Update from the Weekend

Our late night adventures went well. We ate some food and walked around. There were mostly young people our age and younger out, LOTS OF THEM! I guess it is the thing to do late on Friday and Saturday nights.

Saturday we went to some areas on the coast, they were beautiful, one was more touristy, so not really my favorite, but the other was less popular, but more beautiful! Took some pictures of the water since the waves were huge! I'll have to put them up later.

Also on Saturday we went to the grocery store to fill our kitchen, well, we unloaded our cart at the check out counter and realized we were breaking some kind of norm, everyone behind us gave us weird looks and then they opened up another line! Haha! Then we found out that we have to weigh the produce, and put the sticker on the bag... well things we probably would not know until we try and fail! :)

Then all we had to carry the food back in was our backpacks and so we filled our packs, then we had to ask for bags... all in Italian! That poor cashier!

So we then attempted to go home with our backs loaded down with groceries. I felt like a granny pack mule! What a site we must be for the Italians!

Sunday we went to the only Baptist church in all of Genova. There were a lot of people crammed in the small building and there were many people from all over the world there. The first man who approached us was filipino, named Andrew. We also met a girl from Spain, a girl from Hungary, a guy from Greece, a guy from England, and a guy from India named Chandra. Andrew and Chandra hung out with us all afternoon, they helped us understand some things about ordering at resturants and some other modes of transpotation. We really enjoyed our time with them and they would not let us pay for anything! They said they do this with visitors because no one welcomed them to the church when they came 4 years ago, so they decided togethter that they would change that and make the visitors feel welcome by feeding them and just spending time on Sunday afternoon with them. It was great. In many ways I felt like I was back in Chicago on a Sunday evening with my church and friends. It was also nice to talk about spiritual things with people who understand the Italian culture and gain a better understanding of the people we are interacting with daily. The need for a knowledge of a loving God is so great here. I cannot wait to learn more about the church planting project that the team is doing here in Italy!

Today we have begun phase 3, glad to say though that without trying we have already completed some of the assignments, giving us time to prepare our presentaion to the team that we will need to have ready by Wednesday at 3pm. Also, we have about 3 more places to explore and one more mode of transportation to take. We also will be taking our friend Julie from England out to lunch tomorrow... she is interested in all we are doing, so pray that we can be a light to her and that our friendship will grow. Pray also that we will have the words to say to her!

One last thing, we did laundry last night and what an adventure that was! Thankfully we did not drop any clothes while hanging them to dry! :)

Thank you again for your prayers as this adventure continues! Hard to believe we only have 5 weeks left!