A cool breeze in Aprilia

I didnt realize how much time has passed until I consulted my red planner!

Already over 2 weeks have passed since camp. We arrived back to Taranto from camp totally beat, but so thankful to have went. Sunday morning before service seemed like a welcome back party from all of the members. It was so nice to see all of their smiling faces. That afternoon we were scheduled to visit the Verardi's because it was the first Sunday of the month. That evening after returning to Taranto via the train, we headed over to Anna Maria's house for diner. This time, we had a surprise guest, her brother Bruno! Bruno had been living in Kenya for about 3 months, when in early May, he came down with a terrible illness and had to be med flighted back to the hospital in Taranto. He has recovered enough that he is now out of the hospital and now living with Anna Maira until September when he is planing to return back to Kenya.
It was very interesting talking to Bruno about life in Africa. We talked about religion, God, family, happiness...what was most interesting was the things Bruno was saying about the experiences he had had in Africa. Later on in the evening, we had to ask him what he view of faith was. Instead he began asking us about our religion. What were we called? all of the same questions that we are normally confronted with here in Italy. We had a really good discussion about simply trying to follow the life and example of Jesus- what he did while he was here on this earth. Which led to another discussion about the importance of reading the word so we ourselves can know how we ought to live. At one point in our conversation, he simply said,"but I was born Catholic."  Isnt it interesting the way the world sees Christianity? Faith? Religion? Jesus? Are we following a religion or are we seeking and following Jesus the Christ?
Later that week was filled with classes, lunch again with  Anna Maria, a night out with Pier Francesco and Mino, and three visits to three different beaches! In the summer time here in the south, going to the beach is the most popular thing to do! Thursday was our first visit. Eric and I went with Carmela, little Laura, and Carmela's aunt! The most beautiful beaches are right outside of Taranto on a strip about 20 minutes by car from our apartment. I dont take my camera when we go to the beach because Im paranoid that sand will ruin the camera..also I dont want to have to worry about watching it the whole time. All that to say-sorry no pictures this time.=(   Just take my word for it that it was very beautiful, and we had a great time together. The beaches are different in many ways here, but one of the biggest differences is the water. It is crystal clear. One year, for my parents 25th wedding anniversary, we all went on a cruise together throughout the Bahamas. This is what the beaches look like. White sand and clear water. Another really big difference is the complete absence of waves! It was like a huge crystal swimming pool! haha.
The second trip was on Saturday. We took the train early that morning and met Mino at the train station in Latiano. From there, Mino's cousin Katia and her boyfriend Andrea picked us up to go a beach called St. Pietro -located halfway between Taranto and Leeche. We all packed a lunch and stayed from 11 that morning until we left around 6pm that evening to meet up with Fabrizio and Luca for pizza later that evening. What a great day. We had been wanting to get together with Katia and Andrea since we last saw them on Mother's day at the Verard's house. Our next scheduled date will be at our house for an American dinner- suggestions for what to serve are most welcomed! =)
The next day was Sunday. After church we headed to Enza and Franco's for a quick lunch and after headed to the beach with their two boys Pier Francesco and Andrea, along with Mino, Fabrizio, Luca, and their mom Adele. Again we stayed all day and enjoyed each others company as well as the ocean breeze=) We are especially content during this time to feel like we are making a stronger connection with the teens here. it has been a little slow in the making, but because we have been here for awhile now, we are finally evolving as friends and as a part of their family- and we are really enjoying this. What a wonderful blessing it is to see a little bit of fruit.

I cant remember which night it was, but one night, instead of our usual pizza outing, the brothers introduced us to a great sandwich place along the shore side. It was a little bit like subway-but italian style. You got to pick your meat-sausage, steak, ham, turkey...etc, toppinngs, and at the end they baked it in an outdoor brick oven. Yum.

The next three days went by as a blur as we prepared for an improvised trip to Aprilia! If you remember the three girls were baptized at camp and immediately afterwards Viktor was baptized at his home church in Aprilia. Mino had the idea that it would be fun to go and surprise him along with Joele who would be turning 18 during the time of our arrival. It certainly was an unplanned event, but we are very happy that we were able to go!

Luca and Eric.

We left in the morning of Thursday the 21st and arrived in Rome a little after one in the afternoon.We were greeted by Rosanna, the mom of Joele. She picked us up and we were off to her house in the small countryside of Aprilia- a suburb of Rome. We were at first afraid that the surprise had be discovered, but when we saw the look on Joele's face, we knew he was surprised! That night was the night of Joele's birthday party- 40 some friends and family attended. Rosanna had prepared all sorts of sandwiches, bread, and other snacks, as well as filled up the pool in the back yard. It was awesome to basically get to see everyone from camp all over again!

Mino, Luca, and my husband =)

Gaya and Kristofer

Hello again! Campeggio reunion after one month?! yes!

This happened frequently throughout the evening...

Sweet girlies from camp=)

An Italian cake!- we have had some experiences with birthday cakes in Italy. One of which was soaked like a sponge in rum. Im really not sure how the candles didnt light the flame to a minor explosion that night! This to say, we are always a little cautious when presented with a cake here in Italy. Joele's cake was a tasty surprise- white cake layered with coconut and cream cheese . 

The next morning we planned to head into Rome around 9am. We got to the train station and discovered that there was a strike on the buses, metro, and train (basically all transportation) that would last all day until 9 that night. Rosanna was sweet to drive all of us the 45min into Rome so we could spend the day there together.

Mino, me, Joele, and Eric

Giacomo, Joele, Eric, Viktor, Mino, and Luca

After walking along the main strip of Via dei Fori Romani, passing the Colosseum and the ROman Forum, we walked for a little while longer until we ironically found a Burger King, where we enjoyed an American lunch! Then walked through a huge park that turned out to be a segue to the top of the Spanish Steps.

Still just as beautiful as always.

Giacomo, Joele, and Mino

Im learning alot abut teenagers in these days, especially teenage boys since they are our main company here in Taranto. Here they are seeing who is the fairest of all!  ;)

 Later that night, we were able to take the train back to Aprilia, where Rosana picked us up and we enjoyed pasta Carbonara at her house together. 

The next morning, Luca, Eric, and I got up early and left Aprilia around 7:30am. 

After talking to Luca about our plans for the day, we found out that he had never seen Michelangelo's work in the Sistine chapel! Eric and I were fortunate to see it back in 2008 when I studied abroad in Italy, but having to see the ceiling again was certainly not a chore. Above notice the umbrella in Eric's right hand. It was so funny. Here we were standing in what seemed like a never ending line waiting to enter the Vatican Museum, when all of the sudden it begins to rain. Immediately all of these vendors come running out of the wood works-umbrella??umbrella?? umbrella??!! At this point, it was just sprinkling and so we thought, we'll tough it out, no need to have to buy an umbrella. Of course less than ten minutes later, it is pouring. However instead of hearing their feet slosh up and down the long line where we were standing, there was instead silence. No vendor to be found! We were laughing hysterically while in the mean time getting soaked. Finally we found one and bought the biggest umbrella offered, which inevitably broke as soon as we opened it. haha. We kept the umbrella as a souvenir.

Before the downpour.

Lots and lots of people.

It probably took us an hour and a half to walk through the Vatican Museum in total. 

I think Luca was getting a little hungry at this point.

The works of Raphel- of course beautifully done.

After viewing the Sistine Chapel (absolutely magnificent), we still had to walk one last strech before we could find an exit, and along the way, I saw this sculpture. I was immediately taken with it, and felt a sense of peace while viewing it. 

"What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost."

 Matthew 18:12-14

We explored for the rest of the afternoon, passed by some nuns,

ate some fantastic gelato,

visited several piazzas,

and stood in awe in front of the Roman Forum.

The next day was Sunday and we drive into town for service in Aprilia. I got to see and chat with two of my favorite girls from camp, Clarissa and Alessia  =)

After church, we headed back to Rosanna's house for lunch and afterwards a little time to relax. At one point I came out of the house and found this going on! haha.

 

Later that evening, we made plans to meet up with Rosa and Roberto Negri in town.

The center square of Aprilia. 

Rosa and her daughter, Cristina, who was just baptized two weeks ago at camp.

We were all in the town square talking and Rosa found out that I was an artist. She got really excited and told me that she had just started taking watercolor classes there in Aprilia! Next thing I knew, she invited all of us up to their apartment to see her work! It was very fun to be able to share our interest in art and painting together.  

Cristina, me, Rosa, Grazia, Rosanna, and Viktor's mom

me and Gaya

The next stop...gelato! I have to say, this was some of the best gelato I have ever eaten. I got green apple (the first time I have seen this flavor) and Frutti di bosco (mixed berries). yum.

Eric and Viktor

Eric, me and Luca

 Its already been a week since our trip to Aprilia and already we have many new things to share! However, I will wait to the next post to fill you in! Hope you are all enjoying the summer and time with your families =)

Campeggio 2011

Returning to italy wasnt as simple as was arriving in America.

The scheduled flight back was originally for the morning of July 29th. We arrived at the airport suitcases ready, everything in order, and the lady at the front desk tells us that there was a problem with our flight itinerary. There had been a scheduled time change made within our flight arrangements. Apparently, there is a required minimum time frame of 1 hr and 1/2 time for transporting the luggage from one flight to the next. Because of this time change the airline company had made, we no longer had that 1 hr and 1/2 that was needed to put our bagage on the next plane to Rome from Chicago.

All of this to say, she basically guaranteed that our bags would not make it on the plane with us, and that we were not guarenteed a certain time when we would retrieve them. I will just back up and say that the two previous times I have flown to Italy, I lost a bag. So after this conversation, I was certain that we would in fact loose our bags, something we were not willing to do at this point. Anyways after all was said and done, the lady at the front desk was an angel, her name was Joyce Day, basically scheduled us an entire new flight itinerary through American Airlines, when in fact the fault was AlItalia. Talk about great customer service. So we headed back to Canal Winchester and enjoyed one last Mexican lunch of chips and salsa with our family! A great surprise =)

The next day, however,  there were tons of storms, so after our 9 hour layover in Chicago, we waited 4 hours on the ground inside the plane before we finally took off for Rome. Once in Rome, we had missed our next flight to Brindisi because of the previous flight delay, and. . .  they had lost our luggage. YIKES. After 2 hours of searching, we found the luggage, boarded the next available plane and arrived in Brindisi close to midnight. What a trip. When we got home we were in for an even bigger surprise... I had brought back a huge container of Hershey's Coco powder to made brownies and other sweets.... when we opened the suitcase........

This is what we found! We had wrapped almost everything else in zip locks and plastic bags, but somehow missed the coco powder. haha. So over a 24 hour trip, at 2 am, I found myself standing in the shower trying to rinse out a chocolate covered suitcase. ha.The next day we had to finish the laundry effected from the exploded coco, and get ready to leave for camp the following morning on Sunday.

Sunday morning Eric, Pier Francesco, and I departed for San Benedeto train station,where we would then catch a bus ride to the next train station, to finally be picked up by Roberto. Together we climbed probably 2 or 3 mountains together and arrived at the top of a mountain in a small village called Meschia. it was such an awesome welcome! Immediately Daniela, Joele, Viktor, Mino and all the rest of the teens that we hadnt seen since Florence came running to great us! What a wonderful welcome back =)

This was our class!

(our = Laura, me, Titus (and American who grew up as a missionary child in Italy and now returns frequently to help with the work in Italy), and from Wednesday to Friday, Tonia also helped with this class)

The schedule was as follows: Breakfast at 8:30, followed by cleaning, a short devotional, Bible class, followed by and activity class, lunch, rest time, sports, shower, dinner, devotional, activity, lights out for campers, meeting for all of the counselors, cooks, and crew members.

Above the girls were making a circle tag for each camper. We hung them in the dining room and let the kids write positive things on them all week! it was a success and a great encouragement for them =)

Ginevra, Alessia, Helena, and Clarissa

It was Tuesday night. Mino, who was just baptized on his birthday this past May 29th, had just given his very first devotional. Afterwards, all of the counselors were about to start our meeting when all of the sudden Emily comes in and says that Miram (one of the campers) wanted to talk with her. 15 minutes or so passed, we were all waiting in suspense, hoping for what was about to happen, Emily returned and announced that Miram had decided to be baptized! And that she didnt want to wait any longer, she wanted to be baptized right now! The feeling in the air was magical, really. All of the men and women were jumping up, hugging each other, laughing crying, the men running frantic to clean out the freezer and the women preparing large cooking pots of water to fill it with. The girls were as teenage girls are naturally, frantic haha. Running to find Miram, hugging and kissing her. It was fantastic, something that I will never forget, and that I am so thankful that God allowed us to witness.

(I took a video of the actual baptisim, but I cannot get it to upload, so i only have these few photos)

Afterwards....

.....Nostra sorellina!! Come è bella tu sei!

Franco giving one of the morning devotionals.

Of course the days following we were all still on a spiritual high! The campers were in high spirits and it seemed that the baptism of Miriam had set the tone for the rest of the week =)

Another one of our Bible class activities....

Laura and Daniela

We first met Laura when we went to the family retreat at Velletri in May, although we had met her older brother Andrea months before. They are both from Rome. Daniela of course was one of my first friends here in Italy- we met that first weekend we were in Italy when the Bible School hosted the youth retreat. What a blessing she is to me. Pray for this girl, we know that she is going to do some amazing work for the kingdom=)

Daniela, Virgina, Viktor, and Joele

Virgina is the daughter of Vittorio and Toina, and they are from Roma. Actually, all of you at Harding should look for Virginia, as she is now an enrolled Harding Student! She has finished her first semester and will be returning for the fall semester soon.

This activity was for the "activity class period." The kids could choose between singing, English, and dance. Angela, Laura, Eric and I taught the English class. This day we were learning directions- go straight! turn left! Turn around! etc. Above, I had made different maps of the campground with a different route on each map. We split the kids into groups of 2 and gave each of them a map. One of the team members was blindfolded and the other had to give directions in English to follow according to the map. It turned out really fun.

Mino and Viktor

Good job guys!

A great surprise mid week, was the arrival of our firend Marco! Marco is from Vicenza. He, along with Pier Francesco, was baptized last summer at camp. This summer, we didnt think he was comming because of work, so it was a great surprise to see him  =)

They were SO happy.

Helena and Alessia

When you move to a new place, it takes awhile to get better acquainted with with all of the new people you meet on a daily basis. Slowly, it begins to happen that you run into new people who are somehow connected with the other people you met first. One night, Eric and I were talking with Helena (above on the left), and it turns out she is the grand daughter of Sergio and Franca who we stayed with at one of our very first youth retreats last October in Aprilia! We told her the story of when we first met her grandparents and how we knew zero italian and only had the vocabulary to talk about the pomegranate they offered us for a snack! We decided that we would have to make a visit soon and enjoy pomegranate all together next time =) 

Taking our group photo with our T-shirts!

Pier Francesco, Eric, and Daniela

Waiting for their turn to play soccer!

Alessa and Clarissa

Guilia and Laura

Pier Francesco and Eric

Laura and Angela

Snack time! Snacks consisted of orange or pineapple juice and slice of bread with Nutella! 

We love Nutella=)

Volleyball

The girls =)

Im not positive but I want to say that this was the night of the midnight hike. As I said before, we were already ontop of a huge mountain, but this night, we found some even higher ground on our hike. At first I was a little apprehensive about this , but it turned out to be more of a slightly uphill walk than a hike, and could not have been longer than 15 min. on mostly on gravel road. Anyways, I didnt take my camera bc its fussy at night, although as always happens, when I choose not to take it, I wish I would have. The night was so beautiful. It was calm and refreshingly cool due to the altitude. Seemingly every star was out for us to see. After the devotional and prayer, we each said outloud things for which we were thankful, and at the end, we all stood up and made a huge circle and praised God with songs under the starlight. Another magical moment that we are so blessed to have been a part of. 

Alessia, Clarissa, and Helena 

The next night was the night of the talent show! All of the kids were sooo excited!

Viktor, Mino, and Pier Francesco

Daniela sang a song while her sister Alina accompanied her on the guitar! So talented!

Mino did some beat boxing ....

and Viktor solved a Rubik cube in 1 min and 30 seconds! 

I think they had an ok time ;)

That same night was the night of Pier Francesco's first devotional! It was outside, so I didnt get any good pictures other than ones of the other kids while we were waiting for it to begin. He did a really great job! 

Me and Eric

Viktor, Daniela, Joele, and Pier Francesco

Me and Daniela

      The next day after lunch was the day of the water fight. . . 

It was the funniest thing, right before they started it, they all grabbed hands, made this circle, and sang "Bind us Together." Immediately after they broke hands and raced for the balloons! ha!

Giacamo and Eric at a stand off =)

Ouch! 

Later that evening, we had a show of the things the kids had learned in their "activity period." 

Pictured above is the singing class- excellent!

Three of the dancers =)

Our last night, we had a huge cook out!

 Hot dogs, beans, and bruschetta, followed by Gelato for desert.

Ciao tutti!

Eric and Kristofer

Kristofer is Joele's little brother. He and Eric became pretty close during camp. 

Virgina, Giacomo, me, Daniela, Eric, and Viktor

Later that night, we AI workers had just went outside to sit around the campfire for a bit before bed. All of the sudden we hear a bunch of the teen girls come running, Clarissa and Cristina want to be baptized tomorrow!! What a wonderful way to end a fantastic week!

Clarissa and Me

Franco praying with Cristina, Miriam, and Clarissa before the baptisims.

Franco and Clarissa

Franco, Clarissa, and Cristina

Clarissa giving her confession.

Franco, Cristina, and Clarissa

Cristina with her dad and Franco on the left, and Clarissa and her mom on the right. 

What a beautiful thing to witness.

This is when Franco said, "Siamo miracoli!" 

we are miracles =)

Indescribable. 

Kristofer, Alina, Me, and Daniela

One last goodbye until next time!

Pier Francesco, Daniele, and Eric

We are blessed.

Daniela and Eric

Me and Daniela

The good news did not end at camp. The following morning after church service, we received a phone call that Viktor, after ariving home from camp, had been baptized at his home church in Aprilia!! 

I hope after reading this you have experienced some of the joy that we did while we were at camp. The time is now with these teens. They are hearing and receiving Jesus with joy; and wow, it is awesome to get to see it first hand. Those of you who are partnering with us, thank you from the bottom of our hearts, for allowing us to be a part of this work. I cant really communicate to you the things we are witnessing and the lives that are being changed, but know that all of these things and more are happening right now. Please keep the youth of Italy in your prayers. They have many great things in store for them. Pray for the churches and for us that we will continue to be in His service here in Itlay. 

We love you! xoxoxoxox!