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

Getting Started

Wednesday
So, Wednesday started out with meeting Cody, one of the ICS, or International Campus Staff, to go down town. Side note, ICS are long term team members. We were on a mission to sign me up for the beginners Italian Language class that his wife, Jennifer, is taking. Well, we get there and from the little bit that the teacher spoke in English, that class was moving too quickly, so we left our numbers, and they were going to call with a time for my classes. After that I rode the bus, by myself to Ryan’s, another ICS staff member, house to have lunch. Ryan and his wife Karli were hosting a lunch for Kelly, Annet, and I to welcome us to the city. Karli made carbonara that was oh so very yummy. After lunch Ryan allowed us girls to ask questions we had about what we would be doing here in Italy. About half way through jet lag got the best of me and I was knocked out. :( Fortunately, everyone understood. I felt terrible. On the way home, Kelly and I went to go see if we could get my phone to work, and to run a few other errands. Thank goodness for someone who understands the culture and can help me out.

Thursday
Today started with the joyful trip to Ikea, pronounced here as E-Kea. The three girls were all off to get bed and bath stuff for the new apartment. Here is where jet lag and stress just kicked my butt. We walk in and with a few moments, Annet, Kelly, and Julia have all gone their separate ways shopping. Totally something that would be fine and I would do myself in the states. However, I look up to look at signs to see where things are and realize, wow, I am lost, and I can't even read the signs to know where I might want to go. Now, this is no fault of the girls, it is my fault as I do what I do, I wander. So, I start to get frustrated at the fact that I have no idea where I am and I start to just feel that feeling of, "what am I doing here, and I want to go home!" So, I continue to just walk through Ikea and finally bump into everyone again. My very smart self *sarcastic sigh here* does not ask any of the girls to buddy up with me, which would have been a very easy thing to do. Instead within a few moments again I am on my own. I decided hey I should just do my best and use this as a growing experience. I get to the bedding stuff and go to pick up a duvet cover, and realize I can't read what size this is. At this moment of realization that this is just how it will be for awhile, I am ready to just sit right there on the floor and cry. Not good. Long story short, I survived the experience but I had taken a beating.
When we got back to Jesse and Tricia Marcos' apartment I was ready to go back to Linda's where I was staying and just hide under the covers and to sleep it off. So I got on a bus and rode back to Linda's. I had a wee bit of a celebration when I realized that I did it all by myself. Seriously, I think I aged to 5 that day.

Linda was so very kind and helped me feel somewhat normal for being so overwhelmed during this cultural adjustment, and by 3 in the afternoon I was sound asleep on her couch. At 7 pm she woke me up in time to say that she was off to a bible study and would be back later and we could have dinner. So I decided I would do my best to stay up until bed time. Success!

Friday
Friday, started off much better. Kelly, Annet and I had made plans to go downtown and explore, all for the purposes of helping me to get a general sense of direction downtown so I would not always feel so lost. It was awesome. In the time I was awake the night before, I had really studied some maps of downtown and it really helped. The girls were so gracious in letting me take the lead to see if I really knew where I was, but also being for me when I wasn't sure. :) After we had walked around for a bit we went to this department store called Coin. There I found the bedding I was too frustrated to find at Ikea. Again success! After, that we began to head back to the bus stop to go to Jesse's for the staff meeting. On the way there, we saw a protest by the area high school students against the curriculum. Cool, very cool!

Staff meeting was the first time the whole team had been able to get together. We started the meeting with some prayer and devotional time. Sweet! After that Jesse shared the history of how campus crusade ended up in Bologna, and how the team arrived there too! Some very cool stuff...more on that later. We also discussed as a team what our schedule would look like, and how it fit in with Agape Italia's view of what ministry in Italy should look like. I am pretty excited to get moving on some stuff, but we will also be testing the waters, so to speak. We are the first team here, so we are on ground zero. I will get you more details as they unfold.

Saturday and Sunday
To round up the week, I relaxed and had a lazy Saturday. I slept in, opened the serranda, i.e. shutter like things on the windows, and enjoyed the view and noises. I wrote some thank you cards and some letters to send over to Texas. I caught up on some book keeping for expenses and just really enjoyed the day. A lazy day back in Texas is well, nice, but in Italy it is amazing! That evening Kelly and Annet came to Linda's and we had dinner and chatted the night away.
Sunday morning started with church. Oh, how I forget how awesome it is to hear worship in another language. When I arrived I quickly picked up on them singing Alpha, Omega, beginning and end... and started to sing along in English. After that they sang another song I knew and I also sang along, in English. Two more songs and it was time for prayer. I loved listening in, even if I had no idea what was being said. I was glad that God would know every language that every tribe would come to Him in. Praise that we have an infinite God. When the teaching began, I gave up feeling like trying to marvel at the sound of Italian and just read quietly where I am in my personal devotional time, numbers. Maybe I would have better off listening to sermon I wouldn't understand.

Afterwards, Kelly and Annet were introducing me to a few friends that they know from Nuova Vita and a few spoke English. Paolo, one of the guys was amongst them. After a few minutes of me giving him a hard time about inviting us somewhere on Saturday night and then not calling us, he asks where I am from. When I reply that I am from America, and from Texas, he said, "No, you’re kidding, you sound like your Australian." Several minutes later, he still doesn't believe me. I pull out my passport and show him that I am from Texas and he thinks it is a fake too. Funny right?
After church, I came home and just relaxed. I had pizza for the first time since I have been here and no kidding ate the whole thing. PS for those who don't know, it is culturally acceptable and the Italians will eat a whole one plus other courses in a traditional meal.

So, tomorrow I should move into my apartment and may be without internet for awhile, but I will catch yall up when I can! Oh and Tuesday I start language school. Also next week before Friday, we will go to campus and start well…something great.

Ciao, Ciao!
Crystal

I Have Arrived...

I made it to Bologna yesterday around 2pm here. We immediately left the airport and dropped off my luggage at Linda's apartment. After that Annet, Jesse, Kelly, and I went to meet with the realtor to make the lease for our apartment. After that we went to try and get me a Sim card for my phone. While successful at getting a Sim card, I was not successful in making it work. :( I will work more on that later. When we got back to Jesse and Tricia's apartment, we all had a homemade Bolognese sauce. Yumm. I then went back to Linda's and slept soundly, until the jack hammers woke me up this morning at 7ish. Welcome to Italy!


Today was a day of paperwork. A visa is only step one in being able to live and work in Italy. First I had to apply for a numero di codice fiscale. Basically, it is a social security number in Italy. After, I finished getting that form in record time, i.e. maybe 30 minutes, not the half day it took Kelly, we headed to the post office to go ahead and get my permesso which is a permit to stay. The lady at the desk was not happy about having to do the paperwork for this, but alas it was filled out. So, I have an appointment to meet with the government on the morning of the 29th of October.

After finishing the paperwork, we ate lunch and then went to the center to meet with the guy currently living in the apartment we get to move into in a week. :) So, excited! It is a two bedroom, one bath apartment. It was recently redone so I am excited! When we finished we made a quick trip to a store and found a dryer and straitener that we could use this year.
At around 7pm Annet, Julia and I went to dinner, where I had gnocchi and it was delicious! When we ordered tiramisu and it did not turn out right so the waiter brought us some limoncello to drink...tried it but I think it tastes like pinesol. :) Wouldn't recommend it!

Anyhow, it is late and I am tired and will be getting up early tomorrow. I have to sign up for my language school! YEAH!
Ciao!
Crystal

Travel wouldn't be travel without delays....

Our flight out from Chicago was delayed for about an hour. Which of course means I got to Frankfurt a hour late. Add the time it takes to unload a lot of people off a plane, and go through customs, and go back through security and I was really late. I was supposed to have almost a hour and a half here at the airport, however, I missed my flight. Lufthansa rebooked my flight for 12:15 pm my time and 5:15 in Texas time. So, I will arrive at 2 and 7 respectively. :) I am a very tired traveler and hope to maybe nap at the airport before I arrive. I will try and let you know as soon as I make it!
Crystal

Veiw from my plane window right before landing!