Day 5 5/24/10 Beware of Gypsies.

As of today the free will counter stands at 4. I have been keeping track of how many times someone in Sunday school would yell free will, Carson would love it.

So jetlag isn’t a joke. Everyone in my room crashed at 12:00am, or 6pm Indiana time and I was still somewhat awake. I tried to go to sleep and eventually fell asleep. I woke up at 4am wide awake and could not go back to sleep so I starting reading with the help of the light from my iPod touch. I had the headphones unplugged because I use it as my alarm clock. The speaker was on and the sound was on loud. With the girls sound asleep in my room I accidently clicked on a song. So at 4:30am Italy time some random country song blared at full blast from my iPod causing all the girls to immediately jolt awake. Sorry… I eventually fell back asleep at 6 then had to wake up at 7, woo.

Session 1:

We walked to the Agape Italia (Campus Crusade) building a few blocks away for our first session in Italy. We were once again welcomed by Gary Runn, the director we had met the previous day. He began explaining Florence and gave us some interesting things to think about. Florence was known for the renaissance, as everyone knows renaissance means rebirth. There’s a more important rebirth to take place in Florence that should be better known, the rebirth of its people. I enjoyed this irony.

[side note, just looked out the window in our hotel room and there’s a cat that looks identical to my cat on the window across the street, approx 5 yards away, I yelled kitty.]

We had a bible study during the first session and Gary continued to encourage us saying we can’t mess up God’s plan for salvation; we are given the privilege to step into God’s plan. All he’s asking for us is faith. We began talking about 1John and the two errors that many had been taught. I can’t remember if I talked about John 17:26, but it was again brought up into the session… The main thing Gary talked about was that Italy/Milan’s greatest need was equal to our greatest need; they needed to experience the real Jesus. We are not self-righteous people, we are in the same place as the people we are trying to share with. We all need the same thing. We need to experience Jesus as much as they do. “Your need is as great as their need.” WE ARE IN NEED OF THE SAME THING WE ARE SHARING.

Session 2: Culture

After sitting in the briefing room, a briefing room in Italy is not the same as America I promise, we had a quick break and went to the café. I had a freshly squeezed half blood orange, half orange juice. It was fantastic. Quick fun fact, in Italy when you get a coffee you stand at the bar and drink it quickly then pay and leave, usually espresso shots. There is a fee if you sit down. Upon return we began talking about Italian culture. Which is easier said than done. Each region of Italy has different culture. We were told we were not longer permitted to say Italians are like…. But Milanese are like… Milan is our mission field and we need to focus in on that area. Milan is known as the melting pot of Italy and there are all sorts of different rules and customs. Two most important things to know is that Milan is predominantly catholic and politically predominantly right. 53% Right, 17% Extreme right 30% left (communist) Milanese love sharing their opinions and love talking about politics. This helps us as we try to reach them because it means they are more willing to talk than say a Purdue student with headphones in, cell phone out and a huge ‘talk to me and die’ sign tattooed on their forehead. They preached use your home and food for the gospel, the best way to reach people is through fellowship. Fellowship=food. Two of my favorite fun facts were colored people and squillo. The girl explaining culture to the team was Nicole. She was black and explained how people in Italy called her colored. She was hilarious and spunky and said, “I’m sorry but you do not walk into Harlem and say look at all the colored people…. You will die.” The other thing is called squillo. Squillo is a way Italians save money on their cell phone bills. If Italians just want to say hi, want to say they are headed over, or want to say they are at your house they will let the phone ring once then hang up. I think that’s so cool. If someone just calls because they are thinking of you, they call once then hang up. I might start doing that. Sorry if I squillo.

After culture we had an hour long English lesson then we went to lunch. I had something nasty for lunch, that’s all I know. After lunch we had the rest of the evening for sight seeing. First and foremost we went to the Duomo! [ The huge cathedral in Florence ] I probably could not explain this sight if I wanted to. Yeah I took pictures, yeah I took video, but there’s no way you can understand the feeling of seeing this giant structure. The idea that someone created this building without modern machinery was one thing, but then add the detailed interior and exterior architecture, art, stained glass windows, paintings, ect, no words can describe. The ceiling of the Duomo was another sight in it’s self. It took the painter 7 years to paint it. As Ross put it, that’s devoting your entire high school and college career to a painting. Given it’s the sickest thing I’ve ever seen, but that’s a long time. After we went in, it was time to go up. We each paid 8 euro [ sorry dad ] to climb to the top of this monster. 700 steps up, 700 steps down, totally worth it, simply breath taking. I could see all of Florence and what someone told me was the entire Tuscany Area. Incredible…

Went back down after an hour and we milled about for a bit around the Duomo. Someone ran into my right side where I was holding my wallet-purse thing, I don’t know what you call it. My first reaction was to throw my elbow directly to the temple of whoever was trying to touch me. I didn’t I just swept my billfold to the opposite side. Sure enough, a gypsi had tried to push it out from my hand.. What an idiot. I’m sure Jesus loves her too, but a thief without an ounce of brains is almost as dumb as an Italian man wearing Bermuda shorts with a polo, scarf and aviators. [Tool]

After this we went back rested, I got internet for the first time in what seemed like forever. Then we went to dinner at a pizza place. It was definitely better than ordinary pizza. Then we had gelato again and came back to the hotel room where I could see the kitty across the window! I am quite pleased if you can’t tell. All we see are big fat dogs that smell like cigarettes on the streets, though we did see a puppy today. Tomorrow is our last day in Florence before we head to our final destination of Milan. I have learned so much in these few days and I have a stronger spiritual connection than ever. Thank you Lord. The other thing I have learned about this… I’ll call it a place… I have almost died more here than I ever have in my entire life. Everyone knows I do some pretty stupid things, but I’ve never actually thought I was going to die. All you have to do in Florence is walk on the sidewalk and your life is in danger. Hard to explain without lots of hand motions, loud noises and jumping from side to side. Hope you get the idea though. I thank you all once again for all your support. I know God is going to reveal himself in Milan and I cannot wait to get started. Ciao.

Brittany