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| Seeing family after 2 years (3 for Josh) |
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We have been in Italy for a little over two weeks now. We have all enjoyed our time here. Ruhamah our youngest has enjoyed some time with grandparents that she had not seen for the past two years. She loves hugs, playing with her cousins, had a difficult time speaking Italian but she is more comfortable now. Grandpa gave her 5 euros and not being used to getting money just like that she gave it back. We had to explain to her that that is what Italian grandparents do, they give you presents just because they love you.
Hannah and Benedetta have enjoyed time with family as well, I think they like the market, pizza and gelato. Hannah is our Italian food lover :)
4 of my favorite highlights so far have been:
1. Going to the beach!!
2. Going to Vasto on a full family vacation with all of my Italian family
3. Having my mom cook for me some of my favorite foods...seafood that is (Josh had to revert to pizza as his passion is pretty much anything but seafood!)
4. Visiting missionary friends in Perugia.
From a ministry prospective Josh has been blessed by the opportunity to preach in my church. This was the first Sunday we were here and he was asked to preach the day before!!! He did a good job, his Italian is not what it was but he got his points across and many came afterwords thanking him for the message.
We were also able to visit a missionary friend in Vasto. As I mentioned earlier, my parents brought us on a family vacation and since we were near Vasto we decided to check out the local church there. Josh had actually led an evangelistic team in the town with that church 13 years before, so it was neat to reconnect with them. In the evening we took a tour of the city with another missionary working with New Tribes.
Both Sundays my dad was able to come to church. The first Sunday he came to hear Josh, and the second Sunday he was so kind to drive so that the rest of my family could go the church. Giovanni Greco (the pastor of the church) had a wonderful message on heaven from Revelation 21. We keep praying that God will open his eyes and his heart.
This weekend we were in Perugia. We were visiting another missionary friend and Josh also had the opportunity to preach here on Sunday as well. We arrived Friday and took a tour of the city, a wonderful city with amazing history (the first settlers made Perugia their home during the time when Saul was the first king in Israel!). I know a few seminary guys who would love to walk around the city while learning about how Pope Paul III (the pope who called the Council of Trent into session) sent his army to quell the Perugians who were refusing to pay the salt tax). We were also blessed with the opportunity to be able to speak at a young couples and singles meeting. We got shared our testimonies and they asked questions.
As I was pondering on our past and how we spent our lives, I remembered a song that I loved growing up. The song said: “I miei anni piu' belli voglio spender per te, per te mio Signore che moristi per me,” which translated means, “my best years I want to spend for you, for you my Lord who died for me.” We can spend our lives however we want but what better way to use it than serving the Lord who saved us. Sometimes we find many excuses so that we don't serve within the body of Christ. Often what happens is that when we are young we want to enjoy life and we use excuses for not serving, then we get married and we have kids so we hear people saying that they can’t serve the church because they don’t have time. The reality is that in our youth, we have more energy and we can do much more for the Lord....and we should. We should spend the most beautiful years of our life for the Lord, not that when we get old we can't serve anymore or those are the ugly years but I am glad that I can look back and be pleased with how we spent our lives and how nice it is to not have regrets.
Live for the Lord always. And pray for us as we travel that the Lord may show us what his next step for our life is.
In Him,
The Daugereaus
