Lindsay is in Italy!

What a week! Chad and I had a wonderful week in Florence, and are now safely and happily back in Catania!

David and Debbie had invited some previous Avanti workers, who are still in Italy, to come meet, talk, and pray together. We spent most of the day on Thursday with Julie Giordano, Kelly Masini, Sarah Bailey, Katy Cross (who is now working in Milan) and the Woodroofs (David, Debbie, and Jim) It was a very productive get-together. We talked about all kinds of things from Italian culture to the difficulties we may face as missionaries in Italy.

One of the most interesting things to me was something I had not even really thought much about in the time that I have been here. It had to do with the fact that there are so few members of the church of Christ here in Italy, or any non-Catholic faith, for that matter. In the states (especially in the south) we are surrounded by other Christians. Even those that don't believe in God, respect that we have the right to believe (usually). When we are young we attend worship services 3 times a week, we go on retreats, we have VBS, we go to camps...we have plenty of opportunity to be with our Christian friends, without much effort on our part. We have a support system. The kids in America are taught from the time they are young how to be leaders as they get older, so that the church does not die out with the older generation. Here in Italy, most congregations (only one per major city) meet once a week and then go to their homes all over and outside of the towns alone. Even those who want to be more involved have to work 6 days a week and have families to take care of. It's just not feasible to spend a lot of time fellowshipping with other Christians. The children in each congregation are the only Christians they know. I have come to respect even more the Italian Christians because of the effort they must put into being together, and to live out their faith when there are so few of them here.
As an example, there are about 5 million people in Milan, with one church of Christ of around 60 members (which is a large congregation for Italy). One 10 year old boy asked Katy, "Am I the only 10 year old Christian in this whole city?"

Even the problems that we have within our congregations in America are usually taken care of by our Elders, which do not exist yet in the churches here because of the young Christians who are not yet qualified for different reasons. I also realized how much I appreciate our Elders in the states and all they have to do. Thanks, Elders :)
I think everyone benefited from our time together at the Bible School this week. Please keep the churches in Italy and all over the world in your prayers. I know it's not easy to be a Christian anywhere, but there are different types of obstacles everywhere you go and I think it's important to realize that. We have brothers and sisters all over the world with entirely different struggles. I know I have taken for granted how blessed we are in the States.

After our meeting, we went bowling. For anyone who is wondering...yes, I am just as terrible at bowling in Italy as I am in America. The new HUF group had 2 extra tickets to the opera that night, and Chad and I were lucky enough to get to go. Now, I am not exactly an opera-lovin' kinda girl...but it was pretty cool! We saw Pagliacci. It's the one about the crazy clown that kills his wife. Yeah, weird. But it was really interesting to see an actual Italian opera in Italy...for free!

On Friday night Lindsay flew into Florence!!! We were so excited, but poor Lindsay was so tired! We wanted to talk and spend time with her, and she was such a good sport! She has started a blog, and you can follow it by going to LindsayWalle.blogspot.com.
She will be here in Catania on March 6th, and I CAN'T wait!!

Also, you can view the other new Avanti newsletters here.

Today has been absolutely wonderful! We had an ALL day Agape (fellowship meal) after worship services. It is so good to spend time with the Christians here! They are SO much fun, and I love them more everytime I am around them. You can see pictures from today here. There are also pictures of Chad's new apartment, that he will be moving into tomorrow.

Also, Catania's soccer team won today so everyone is happy. All in all, it's been a good day :)