Baroni Worship Encounter

A couple weekends ago, we were blessed to have David & Rita Baroni with us. David is a singer/songwriter/recording artist from the Nashville, TN area. He and his wife held a special "worship encounter" on Saturday afternoon and then gave a free concert on Saturday night. He also led worship and preached on Sunday.
It was a privilege to learn from them and get to know them while they were here!

Team Milwaukee

During the week of March 27th through April 3rd, a missions team from Milwaukee, Wisconsin was here helping with various things at ICF. It was great to meet Pastor Tommy & his team, and get to know them a bit during the week!

On several days, Danielle and I went out with some of the team members and Patti to pray at the gates of the city. Padova used to be a walled city, and 9 of the original gates are still standing. It was awesome to pray for the various areas of the city, the people of Padova, the many university students here, and the country of Italy.

You can see a king here inside one of the gates. We were praying that the true King of Glory would come in!

Praying at one of the gates...

Another major task we all worked on was to repaint the church's upstairs ceiling and all the walls and ceiling downstairs. Just this past week, Danielle, Steve, and I finally finished it! We had run out of paint, and time, when the team was here. Praise the Lord, the painting is done! Looks great!

Team Milwaukee also helped us prepare materials for our after-school program and summer VBS coming up...drawing, coloring, painting, making flannels for our flannel board. We are so grateful for their help!

Here are some of the faces of Milwaukee...


Lynn & I in Venice


Pastor Tommy Orlando with his family


Here's a nice picture of their whole group, enjoying a meal at the beautiful villa where they stayed.

And here is Jonathan, with his wife Jessica...he was the only one not pictured in the group pic because he was taking it!

Great to meet you, Team Milwaukee members!

Abundant hospitality

These past couple of weeks, Danielle and I have been showered with such kindness and hospitality! The Calolot family invited us over for lunch after church a couple of Sundays ago....during which we enjoyed a delicious meal, great conversation, and even some karaoke to Christian hit songs from the 90's and before. :)

Thank you Oscar, Lorna, and family for such a wonderful time! 

This past week on our day off, Bruni invited me, Danielle, Denisa, and Xhuli over for lunch. She lives outside of Padova, so it was refreshing to breathe in some fresh country air! She had appetizers ready and waiting for us when we walked in. We started in on those after enjoying a tour of she & Bledi's new home. I think I remember her telling me they waited for almost 10 years to have a home of their own. I really should have taken my camera so you could see their beatiful home and the lovely meal she made for us!

After appetizers came the lasagne! It was honestly one of the best I've ever tasted...Danielle and I agreed that it was better than any lasagne we've ever eaten at a restaurant. This was just the first course...

Then came the breaded chicken fillets, spinach/pork/cheese fillets (which have a special name that escapes me at the moment), and rosemary potatoes....

Then came the insalate (salad)...

Then we could hardly think of eating dessert right away because we were so full, but later she brought out this amazing ice cream dessert called Viennetta, which looked very similar to this photo I found online...it was so good! The particular flavor she had was creme brulee. Mmmm!

What a meal! Thank you Bruni, for your wonderful hospitality and such an amazing meal.

This past Sunday, Patti invited me over to celebrate with some other friends who were coming to her house to celebrate her birthday. Another delicious meal of tortellini, some type of fish, salad, and chocolate chip cookies! Mmm! It was so kind of her to invite me. We all had a nice time of fellowship, prayer, and fun together.

There are a number of other people who have on numerous occasions invited me over, shown me such care and thoughtfulness, been such a blessing to me...

I praise the Lord for allowing me the privilege of meeting so many wonderful people from all over the world!  

He's also given us opportunities to bless others. This past Friday, a Chinese girl who is studying in Norway, showed up at the church for the dinner and Breaking the Barriers service. She was planning on staying in a hotel by herself near the train station. Patti, Danielle, and I talked it over and decided to ask if she would like to stay with us in the apartment for the weekend. She was thrilled, and thanked us for adopting her. :) Xin is 22 and was traveling in Italy for several weeks. We showed her around Padova and tried to make her feel at home. She is a sweetie, and wanted to pray for us before she left.

Blessings to you, Xin!

I also got to take Patti out for lunch on her birthday. We went to the market to buy her flowers and then enjoyed lunch at an Indian restaurant down the street from the church...yum!

The birthday girl! (We let Steve come to lunch with us too!)

Dottoressa Denisa

I attended my first Italian university graduation a couple of weeks ago. Of course quite different from in America, and so neat to experience! One of my Albanian friends, Denisa, graduated with a degree in nursing. On the morning of her graduation, she had to present her thesis to a panel of professors. And we got to watch! Granted, I didn't really understand a word of it since it was in Italian, but I still enjoyed it! She did great!

After she finished, the professors took a few minutes to decide on the presentation grades of she and the other students who presented. After grades were given, then came lots of pictures and congratulations!

With her mom, Mimoza, and her brother, Fabio

Yah Denisa!! Congratulations!!!

Along with a graduation comes a party...which we had the next night! Lots of food, fellowship, fun and.....Albanian dancing!! :) They were so kind to teach those of us who didn't know how. I really enjoy watching them, but it was so fun to learn myself!

Xhuli with her handkerchief/kleenex :)

Lessons from Denisa...

And lessons from Vana

Some of the SFC girls with our card we gave Denisa. We also went in together to get her the traditional wreath she wore on her graduation day (pictured above).

Bruni finally agreed to dance with her husband, Bledi. She's really shy, and got such a kick out of watching us try to learn how to dance! It's pretty exhausting! She kept asking me, "can you imagine 5 hours of this?!" Traditionally, Albanians dance for at least 5 hours during their wedding celebration.

Beautiful Bruni....it was so fun to watch them!

What a wonderful time with such wonderful friends!