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Ciao! I hope you are all enjoying the warm spring weather!

We’ve had our typical spring rain and wind, but as Sara, a six-year-old from church, reminded me yesterday, if it didn’t rain, we would never have flowers. Today, however, is a sunny, cloudless day, perfect for enjoying the results of all that rain.
Spring has been pretty busy for us in the Milan church. The last weekend in March, Tammy and I went to the ninth annual women’s convegno (convention, much like the “retreats” we have in the states). The convegno is held down in Velletri, a small town in the hills near Rome. The theme this year was “Cultivating the Heart of Christ,” and Sheila Vamplin, a former Avanti Italia worker who now is a marriage and family counselor in Memphis, spoke about our growth as Christians, humility, and our relationships with our brothers and sisters in Christ. I was asked to organize the get-to-know-you games to play in the evenings. There were women attending from twelve congregations from every part of Italy, and it was great to see friends from last year and meet knew ones.

Here in the Milan congregation, I’m staying busy teaching the older kids’ Sunday Bible class and the women’s Bible study on Saturday afternoon. The kids are working on memorizing the 23rd Psalm, and we’re ready for the triumphal entry into Jerusalem in our study of the life of Jesus. In the women’s group, we’re still studying the life of Paul, and last Saturday we finished the second missionary journey.

The best news, however, is the two baptisms we had in the month of April! Henry, a Ghanaian friend of one of our long-time members, Barn, was baptized on April 6th. Barn has been studying with him for some time. Henry will attend the Bergamo congregation, in a town about a forty-five minute drive from here, as he lives between the two, and the Bergamo congregation is predominantly Ghanaian. Rosio Burgos was baptized on April 13th. She is Peruvian, and the girlfriend of one of our members, Mario Faggoti. She has been attending the women’s Bible study on Saturdays for some time, and studying with Lewis for a few months. She knew that she wanted to be baptized, but she still didn’t feel ready; however, watching the baptism of Henry gave her a push, and she decided that she would be baptized the next week.

On April 20th, we had a women’s meeting. We ate together, and Sheila Vamplin, the speaker from the women’s convegno, who was in Milan for the weekend, spoke to the group. We sent the men and children upstairs to eat and play together, and I’m still cleaning up that mess. (Who let the kids play with scissors?)

After Sheila gave the women her message, we began planning for our upcoming ladies’ day, which will be held on June 2nd, a holiday here. (I can’t remember at the moment which one…one thing you don’t consider when you move to a different country is that most of the holidays are in different months! Labor Day, for example, is May 1st.) This will be the third one we have hosted, and women from congregations around northern Italy will come together to enjoy a day of fellowship. Since Alicia (see last newsletter for bio) was gone on a trip to Ecuador, we voted that she be one of the speakers. Teach her to leave…you never know what you’ll come back to find you’re doing! She has now returned, and has graciously agreed to speak. The rest of us will divide up leading the singing (which I did last year), leading prayers, organizing the lunch, etc. This isn’t an easy thing for many of our members, as many of them are quite shy and not experienced being in front of a crowd. Rosio, who had been a Christian for a week, was braver than most and volunteered to lead a prayer, although she’s worried she’s not loud enough.

I’m really excited about this summer! For several years now, there has been church camp for the kids from around Italy, but no one has ever gone from Milan. The camp is down in le Marche, a “state” of Italy on the eastern coast, a little south of Tuscany. This year, I have volunteered to go and work on the staff, hoping that if I went, the kids would want to go along, and the parents would feel better about sending them off so far. As of last Sunday, all five kids from my class are planning to go! It will be a great opportunity for them to make friends with kids from other churches, and have some time of true focus on God. I think it’s especially important to have these sorts of things here, where all of the churches are very small and scattered, so that the kids see a bit of the wider picture. Anyhow, please pray that it does work out for all of the kids to go, and that I survive the six hour train trip shut in a train compartment with them!