Choosy mom's Choose Jif, plus other news!

First off I am so excited that after 6 trips to the post office and having someone call the automated post office phone system 5 times, that I finally have the package my mom sent me! Made my day! I also got a postcard and a letter today! Gosh I feel so loved!

A picture of the card and post card, as well as the slips delivered before the package without pickup instructions.

The package, filled with lots of thoughtful goodies!

Choosy mom's choose Jif! Plus Taco seasoning, yumm!!!  Thank you momma so much!

IN OTHER NEWS:

We had our second English class today at the Facoltà di Ingegneria today and had 6 students show up. So, I will update you as to the progress of the class. The students are coming because at this faculty in the spring there will be an English test most of the students will be required to take, so I am going to help them with some test prep.

Last week when we met I had prepared a lesson focusing on a major English test in Italy that I thought that they might be taking, but it was the wrong one. The 7 students that showed up last week all said they were spoke, "Bruto Italiano." They lied, they spoke very good English. We did lots of grammar practice and it was ok. Anyhow, this week I knew in advance what test they would be taking as well as what they wanted to do with our time together. So, this week we focused on the spoken part of the test.
I prepared models of the four different parts and their components. We had a ton of fun. The first part of the test is an interview of the tester about their hometowns, family, and other things. I liked this part because I was able to hear a little from each person about who they are and where they are from. In the second part of the test they have to compare two pictures. The funniest thing is one set was to compare a dog to a chipmunk. It was so funny because none of the Italians had seen a picture of one before. After Kelly and I began to explain what it was one of the girls shouted, “They dance and sing like, umm” and I replied, “Alvin?” She said yes and they are started talking about Alvin and the chipmunks. After a few minutes of laughter we moved on to the third part in which the test takers are given a task they have to plan in pairs. It was fun to hear them interact with one another. The last part of the spoken test is for the students to discuss in a group of three their opinions about a question or topic.
This is where our time together got interesting. One of the questions I asked focused on politics in Italy. Anyhow they were all a little eager to discuss and Kelly got a lot of insight. She studied Italian politics as a part of her coursework in college. After our two hours together was over, I was a little sad that I would have to wait till next week for us to talk again!

Prayer Requests

• That the English club on Tuesday turns into a great way to foster relationships with the Italians. Praise that is on the campus and that we kind of have a room.

• Pray for the discussion group about worldviews of Christianity and other religions turns into a fruitful time with believers and non-believers here in Bologna. On a side note, it will take place in a McDonalds.

• Pray for the small group of girls who want to study the Bible with Annet in Greek and Latin. Praise that we have someone on our team who can do that!

• Pray for the team as we each branch out into personal ministry interest times on campus. Pray that we will each find something that will help develop relationships with Italians that will lead to sharing of the gospel.

• Pray for some special relationships that our Cody, Jesse, and Tricia have with people in the community and praise that some of them are asking the staff about God, the church, and the Bible!

As always, I want to continue to pray for supporters back home. Feel free to email me at clearblue06@live.com and I will make sure to diligently talk to God about what you share!
Agape in Christ,

Crystal

Pictures of Bologna

Objective One

Last week, the girls and I started our campus ministry at the University of Bologna. Getting there is taking a lot of faith.


Campus Crusade for Christ in the United States basically goes to students at a university's campus and initiates conversations with students about spirituality. Most hope that these initial conversations will lead a non-believer of Christ in a relationship with a staff member in which questions can be answered in a non threatening environment that will prayerfully lead the non believer to the person of Christ. That person can then be discipled and ultimately lead to a point where they too will want to share the gospel of Christ with others. Now as a disclaimer, I was not involved with Campus Crusade during college and I am relying on others descriptions of what they experienced during college. Also, this is a brief description is not an all encompassing view of the many varied ministries Campus Crusade has both stateside and abroad.

That being said, that method has not worked here in Italy. The Italians' have a different culture and different worldview than Americans. Our time on campus last week was spent doing surveys with some of the students here in Bologna. Surveys like the one we did have been done by staff members at other campus ministries throughout Italy, and Agape Italia has seen some common threads amoung the different locations but also some differences. We will also be doing some throughout the year just to make sure that as we try and reach Italian students with the gospel, that we don't let culture hinder the message.

In Acts 17: 16-34 Paul has taken the time to observe the people living in Athens and what their culture was like. When he took the gospel to the people of Athens he did so in a way that connected to their culture. Instead of going to the synagogue as was more the cultural norm, he started in the market place where the Athenians shared the daily news. He went to the Areopagus and proclaimed it there. The same place that Epicurean and Stoic philosophers debated the latest ideas. He said he had observed the way they had built alters and worshipped many Gods. He also noted that they had an alter for an "unknown god." He used their way of life to communicate a message that needed to be heard there. He did not let what was familiar to him; stop him from finding a way to reach the Athenians where they were.

Paul talks about this more in 1 Corinthians 9:19-23

"Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God's law but am under Christ's law), so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings."
That being said we are on campus at this point trying to find out what the culture of the students at the University of Bologna looks like.

Some things currently being processed.

1) Most students have said they would not talk about spiritual things with people they do not know. One girl said, “I would talk about spiritual things with my friends, my family, no, my friends, maybe..." So, we will need to get to know the Italians. Sounds easy right, it is not, keep reading. They also did not say the church.

2) When asked where there friends are from, the university or their cities, many of the students replied both, but the ones they were close to were from home. When asked how long it took for them to become close enough to share personal things with them, one replied, "years and years."

So, we need to be close friends with the Italians and that can take many years, are you starting to see that this may be different than the U.S. A fact I learned this weekend is that the average rate of turnover for a missionary serving in Italy is 2 years. My friends, the missionaries here aren't staying long enough to get to a place where the Italians want to talk about spiritual things.

3) National leadership has observed the fact that Italians are a little suspicious of free things. Last year a team was giving out free bottles of water, and the Italians were very suspicious. Free language classes, same thing, there must be something wrong with it. Now think about this, the Gospel is free to hear. (1 Corinthians 9:18) God's grace costs us nothing, but cost God his only son. We could never earn our salvation. It is free. Our good works can't get us a spot in heaven with God. It is free. (Ephesians 2:8-9) Being religious is not enough. It is free. Jesus paid the debt of our sins by dying on the cross, a debt we simply cannot pay. It is free. (John 14:6) Jesus died in our place. It is free. (1 Peter 3:18) All we have to do is accept an invitation. It is free. (John 1:12)
“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:23

Now my wheels turn thinking about a suspicion of free things, my friends, the gospel is free. Are they suspicious of it too?
4) The Italians don't understand missionaries. Many non practicing Italians think the church is here, why are you? What is the difference between Catholic and protestant? Are you going to tell me that the catholic culture and my by default "Italian" culture are wrong? There has been a lot of protestant churches doing just that and a lot of catholic retaliation. That all being with our bringing in the "Church" and its history here.
There is a lot more being processed and we are working to try and brainstorm ideas that might reach into the hearts and minds of Italian culture so that we can share the gospel with the many lost people here. As a team we are prepared to try many things this year and to fail. Just pray for us, for wisdom, as we brainstorm. Pray for God to go out ahead of us and prepare a place. Pray that God not let His Words return empty even though we are not sufficient to adequately share the "Good News." (Isaiah 55: 10-11)

Ciao!

Crystal

Cultural Lessons 101

So having been in Italy a month tomorrow 11-4-09 ,or as they write here in Italy 4-11-09, I have started learning quite a bit about Italian culture as well as my own and about myself.


1) I am impatient. Most people who know me say, "Crystal you must have a lot of patience, you do..."

Well I am not patient and God is taking the time to show me this being in Italy. I was told by some of my teammates that waiting is a part of Italian culture. When I was getting my paperwork done the longest line I waited in was maybe 30 minutes, and I thought to myself that is not too much different than the states. Well on October 14, I signed up for language classes at the Anglo American School (they teach mostly English to Italians). That day they gave me a list of what books I would need for the course. I went to the book store and they had the work book I needed but not the text book. I talked to the lady at the counter, she spoke a little English, and she informed me the book had been ordered but the bookstore was waiting on the Greeks. Humm... we are still waiting on the Greeks.

That same week, actually before I went looking for the book, my roommates were kind enough to go to the local internet provider, FastWeb to sign up for internet. Well we got internet yesterday, November 7, and in the mean time, I was very frustrated with the waiting.

So lesson number one is I have a lot less patience than I thought.

2) Language is very important to what we do on a daily basis. I can't emphasize this point enough. My first day in Italy I went to apply for my codice fiscale and my permesso. While I was doing this I was given very simple forms to fill out. It needed information such as my name, birthday, and passport number. Stateside if the same form was given to a parent of a student who did not know much English I would not have thought twice about the possibility of such a form being difficult. The information it was looking for was simple. Alas, having had my experience here in Italy, I now know the simplicity of the information required on the form does not matter, if you can't read it.

3) Second languages are hard to acquire. Prior to my experiences here in Italy, I served as a teacher in Texas, where I had English as a Second Language, E.S. L., teaching certification. In training for such a certification the professors I had shared with us many strategies based on tons of research for ways to help students acquire the ability to speak and understand English. Some were rather simple things such as where a student were to sit, or making sure to use pictures with words to help ground the words meaning. Some were a little more strategic such as having cloze passages, or passages that would leave out only key words for the ESL student to fill in. All that said, my Italian teacher used some of the same techniques when teaching Italian to non-Italian speaking students, including me. My assessment, they may help, but very little in the beginning stages of language acquisition. For the first few days I could listen in class for an hour and a half and understand little to none that was said. Having now been in the country for a month, and having been in 8 classes, I can every now and then think, "Wow, I know all the words they just said, now give me 10 minutes to think of what they mean." I will keep you posted to my progress this year.

4) Moving to a country is different from traveling to a country. When I go to visit a place, I am concerned with the best sites to see and the best food to eat, and maybe learning a few words from the host country. Moving somewhere though, I look at the sites to see every day, and say I have time to see that later, now where is the grocery store. You see the restaurants all around and think maybe I ought to try that sometime, but that tonight I think I will cook at home. You hear the language and say I want to be able to have a conversation with the people I see here and not only the ones who speak English.

5) Culture relates to how people view things, including religion, it is a part of their worldview. Now, it seems to me that having done research in college in a field that hinges on peoples worldviews I didn't expect this realization to slap me across the face the way it did. Yet, it did. When I was on campus last week interviewing students about spirituality and culture, it was interesting to contemplate how culture influenced some of the answers we heard. I will be posting more information about this on another post. This point will affect my work throughout the year, and how we reach out to the Italians.

6) This one is not so serious, but I will share. Italian is similar to Spanish in the fact that verbs change have suffixes that change based on if the verb is being done in first person (I), second person (you), him or her, us, we, or them. I hope that makes sense. It is hard to explain it. However, I was working on homework for class one night and it strikes me, in Texas I would phrase that as "Ya'll,” so do they have a plural form of you in Italian? The answer is yes. The word, noi, which literally translates as we, really means plural you, or in Texas, YA'LL! Yes!

I am sure that as culture surrounds me I will continlue to learn about Italian culture but also a little more about myself, and I will keep you posted!

Crystal