Italy-Part I

I have now been in Italy for just over a week. When we got off the plane in Venice, we were barely awake and my ankles were already swollen. We found our people right away and drove forty-five minutes to Vicenza. As we drove, we found out that for the next week we would be helping at the SETAF (South European Task Force) Chapel teaching Vacation Bible School. We had actually been prepared for that at training in Missouri but we were given no time to rest because they didn’t want us to sleep so we could kick our jet lag as soon as possible. So we sat through a VBS meeting, an evening church service, and a Hospitality House meeting while fighting sleep. They finally let us go to bed and we woke up early to go teach VBS at 8:30 in the morning.

Although these five early mornings seemed torturous, it was a blessing to work alongside people that the kids already knew and respected so that when we worked with the kids in MOKIs (Moms Out, Kids In), discipline would not be such a huge issue. It was also nice to see how much the kids actually knew about the Bible and to have something to reference and expand upon when teaching MOKIs.

We also had a lot of afternoons and days to go off and do touristy things. One afternoon, one of the girls that works in the school on the base took us to a castle/island/fortress ruins about forty-five minutes away. That was absolutely fabulous and since we are in the area where all the Murano glass is made and gold jewelry has been a huge export item for centuries, the shops were amazing.

An afternoon after VBS we went to an Italian villa that has been in the same family for generations. All the art in the villa was done by the father. It was all Greek mythology and truly Renaissance. The art in the guest house was done by the son and was paintings of every day life. It was fascinating to see how religion had changed the perception of art in the course of one generation. There was also a story about one of the daughters who had been a dwarf. Her father had dwarf statues made in her honor and they lined the courtyard walls. Rob (our host) had been planning to tell us the story but it must have slipped his mind.

On Saturday, we went to Venice (!) and took a water taxi to Rialto Bridge where we shopped for an hour then wandered over canals and around corners to St. Marks Square. We toured the cathedral, saw the original cast bronze horses stolen by Napolean and returned after WWII. We toured the Doge’s Palace and crossed the Bridge of Sighs. We contemplated a gondola ride but decided that the romantic image would be destroyed if six people went together.

We spent Sunday afternoon with six or seven soldiers at a park nearby. We were surrounded by the foothills of the Alps. It was gorgeous despite the hazy day. I had some time to sit by myself and catch up on my journal and watch Italians jump off of a bridge into the water. It was really a good time to be alone and prepare for the next week.

Yesterday we started MOKIs. MOKI stands for Moms Out, Kids In and it’s pretty much three hours that we have the kids and moms can get some things done that they can’t really do with kids. Most of their husbands have been deployed for about fifteen months and their kids are going crazy and they are stressed out so they really appreciate that we can do this for them. And we get to teach the kids about Jesus for three hours.

MOKI yesterday was a little unorganized but we got through it perfectly well. I taught the Bible story (Jesus forgives the sin of the paralyzed man) and the second time around I actually remembered to look at all the verses in the Bible. The second time I told the story, after I had given the invitation to accept the forgiveness of sins that Jesus offers, one of the little boys raised his hands and said, “Ma’am,” (they are all military kids but this one is so polite and always says sir and ma’am) “after what you said, my heart really is hurting me.” I wanted to talk to him some more but his dad came to pick him up early. So please pray that Team Italy would have more opportunities to really share Christ not only with this child, but with all the children that come to MOKIs.