Sunday in Florence

The pictures are in the absolute backwards order in which I meant to post them, so please humor me and work from bottom to top!

First off, ALL the students returned safely from their "free" Friday evening/Saturday before our curfew on Saturday. A couple didn't make it exactly on time, but they were safe.... Here's the story. A group of about 6 or 7 people were thinking "beach trip" for the free day on Saturday; they talked it up so well that a BIG group ended up going with them. Since there was an Italian holiday (celebrating the Republic) on Thursday, many Italians took Friday off from work and traveled over the weekend, taking many of the hostel and hotel rooms that we thought might be available. To make a long story VERY short, the beach group had a hard time finding a place to sleep but eventually did, making their Saturday at the beach very relaxing (fell asleep from the looks of their red sunburns) and rewarding for their efforts.

While some students chose to hang around Scandicci and Florence and take in the sights that aren't on our itenerary, another couple of people decided to check out Venice - also not on our calendar but a "must see" if you're in the area. Their train trip there was alright, but their trip back was rough. In fact, it was cancelled. They made contact with our BAT group and reassured us that they were fine but that they would be incredibly late. If I have my info correct, their train left Venice at 3am and didn't get to Florence until around 6am. They STILL had to get back to Scandicci after that... I hope they bought loads of Venecian jewelry and that their gondola ride was wonderful because they deserve a break after being so exhausted from their journey.

Clay, A-C, and I stayed in Florence on Friday night but went to Pisa on Saturday. We wanted to get our route nailed down before our trip there all together; we'll stop at Pisa and take the cheesy holding-up-the-tower photos before we venture furture north to the Cinque Terre region and take in the cliffside dwellings on the coast of the Italian riviera. Oh, it's got to be on the top five list of the most beautiful places in the world! That trip is coming up at the end of June, so we got it down-pat for the students. We then trained to Lucca, a small town with its old, protective wall still surrounding the city; there were lots of Italians there on "holiday," so it was more crowded than I expected. But it was fun, the food was delicious (we've got the perfect spot picked out!), and the shopping/strolling was an experience unto itself. No difficulties in transport; in fact, right when we arrived back in Florence, the tram was ready, and right when we got off at our stop, the bus came in 4 minutes - minimal waiting. We had good timing yesterday, which doesn't happen on a holiday or weekend bus schedule always - perhaps we inadvertantly took some of the good-travel-luck from the Venice crew...

This morning we were all able to attend the Florence church that Robbie and Mona Shackelford and Davd and Debbie Woodruff attend in Florence (they do more than attend - they lead and serve the people of Italy in a beyond-expectation-fashion). We saw Warren Casey from Searcy there - a nice surprise. We also saw Keith and Christy Smith who are living/working in Scandicci for about a year (Keith and Christy are college friends of ours) with their two cute kiddos. A-C was able to see her Italian friend from 2007 - Deborah - and go to her Sunday school class with other children. Today we worshipped in Italian and in English. There were songbooks of both languages at each pew available for those who need them. We sang a song in English and then we'd sing it in Italian. Prayers were led in both languages, and the speaker had Robbie to translate his lesson into English for the HUF and BAT groups and the visiting parents of a couple of the HUF students. Clay and I talked to our group about their being such an encouragment to the people their at the Florence church and the importance of having a servant attitude; we'd heard college kids say before, "Well I didn't get anything out of that since it wasn't in English" and didn't want our BAT group to have that mindset. On Friday as chapel was closing up, I shared that since we were able to teach at HUF in 2007, hardly a Sunday goes by that I don't recall our worshipping together in Florence with Christians who speak an entirely different language. I often think of our Christian brothers and sisters worshipping our Lord and singing praises to Him in the corporate setting and think of how pleasing it must be to Him to hear His children praising Him in many different toungues. Like my daughter is such a blessing to me (I am made in His image, after all), it must make God feel honored, loved, and blessed when we lift each other up and love and worship our Father together, even across oceans and time spans. What a joy Sundays must be to our Maker! May we always show kindness and love like we show it on Sundays. I hope that today's worship was an encouragement to our BAT crew like it was to me and Clay.

After the worship service, we ate a potluck meal with the church. It must be overwhelming to cook for 60+ (HUF and BAT) non-Italian-speaking Americans - 20 of them athletes who put away a lot of food - but the Italians were hospitable and handles us with kindness and gererosity. There was plenty of food (first course was pasta, naturally, and then there was an abundace of veggies, meats, and desserts), and the lemon cake was the best I've ever had!

This afternoon, the BAT group is going to see Michaelangelo's David at the Accadmia Gallery downtown. After some heavy art-appreciation, we will all play soccer (Italian football !) for our conditioning for the day. We're packing in the activities; if you're a parent reading this and communicating with your students, please help us encourage them to sleep! Maybe I'm old and need more rest than I used to need, but I don't know how they do it on so few hours of rest... We're NOT encouraging naps - too much to do (i.e. "miss" if you're asleep) during the day - but at nighttime, these people need to go to bed! Oh, to be young again. I sound like a grandmother. Not that grandmothers are old-exactly. Sorry, Mother, dear. I certainly didn't mean to indicate that by any means that you are that "o" word. I only mean that perhaps I'm not as young as I used to be (or that I remain in my mind's eye)!