Italian Memories

 We have been returned from Italy for almost a month as I write this (Nov 2021). Traveling anywhere is more stressful than when we were younger, but after a month, that is mostly forgotten.

 We loved the food and the architecture, the art, the food, but mostly the wonderful people we traveled with and met.

One of the people who really stood out to us was Prof N.A. of the Univ. of Florence. The Uni. Has over 50k students wich means they have a lot of profs. N.A. does not know a single Christian professor in the entire Univ. Without any fellowship, it is hard to minister and grow. She does, oddly enough, participate in a US profs group with our friend, Kasia in Ohio. We had a very long dinner with N.A. and some of group from USA. She is a delightful lady with a great testimony.

I have already written about Brandon and his wife and 3 very young children, and also about the Afghani Christians we met. I mentioned my delightful visit with Giosue’. But I haven’t said much about John and Marcia, and John and Vicki G. They were great traveling companions who accepted the challenges with grace. Our leader was Ceil W.  She made all the arrangements and along with her husband, Daryl, shepherded us around the country.

We also traveled w Julie C, who I called “Angelica”, Kathy R, and Lydia M. Lydia had lived in Firenze as an exchange student and got to recall some of her Italian haunts and memories. Haswell and Maria B. Haswell is the terrific translator I mentioned before and Maria is a native Italian who gave us a cooking lesson. Unfortunately it was no more effective on me than it was the last time I took one. Of course it’s always great to be with our old friend and Cru worker Baldwin.

We met so many terrific people including Fabio F who rented us our AirBnB when we first arrived in Roma. All the Agape Italia folks were fabioso also.

 It is a true BLESSING to know terrific people around the world.