Relaxing and Productive
I talked about how we got here but I haven't had the chance to talk about what's it's been like here. Though my team mates have been doing a wonderful job of explaining to you what we've been up to, I'm excited to have a chance to get in on the fun. Now it's my turn again!
Jesse, who has been our main leader here in Italy, left on Friday so we've been under the leadership of Samuel (another missionary here who works with the school and is a leader in the church), and though we miss Jesse a lot. Sam has been a lot of fun to get to know.
Church here is in the evenings, And Sam decided we would have the morning off. His wife, who is 6 months pregnant with their second child, had a scare this past weekend with the baby and so she very much needed him with her to help, as she is still feeling weak. Please be praying for Amber, Samuel and their small family. Especially the new little one, that he or she will be healthy and well and not give Amber to much trouble.
We didn't do much in the morning. We finished Batman Begins (A first for me.. in my opinion, so much better than Dark Knight), played some card games (a very popular pass time with our team), and slept.
Church went well though. It's so very interesting to me to not know the language being spoken around me. The whole church service was in Italians with no translator so I only understood a few words (baptism, Jesus, God, water, baby), but it was a lot of fun. They baptized one of the missionary's daughters, Abby, which was very exciting! Please be praying for that missionary family as well. The Wells are their names and they are getting ready to go back to the states for a year to educate some of their younger children on American culture. Even though they know they need to go for a bit they are all very sad to leave. If anyone has a passion and love for the Italian people it's that family! Their oldest daughter at home translated for us quite a bit. The whole family is very talented with language it's amazing!
Anyway, the church had a potluck after which gave us time to fellowship and encourage the Italian believers. Seth. Brianna and I got the chance to talk to two very nice Italians who spoke English, for a good 45 minutes to an hour. They asked about what we were studying and how our government works (that was a fun thing to try and explain to someone who hasn't grown up with the ideas of freedom we have. An interesting experience).
After that we went down to the piaza to do our last day of mimes. There wasn't a lot of people out but God did bless us with a girl from the church (Genesis) to translate for us. The awesome thing was she also knows Spanish and so does our lovely Lacy! So Lacy got to explain a mime in Spanish and Genesis translated into Italian. It didn't make any sense to me as I can only speak English (and not even that very well some times) but it really got the attention of the Italians. It was awesome to see how God took both those ladies gifts of languages, and put them to good use. I felt so honored that I got to see it unfold.
We only got to do a couple of mimes but right near the end a group of actors studying at an acting school here in North Italy found us and were very interested. Dario got into a good conversation with one of the ladies and Joey got to get to know the other three. I don't remember all of their names but one was Alexandro and another was Arrana (I'm not quite sure how you spell her name but maybe something like that). Please be praying for them and their friends that the seeds that were planted would be watered and grow.
After that it was pretty late and we headed back to the Center to fall into bed. Even though we didn't do a lot it was a productive day. Thank you for all your support and prayers. As we near the close of our trip we need it more than ever.
With Blessings,
Rose Miller