Leaving for STINT Midyear

Tomorrow, our team will fly to Nerja, Spain for our STINT Midyear conference. We will be joining STINTers from Europe, North Africa and the Middle East for a week together. After our week in Spain, Italian staff will meet in Florence for Institute of Biblical Studies training/classes. Before we leave, I wanted to put up a post with a few prayer requests...

• Praise God for new momentum gained after time with the group from Brazil and the group from Texas. Pray for our team as we follow up with new contacts.
• Praise God for what He is doing in Bologna. We spent a lot of time last week planning for the Spring semester and were encouraged to look back over what God has done throughout the last semester.
• Please pray for our team as we attend the midyear conference--pray that this will be a refreshing and encouraging time for all of us. 
• Continue to pray for the students we know in Bologna. Pray that those who do know Christ would continue to grow in their relationships with Him and that those who don't know Christ would come to know Him. 

Thank you for your prayer support! Looking forward to posting more updates soon.

Elizabeth

John 10:10

Holiday in the UK and Back in Bologna...Part 3 (and January Prayer Update)

And now we're back. Once we arrived in Bologna, we had a few days to settle back into Italy before beginning Spring semester work...and things certainly didn't start slowly!

During our first week back, we worked with two different groups here in Bologna. Right now, it's summer in Brazil, and a group of Brazilian students chose to spend part of their summer on summer project in Italy. Crusade's ministry in Brazil is hoping to begin a partnership with Italy. We spent a day with the students here in Bologna, showing them the university and introducing them to life and work in this city. While it was crazy to try to communicate in a mixture of three different languages (Portuguese, Italian and English), we truly enjoyed the opportunity to spend time with this group--it's always encouraging to see new faces with fresh energy and enthusiasm. We also rejoined this group to work for a day on the campus in Verona last week. Some of these students are considering coming back to Italy in the future--please remember them in your prayers.

We also had the privilege of hosting a group of seven students and a CRU intern from Texas during their "vision trip" to Bologna. Everyone in this group, from TCU and Tarleton State University, is considering returning to Bologna for summer project or STINT next year. Again, it was a joy to see some new faces here in Bologna with so much excitement for what God is doing in this city. They joined us on campus for a few days, and we were able to meet so many new students! Praise God for these contacts and continue to pray as our team follows up on these new relationships. Please also pray for everyone from Texas as they make decisions about the future and consider coming back to Bologna.

Matt, Ashley, and I with everyone from Texas and their group leader, Lance Linnartz

At the end of our week with the Brazilians and the group from Texas, the Bologna Agape team attended an apologetics conference at Nuova Vita on conversational evangelism. Dr. Norman Geisler's son, Dr. David Geisler, taught at the conference. We also had the opportunity to share several meals with Dr. Geisler and discuss issues that we've encountered here in Bologna as we've interacted with students and hear more of his insights on how to address their questions and these topics.

We have also begun reconnecting with students we had met last semester. January is typically a slow month on campus--many of the students are still finishing exams. We expect momentum on campus to pick up again in mid-February. Right now, we're spending most of our time planning and preparing for the remainder of the year--the spring semester and summer project . On Saturday, we'll leave Bologna again for our STINT Midyear Conference in Nerja, Spain. Our team will join all of the STINTers from Europe and North Africa for this week-long conference. After this, we'll join all of the Italy STINTers in Florence for Institute of Biblical Studies, a week-long Bible class.

All of that being said, here's my latest prayer update, and I'll put up another post with more prayer requests soon!

Elizabeth

John 10:10

Holiday in the UK and Back in Bologna...part 2

After our day trip to London, we spent some more time in Cumnor and the Oxford area before taking a roadtrip to Scotland for New Years. During our time at the University of Bologna, we've met quite a few Erasmus students--these students are part of a European exchange program, similar to study abroad in the states. One of the Erasmus students we have met invited us to a Ceilidh (traditional Scottish folk dance) at his house in Scotland for New Years, and we decided his offer sounded like a good idea--celebrating the New Year by singing Auld Lang Syne in Scotland sounded like a once-in-a-lifetime experience that we shouldn't pass up. On our way, we stayed for a night at Emily's grandparents' home in Stockton-on-Tees, and on our way back we made sure to stop for fish and chips in Saltburn-by-the-Sea.

Our STINT team outside of Blenheim Palace, a "stately home" near Emily's house

Matt, Ashley and Emily on our way to Scotland

Matt, Ashley and Emily at the Ceilidh with our friend Josh's younger brother and sister--Talitha and Max (yes, Max is wearing a kilt)

New friends in Scotland

During a walk in Scotland

On our way back from Scotland after stopping to get fish and chips

Bologna STINT team with Emily's grandmother in Stockton-on-Tees

Eating fish and chips on our way back from Scotland. It was so cold that the
 grease from the fish was hardening on our fingers!

After returning to Cumnor, we made a trip into Oxford to see some of the university and the city before packing to return home.

Walking through Oxford

Emily at the Bodleian 

The Radcliffe Camera

To be continued (again)...

Holiday in the UK and back in Bologna...part 1

Ciao! It's been awhile, and the last several weeks (or month, really) have truly felt like a whirlwind. I'm going to do my best to update you on everything that's been happening in the next few posts.

A few days before Christmas, the Waltons and I flew out of Bologna to join Emily and her family for Christmas in Oxford. The Spicers welcomed us into their home for a couple of weeks and introduced us to a true English Christmas. We had a wonderful time getting to know Emily's family and learning more about the UK.

A couple of days before Christmas, the Spicers took as to a pantomime, a traditional English Christmas play. Pantomimes are very interactive and geared towards children--the one we went to see was called Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves.

The stage before the pantomime started--we were sitting in the balcony

Emily also showed us around a few places near her village, Cumnor, which is just outside of Oxford. We visited a town called Burford and walked around some shops, visited the church and had tea with chelsea buns at a shop called Huffkins.

Matt, Ashley and Emily walking into the church in Burford

Tea at Huffkins

The main street through Burford

On Christmas Eve, we ate breakfast in Oxford's Covered Market, did some last minute shopping, had dinner with some of the Spicers' family friends, and went to midnight mass at Emily's church in Cumnor, which was constructed in the 13th century. On Christmas day, we went to a morning service at Emily's church and enjoyed a delicious English Christmas dinner together, complete with brussel sprouts, mashed swedes, turkey, chestnut stuffing, Christmas cake, Christmas pudding, and lots of other foods. The Spicers also finally introduced us to Christmas crackers (something we've been hearing about since September--*these aren't edible). After we ate, we opened presents, watched the Queen's annual Christmas speech, and went on a walk around Cumnor.

Everyone at Christmas dinner after opening the Christmas crackers (read the explanation in the link above to learn more about this tradition)

Emily explaining the Christmas cracker to Matt before dinner

Ashley and Emily on our walk around Cumnor

After Christmas, we spent a few days relaxing and resting. After the last several months, a few not-so-busy days in a home in an English-speaking country were truly a blessing. We did decide to go into London, too, for a day. We stopped by several of the major sites--Hyde Park, the South Bank, Harrods, Oxford Street, Big Ben, the London Eye, Buckingham Palace, etc.--and finished the day with dinner at an Indian restaurant.

Matt and Ashley on the way into Hyde Park

The girls outside of Buckingham Palace

The Bologna STINT team outside of Buckingham Palace

Walking in London

Matt, Ashley and Emily outside of the National Gallery

Bologna STINT girls on the Thames

To be continued in the next post...