One Trip, Two Trip, Red Dish, Green Dish

As I sit here, Nathan is currently at band practice and I'm thinking I'm hilarious for the name of the blog... haha. The name will be explained with time!

I know what you are thinking, "you JUST wrote a blog" but our trip this past weekend needs its own blog. Nathan and I, along with 8 others from the Avanti program, plus a baby, traveled to Padova and Vicenzia to visit the churches there. Let me tell you, they rock and you should pray for them!

One trip... To Padova

We loaded up the van at around 3 in the afternoon on Friday, hopped in the Big Black Bus (our really big van..), and headed out! We went to Padova first. (English way of saying this town is Padua.) Fun fact, Padova is home to the university Galileo attended and taught at. It is also the second oldest university in the worlddddd!!!! When we arrived, we headed to the church building for a devotional, dinner, and community time. There were seven sweet people waiting to welcome us! There was a missionary family of four who have been there 11 years and will be heading back to the States at the end of May. Pray for them! There was also a man who has been serving in Italy for 9 years. There were two Italians there as well. We had a good lesson and discussion about Esther. We also learned how many differences there are between the Bible and the movie (One night with the King)!!! Make sure you get your facts right if you are basing your knowledge off of the movie.. which I hope you won't in the first place!! We ate, played some ping pong, and went on a nice stroll around the beautiful town center before we had to head off to Vicenzia (30 minute drive) where we were sleeping. This was all we saw of the church in Padova, but please keep them in your prayers! From what we understand, their church has been getting smaller and smaller due to different circumstances. They are fantastic people and we hope to help them evangelize their community and encourage them more this summer!

twO trip... To vicenzia

Nathan and I were cool enough to be the ones who got to stay at the church building with another man who lives there, Mino. The church is an apartment style building and was located close to the center of town. Nathan and I got up earlyish Saturday morning, ate breakfast, and went exploring! It was beautiful! I'm sure I'll say this about every Italian city because I have yet to find one that I didn't like. Around 10am we gathered together with the other Avanti peeps, Mino, and Mino's dad, Franco. The goal was to set up a tent next to some other tents and hand out flyers for the church (think open air market). We broke up into groups and some of us stayed at the tent while others went out into the crowds and walked the streets! I think it went well, and pray that the church will benefit from it. After about three hours, we broke down and went in for lunch. The little apartment where Mino lives has a kitchen and he was sweet enough to spoil us with a delicious lunch!!! Shout out to Mino! After lunch, Mino took all of us on a little excursion to see Palladio's Rotunda! To some of you, this isn't a big deal but to me, IT IS! I studied so many buildings, pieces of artwork, and interiors in school. When I get to see them in person, it is fantastic. So, I definitely enjoyed our "little" trek to the house.

We met at the church building for a devotional led by Franco with other church members. We watched the Louie Giglio video "how Great is Our God" and it was a great reminder of how awesome God is! Of course, afterwards we ate! (It's what happens in Italy!)

Padova Fountain

Rotunda

Rotunda

red dish, Green dish... eating!

The next morning was church! On the last Sunday of the month, two different congregations come together and worship: the Italian church and the Ghanaian church. And WOWWWW was it a powerful experience and filled with the Holy Spirit! Seeing the differences in worship style, leading, and language was amazing. I wish I could let you experience it because explaining it is hard!! Three different nationalities coming together with 3 different languages was difficult at times, but beautiful. It was also a sweet couple's 50th wedding anniversary and it was wonderful seeing everyone come together to celebrate such a goooood occasion. Of course, because of this we HAD to eat! There were over 100 people, which is one of the biggest groups in Italy. They can't all eat in the little church together, so we went to a new location which was just big enough! We had a variety of different foods to try which were amazing! I really loved the Ghanaian rice. Yummm! We, the Americans, and the Ghanaians each sang songs to the sweet couple. Video to come/probably can find on Facebook! There were 6 different cakes that were all homemade and wowza they were good! And of course, as Italians do, they give gifts. But its a little different. The couple gave US gifts! She crochet cups and bags for every person with candy in it! As you can imagine, this couple is the sweetest! Pictures below :)

Franco Preaching

Church Window

Lovely Couple

Agape

Church Building

Cutting the Cake

That sums up our visit to the two churches. I hope you have a better understanding of them. If you have any questions, let us know and we will try our best to answer them for you! We have loved the churches we have gotten to visit and plan to visit as many as possible while we are here! If you are interested in supporting us, check out our "Partner with Us" page!

We love you all!

Ciao for now,

Ashley