Grace that is Greater

A couple of weeks ago, after being in Ferrara for just a week, I went back to Florence.  The Bible School hosted a youth retreat for young people from all over Italy, including our group from Bondeno.

We had seven people from Bondeno go to the retreat.  Luca, Daniela and her sister Alina, Elisa, Sara (Luca's sister), Anna (a friend of Daniela and Alina), and me.  We got there Friday night just in time for dinner, which like a dream come true, was Mexican food.  After dinner, we played a live game of clue - like a real murder mystery.  Angela organized the whole thing, planning clues and challenges that groups had to pass in order to find the murderer.  The Avanti workers (including me) dressed up as characters from the game and led the challenges: Angela as Mrs. White, Erme as Miss Scarlet, Laura as the Cook, Ryan as Prof. Plum, Peter as Mr. Green, David as Col. Mustard and me as Mrs. Peacock. I think everyone had fun.  After the game we had a devo led by Joele, 17 year old guy from Rome and sang some of the new songs that Emily and Lorenzo had translated from English into Italian.  

One of my favorite things from the weekend was singing together.  It was so encouraging to worship with such a large group of young Italians.  At different times throughout the weekend we introduced new songs that had been translated.  We sang Holy Lord, We Fall Down, Father God, Light the Fire, and Here I am to Worship (all recently translated into Italian).  We also sang Magnificat, which I worked on with Lorenzo to translate.  Some of the kids here in Bondeno get especially excited about the songs.  We've already taught several of these songs to the church here in Bondeno and we've started singing them regularly.
Saturday we left town to go to a small town called Vallombrosa in the mountains near Florence. There is a beautiful park there in the middle of a pine forest. We had a picnic lunch and then spent the day playing games. We also translated "There's a Stirring" into Italian.  Later we went back to the Bible School for one of Debbie's famous cookouts (including her loaded mashed potatoes).
But Sunday was by far the best day.  Sunday morning we went to church in Florence.  We were lucky enough to be there to hear Jim Woodroof (David's father) preach.  I had never seen the church so full.  With just the youth there were an additional 20+ people.  But it was also the first Sunday for the new group of Harding students, so including the American students there were about 80 young people in church that morning.  Not only that, but there were so many other visitors too.  Two of David's students from the Bible School came (both of whom I had not seen at church before).  Plus Anna Maria, her husband Alan and Alan's parents (friends of ours who live near Florence) were there.  I was so happy also to see Sandro and Chiara.  Sandro works at the Harding villa and he and Chiara are good friends of David and Debbie and the Shackelfords.  Sandro and Chiara's son Lorenzo translated for Jim, so he was visiting also.  The church was completely full; there wasn't a single empty seat.  It was so encouraging to see all of these people all together on a Sunday morning.  I was already overwhelmed by it all so when I saw Rosa (our cook) come in with her husband Felice I almost started crying.  We love all of these people so much and many people have been praying for them all for such a long time.  The Spirit was definitely moving in Florence that morning.  We were blessed also to hear an incredible message from Jim.  He spoke to us about the greatness of God's grace.  It was really in incredible morning.
After church we all went with the Harding students to have pizza at a restaurant nearby before leaving to come back to Ferrara.  It was a great day and all in all an amazing weekend.  We were all encouraged to have the opportunity to spend time with each other and praise God together. I'm sure everyone looks forward to the next time we are able to spend another weekend at the Bible School.