Perhaps the greatest challenge of this entire trip has been the language barrier that exists between our group from Second Baptist and our host church and the surrounding community. I for one drastically overestimated how much English our hosts would know. Other than Gabriela and two others from the church, Massimo and Evana, the rest of the congregation speaks almost no English. This has proved to be a difficult barrier to overcome in basic conversation, but our group and the congregation of Ariccia are both up to the tasks.
Conversation involves a lot of patience, a lot of repetition, and a lot of charades. Its amazing how much you can communicate with some improve acting. Our whole group has done a great job at stepping out of their comfort zones and meeting the challenge of communicating and building friendships in spite of the language difference.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Concerts in Review
Today we completed our last of three concerts in Italy. We performed the musical drama “Celebrate Life” - which tells the gospel story of the birth, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus through song and narrations by characters Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
One of the riches blessings on this trip has been sharing the stage with the members of the Ariccian church. The 4 narrators for the drama were Alberto (younger) Alberto (older), Christina, and Alessandra. They memorized all of their narrations and delivered stellar performances at every show. The best part was that they spoke their lines in Italian. The whole production was a beautiful bilingual blend of Italian and English.
Our first performance was Friday evening in Albano Italy. If you are traveling from Ariccia to Rome, Albano is the first town you reach after leaving Ariccia. Gabriela Lio, our host pastor in Ariccia, also pastors an ecumenical congregation in Albano. They worship in an old church that has been restored and is now a community worship center. The acoustics were incredible. We performed before a respectable Friday ngiht crowd and after our concert Gabriela collected an offering for the Italian Baptist Medical Missions program in Zimbabwe Africa. It was exciting to see how our missions efforts were being multiplied in an unexpected way to help the Italian Baptist mission work in Africa through our presentation of “Celebrate Life“.
Last night’s (Saturday) performance was at the church in Ariccia. It was a packed house (for a small church) and very hot. Our group rose to the occasion and performed a great concert. I was sure that someone would faint during the concert, but everyone made it through. The audience was so appreciative and very encouraging.
After the concert the audience was invited to a community sized meal in celebration of the birthdays of two of the congregation - Spartacus (a WWII veteran) and Aurora (a young girl 7 or 8 whose father works in the bakery next door to the church). It was an incredible feast with lots of singing, laughing, and eating.
This morning we sang at the Taylor Institute in Rome Italy. The Taylor Institute was established by David Taylor of Virginia USA after World War II to help the widows, orphans, and elderly of Rome. Today the Institute serves as a retirement home for the community. Sadly, 4 years ago, due to lack of funding they had to close their centers for the orphans and families.
We performed for the 11am worship service for the Baptist congregation that worships at the Taylor institute. The performance went very well, the best of the 3, and again money was collected for the Italian Baptist efforts in Zimbabwe.
After worship we were treated to lunch at the Taylor Institute with the members of the community. It was touching to talk to several who came to the institute 30+ years ago as orphans or widowed mothers who still leave nearby and continue to volunteer and help lead worship, activities, and programs at the institute.
One of the riches blessings on this trip has been sharing the stage with the members of the Ariccian church. The 4 narrators for the drama were Alberto (younger) Alberto (older), Christina, and Alessandra. They memorized all of their narrations and delivered stellar performances at every show. The best part was that they spoke their lines in Italian. The whole production was a beautiful bilingual blend of Italian and English.
Our first performance was Friday evening in Albano Italy. If you are traveling from Ariccia to Rome, Albano is the first town you reach after leaving Ariccia. Gabriela Lio, our host pastor in Ariccia, also pastors an ecumenical congregation in Albano. They worship in an old church that has been restored and is now a community worship center. The acoustics were incredible. We performed before a respectable Friday ngiht crowd and after our concert Gabriela collected an offering for the Italian Baptist Medical Missions program in Zimbabwe Africa. It was exciting to see how our missions efforts were being multiplied in an unexpected way to help the Italian Baptist mission work in Africa through our presentation of “Celebrate Life“.
Last night’s (Saturday) performance was at the church in Ariccia. It was a packed house (for a small church) and very hot. Our group rose to the occasion and performed a great concert. I was sure that someone would faint during the concert, but everyone made it through. The audience was so appreciative and very encouraging.
After the concert the audience was invited to a community sized meal in celebration of the birthdays of two of the congregation - Spartacus (a WWII veteran) and Aurora (a young girl 7 or 8 whose father works in the bakery next door to the church). It was an incredible feast with lots of singing, laughing, and eating.
This morning we sang at the Taylor Institute in Rome Italy. The Taylor Institute was established by David Taylor of Virginia USA after World War II to help the widows, orphans, and elderly of Rome. Today the Institute serves as a retirement home for the community. Sadly, 4 years ago, due to lack of funding they had to close their centers for the orphans and families.
We performed for the 11am worship service for the Baptist congregation that worships at the Taylor institute. The performance went very well, the best of the 3, and again money was collected for the Italian Baptist efforts in Zimbabwe.
After worship we were treated to lunch at the Taylor Institute with the members of the community. It was touching to talk to several who came to the institute 30+ years ago as orphans or widowed mothers who still leave nearby and continue to volunteer and help lead worship, activities, and programs at the institute.
Where has the time gone…
So my warm and fuzzy idea of spending my evenings quietly reflecting on the day and blogging for everyone back home was quickly derailed by late night dinners and early morning wake-up calls. In Italy, lunch starts around 1:30pm and dinner isn’t until 8pm or so. Every night we gather at the church in Ariccia for dinner and are treated to 4 courses of pasta, meat, salad, and desserts - most nights with multiple desserts. We normally leave the church sometime between 10pm-11pm.
After dinner, (and gelato) when everyone has arrived back at the hotel we gather as a group for some time of reflecting on our day and sharing information for the next day’s activities. We are then led by Youth Ministry Intern Philip Riley in a nightly devotional. Philip has done an incredible job facilitating these times and helping our group to share where they have seen God throughout the day and how we are growing in Christian community - koinonia - with our brothers and sisters of Ariccia.
After dinner, (and gelato) when everyone has arrived back at the hotel we gather as a group for some time of reflecting on our day and sharing information for the next day’s activities. We are then led by Youth Ministry Intern Philip Riley in a nightly devotional. Philip has done an incredible job facilitating these times and helping our group to share where they have seen God throughout the day and how we are growing in Christian community - koinonia - with our brothers and sisters of Ariccia.
Friday, July 9, 2010
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
More Italy Pictures!
Some of the team swimming in Lake Albano.
Mr. Miller with Gabriela and Angelo.
A beautiful view of Italy.
This was taken on our walk to the church on the way to dinner.
Caroline, Katie, Victoria, Sarah Bradley, and Emily during our day in Rome.
The posing with a wonderful view of Italy.
Mr. Miller and Mr. Heese enjoying lunch in Rome and sportin' some wonderful sunglasses.
Welford, Becky, and Abby in front of Trevi Fountain.
Pictures from Italy!
Picture are worth a thousand words! We hope you enjoy!
-Katie Perkins
Abby is our best "tool" for communicating with the Italians.
This is the first night in front of Renato's bakery. Renato is the husband of Gabriela, the pastor of the Italian church.
Some of the girls in front of Lake Albano.
Some of the boys in front of Lake Albano.
Our 4th of July dinner at the church. (fried chicken, hamburgers, hot dogs, chips, and much much more!)
Eating pizza in Rome.
Some of the group in front of the Colosseum.
Monday, July 5, 2010
Busy, busy, fun!
We had the privilege to worship with our italian friends on Sunday. Welford gave the sermon as Gabriella, the pastor of the church, translated. We then joined our friends on the back porch of the church to fellowship and eat lots of food. We will definitely not come back hungry! Their hospitality and love ceases to amaze us. We were immediately thrown into their arms with hugs and kisses. Even though we lack our Italian communication skills we have quickly learned that love is a universal language and that there is nothing that can separate us from loving God's people.
Since Sunday was the Fourth of July, our Italian friends helped us celebrate by cooking hamburgers and hot-dogs, potato salad, potato chips, and decorated the porch with American flag tablecloths. They certainly made us feel right at home and continue to offer so much love and graciousness.
Today (Monday) we toured basically all of Rome in a matter of 7 hours! Our feet are hurting tonight! That's for sure! But what an amazing, breathtaking, spiritual experience. Each night we have a group debriefing and devotion that Phillip Riley leads and every night he asks us, "
Where did you see God today?" The answers of course are very diverse, but all so encompassing of our time here and the blessings that God has allowed us to experience. Some one mentioned tonight how God continued to provide water when we were most in need. It just so happened that we toured Rome during probably one of the hottest days so far and how we were constantly needing to stay hydrated. Interesting fact is that in Rome, the fountains are all drinkable water and are spaced out all over the city, but we would always stumble across one just when we started looking for it.
Sorry for the mini, delayed update, but thanks for reading our blogs and praying for us! It's 2:48 am in Italy.... Buona notte (good night).
Since Sunday was the Fourth of July, our Italian friends helped us celebrate by cooking hamburgers and hot-dogs, potato salad, potato chips, and decorated the porch with American flag tablecloths. They certainly made us feel right at home and continue to offer so much love and graciousness.
Today (Monday) we toured basically all of Rome in a matter of 7 hours! Our feet are hurting tonight! That's for sure! But what an amazing, breathtaking, spiritual experience. Each night we have a group debriefing and devotion that Phillip Riley leads and every night he asks us, "
Where did you see God today?" The answers of course are very diverse, but all so encompassing of our time here and the blessings that God has allowed us to experience. Some one mentioned tonight how God continued to provide water when we were most in need. It just so happened that we toured Rome during probably one of the hottest days so far and how we were constantly needing to stay hydrated. Interesting fact is that in Rome, the fountains are all drinkable water and are spaced out all over the city, but we would always stumble across one just when we started looking for it.
Sorry for the mini, delayed update, but thanks for reading our blogs and praying for us! It's 2:48 am in Italy.... Buona notte (good night).
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