Times of refreshing...

I've been meaning to get this on here for weeks now. It seems hard for me to keep this blog updated! Several weeks ago, 5 ladies came from America to speak at a ladies' retreat we hosted here in Padova...actually it was at a Venetian hostel in a town called Monselice, which is about 30 minutes away from Padova, but our church hosted it. Although I was "working" to help everything run smoothly behind the scenes of the retreat, God provided me such encouragement and reassurance throughout the entire weekend. The ladies had themed the retreat "Fight to the Finish" and taught from Ephesians 6 about the armor of God. The Lord was so faithful to remind me that He is with me...that He has my way prepared...that He is my strength, hope, and in Whom I can fully rely on. He really strengthened my faith through their testimonies and testimonies of others they told about. All of their messages and lessons spoke so powerfully to me. Good reminders...about Jesus responding with the word when the "if's" came (when Satan tempted Him-Matthew 4:3-11), that we should soak our mind in the word, so it will come out when pressure comes and we're being squeezed by life, circumstances, darts of the enemy...and many more things from the word to meditate on and apply.

Thank you Lord for Your word, reassurance, provision, and love!

From lower left to right...Sarah, Trish, Melody, Amanda, Joey & in the back Rose and Karen...what a huge blessing to meet all of you! We all had our snazzy scarves on!

A group shot of all the ladies at the retreat

Worship

Sitting at the breakfast table...we had breakfast, lunch, and dinner there at the hostel between sessions

Beautiful Vana & Lovely

A glimpse of Monselice...

A beautiful park where Trish and I enjoyed......

...these delectable little pastries! They were wrapped so beautifully!

These are just a few of the dear friends God has blessed me with here in Padova....Julie (who is also my Italian teacher!), Amy (who does the college student ministry here in Padova with her husband, Kurtis), Lovely (who always, always has a smile and hug for everyone!), and Melody (who lived only a few hours away from me in the US, but I had the privilege of meeting her here in Italy!)

Cleaning up after meals....

Vana took some pictures of us "working" :)

What a wonderful time of fellowship, encouragement, and growth in the Lord!

"Wait on the LORD;

Be of good courage,

And He shall strengthen your heart..."

Psalm 27:14

Birthday Blessings

Wow, what a day! Sometimes it's hard for me to believe I'm actually living in Italy...so yesterday it was a bit hard for me to believe I was really celebrating my birthday here. All of my new friends and family in Christ made me feel so special! Here is how my November 11th started out...

The very moment I arrived at the church, Vana was heading out the door, and she returned with this delicious brioche con crema cotta uvette (like a cinnamon roll with raisins) and cappuccino d'orzo (I don't really care for coffee, but I really like a drink similar to coffee--it's made with a toasted orzo grain and doesn't have caffeine). Just around the corner from the church is a little coffee shop where we always go for coffees and cappuccinos. Paulo, the bar (coffee shop to us) owner even let her take those flowers from one of his tables!

The creativity of our friend, Paulo! :)

What a wonderful start to my morning! Thank you, Vana!

After preparing materials and lessons for the after-school program, Steve & Patti took us all out for lunch! (Joel is taking this picture, so he was there too) We celebrated my birthday, and the upcoming "going away" of Maira, Joel, & Melody. Maira is going home to Brazil on Nov. 26th and Joel & Melody are going back to America on Dec. 6th. I can't think too much about all of them leaving...it makes me very sad! So we're all enjoying the remaining time that we have together! Lunch was delicious...an authentic Italian meal...4 courses--pasta, meat, vegetable, dessert, and then coffee. They serve coffee at the very end of your meal...to help with digestion. Wonderful! Thank you, Steve & Patti!

We taught the kids in the after-school program, (they all sang happy birthday to me in their native languages and prayed for me) and after that was finished, the college student group had a special movie night. It was an opportunity for the students in the group to invite their friends to an "event." They were thoughtful enough to celebrate my birthday too. Below is the chocolate chip cheesecake and homemade tiramisu that Amy made for me. Mmmm!

Complete with candle! True story--Amy remembered to bring everything but something to light the candle. Vana immediately dashed out the door and came back with a lighter that one of the homeless guys who usually sleeps around the corner from the church let us borrow. This was even more interesting because the movie that was shown was a version of Pay It Forward, and we have been discussing treating others the way you would want to be treated. After the movie, Amy talked for a bit about "paying it forward" to other people. Sharing the love and kindness of Christ, whether you have love and kindness returned to you or not. She mentioned the homeless man letting us borrow his lighter may have been a man that our church has fed before or helped in some way. And there he was being kind to us, letting us borrow his lighter.  

Thank you, Amy! Both the cheesecake and tiramisu were absolutely delicious! So thoughtful of you...it was wonderful to celebrate with you guys! She even brought some confetti to throw at me and a happy birthday streamer...as you can see, they wrapped it around my neck :)

What an experience...everyone at the movie night singing happy birthday to me in their native languages...Romanian, Italian, English, Albanian, Portuguese.

And this is what I found waiting for me at the end of the day. Maira left this little surprise for me to find! A card that says "Buon Compleanno" (Happy Birthday) and the little cake that says "Tanti Auguri"--which is just perfect to help me remember my birthday here in Italy! The Italian "happy birthday song" isn't really saying "happy birthday." It goes like this,

"Tanti auguri a te, Tanti auguri a te, Tanti auguri Sarah, Tanti auguri a te."

Maira explained to me that it is saying, best wishes to you, best wishes to you, etc.

She also gave me a picture frame for a good picture of us in Florence!! We are headed there Sunday afternoon! She wanted to visit Florence before she heads back to Brazil and thought it would be really nice for us to get to go together...so she talked to Patti and got it all worked out for me to go with her! Yah! We are staying with the McGehee's...A/G missionaries in Florence. We are so excited to see them and Firenze (Florence, in Italian) or as they call it, "The city of EVERYTHING"! :) They are so great! 

What a wonderful day! I definitely missed celebrating with my loved ones back home, but was so blessed to receive all your emails, facebook birthday blessings and wishes, packages, cards, etc! God is so good! Thank you all so very much!

 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

James 1:17

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.

Ephesians 1:3

Shepherds, Sheep, and a Savior

We have started practicing for our Christmas program! We are teaching our Sunday school children all the songs and drama parts from this musical--"Shepherds, Sheep, and a Savior." The kids have never done this one before, which on the one hand is great because it's new and fun for them! But it also makes it a bit more difficult for them...especially for the kids who can't really read English, as the songs and parts are all in English. Most of our kids speak English, but a few don't. If you could be praying for the program and the children, that would be great! That Jesus will be glorified and they will learn more about Him and love Him more throughout the practices and program. After all, He is what CHRISTmas is all about! :)

As most of you know, I love music...so this has been quite fun! We've been going over the songs for the past couple of weeks, and the kids have been doing great!! Seems like they've really been enjoying learning the new songs and their parts for the drama portion of the program.

This is the only picture I have of the kids during Sunday school. I took it a couple of weeks ago while they were listening to the Bible story. I've been so busy teaching them the songs and working on the program I haven't taken any more pictures! Today we had more than 20 kids! Praise the Lord!

Connections

Seeing how God connects us from around this wide world just blows me away! I've been meeting people from all around the world...worshipping with them, learning from them, partaking of a wide variety of their cultural cuisine, gaining new insights about their countries and cultures...It's been quite the experience!

Here was one experience that amazed me a couple days ago...

I was talking with a young woman named Iris who has recently started attending ICF Padova. In getting to know each other, she told me she was from Switzerland.

The funny thing was, just a couple days before this, I had asked my Grandma Marilyn to tell me more about where our ancestors came from. Grandma told me that her dad's family had immigrated from Switzerland, and that they spoke Swiss-German. Their last name was Stockli. One of her dad's American schoolteachers actually changed his name to Stackley, "to be spelled like it sounds". Grandma said that several of her relatives have done some research and discovered the name Stockli to be quite common there in Switzerland.

I was telling Iris all of this...and she immediately recognized the Stockli name. She was helping me pronounce it correctly! :) She explained to me that the o has the 2 dots over it...I forget what that's called. She said it's hard because we don't have a letter that makes this particular sound in English...which is probably why that teacher just decided to change his name here in America. Crazy! As Iris and I were discussing all of this and she was giving me a pronunciation lesson, she suddenly exclaimed, "You know what?!" (And yes, she speaks great English! Praise the Lord, I can communicate with her!) I replied, "What?!" She then proceeded to explain to me how in Switzerland, when a baby is born, they take the baby to a church to have them baptized...kind of...not really a full baby baptism or anything. I think from what she was explaining, it's like a birth certification of sorts...she explained that you have a man and woman there who aren't your parents, but if anything ever happened to your parents they would take care of you. I took it to be like what we would call "godparents". She was explaining all of this to tell me that her "godparents", the couple who was there with her parents when she was born (they are close friends of her family), that their last name is Stockli! Isn't that just crazy cool?! I thought so! Even if they aren't officially related to us somehow, meeting her was just amazing! Thank you, Lord, for such an incredible opportunity! While here, I've been reminded just how big the world is...but also it has seemed a bit smaller through experiences like this one. What a blessing!

"Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised! His greatness is beyond our understanding!"

Psalm 145:3

Mio Appartamento

Some of you have been asking me about my "living quarters" here, so I thought you

might enjoy a little look around! 

This is probably what I find most humorous about my Italian home. It's been interesting getting used to this "cozy" shower. Even though I am used to having a lot more space to shower in America, this little shower has served me quite well. It's neat to notice how we really could get by with much less than we have in America. Although I will admit, sometimes I get a little fed up with the curtain blowing on me & sticking to me all the time, & I just push it off of me as far as I can despite the water escaping to the floor. :)

I got in and closed the curtain all around me, so you would get a better idea of what it's like in there! Like I said...cozy!

Our living area...

Our kitchen area

Our little washing machine there on the bottom...I had never appreciated a dryer quite like I do now...seeing as how I don't have one here.

So you see our sink here...this is the dish drying rack, above the sink. Novel idea, right! Once you're done washing and drying the dishes, you just open the cabinet doors and set the dishes up there on the racks to dry! Handy!

Here is my room...you can see the second bed has become my "desk" :)

And here is Maira's room...this is where I just typed this blog post...with my computer halfway out her window! This is currently the only spot in our apartment where we get internet connection. She has been gracious enough to let me use her window a bit to get online. Otherwise I do everything online at the church. I am hoping to get it throughout the rest of the apartment soon :)

I am so grateful for this wonderful apartment! And for a fantastic roommate! Thank you, Lord! He is good! Speaking of my roommate, I need to vacate her premises so she can go to bed!

"Oh, that men would give thanks to the LORD for His goodness,

And for His wonderful works to the children of men!"

Psalm 107:8

Rainy Days & Mondays

This rainy day Monday didn't get me down! In fact, it was pretty restful...quite enjoyable actually! Patti had planned to take us to the mountains today, as they're only about 2 hours away by car. But she let me know this morning that we have received too much rain to make the trip today. So I enjoyed some extra time in bed this rainy Monday morning. It was wonderful to have some prayer, Word, & journal time without being pressed for time.
For lunch, Maira and I tried a recipe given to us by a lady from the church here. Remember the student group I was telling you about? I've gone on a prayer walk with them to different campus buildings around the city and I've been attending their meetings every Tuesday evening. Kurtis & Amy Denton are the leaders of the group, called Students for Christ. Amy makes dinner for all of us every Tuesday evening. A couple of weeks ago, she made this "creamy carrot soup" that was absolutely delicious! So Maira and I got the recipe from her and attempted it ourselves today for lunch! Oh, so good! If you like soup, you might like it! I'll post the recipe if you care to try it...

Creamy Carrot Soup

3/4 c. chopped onion

3 T. butter, divided

3 c. chopped carrots

3 c. chicken broth

2 T. uncooked long grain rice

1/2 c. heavy whipping cream

1-2 T. tomato paste

1/2 t. salt

1/4 tsp. white pepper

In a large saucepan, saute the onion in 2 T. butter. Add the carrots, broth, and rice. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 25 minutes or until the carrots and rice are tender. Cool slightly. Transfer soup mixture to a blender; cover and process until smooth. Return to the pan. Add the cream, tomato paste, salt, pepper and the remaining butter; heat through.

Instead of whipping cream, they have what's called "panna" here...which is thicker than whipping cream. We also used black pepper instead of white. The tomato paste here that we used was a bit different also and came in a tube. But it was excellent! Hope it turns out well there in the States & you like it if you try it!

This evening Maira & I went to Kurtis & Amy's house for a pizza competition. Everyone was to bring their own homemade pizza...to be tasted, and then voted on. Fun...and delicious! We were celebrating Mimosa, who is a very special Albanian woman at our church who is heading to Greece tomorrow. We will miss you, Mimosa, and you will be in our prayers!

I hope you can click on this picture to see it closer. Do you see the pizza with french fries and hot dogs on it? That's pretty common here in Italy. Yes...PIZZA with french fries and hotdogs on it! Can you imagine?! I tried a piece of it tonight and it was actually pretty tasty. Another common pizza topping here is tuna...and of course, olives. 

Here is sweet Mimosa. She doesn't speak much English and I don't speak much Italian, but the Lord is so good at bonding our hearts despite that! I'm not sure if she will be back from Greece before I leave Italy...I've so enjoyed getting to spend time with her this past month. May God bless you and keep you, Mimosa! 

Getting ready to dig in!

      "Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good;
         Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!"

Psalm 34:8