Aprilia in pictures

Immediately after lunch this past Friday, the nine of us, plus our friends Lucca, Marco, Lindsay, and Daniela packed into the vehicles and headed off for the youth retreat in Aprilia ( a small town just outside of Roma). Emily drove her car with all of the single ladies,  and Lucca drove the rest of us in Harding's van. We left around 3:30 p and after a little rain and alot of traffico, arrived in Aprilia around 7:30p. The first night we ate pizza together and sang worship songs before departing to out different locations. We were split into groups of 2 or 3 and stayed with members of the church who had voluntered to keep us for the weekend.

Eric and I stayed with a sweet couple named Sergio and Franca. First I will let you in on the fact that they spoke zero engish! ha. You may think this to be a bad thing, but in fact, it was just the opposite. Of course we played a few rounds of gestures, but all in all, we communicated really well. I was amazed....I would speak and then think, wow, I cant believe I remembered that word, or wow I didnt even know that I knew that verb conjugation. ha. We enjoyed very much getting to know such a lovely couple. Turns out that Frankie and Carl Mitchel, as well as, Howard and Doris (who they called Deloris) are good friends of Franca and Sergio; small world. 

So Saturday was the "main day" of the convengio. We arrived at 10 and began our study. The message was as a whole about evangelism...what it means to follow Christ and who each of us as Christians and  as missionaries to the world. It was very good practice to listen to Vittorio bc the entire time he spoke in italian...i even took notes in italiano! It was interesting to hear and understand the message in the italian language- and think it through a different way. Vittorio spoke three different times throughout the day for about 1 and 1/2 to 2 hrs each set and in between we had short breaks. After the lessons, we broke into groups and had prayer. After this we played the Italian game "Mimo," ate dinner, and watched a film in Italian together. Sunday we all attended church and enjoyed lunch together- cooked by ladies of the congregation- Franca made the lasagna (which by the way, Doris if you are reading this, she was impressed that I knew about the Bescimela and the carrots and celery for the lasagne- I told her that you made it for us in Arkansas =) and of course it was all wonderful. We departed back for searcy shortly after. 

Not only did we meet many new friends, but we also had fun with our friends from the first youth retreat that we hosted our first week at the Bible School: Marta, Daniela, Lucca, and Marco. Marta is from Naples, Daniela and Lucca both live in Ferrra and Marco lives in Vicenza. Again, they are always such a positive encouragement to all of us here at the Bible school. They are always up beat and excited to be together and grow together in our faith. Keep them in your prayers as well as they are new brothers and sisters in Christ. Speaking of, Daniela put together a video of her baptism (that was just past summer)and she showed it this weekend- I hope to get it uploaded soon; very inspirational. 

Our first night singing together.

The first morning of study.

The city of Aprilia. On our break, we took a walk through the town and returned to the church

 via direction of the massive water tower.

On break, we found this parc....

...and decided to take a swing =)

Marta and Lucca.

Dining together.

Here is Franco. Franco is from the Brindisi region (far south Italy) where Eric and I will be visiting this coming weekend. it was great to meet another member of the church there. We also met two of his sons and his nephew, who attended the retreat this weekend. Its interesting how much fun we had getting to know each other in such a short period of time. Its another "realization" of where we are and what we are doing here. God is at work and I love being in His presence.

Before dinner Staurday night we played "Mimo" (aka charades) Mimo- like Mime, in Italian. it was so fun!

Ryan drew one of the English words- T Rex- (this was actually Eric's idea)...this is his victory shout after finally getting it across after several minutes if strange gestures. ha.

Remember Daniela from our first retreat?? She came to this one too! It was so great to see her again. She is such a sweet encouragement to me; I am very thankful for her friendship- Lei e Bella. 

Having fun together...Angela, Lucca, Laura, Marta, and me.

A Chiesa- all of the AI workers together.

Boys will be Boys. 

Lucca, Peter, Allen, Ryan, and Eric.

Peter and Marco.

Eric, Sergio, and Franco.

Here are Sergio and Franca. Its so comforting to me how at home we felt at this retreat. Meeting Sergio and Franca- I feel as if I now have family in Aprilia..... and we dont even speak the same language! ha! Im slowly begining to see and really understand how big our God is; seeing Him in the lives of the Italians is beautiful.

A true Italian convo =)

Ryan, Roberto, and Peter.

Daniela.

Eric, Vittorio, and Franco. Vittorio is the preacher in Rome. He gave the lessons on Saturday.

Some of the kiddos on our last day....until next time =)