Monday July 26
Ok, so since yesterday, so much has happened. I know that I briefly told you about the mill, but this place is amazing.. Everything here is concrete and tile... with the exception of the rafters. There is an ancient road that runs right through the place covered by grass.. There is a volleyball court, a basketball court, a soccer field, ruins, amazing authentic Italian food, beautiful people, and the spirit of God. However, I also know that many of the people in the surrounding area are heavily involved in organized crime. This camp is like an Oasis in the middle of it all. I love the accents, the architecture, the history... Everything about this place is amazing... even the mosquitoes are amazing compared to the ones in Africa... they don't carry Malaria.
So after we bombed on Shannon's bible, we had the evening to relax. Sunday we went to the Church in Casoria. Again, a very beautiful church, but it was located in what is considered to be a slummy part of town.
From what I am told there is much crime there also. Pastor Doug asked Dennis if he would have two people from our team give their testimonies.. He asked me to give one, and he would give the other. He wanted me to talk to the church about why I came to Italy. I started to think deep into my testimony because I wanted to be prepared. I was ready to talk for around 15 minutes. So when we got to church, Doug told me that he was looking for around 3 minutes from me... =) We sat for a while and listened (all Italiano).. Finally pastor Doug called us all up and introduced the team. First thing he said to me (in front of the church); How old are you? Second: Are you single, or married?... “Single.” I heard them chuckling, then he asked me, “Why are you here in Italy?” I said, “I am here to find a wife.” If I remember correctly there was some cheering... Don't think I am tooting my own horn, because I'm not. It was quite Humorous. I proceeded to tell them about when God changed my heart with the orphans in Uganda, and opened the door to missions for me, and how I want nothing more in my life than to be used by God. What I should have also said is “I have learned all the Italiano that I need to live here: Quattro Formaggi (Four Cheese Pizza)” but I totally thought of it after I had spoken. After the service Pastor Doug threw me a breath mint from the stage and sent a girl up to me... haha, she is 19, and very beautiful... I couldn't help but be shy. Turns out that she is one of the girls at the camp... Im thinking, “Oh great... that's just what I need.. Oh my gosh, she is Gorgeous.” Church is over and I uploaded my last posting in the Church office. I need to stress that there is a man named Tony here who used to be involved in heavy drug use, and when he accepted Christ he completely turned his life around and is now the associate pastor at the Casoria church. He is one absolutely amazing man. He is the camp director. I have very much enjoyed getting to know him. He has a beautiful wife and child, and doesn't understand why she married him... he says, “she could have done far better than I.”
After Church the youth started showing up at the camp. We got them all in the main room of this ancient building (which has since been added on to) and began orienting them and playing ice breaker games. We had a really fun idea of letting them pick names consisting of three words one word at a time. We had the words up on the projector and they would choose one word at a time in turn. Our results are as follows... “Big Red Fire”, “Laughing Blue Foxes”, “Crazy Green Stallions”, and “Angry White Monkeys”. Up to now, “Big Red Fire” has been the dominant force, so we are working out incorporating some more games that are not so much physical as intellectual, or witty.
Today we have started played some more games, tried to break language barriers, and worshiped the Lord. The meal times are amazing, the weather is nice. The cooks are older Italians who know how to cook, and everyone is very loving, despite their extreme and constant competitiveness... shouting/arguing... Italians.. =) In just a short while we will be playing Volleyball, Soccer, and another game involving shaving cream and Nylons. Ill have to tell you more about that one, chances are I will forget, but if you must know, you can ask me sometime. Oh by the way Tayler dominated at that game.<-- Tayler's note. Its totally not true though
Tuesday July 27
Day one and two of the camp are now over. This camp is more of a Christian camp than I had thought.
Its a nice surprise when you are expecting to be talking to kids that are not Christian. Still, some of the kids are not Christians, but they have been doing devotionals, and worship time. Dennis and I keep cracking up about the culture. Their competitiveness and shouting, and hand gestures always come up. For example when we were eating dinner last night, Tony and the people in the kitchen were having some fits... Dennis and I have no clue what was going on... Let me try and give you an idea of what was happening.. Imagine you are in a crowded room.. 5 long folding tables packed with Italians and a few Americans. As you can imagine the chatter is way above what would be considered a normal level. Tony and one of the other adults are shouting some degree of Italian arguments back and forth; each one trying to talk above the other. A few of the youth are trying to put their word into the argument themselves. All the while everyone is flailing their arms and using strong hand movements to emphasize their point... All of the sudden a man in the kitchen opens the kitchen door and stands there shouting at the top of his lungs with a clapping motion; his arms fully extended and lifting them open and dropping them closed like a Florida Gator cheer.... Then after about 8 seconds of this, he stops suddenly, turns around and goes back into the kitchen... chatter and arguing continues for the next 5 minutes... I love it. I don't know why, and maybe I shouldn't, but I do.
The people here are more than comfortable being very close to you or touching you. Not in an inappropriate way, but you know like the one friend that is just a touchy person. Everyone hangs on you. Everyone wants a high 5 from you. Everything you have they are interested in. Everything you say they want to hear and understand.
I had a great moment the other day when a translator asked me a question that led to me telling her my testimony like the one that I was prepared to give in church. Its amazing to me that even after 13 years, things that you think you can talk about bring tears to your eyes and stop you from talking. I know that God is molding my life and shaping me into what he wants me to be.
Friday July 30
Ok, so a few days have passed. We have been staying quite busy for the duration of virtually every day. We put on Tournament activities, which usually consist of soccer, and volleyball. We do games for points that they can add to their team scores. These would be games like relay races or things that they can do as a team. The tournament games are also for team points, but they play soccer every day, so we want to give them something that they don't ever get to do. We love games that focus not so much on athleticism as team work; games that you don't need the body of a Greek statue to play.
We have been trying to incorporate water into as many games that we can during the day. When it is about 75 degrees, it is too cold for them to get wet... =) I have my shirt off most of the day, and wait... all night too. I have my shirt off always. For breakfast, lunch, and dinner we have shirts on, but for almost everything else it is “no shirt” time for me. The other day we had an evening schedule planned, and somehow the night ended up being a dance party. Italians don't really hold a schedule very well. We had a meeting about how we can help them keep schedules more precisely and run the camps more smoothly. It was all Italian driven, so it made it nice for us to participate and we didn't feel like we were forcing American culture on them.
We introduced the game “Pit” to them the other day also. This was during free time. If you know any italians, they love to argue, and they have extreme emotion when they do it. “Pit” is a game of trading crops or commodities with other people in the game by verbal communication. All trades are done at the same time, so you have everyone trying to talk over everyone else. Just imagine playing it with a bunch of Italians. Its awesome.
I also wanted to hang out with the youth at night, so I busted out my camera, a flashlight, and showed them how to draw. We started getting pretty creative and ended up doing some things that are actually quite beautiful. We went from just writing to drawing angels.. They loved it, and were quite good at it.
The days have all blended together, but we have had an amazing time getting to know the Italians. I said this before, and I have said it about Africans as well, but they are so beautiful. We have had some divine moments. Last night we took some Hillsong songs, typed out the lyrics and played them for the youth to sing along to for worship. They were awesome. It was the first time we really had that was solid worship and prayer. There were 3 boys that accepted Christ, that I know of, and I don't know how many girls. One thing that I thought was really cool is that I didn't have to understand the words to know what was happening. Its amazing how God's love transcends Language and Culture. Tonight we are “scheduled” to have a bonfire as our last night.
Sunday August 1
Ok, so that night we didn't end up having a bonfire. We experienced nasty lightning and thunderstorms. At home I get all excited about the lightning because It doesn't seem to happen all that much. There was lightning flashing probably once every 3 seconds for around an hour. It poured all that day so we didn't get to do any games for our tournament. I was surprised by the Italians; they were not concerned with the final scores, only sad that we had to leave. We still met inside and I ended up giving my testimony to the whole group. It wasn't the condensed version... It was hard. Goodbyes were tough, but they always are. The next morning we left the camp around 9:00 and headed for the church in Casoria to drop our things off so that we didn't have to worry about theft, but we had no one to drive, so guess who drove... =) We were heading to Pompei!
It's an ancient city like Rome, only Mt. Vesuvius blew up in something like 79 AD and incinerated the city and the population. The ruins are amazing. After Pompei we headed for the train station and then out of Napoli and back to Rome. The train was late and ended up taking 3 hours, but we finally arrived and had to find our hotel. It was 11:00PM, and we didn't know quite where it was.. only that it was within walking distance from the train station. We eventually found it. It was a little door in the side of the building that we had previously walked past. No big sign, nothing notifying you where it is.. just a door. We actually had to walk into another hotel and have them point us to the door... If you know where it is, its a neat little place; cheap, near the train station, close to the metro, and the staff are quite nice. David and Andrew decided they wanted to go out, and I stayed in and showered. The bed that I got was actually quite comfortable. It was a little short, but I'm short enough that it actually made me feel like I was tall.
Today, we went to the Roman tourist attractions. We started out at St. Peter's Square and Basilica.
That was very impressive. I had Rick Steve's audio tours downloaded on my iPod, so I had him to tell me some neat facts. Like Raphael and Michelangelo both worked on the building, and that all the words that were spoken by Jesus to Paul in the Bible are all written in 7' tall gold letters and line the inside of the sanctuary. It was very beautiful, and very amazing. Unfortunately the Sistine chapel was closed. Since it was Sunday we were forced to leave that for next time. We then went to get some lunch while visiting a few Piazzas in the area. Piazza Navona was really neat, it seems to me like all the fountains in Rome are glorious. If I were to build a fountain there, I would feel mildly outmatched compared to the others and in comparison to the historical buildings... We had our lunch, then proceeded on to the Pantheon. ...wow. That place is just crazy, I don't really know what else to say. Massively Amazing maybe... How the heck did they get those columns in place back then? I want to see their scaffolding. Probably similar to Africa's The building wasn't as ornate as St Peters, but the scale of that dome is crazy. Its breath-taking.
The Pantheon was built by Emperor Marcus Agrippa, the same Emperor that Paul wrote to in Acts. I was also intrigued to hear that it is the oldest building in the world that has seen continuous use since its original construction... It has never been closed. From the Pantheon we went on to the Colosseum. We had day passes for the metro, so we could hop a bus or the train and get around pretty fast. The Colosseum was awesome. Once again the scale of the place is crazy. I enjoyed looking at the arches, and the transitions from original to restoration. It was easy to tell because of the Travertine block that it was originally constructed with and the red brick that they reinforced it with when they tried to restore it.
I wish I could have sat in a seat at the very top when it was being used. Rick Steve walked me through that one too; he walked me through all of them. Since the Colosseum is right net to the Roman Forum, that was our next destination. It was quite cool to walk where Paul walked. We saw all kinds of stuff there, but too much to see in a day. One thing that I thought was awesome is that one of the arches had engravings of Romans carrying off Israels plunder back to Rome. I guess sometimes when Im reading my bible its easy for me to hold the book in my hands and let the words stop there in my brain and imagination. When you see proof of the stories that are in the bible... its like you get one of those moments when your like, “Wow...” We also saw some statue figures that were quite stunning and well chiseled. They were preserved abnormally well... We didnt see everything, but everyone was getting tired, and we had to go... We needed to save some of that for next time too. =)
On our way home most of the girls split off to go shopping. Shannon, David, Andrew, Dennis, and I headed back to the hotel, then out for dinner. After dinner Dennis went back to the hotel to go to pack up for the trip home and go to bed. The rest of us went to Trevi Fountain. We wanted to find some cheap vendors for sunglasses. We found them, then scrambled back to the Metro before our passes expired; we were within a half hour. We then had some Gillato Ice Cream and sat at the nearest fountain and just enjoyed our last moments in Italy.
Thanks for following the blog. I really had a memorable year. Both Africa teams and Italy teams were some of the best I have been on. I think that the more God lets me go, the better we all become at working as a team. Please feel free to refer my blog to anyone. I pray that everything I did on the trip is something that can be used by God. I pray that the Italian youth that we worked with at the old mill who came to know Jesus don't forget what happened, and that they don't let the world distract them or cause them to stumble.
1 Corinthians 10:31-33
