I dont think there are words to adequately thank all of you who are supporting us here in Italy. And by us I of course mean Eric, myself, this Bible School, and the individual workers who are a part of this program. so for a lack of a more profound sentiment, from the bottom of our hearts, T H A N K Y O U.
i am amazed daily by the opportunities that surround us here, but even more so, i am amazed at the One who brought all of here. HE is HOLY and MIGHTY and perfect in every way, and its His plan thats being carried out. we literally have not stopped moving since we arrived 22 days ago, but in the midst of all of the movement, i am in awe of His presence among us.
let me illustrate one example of this.
we hadnt been in Italy a week yet, and we were already visiting the ER. first let me preface this by saying that we are all ok! Jodi and i were walking the girls ( *i know they are technically dogs, but they are our girls nonetheless, so go with me on this...) around the block, when all of the sudden Jodi was face flat on the ground! she had stumbled over a huge pothole in the road! it was like a movie scene, all of the neighbors came out of their houses and two of them helped Jodi up, as I was tangled up with the girls and was at the same time trying to stop the traffic flying around the corner.
Jodi and Eric in the ER.
Once Jodi got to her feet, we called Eric and Giacomo to come and get us. We were unsure whether or not Jodi's ankle was broken, so we decided to visit the ER conveniently located right across the street from the Bible school .. .. . . 7 hours later, we were waiting to hear the results of her xray, when I was trying to explain some italian to Jodi and I couldnt remember if what I was explaining was grammatically correct or not. I turned to the woman beside us, named Cecilia, and asked her if i was saying it right. Cecilia was happy to oblige and gave me a quick brush up on my now restrained italian. one thing led to another and turns out she loves learning english! we exchanged #'s and Jodi had her first lesson with Cecilia last week!
2 more hours later, we were saying goodbye to Cecilia and I was wheeling Jodi to check out of the ER. just as we were exiting, we met Margot. Margot is now my student. Last week was our first lesson, and it was one I will never forget. She showed up at the Bible school and before we could even begin our lesson, she began to cry and she told me that she felt like our meeting was from God. She continued to tell me that she felt like meeting Jodi and I was a perfect opportunity to begin to open herself again to the Lord! We talked for the next 2 hours about her faith and about trusting the Lord- which just happened to be the theme of our first lesson!!
I hope this meeting with Margot and Cecilia helps connect the dots of why we are here, what we witness on a daily basis, and why we are so grateful to all of you for partnering with us in this work!
O U R A R R I V A L
As most of you know, this time around, we took our girls with us. this meant a little different flight plan. my parents were kind enough to drive us to fly out of detroit so that the girls could fly on board in the cabin with us directly to rome. from rome we had a flight booked onto florence, but we knew ahead of time that we wouldnt be taking it, bc the plane would be too small to allow the girls to fly with us in the cabin. to our surprise, (although, not really, bc every time we fly through rome, something to this effect happens) our luggage was no where to be found. After speaking with the help desk, we learned that ALITALIA had sent our luggage on to the florence flight thinking we too would be on board (although in detroit, they assured us we would have to personally recheck our bags for that flight). After another 2 hours, ALITALIA did recover our bags, and we did get them! Another 1.5 hours later, we had the keys to our rental car and were on our way to florence!
the purple ones were marie and minnie's carriers for our flight.
they were so exhausted!
Eric enjoying his pizza at Gallo's.
First order of business after arriving from Rome was to EAT!
S T A R T I N G F R E S H.
Our first week at the Bible School was spent getting somewhat settled in, but even before settling in, we had a meeting to lay a F O U N D A T I O N with our workers! :) During our time in Ohio while we were waiting on our visas, we drew up a new Avanti Italia handbook specifically for the Bible School, that included all of our expectations for the workers and for the running of the school in general. Of course, it also detailed some obvious rules to abide by while representing the Bible School as an AI worker. The meeting lasted a couple of hours as we communicated our vision for the Bible School, as well as our hopes for each individual worker.
Marie basking in the sun while we were hard at work!
The first week was challenging bc we were immediately stepping into our roles, while at the same time trying to get ourselves settled. By day three, it was obvious we needed some type of transportation. Thank the Lord for Robbie (he is the HUF director who lives close to the Bible School) who has allowed us to use his car during this period! I dont know what we would've done otherwise! So, aside from getting the initial documents in order- ie getting registered in scandicci, getting our insurance, and setting an appointment for our permesso di soggiorno ( sort of like a green card here- literally it means "permission to stay"), we were busy getting our apt furnished. We were so happy to see that we already had a bed, the couches, and a small kitchen table with 2 chairs to start with! Luckily there is an IKEA about 20 from scandicci where we were able to buy the essentials for now- towels, some kitchen/cookware, pillows and bedding.
we also took on the task of beginning to clean out the library and classroom of the Bible School during this first week. It was helpful to have all of the workers on board to assist with this. Just this past friday, we finally reached a stopping point, and we can all say that we are pretty proud of our accomplishments! Our first Friday we celebrated being together with a cook out and games :) Take a look at the transformations below! :)
L I B R A R Y
before...
* the clutter on the right is from an armoir that we moved down to the classroom ;)
.....and after!
* more updates will come later, but for now, it is ready for classes! :D
C L A S S R O O M
Before
*the clutter is from an old armoir. We took everything out and organized what we needed ;)
After!!
* more to come on the updating of rooms at the Bible School. if you are interested in helping sponsor rooms at the Bible School, please email me at avantijsmith@gmail.com!
M E E T T H E T E A M
Meg & Lindsey
Meg and Lindsey will finish their 2 year term of avanti this december. in the meantime, we are blending the old and the new :) We are happy to have their smiling faces!!
the 2014 fall AI team ----(plus Bethany and Meg)
.Morgan. Jodi. Bethany. Meg. Meredith. Miles.
Morgan is from OK and taught English as a second language in America before deciding to join AI. Jodi is from Circleville, Ohio- a 20 min drive from where Eric and I were located in Ohio. She worked in Financial Aid at Ohio Christian Univ. Miles and Meredith are newlyweds who both attended Harding. Before deciding to join AI, Miles was finishing up at Harding in psychology while Meredth was working as an interior designer at a firm in Little Rock.
Let me be the first to tell you, we are expecting B I G T H I N G S from this crew!
From the directors perspective, it is a gift to be able to watch and experience the growth of the workers. We are so thankful to be a part of their journeys and to be able to witness what God will do through and in each of them.
the I T A L I A N S
Giacomo and Eric
me & Melissa.
Giacomo and Melissa have been living at the Bible School for some time now, and we are SO HAPPY they are here!! They give a fresh daily perspective of the italian culture. this is SO fundamental and important for our AI workers. A little background info : Giacomo is from Rome and is currently attending the University of Firenze while he is staying with us. Melissa has her masters in teaching and is currently teaching at the Pepperdine branch in Florence.
F L E X I B I L I T Y. no such thing as "typical" around these parts.
During these first few weeks, we we continue to be purposeful to lay the foundation. We set our meeting time for 730 am every MWF. This worked best for everyone due to our busy and conflicting schedules.
Here's a breakdown for what a "typical" (if there is such a thing!) week looks like aside from our students and other variables that change day to day:
-M-F 8:15-1:30p The newbees (aka the fall 2014 AI workers) are in language school. This is very exhausting for them for a many reasons, but mainly bc they are using a completely new part of their brain that they've never used before! also, the Bible School is located in Scandicci, so every morning they make the 30 minute commute into Florence, either by walking to the tram and taking it, or by walking to the bus stop and taking it.
The lovely Rosa. She has served at the Bible School for 30 years!
Jodi. Meredith. Miles. and Giacomo.
Ready to eat another wonderful lunch prepared by Rosa!
this one's for you Andrea!
-MWF 230-330p has been designated as our cleaning time. Each worker has an assigned area to clean during this time and to keep clean during the week. These assigned areas of cleaning change weekly.
-MONDAYS Every Monday evening we have a Bible study at the Bible School from 730-830p. This semester, we are using the book Not a Fan, by Kyle Idleman. We also have the video series that accompanies the book. This semester, we decided to split the study between the men and women. Each monday a different AI worker volunteers to lead the study. Afterwards, from 9-10pm Lindsey and Peter teach a group grammar class at the Bible School.
-THURSDAYS Every Thursday, we meet at the church building in Florence to teach English lessons and afterwards to have a Bible Study with some of the church members. We begin our English classes at 630 and the lessons last for an hour. Afterwards, we cook a simple super and invite our students to eat with us. At 830pm our Bible Study begins with the church in Florence and lasts for about an hour. This semester we are studying Genesis.
Thursday night english class at the church building.
Last Thursday was our first meeting, so we made it very informal and even played pictionary/charades! We had 10 students who came, ranging in age from 12 years old to 65 years old! This coming week, we will have 3 different classes: beginner, intermediate, and advanced. We are happy to get to know this group of students better. We had several of them tell us how excited they were to begin!
Giacomo and Giovanni.
Thursday night Bible study.
Again, above is a breakdown of things that are fixed every week, the rest of what we do here at the school varies week by week, and worker by worker. Each AI worker has an average of 8 students that they meet with individually throughout the week for their english lessons. We also encourage them to go out with their students during the week in order to form closer relationships. Depending on the month, we will also have get togethers/activities/special group classes for our students. For example, this month we will have a Halloween party!
S T U D E N T S
As I already said, Eric and I have also began our classes for this semester. It has already been so wonderful! We've really missed these lessons!! Its so special to share the gospel one on one and to hear them reading the Word! It is always the highlight of our week!
clizia and me.
Clizia was my very first student in 2010 when Eric and I first came to the Bible school! I am so happy to have her back and to begin studying together again!
Valentino.
Eric has clizia's dad Valentino as one of his students!! we are so excited to be with this family more!
the kids class!
this week Bethany taught the kids and i served as the "polizia." :)
In the midst of getting the school organized, getting to know our workers, beginning our classes, getting our documents in order (which involves several trips back and forth to different gov. offices) so we can stay in Italy, we also have been car searching with Felice! He has been such a huge help! He took us around to several different car lots and helped us communicate what we were looking for. After all was said and done, we decided to go with a Scenic. It holds 5 people comfortably, and has two extra seats that pop up in the back. We were initially hoping to get a 9 person van for the school, but the cost was so much that we decided for now to buy the Scenic. Later, we will purchase a personal car for Eric and I when we have more time to look.
At this point, the need for the car/van is urgent not only for us, but also for the school! It has been complicated trying to take care of the school and the needs of the AI workers without a vehicle. One small example is getting to church on thursdays and sundays. The workers take 2 buses and the tram. It ends up being a 45 min commute instead of a 20 minute drive. Another advantage is buying groceries! This was an event in itself! Ive never shopped for 11 people before, so I had no idea really what to expect. last week, it was past time to go to the store, so we asked Robbie again to borrow his green panda.
Anyways, we are so thankful and excited to finally be getting the Scenic! Hopefully we will be taking it this Saturday to visit our brothers and sisters in Vicenza!
This brings me to another happening around the school, which is a who, and she is Bethany Reeves!
Bethany graduated from Harding last year, and this summer, she spent 6 weeks in the Chec Republic working with LST. She found out about Avanti at Harding, contacted Scot, and ultimately decided to stay with us for 3 weeks on her way back from the CR to personally experience/find out a little about the program! She arrived almost 2 weeks ago on friday Oct 3. After physical Friday and our library time (*we share this outreach with the HUF kids and rotate Fridays. At the library, we put read a children's book in english to a group of about 20 kiddos and plan english activities with them! ), we all met up downtown Florence for pizza to celebrate her arrival!
She has been a sweet addition to our team these past couple of weeks! We are excited to take her to Vicenza this weekend to introduce her to more of our italian brothers and sisters, so that she can better understand their needs and the mission we share. We hope that she will further consider being a part of this program in the near future!
Besides our day trip to Vicenza, we have also been planning a weekend trip to T A R A N T O ! The team is so excited! Eric and I had in mind to travel down at some point with the team before December, but Rosa is actually the one who got the wheels in motion so to speak. She was telling me that she would be traveling down to Puglia ( Puglia is the region in the south where Taranto is located, and where the town where Rosa is from, Cisternino, is also located. ) the weekend of Oct 25 to harvest her olives from the fields they still own there. This is hard work! All of the sudden, it all came together, and we thought, why dont we all go the same weekend so we can help Rosa and visit Taranto! So this is the plan! Originally we were hoping everyone could go, but after considering where we would stay, it seemed best to only take 4. Jodi was happy to stay in Florence bc she has really taken ownership of feeding the homeless at the train station on Sunday nights. So we decided that she and Morgan will stay behind this time, and once david arrives in January, we will make another trip down ;)
Our loving brothers Fabrizio and Luca, are so so so excited that we are coming. Fabrizio has taken off work, and they also insisted on housing all of us, plus the girls (our dogs) for our stay! We are overjoyed for the team to travel south. We pray this will be a huge opportunity for them to learn even more about the Italian culture and ultimately about themselves and how they will be able to serve while they are here. Without a doubt, this will be such an encouragement to everyone in Taranto. Stay tunned.
we hope you enjoyed the update! please continue to keep the Italians, the AI workers, the Bible school, and us in your prayers! We love you all so much!
xoxox
E and J
our first Metro experience!
Dont ask me how we fit all of it in there. Im still marveling at how it actually worked out!
ps the big dent was already in the car before we got it! ;)
This brings me to another happening around the school, which is a who, and she is Bethany Reeves!
m e e t B e t h a n y !
Bethany, Vendi, and Meredith.
Bethany graduated from Harding last year, and this summer, she spent 6 weeks in the Chec Republic working with LST. She found out about Avanti at Harding, contacted Scot, and ultimately decided to stay with us for 3 weeks on her way back from the CR to personally experience/find out a little about the program! She arrived almost 2 weeks ago on friday Oct 3. After physical Friday and our library time (*we share this outreach with the HUF kids and rotate Fridays. At the library, we put read a children's book in english to a group of about 20 kiddos and plan english activities with them! ), we all met up downtown Florence for pizza to celebrate her arrival!
The team... arent they a good lookin' bunch?!
She has been a sweet addition to our team these past couple of weeks! We are excited to take her to Vicenza this weekend to introduce her to more of our italian brothers and sisters, so that she can better understand their needs and the mission we share. We hope that she will further consider being a part of this program in the near future!
Besides our day trip to Vicenza, we have also been planning a weekend trip to T A R A N T O ! The team is so excited! Eric and I had in mind to travel down at some point with the team before December, but Rosa is actually the one who got the wheels in motion so to speak. She was telling me that she would be traveling down to Puglia ( Puglia is the region in the south where Taranto is located, and where the town where Rosa is from, Cisternino, is also located. ) the weekend of Oct 25 to harvest her olives from the fields they still own there. This is hard work! All of the sudden, it all came together, and we thought, why dont we all go the same weekend so we can help Rosa and visit Taranto! So this is the plan! Originally we were hoping everyone could go, but after considering where we would stay, it seemed best to only take 4. Jodi was happy to stay in Florence bc she has really taken ownership of feeding the homeless at the train station on Sunday nights. So we decided that she and Morgan will stay behind this time, and once david arrives in January, we will make another trip down ;)
Our loving brothers Fabrizio and Luca, are so so so excited that we are coming. Fabrizio has taken off work, and they also insisted on housing all of us, plus the girls (our dogs) for our stay! We are overjoyed for the team to travel south. We pray this will be a huge opportunity for them to learn even more about the Italian culture and ultimately about themselves and how they will be able to serve while they are here. Without a doubt, this will be such an encouragement to everyone in Taranto. Stay tunned.
2012. Luca, Fabrizio, and Eric.
Get ready Taranto, Avanti Italia is coming for you!!
we hope you enjoyed the update! please continue to keep the Italians, the AI workers, the Bible school, and us in your prayers! We love you all so much!
xoxox
E and J
