Pre-Summer Events

Fabio e Viviana's Baptism

This is Fabio and Viviana. Originally from Catania(in Sicily) and now they live in the northern part of Italy, close to the border of Italy and Slovania. I met Viviana and Fabio this past winter in January or February, when they came to several services at the church in Florence. Alfredo, an Italian at the Florence church, does Bible Studies with people online and corresponds mostly via email at first and that is where Fabio and Viviana met him and got involved with the Florence church.
Alfredo continued to study with them and Viviana even came to the Women's retreat in February. I can't remember the exact date, but in Spring this year, they both got baptized at the Florence church and it was a blessed day. They have continued to grow and become leaders in the church. One of the things they started and have asked all of the churches in Italy to do is an Evangelizing Day in Italy. Meaning all the churches in Italy, on the same day, do some sort of evangelizing in each one's town. It's still in the planning stages but I'm excited to see what will happen and watch as they grow.

Easter Weekend
Easter weekend was the weekend of the Bologna Retreat but we came back on Saturday so we could be in Florence on Easter. Easter weekend was great and as most families do, our American-Italian family got together for dinner and had a cookout and painted eggs. Not that we didn't want any Italians there, it's just they were all with their families. Debbie and all the other cooks out did themselves and the guys did a great job with the meat. Thank you Lord for a wonderful day of fellowship and food.

Aquarium Trip

Last year, around April, the Bible School invited everyone at the church in Florence to go to the zoo and they had a great time. This year, we thought it would be nice to go to the aquarium as a group. So April 17, 40ish of us set out to Livorno to see their aquarium. We made sack lunches and stopped at a park on the way and then once we made it to Livorno explored the aquarium and the sea, right next to it. It was a great day and we all got to know each other better. The group picture was a little disorganized but I think we eventually all got together for one of the cameras. Overall, it was a great day and the kids really seemed to enjoy it.