November

It is cold.  I feel like I never knew cold until this month, and now I know what cold it.  I've also come to know 'la nebbia', the fog.  We have fog in Houston, but not like this...  It's what I imagine the English Moors to be like.
November has been an exciting month:

At the beginning of November we had a huge retreat at our church here in Bondeno.  We invited people from churches all over Italy to come stay with us for the weekend to worship and study together.  It was incredible.  On Sunday morning we had almost 100 people in our tiny building.  It was so encouraging for everyone to see so many believers worshiping and studying together.  People came on Saturday afternoon for worship and Bible study.  Saturday night we all went to a pizzeria nearby (party of 80).  Members of our church kept visitors as guests in their home Saturday night.  Sunday morning we met together again for church.  After worship the children presented a play, The Man in the Well, that explains the gift of grace as a man in a well who cannot get himself out.  Other people walk by and offer advice, but nothing he does frees him from the well.  In the end Christ comes into the well to pull the man out.  The kids did an amazing job; we were all so proud of them.  After the play we had an agape (Italian for pot-luck).  This was the first retreat hosted by our church.  But we learned that with God, you can do more than you think you can.  We worked hard to make the weekend a success, but it was all completely worth it and we will do it again next year.

We also have a new helper staying with us for a while.  A friend of Luca's, Melina, has come to work with us in Ferrara for a couple of months.  She is focusing on the church in Ferrara (instead of our church in Bondeno).  Since she's been here we've been working together to translate a couple of songs and spend more time with some of the members who live in Ferrara, both of our church in Bondeno and the church in Ferrara. Unfortunately she will be leaving next month, but we are enjoying having her here until then.

This weekend I got to celebrate Thanksgiving with Eric, Jessica, Angela and the Church of Taranto.  Last Tuesday Angela and I took a night train down to Taranto (a city in the heel of the boot) to help Jessica and Eric host a Thanksgiving meal for their students and the church.  We cooked for 3 days to make 2 turkeys, sweet potato casserole, green beans, mashed potatoes, corn, stuffing, pecan pie, apple pie, and pumpkin cake.  They had their Thanksgiving meal for lunch on Saturday and there were about 30 people who came. It was so fun to spend time with Angela, Jessica and Eric and to meet everyone at the church there in Taranto.  Jessica also had the brilliant idea to use plastic, which meant no dishes :) unlike last year... I'm so happy I had the chance to experience Thanksgiving with them.

I left Taranto Saturday evening almost immediately after we finished Thanksgiving.  I took the night train directly from Taranto to Bologna (this time I got a bed) with the goal of making it to Ferrara for church on Sunday morning.  Unfortunately I when I arrived in Bologna at 5:30am I saw that my train to Ferrara had been cancelled.  After waiting 2 hours for the next train to Ferrara they announced that there was a strike ("sorry for the inconvenience") and then my second train was cancelled. After another 2 hours I made it on a train for Ferrara, but I didn't make it in time for church.  I did however make it just in time to start preparing for the surprise birthday party that we had for Luca on Sunday night...

Yesterday was Luca's birthday (Happy Birthday Luca!) and Sunday we threw him a surprise party and the church building.  I made genuine American hamburgers with french fries.  We also had Lucia's famous tiramisu and other desserts, and everyone (lead by Daniela) did a great job decorating the room.  But the best part was the games.  We made a scavenger hunt were Luca had to follow clues to find his presents, which was awesome, and he loved it.  We also played a special version of charades where all of the clues were things that Luca likes.  People weren't particularly excited to play at first, but once they got into it everyone had a lot of fun.  It was a great night.

Now I'm ready for December.