My favorite part of re-entry? I have loved getting reacquainted with each church member and seeing how they have grown over the summer. What a blessing. With Francesca now in pre-school, I have a little more time in the mornings to go calling on the ladies in the church. Our new mom, Simona, really has a need for company right now. I’ve been able to go to her house and spend time talking and praying with her. What a joy to be able to pray together.

Two weeks ago I was blessed to be able to go to a 24/7 Prayer Conference called the Eurogathering in Frankfurt, Germany. I know that we just got back to Ancona, but I couldn’t pass it up. It turned out to be a great decision. We really had a great time praying for the continent of Europe and all of the countries represented there. How wonderful it was to see how big God’s church is, and also what great need there still is to bring the gospel to Europe.

What’s next? Well, next week Brian must return to the states for two weeks. He will be attending the Team Leaders’ Summit at Team Expansion, as well as heading off to the Joplin area to visit with churches there. Since this summer was cut quite short, we didn’t have time to visit that area. If you could pray for him as he travels, that would be appreciated. If you want to add the kids and I in there, we’d love your prayers as well.

Thanks for all that you do for us. We couldn’t make it without you!!

This guy knows how to party

We went to a Martedì Grasso festival at a nearby town that is known for its yearly parade. It was a lot of fun. Silly string and confetti were everywhere, and there is an annual competition to make the most elaborate float. Some were as tall as the four-story buildings that lined the parade route. Most had kid-friendly themes like Disney characters. But one had the theme of “Italia Sexy Party” complete with topless, 20-foot-tall paper mâché dancers. A really great thing to explain to your 12-year-old.

It really got me thinking. Doesn’t it bother anyone that we have a whole holiday devoted to “sinning” before we get down to business and be serious and fast and stuff? I think seasons where we devote more time to growing in our faith are a great idea, but it sort of shows our true intentions if we precede that time with a bunch of last-minute goofing around before the clock starts.

In our city, the Mardi Gras parade was held last Saturday, a good week and a half after Lent began. If that doesn’t show how unimportant Lent is, I’m not sure what does.

Silvio Berlusconi has been in the news lately. He already has a reputation for being a playboy (not bad for a 74-year-old). He owns many newspapers and tv stations, meaning there are few independent reports about him or his government. He’s a billionaire. And, most recently, he’s accused of having sex with a minor.

Yesterday, all across Italy, women gathered in the piazzas calling for his dismissal. They gathered to protest against the shame that he has brought this country, and to protest against the way he treats women. The thing that strikes me the most is how unapologetic he is about it all. He laughs it off when someone draws attention to yet another sexist comment.

I was talking to a friend yesterday, and we were discussing the rallies that took place. And she said something that I have heard repeated on countless blogs and in many other conversations about this man. Despite his blunders, she said, she doubts that he will ever resign or be forced to resign or even face a trial. He’s too powerful, too rich, and he’s surrounded himself with too many powerful people that owe him favors.

I’m not so sure. Tunisia was first. Egypt next. Now is it Italy’s turn?

Update: 2/14/2011 – This morning Berlusconi called the demonstrations a “shame” and a “fascist maneuver.”

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But when everyone is spread out all over, even in other countries, it makes getting together pretty hard! I’m starting to think that God wants this time to be a time of Sabbath and renewal. We have church members in two other regions (like states) and one other country. We have people who have to work Sundays during the summer months, and join us in the evening exhausted but happy. We have a hard time getting together with people because they are at their beach homes or on vacation. Sometimes, even I say “I’m bo-oored.”

Then, I think of it another way. I can use this time to concentrate, really concentrate, on the people before me. Tonight we are having two families over for dinner. They don’t really know each other, but one is from church and the other have expressed interest in coming to church. I’ve been wanting to introduce them for a while. The more relaxed schedule of August makes dinners like this much easier to plan. And no one has to rush off and get the kids in bed for school the next day. Conversation is relaxed. People seem to let their guards down a bit, giving us an opportunity to bring faith into the discussion.

Tomorrow, we are headed about an hour away to the water park with this same family. Since it is hard to take our whole family on a vacation, it is nice to be able to take a vacation day here and there to spend some concentrated time building relationships.

This weekend we are hosting a missionary couple from the Rome area, and I really hope it can be a time of growth and encouragement (and rest, too!). This couple is in the very beginning stages of church planting in the Rome area, and the topic of building the Kingdom here in Italy always comes up. The following week another missionary will be staying with us for a few days.

When all is said and done, I want to look back on my summer knowing that we made many memories. I want to really know that we have used all of the opportunities that God had given us to share and encourage. When school starts, I want to see that we’ve all grown up a bit, not just the kids.

Until next month…

Some good friends of ours invited us to attend a fish dinner down by the port. The area of town is called Gli Archi (The Arches), and all of the buildings have a large sidewalk in front and are covered with huge arches.

The dinner was a benefit for some non-profit organization. They spread out picnic tables underneath the arches and everyone mingled around until the boy scouts hurried by to take tickets and bring the food.

There is a street right in front of the arches, and it’s one of the main ways into town. Traffic tapered off as dinner went on, but the occasional bus or streetbike roaring by quickly reminded us to hang on to the kids.

When people think of Italy they often think of a fancy restaurant or a big plate of pasta. They picture wine glasses and pizza. And to be sure, the big fancy Italian dinner is something we enjoy about living here.

But as I sat, scrunched on a flimsy picnic bench with family and friends on either side, I realized that I would much rather have dinner sotto gli archi than in some fancy restaurant. The seafood pasta and fried fish was great, but not nearly as great as the company. I found myself smiling as Trey chatted with Maurizio, as Silla grabbed Francesca to take her for a walk, as Marco brought over a huge dessert that he bought before the pastry shop closed. Dinners like this are just as much for the company as the food.

But … the food was delicious, too!

Every now and then I get hit by a little no-stal-gì-a. I find myself spending time on Facebook looking up people back home. I call people for no reason just to chat. I wonder what so-and-so is up to right now. Cultural things that are normally just differences become irritating. The line in the post office seems longer, the cash register at the grocery store less organized, the bureaucracy even thicker. It’s easy for me to work from home instead of forcing myself to be out. I find myself retreating into my little introverted world and I have to force myself out (or maybe find the right people to coax me out).

I wish I could find a cause for the occasional outburst of no-stal-gì-a. I think it seems to come after a certain length of time in Italy. Sometimes a particularly stressful event with the culture sets me off (there’s another blog post cooking about this very thing). And then it just kind of goes away and life starts to feel a bit more normal. But then, when you live with your feet in two different countries, with family and friends on both sides of the Atlantic, surely a little no-stal-gì-a is normal, right?

But it’s more than just free babysitting. Italian kids seem to enjoy a closer relationship with their grandparents. And it’s made me realize how little contact my kids have with theirs. It really does make life harder. I know my kids miss out on that special bond with grandma and grandpa (and it’s our fault – we’re the ones who moved here). They miss getting to know adults who are less busy and have more time to focus on kid-stuff. Heidi and I miss having someone who can watch the kids for date nights (which hardly ever happen when the going rate for babysitters is $15/hour). I think even our church misses out on the wisdom that grandparents bring. The internet does allow a bit more of a connection than would normally be possible via letters and phone calls. But the distance is still there and still changes things.

And I have yet to find a way to fill that gap.

And I will never understand how it works. Italy has a multiple party system. It’s not just republicans and democrats (with a couple of minor parties here and there). There are dozens of major parties and even more minor parties. No party who receives less than 5% of the popular vote can take office, so the parties form coalitions which can get enough votes. The coalition a person votes for will contain several somewhat-similar (but certainly not identical) political ideologies.

I passed by a newspaper headline just before election day (actually, it’s election weekend here). The headline read, “Photos of all 140 candidates inside”. 140 candidates? Yep, because for regional elections you can vote for the party and for the person you want to win. 140 candidates! How can anyone keep that straight?

Here’s the kicker … if at any point anyone is unhappy with where the government is going, it gets dissolved (it’s happened over 50 times since World War 2). Poof! It’s like it never happened. A temporary government is set up until elections can take place. Oh, and the current prime minister, he controls the state-run media channels (RAI), and also personally owns the competing channels (Mediaset). There are almost no independent media companies.

So basically, I don’t understand a thing. And my fear is, I’m not sure the Italians do either.

A lot has happened over the years. We spent over two years in the US raising support for our work in Ancona. What an experience that was – easily the most faith-stretching experience of our lives.

Then we moved to Perugia to study Italian. We enrolled in a small language school and tried to train our mouths to make all the weird sounds we heard all around us. We also adapted to the Italian rhythm of life, and enrolled our two oldest kids in school. What an experience that was – easily the most faith-stretching experience of our lives.

Next we moved to Ancona and started to dip our toes into life on a team. We learned all the reasons why working on a team is such a great thing, and we also learned why it can be a really challenging thing. The Italian culture started to feel a bit more familiar to us, but things were still new and scary sometimes. Moving to Ancona and working on a team was a great experience – easily the most faith-stretching experience of our lives.

After our first furlough, we came back to Ancona with a new confidence. The language wasn’t quite so difficult. Our kids were doing pretty well in school. We even had a baby in Ancona. Our team leader asked us to be the interim team leader for six months while he was in the US. What an experience that was – easily the most faith-stretching experience of our lives.

Just before our second furlough our landlord gave us six months to move out of her apartment, and we were faced with finding a new place and completely furnishing it with absolutely no way to pay for it. What an experience that was – easily the most faith-stretching experience of our lives.

Which brings us more or less to the present day. We still get our faith stretched on a regular basis. God still pulls us through despite our doubts, and shows us how faithful He is to us.

And through it all, He’s forming a church in Ancona. Sometimes He uses us, and sometimes He does an end-run and brings people to us that we never would have even met. He molds us and shapes us and chips away at our rough edges until we become more and more like Him.

And to think. It’s only taken seven years so far…

Thanks for sticking with us.

Italy’s three main, state-run television stations are supported by a yearly tax, paid for by everyone who has bought a TV. It doesn’t matter if you never watch the state channels, or if you only use your TV to play movies, or even if you have ever turned your TV on. If you buy a TV, they send you a letter in January asking you to cough it up. And the state channels still have commercials, so where all this money goes is a bit of a mystery.

So what’s a poor pastor to do? Do we pay the tax like good foreign residents? Or do we stick it to the man and refuse to support the media machine? Here are some facts:

• Christians who I respect have laughed at me when I asked if they pay the TV tax. They say it’s a joke and no one but foreigners who don’t know any better pay it.
• They can come and “audit” you if you don’t pay. What this really means is a bit of a mystery.
• After midnight, most of these channels play shows that range from soft-core, to full-out pornography. If I pay my tax, aren’t I supporting this programming as well?

I’d love to get a discussion going – but hurry … the tax is due January 31!