The Parent Meeting at School

I wish I had some pictures of this event! But alas, that would have been obnoxious.

Last week was a parent meeting at Hannah's school. All of the parents came for a meeting led by her teachers (she has three), where they discuss the curriculum for the year, field trips they have planned and any issues they have concern about. Oh, and we elect a parent representative, who is then the go-between, between the parents and teachers.

So though we all know each other (Hannah stays with the same students and teachers throughout all five years of elementary school), the election of our parent representative had to follow strict protocol. Even though there was only one person who wanted the job, we each had to fill out a ballot, put all our identification information on it (i.e. our passport information) and put it in the voting box. Very official.

Last year I attended this meeting, but since we'd only been in the country one month, I quite frankly didn't understand a word that was said. This year, I understood a lot more. We did talk about the changes to their teaching style this year, but the majority of our time we talked about. . . you guessed it, food! Were the kids eating all their lunch? Were they eating their veggies too? Are they picky? Do they eat too fast? Can my child bring a toothbrush to use after lunch?

You know, sometimes it's been easy to look at the centrality of food in this culture and roll my eyes a bit (OK, a lot). But I confess that perhaps I'm becoming converted. Food is the venue for relationships. It is a great example of how Italians love to give their opinion. Food is common ground.

I knew this was changing in our lives when I suddenly became picky about the type of pasta I bought (only sun-dried--it allows sauce to cling better), when I began to discern what type of sauce goes on what shape of pasta (for instance, meat sauce is better on long pastas like spaghetti or linguine and pesto is great on farfalle but not penne), and when Cody suddenly decided we could no longer use Grana Padana to top our pastas with, only Reggiano Parmigiano. Yep, we're Italian foodies now.

So getting back to the parent meeting, we again have to thank God for just how incredibly He answered so many prayers for Hannah and her school situation. We think her teachers are great. They think Hannah is great. Hannah, in less than one year, is fully fluent in the language. Italians can not tell she is not a native speaker. Praise God! School has also proven to be our best venue for developing relationships in which to share the gospel. The parents are a pretty close group, since we're all together for the next five years. We're so thankful for the in-roads God's provided.

As I left this meeting, I thought, "Wow, what a normal thing to do." Granted, we probably wouldn't spend near the amount of time we did talking about food at a meeting in America, but we wouldn't have had a meeting like this in America. I love the community-based culture of Italy. And we're fully participating in it. God shows me daily just how much He has done in the past 13 months.

A Mommy/Ben trip

Last week Ben and I took a trip to Leiden, Holland ( just south of Amersterdam) to be with some friends from Houston who moved to the Netherlands last April as missionaries and had their third baby a couple of weeks ago. They obviously don't have family around, so we felt like it was a great chance to go serve them during this really precious time in their family's life.

It was a great trip all around! It was quite the adventure. We flew Ryan Air, since that was really the only way we could afford to make the trip happen. What a deal though! We both flew round trip for 50 Euro total. It did make it a bit more exciting though. We had to fly into Brussels, take a shuttle from the airport to the train station and then take a train from there into Leiden, with a train change at The Haag.

Ben did such a great job traveling. It was so fun for me to have five days to hang out with just him! As the youngest, he hasn't had that opportunity much. And the friends we went to visit have a little boy that is only a month older than Ben. It was a new experience for him to play with someone his own age. Mostly it was a ton of fun. Of course, they definitely had their moments. . . :)

(Ben with Whit and Annabelle--baby Elijah was snuggled in his stroller)

Here are a couple of pictures around Leiden. The Netherlands were just beautiful. I loved the water everywhere. When we were there trees were just hinting at starting to change color. Right in the middle of Leiden is this windmill, which I thought was awesome. One day, I was walking with the boys down a bike trail/sidewalk (the bike culture in the Netherlands is a story worthy of a whole other blog entry in and of itself!), when we passed a man in his 30's, dressed for the office, walking in wooden clogs. Our friends have assured us in the six months they've lived there they have never seen anyone wearing clogs. . . it was a priceless moment I wish I could have gotten a picture of!

This other picture is from one of the many bridges in the city showing the canals that run all over the country. The city is full of them. They add such a lovely backdrop to daily life. Though I hear a lot of cars end up in them by having to park right next to the water.

One of my questions about the Netherlands was "what exactly is Dutch food?" The answer is that there isn't much. Mostly they eat every other ethnicities' food. I came back with a ton of great asian spices! But one night we went to an authentic Dutch restaurant that I think has been around for something like 100 years. What do they serve? Pancakes. It was awesome! I had a pancake that was probably 18 inches in diameter that had bacon, mushroom, onion and cheese in it. It was very thin, but slightly different than a crepe. Ben had an apple, sugar and cinnamon pancake. Yummy, yummy, yummy!

It was a great week. Great to hang out with Ben alone for such an extended period of time. Great to get to love on our friends at such a sweet time in their lives. Great to just be with such like-minded friends on such a similar adventure as ours. It was a deeply refreshing trip.

A Guest Writer

Last week Jim and Linda Allen flew in from the States to join our team for a week of prayerwalking around the city, in preparation for the launching of our ministry this week. It was an incredible, if challenged, time. I asked them if they would write about their impressions of Bologna and Italy for the Blog, so that you could read about an "outsider's" perspective. This is what they shared:

The last week of September we had the privilege of joining Cody and Jen in Bologna to pray for Italy in general, and for the university students in particular. It was a daunting task to “stand in the gap” for so many people – what can a few people say to an Almighty God that would actually make a difference for a whole country? Yet He tells us to call to Him, and He will answer us, and tell us great and mighty things we do not know. (Jeremiah 33:3)

We got to see that God is at work in Italy. He has burdened the hearts of two small evangelical churches in Bologna to pray for an outreach to the university students. In answer to that, He is clearly calling workers to go there to share the gospel – the Phipps family being one example of that.

Being in Italy helped us to understand the context in which Cody and Jen are working. It is a different culture to which they must adapt in order to build the social networks necessary for communicating spiritual truths. It’s a culture with a tradition of religion that doesn’t promote the gospel of grace. And, like in much of the world, there is a focus on materialism and humanism that ignores the need for a deeper life. These are the obvious obstacles that Cody and Jen face daily in their ministry. However, the greatest and often less obvious obstacle is spiritual attack from Satan. We experienced it in the short time we were there. Of a team of 8 people, 5 were unable to join the prayer walks for most of the week because of health problems they encountered. What an affirmation that prayer for Italy is vital – it’s threatening the enemy’s territory! Our discussions with Cody and Jen reaffirmed this fact. Missionaries on foreign soil deeply need prayer and encouragement from the body of Christ.

On another note, our trip to Italy had personal significance for me, Linda. My father was in Italy during World War II. He participated in the campaign that brought liberation to the Italians. Understandably, it was a grievous experience for him – one that affected him emotionally and spiritually for life. Over the years I heard so many of his war stories and descriptions of Italy that I suppose I adopted some of his grief. As a result, I never had a desire to visit Italy. So what does the Lord do? He sends us to Italy! Even though we didn’t visit the specific sites Daddy did, I sensed a significance in just being in the same country. Part of it was that my bias against Italy was dispelled. But also, the Lord has been showing me a bigger picture: He is at work to complete what the Allied army began over 60 years ago. They brought military and political liberation to Italy; now God is working to bring true, lasting spiritual freedom. Daddy’s grief is rendered powerless and I am allowed the privilege of being, through my prayers, part of God’s redemptive plan for Italy!

Often we can feel so overwhelmed not only by the task at hand but by the opposition we encounter relentlessly. During our week of prayer, I was reminded often of the verse in Matthew where Jesus talks about the Kingdom of God "forcefully advancing." I pictured that happening tangibly that week. It brought countless blessing and encouragement to our whole team.