I Want to Ride my Bicycle

Saturday I moved to the City of Bicycles, Ferrara. Actually, it's just outside Ferrara in Bondeno. And actually it's just outside Bondeno in Vigarano (just like I never actually lived in Houston or in Sugar Land). I moved to Ferrara to work with the church in Bondeno. I came here to visit a few months ago and met some of the most welcoming and hospitable people I have ever met. Somehow I didn't realize until recently that we're instructed in the Bible to show hospitality; these people are experts. After a few months of planning I am now here. My work here will focus on the church but I will also be teaching some English lessons like I did in Florence. My main work with the church will be for the teens. I will be teaching Sunday morning and Thursday night bible classes for the teens here (middle school to high school). I will also plan and help plan different activities for them during the summer. At this point I'm wishing I had been a summer intern when I was college, bit I know it's going to be great.

With some teens at the church in Bondeno - Enrico, Alina & Daniela

So far things have been incredible. I'm living with a family from the church here: Mina and Umberto, some founding members of the church, and their grandson Luca, a guy my age who studies at the university in Ferrara. They all work very hard for the church here and u am excited to be able to work with them. I can hardly begin to describe how welcoming they and everyone else have been. I have my own room and bathroom rent free and Mina has been cooking real Italian for every meal. Plus they have offered me a bike and a car to drive (including lessons on how to drive a manual transmission). Right now I'm working on getting my things unpacked and soon I want to start learning my way around (which means continuing driving lessons and/or wandering around on a bike). This weekend we have a youth retreat in Florence (back to the Bible School!) and next week I will start teaching classes at church. I haven't fixed any English lessons yet but I've already had a lot of people express interest. It's still early and I'm still getting settled in so it's still hard to tell what my schedule will be like but I'm really happy to be here and to be able to do some things to help the church here.

Me with Luca and Daniela