A Visit from the Woodroof family

The following weekend we enjoyed a visit from David and Jim! 

As you know, David is the current director at the Bible School in Scandicci. His father, Jim, is a part of the AI committee in Arkansas. He had planned to come and visit the church in Florence and stay with David and Debbie for a few weeks at the Bible School. It was a few weeks ago that we got a call from David saying that Jim also wanted to come and visit us here in Taranto! Of course we were so excited and couldn’t wait to see them!

They arrived early last Saturday morning. Fabrizio and Luca went to the airport to pick them up and afterwards met us at our apartment for breakfast. I cant tell you what a blessing it was for us to have visitors. Especially during this period, it was so helpful to talk to someone about the going ons here in Taranto. It was refreshing to be able to brain storm and get feed back from Jim and David. 

On a side note- it was hilarious trying to speak English to them! Now, I am not saying any way that we are good at Italian, or even close to being fluent, but trying to speak to them in English, at first seemed impossible! Ha. I guess it is because when we do have guests, or meet someone new here in Italy, we have to speak to them in Italian. So having the Woodroofs as guests, I suppose our brains naturally thought, Italian! Haha. It was quite funny. Throughout the weekend we were translating back and forth for Jim, and towards the end of it we were mixing half English and half Italian, basically creating a whole new jibber language! There were a few times on Sunday, that without knowing it, I would speak to Jim in Italian, full expecting him to answer me; it wasn’t until I saw that he wasn’t responding that I realized I wasn’t speaking English after all!

After breakfast and catching up with each other for a while, Franco picked us  (Jim, David, Eric, and I) up to go to his house for lunch. In the car, it was great fun listening to Franco and Jim talk to each other. Franco would start the conversation in Italian and Jim would respond in English. Neither one really understood what the other one was saying, but they continued on nonetheless! It was really funny. Somehow, even though I know they didn’t understand the language, they understood each other on a different level. =) As always, Enza prepared a wonderful lunch and we ate until we couldn’t eat anymore! 

All smiles here!

Despite the rain, later that afternoon we met up with Franco V. and his wife Anna Maria. Together, we headed out to visit Alberobello. God blessed us with a break from the rain once we reached the city.

Fabrizio, Eric, and Franco

David and Jim

Fabrizio, David, Anna Maria, Franco, Jim, Me, Eric, and Luca

Daivd, Franco, Anna Maria, and Jim

Me, Jim, and Eric

After a nice stroll through the Trullies, we got back into our cars and set off for another town where we would eat together. We took the back roads to get there, and on the way, we passed what seemed like hundreds of these ancient, massive, and beautiful, olive trees. I wish we could have stopped to get a picture. These trees are part of a city called Ostuni. Ostuni is famously called the "white city," because the entire city is white. We only drove through the city that night, so I don’t have any pictures other than the one I snapped out the back window of Luca and Fabrizio's car (above). Anyway, it was very beautiful from what we saw that night =)

We finally arrived in a small town immediately after Ostuni- in fact, I don’t even remember what it was called. We all sat down to dinner and Franco suggested that we just order appetizers, along with four different pizzas. This is Mino's (Franco's son) plate. The tentacles in the upper right corner are in fact octopus. Believe it or not, they're not all that bad. However, I prefer the crab pasta just beneath it. Eric's favorite is always the mussels. It was great to laugh and fellowship together while we enjoyed a night out together.

The next morning, Jim requested to be able to teach a Bible Study Class in addition to the worship service. We thought this was a great idea. Vito came from Latiano to translate for Jim.

He spoke about something we all struggle with as Christians, and that is dying to our selves to live for Christ. Before the class began, he passed out a seed to every one of the members who were present that morning. He initially addressed the fact of being a non Catholic Christian here in Taranto Italy. He talked about how we are choosing to be different from a culture that surrounds us entirely. A culture that has been here for hundreds and hundreds of years. And yet, here we are, all 12 of us in this little church- 12 of us in a city of roughly 200, 000 people. What are we doing here? Why are we attending this church? Why have we chosen to be different? Why would we not just give up? 

These next few paragraphs I would like to share with you some of the things that Jim said on Sunday. The message was so powerful that I really cant help but to share it. I hope that it is encouraging to you at home as well, and that it causes you to rethink the motives of your heart and dedication to God as it did us. Below, I am paraphrasing as best as I can in relation to the notes I took down while he was speaking. 

Jim paralleled these ideas with Paul's conversion and then his powerful words of affirmation in Acts 20:24 "However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me- the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace."  

Jim reiterated, this is our only reason to be here- to continue on. Jesus is our focus.'

He continued on, 'We think we are good people, but which one of us has not broken one of, if not all of the 10 commandments? We have all lied. We all have disobeyed our parents; we all have other Gods. Do you realize we should all be in hell? Why aren’t we there? Because God, God looked at us on this universe and though, I will take care of this and send my son. He tried just to tell us what to do, but it didn’t work. So we end up living together in this world, where sin is expanding.' 

The day before He was to be executed, Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds."  John 12:24 

The seed in your hand is us. Jesus did not want to die. He did not want to be the seed that fell into the earth and died. He prayed 'Is there no other way?' Paul died. Jesus because He died, he produced millions of seeds and fruits. You and I are one of these seeds. What if you and I were the only seeds here on earth? Are you willing to die to yourself so that others will live forever in the kingdom??

If I'm not willing to die, if I just want to stay and act like everyone else in our culture- we then resist dying to ourselves- we would rather be selfish. We would rather be angry and refuse to die to ourselves. This is what we pass on to our next generation-Galatians 5:19-21. How would we like to live in a culture where this is normal? The only thing that will change this will be if we as Christians will be willing to die to our selves. If we are willing to die to ourselves we can have Galatians 5:22-25.

Where does this type of fruitful behavior start?

After Jesus said that a seed must fall into the earth and die, he said me must follow him. "Whoever serves me must follow me" John 12: 26 He must fall into the earth and die. 

Do you know where it will first be visible? In us! And next it will be in our families. If we don’t have it together as a family, we have lost our children. If this church looses its children- it has no hope of continuing. But if we as parents can fall into the earth and die- our children will see this and will be able to do this. Others will see this in them- the Fruits of the Spirit because this is what is produced by the seed.

After service, we enjoyed Agape Sunday together!

Jim, Franco, Eric, and Mino

Laura brought her friend Fiorenza from school! She is in the English class that I teach at the school, so it was good to see her outside of class =)

Massimo's boys.

Franco and Massimo

Le Donne

Luca, Jim, and Fabrizio

Jim and Franco

I dont think that Sunday could have went any better. Jim did such a great job, and we could tell the congregation was really encourged by his message. Thank you so much for visiting Jim! 

After the Agape, Jim returned to our apartment to rest for awhile before his and David's flight out to Florence later that evening. The rain was letting up a little bit, so Eric and I took David for a walk around Taranto. 

Eric and Daivd

Normally, Eric and I don’t venture into the old half of the city because it's a little on the dangerous side. However, since David was here, we wanted to show him around. After walking along the coastline where all the ships come in, we wandered through some very old back alleys and found the Duomo of the city. Personally, Eric and I had never been inside the church and we were surprised to see how huge and beautiful it was on the inside. When we got home, I read some interesting information online. The church was either built on the ruins of an ancient pagan temple or a Greek/Roman church. Also, it dates back to 1071, and after being amended several times, it didnt take it's present form until 1873. 

We also passed these Greek columns that are situated right before the bridge to cross from the old city into the new. 

I couldnt help but do a little research on them as well.

"According to a legend Taranto was founded in the year 706 BC by Spartans. Also due to its natural harbour it became in the following centuries the most important city of the Magna Grecia, the Greek provinces in Southern Italy. At its greatest splendor, around 360 BC, when at its head was the philosopher and friend of Plato, Archita, Taranto had around 300.000 inhabitants, more then today. From these glorious times very little has survived. One of the few architectonical remains are these columns of a Doric temple . . . from the 6th century BC." http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/Europe/Italy/Apulia/Taranto/Taranto/photo284356.htm

After a gelato, we finished our walk and it was time for David and Jim to get back to Florence. I know that everyone here was thrilled to have them come and visit. It meant so much to all of them, and of course to us! Thank you both, again, so much for coming and encouraging all of us here in Taranto! It was a blessing to have you here with us for the weekend =)