Mamma Mia, e molto caldo!

 

Roughly, that's "Wowzers it is HOT!"

It has finally come. . . the time of the year we have most been dreading. Even native Bolognese will tell you it gets almost unbearably hot during the summer. Unfortunately, it came a little sooner than anticipated this year. Today the high will be 96 degrees.

Now I know a lot of you are thinking, "It's been in the 90's in Houston (you can fill in the blank) for weeks." True. But everywhere you go in the States has the blissfulness known as air-conditioning. Not so much here. There are a few restaurants that have some air-conditioning, but not many. Our apartment definitely does NOT. We have three portable fans, and that's it. We are hot and sweaty.

Sweet Ben seems to be the most sweaty. :) I took this picture last night just before bed. Poor guy sweats just walking around the house. After a nap, he's just drenched. It doesn't seem to be bothering him much. Definitely not as much as it's bothering us! Cold showers never felt so good. . .

Heat-control has become a major endeavor in our house. We have great windows on both sides of our apartment. In the morning, one side is full-sun. In the afternoon, it's the other. So when we wake up, we darken one side of the apartment (we have these really heavy-duty blinds that roll down the outside of our windows--they completely black out the window). A little after lunch, we begin to raise those blinds and darken the other side. It seems that 5pm is about the worst time of day. That is also when we walk to get the kids at school. Another reason to be thankful for the gelato stand on the way home from school!

Cooking has also become a challenge. We have a pretty good oven, but even so, it's just too hot to use. Last night, we couldn't even bring ourselves to cook on the stove top. I'm gathering some more "cool cooking" recipes, but it was cereal for dinner last night.

With all that said, things are heating up in other ways too. The Summer Project of students from the States arrives on Wednesday. They will be here until the end of June, and we are really, really looking forward to them being here. We are hoping they help us figure a lot of things out about the uniquenesses of ministry in Bologna. Cody continues to have great gospel conversations with the student he met during Spring Break, and the friendship we've started with the parents' of Hannah's friend from school has opened itself up to talk about the gospel too. Those things have brought a new onslaught of spiritual attack that has been a considerable challenge in the past week. And the heat hasn't helped.

It seems like every time we begin to relax, we are hit again with the reality of the warfare that surrounds us. We confess we sometimes tire of constant battle. But there really is no other option. So we'd love your prayers. Please pray for just a little relief from the heat (or miraculously we "get used to it"), pray for fruit from the conversations we're having with non-believing Italians, and pray for our protection against the warfare that wages.

Thanks friends! Hope you're enjoying some glorious air-conditioning on our behalf. :)