20 days later....Part 1

CIAO!

Since we've last met, everyone has returned to the Bible School!

It’s hard to believe that we have already finished one semester and have started a new one! It was wonderful to get to see our students after the Christmas break. My students had so much news to tell. One traveled to NY over the holidays and shortly after got to meet her new nephew, two of my other students went to Berlin with their family, and another has the opportunity to travel soon to London! It was great to catch up and to see their smiling faces again =) 

Last semester, Eric and I finished "The Andy Miller Bible Study." While we were in training in Arkansas before we left for Italy, a man named Andy Miller and his wife came to speak to us about the Bible study they had organized. Andy was previously an atheist and after he came to be a Christian, he was motivated to share the good news with others. The study is a great one because it is broken down into 1 hr lessons (perfect for us here at the Bible School). The first lesson is about Jesus and His complete authority. The second is about Sin, the third is about What it Means to Be a Disciple of Jesus, and the fourth lesson is a two-part lesson about Gods grace and Baptism. We have really enjoyed this study and have found it to be very helpful in teaching the Bible. Each lesson is broken down into the categories, and the lesson is comprised solely of Bible verses that further explain the main topic of that week's lesson. The reason it is such an effective study is that it allows the people studying to read and understand for themselves what the Bible is saying. It points directly to the Bible and the person studying is forced to connect the dots of the scriptures. Anyways we found it extremely useful and would be more than happy to send anyone the files over email. If you are interested, please let me know!

This semester we are starting new lessons. Eric is studying a few different topics with his students: Fruits of the Spirit, Books/Characters of the Bible, and Don England’s book  Faith and Evidences. After last semester, we also found that although we taught alot about different main points of Christianity, a couple of my students were left wanting to know more about Jesus, specifically his life. So I researched online for an organized study and came across a 13 week approach that studies the Life of Chirst. We are now into our 4th week of the semester and I’m finding this study a great one as well. Like the Andy Miller study, it is exclusively stories of the Bible that are categorized into the different weekly studies that make up the life of Jesus as written in the New Testament. This study fills in the details of the Bible stories that are sometimes over looked because we are directly reading the text-not summarizing.

Besides starting our classes, we were busy cleaning and preparing the Bible School for the arrival of 20 new HUF students to stay with us this semester! Due to the repairs of the HUF villa, (Last semester was a hard one for the previous students. I’m not sure if I mentioned it or not, but they endured a couple of hardships. The first was the fire that engulfed the upstairs right side (the girls wing) of the Vila. Thankfully, no one was hurt because everyone was out that evening. ) half of the students will be staying at the Bible school for the semester.

What does this mean for the Bible school? There are more boys than girls, so they would not all fit in the front dorm room that reserved for guests. They also needed the space of mine and Eric's room, as well as Laura and Ryan's room (the other married couple). The solution? Ryan and Laura have decided to stay and work in Florence with the church here. They have an apartment ready that they will be moving into by the end of this week. So for the past couple of weeks they have been staying with Kyle  (Kyle is Robbie's (the director of the HUF program) assistant and he lives in his own apt. inside the Bible School.). As for Eric and me? Because we are not leaving for Taranto until after the weekend of Feb 18th (the Women’s Retreat), they decided to move us into an apt around the corner from the Bible School. There is a woman who owns the apartment and who is a friend of Kyle. She only comes a few times a year, but in the mean time it is often sub rented out to others. I'm not sure about all of the details, but it has been a blessing for us!

I guess you would call this the kitchen/living room area. Its funny, when we first moved in and even now still, the apartment seems so huge to us. I guess we got used to living in our one room, so to have two rooms and a bathroom just feels like so much space! Again, a wonderful blessing. The window opens to the main street that goes straight through Scandicci. I enjoy the light it lets in=)

This is the same room, but from the opposite side. Like I mentioned above, there also is a bedroom and a bathroom. 

By the way, this is a view off the side of the main street in Scandicci. Eric and I have taken up running in the mornings. Along this river is one of our favorite places to go! 

We're all excited to get to know the new group of HUF students better. We have already had a get together at the Vila as well as our first Sunday night devo. They seem like a great bunch of kids. My student Clizia and I spent Sunday together practicing yoga and making earrings, and ended the night with the devo at the villa. She really enjoyed meeting all the HUF kids and seeing a little more into the Harding program as well.

Here are some of the earrings Clizia and I made, just in case you were wondering =)