it will most likely be different from Camp Tahkodah and Camp Wyldewood or any other American camp, but it's going to be great, too!

And then one of the highlights of this past month was that Meredith came to visit me!!!! She stayed for one short, wonderful week, and I had so much fun with her. It felt so normal having her here, and I was very sad when she had to leave. Stinky David and D.C.!! Just kidding....but seriously.... ;)

And the summer's only just begun!