I have officially written about everything on that list that I posted a while ago. NOW, there's still more! Of course, that has happened even since then.

In the month of July, Peter stayed home and didn't go to camp and helped David with completely redoing the kitchen. They took a mini-jackhammer and evened out the walls, re-tiled the floor, put new tiles on the wall, added more electrical outlets(because there were only 3 in the entire kitchen before, one for the fridge, one for the mixer, and one for the coffeemakers(American and Italian). So yes, there were times we needed a few more and now there are at least 8...hooray! They also painted the rest of the wall and the ceiling, moved the new furniture in and put in new faucets...it was a job, let me tell you.

They weren't the only ones that helped though, everyone chipped in and even visitors helped out. There was a mother and daughter that was passing through and they helped for several days, Derrick and Jay, Emily's friends, helped for several weeks. They were supposed to do a work exchange with someone else in Florence and once they got here, in Florence, these people cancelled! yikes, so they did a work exchange with us instead, they worked on the kitchen and got room and board. Once we got back from camp, Ryan came over everyday and helped until it was time to stop. Everyone else helped as well, but I can't name everybody.

The furniture is actually used but it's new to us. Pepperdine University in Florence was redoing their kitchen and getting rid of the old kitchen stuff, so Elizabeth Watley knew we were doing our kitchen and gave us their old stuff. Awesome! All stainless steel and the kitchen looks great and is so much better than before. It will be so much easier to work and prepare big meals now. Thank you so much to everyone that helped with that!

I'll post some pictures of that soon.

VBS!!!

Ryan and Laura organized VBS at the Florence church this summer in June. The kids loved it and so did everyone that helped.  The theme was "The armor of God". There were kids from Prato, Florence, and Pistoia. Here's the video Laura made and there is a clip of the skit the guys did that you have to see...they really put on their actor faces. VBS video You'll have to be logged in to see the video and if you still can't see the video let me know and I'll ask Laura for a copy of it or something. Here are pictures even if you can't see the video...

Emily really took her job seriously, making the armor.

Tested and Approved by Emily Woodroof

Zoey is sporting her name tag

First and Second Campeggio

Campeggio is the Italian word for Camp. Every summer at the end of June and beginning of July, the first week is for the younger kids(7-12) and the second week is for the older kids(13-18ish). It was a marathon of speaking in Italian but I loved it! Different in several ways from American Summer Camp, like every meal there was a full italian meal, pasta, meat, a side of some kind, bread, and fruit w/ nutella. I think I gained 10 pounds at camp(not really but there was always plenty of food to eat.)

Great news as well, 3 girls were baptized at camp! There is no baptistery or body of water so the decision was made to empty the freezer and fill it with water...and then we had a baptistery.

Laura made an awesome video, as usual, showing all the different aspects of camp and that will tell you more than I ever could about what a great time we all had those 2 weeks. Camp Video

Thanks for reading everybody!

Ferrara Agape

Also in the month of July, the church in Bondeno(close to Ferrara), where Andrea is working, invited the Bible School people to come worship with them and enjoy a meal and "show" afterwards. Andrea and the kids there had been working on a play about Lazarus rising from the dead. It was amazing! There were props and costumes and the kids did all of their lines from memory. They did a great job and we really enjoyed seeing everyone from Bodeno again.

After lunch, we were all talking outside and someone came by and gave Umberto, the older man in this picture, a huge fish! atleast 4 feet long. Apparently, the person that brought it already had too much so he gave it to Umberto. I wish I had taken a picture of it, because it was one of the biggest fish I have ever seen. Maybe next time.

Women's Day

Women's Day
Every year, around April, there is a Nationwide Women's Retreat near Rome. The women here love to get together and see their friends this weekend every year but last year the women in the Tuscany area decided they wanted to get together more often. It was great to see everyone once a year, but we all live so close, why shouldn't we get together more? So, everyone decided there would be days throughout the year that all the Tuscan women would get together and share a day of fellowship.

Since then, there have been 3 "Women's Days". The first meeting was just for organizational purposes and that was hosted at the Bible School. The first real meeting was in Pistoia in July and there were over 20 women! Laura, Ermenita and I took the train to Prato and then some of the ladies from Prato took us to the meeting because it was at one of the church member's houses. We had a great time of fellowship and singing and sharing.

The second meeting was just recently in Prato and there were over 20 women again with games and singing, and this time, we all came prepared with a written out "speech" about who is someone that has influenced your faith, in the Bible or otherwise. There were tears and there was laughter, which makes for a great day! I look forward to the next time we all get together again.