Ciao Tutti! Hello Y’all!
Here is my April and May update for you guys.
Thank you for all of your prayers for me while I have been here. I am continuing to learn Italian and use Italian with native speakers, so that is a praise report. Sometimes I get down on myself that I don’t know more Italian, but I am reminded that I learning a language is not something that happens overnight – it takes practice, diligence, a learning spirit and time. However, I have been able to go into different situations where I can only speak Italian and I have been able to speak well enough and simple enough that the other person understands what it is that I am trying to say. It is a humbling and scary thing to try and speak with another stranger in their native tongue, but I can attest that the Lord has guided me and helped me to continue to try, fail, succeed and then do it all again. All of this to say, please keep the Italian language skills in your prayers for me! I appreciate them and feel them helping me understand words with a clear mind so that they stick and can be used in future use.
Thank you for praying for the Tuscany conference! It went well. I was able to share with the middle school and high school age students out of Matthew 7:7-11 based on Jesus’s heart to bless when we ask Him for things in His will. The teaching was in English, so it was an opportunity for a high school young lady to grow in her translation abilities and experience. She understands far more of both languages than I did at her age, so it was incredible to experience someone so young be able to speak in coherence and complexity in both languages – especially in Bible terms. Besides the teaching, it was a beneficial time for me to meet lots of Italian Christians. The conference was attended by individuals, pastors, families and missionaries from Montebelluna, Feltre (north of MB), Treviso (south of MB), Rome and Torino (Turin; far northwest of Italy). During the conference, I stepped into an expanded video and visual worship help. The gentleman who has been running the audio/video for Montebelluna for years attended with his wife and kids; he handed off to me the worship slides (in Italian!), the streaming of audio and video, and the recording of audio and video during the sessions. This ended up being a blessing for both of us. He had been the only tech guy who knew how to run the system for years. I now get to help come alongside of him and take burden off of his shoulders so that he can enjoy sitting in church next to his wife. What a privilege we have to sit with our loved ones during service!
I celebrated my 26th birthday this last week and it went great! I hung out with friends, played some outdoor group games, had gelato and got to make dinner in a brand new Dutch oven that a friend gave me! So, what did I cook for dinner you ask? Rabbit! Last summer, I made horse steaks (I won’t do that again) because it was an “Italian thing,” but I also discovered that the other regional meat that they serve here in Italy is rabbit. I am a little eccentric – I have a type of animal meat “bingo” for the places I go to, so rabbit was on the list. They sell cleaned rabbits ready to cook at the grocery store along with other meats. It was really good and I am so glad that I had the chance to cook with it.
God has been opening up doors for me to get into the community and begin to make connections and relationships with people. Late in May, I had the opportunity to run the little sound system for a local preschool that was having a musical performance. A Bible college staff family has two kids in the school and they were able to work it out so that I could volunteer and help out. The event went well, and afterwards the teaching staff asked if I could come back to the school to speak English with the kids. This is a praise as it is an open door for me to be around kids, learn basic Italian and speak English in short concise periods of time.
This last week of May, the school had their semester Footsteps of Paul Trip for staff and students. This trip, myself along with four other staff traveled down to the south of Italy. We were able to see Pompeii, Vesuvius, Pozzuoli (Puteoli, Acts 28:13), Sorrento, the Amalfi Coast, Positano and Rome. Within those sites, we shared the historical elements of the locations and how they connect with the Bible or other Biblical historical timeframes. For instance, we shared how Pompeii was destroyed in 79 AD, which would have been during the time of the early church. Pozzuoli was the landing location for Paul in Acts 28:13 as he made his way up to Rome along the way from Malta. Rome has some of the most famous locations for the early church history, where we saw places like the Roman Coliseum, the Roman Forum (which includes the immaculately preserved Arch of Titus), and the Mamertine Prison (where it is believed that Paul and Peter were both held for periods of time separately). This week was a run and gun experience seeing a lot of different locations, historical monuments and relaxing locations, so it was a beneficial and exciting experience for me, the other staff and the students.
Prayer Requests:
My health: I have had a cough for a couple weeks.
- We will begin physical work in the new building again once the semester is finished, so I would like to be able to do what I can while also being physically fit to do the work.
Continued language progress
Continued relationship building
Summer camp for the local Italian Calvary Chapel youth!
- Week-long camp to get away with the students and build into them the love of Christ.
- Most youth kids only speak Italian, so I will be challenged to grow in this area with them.
Building!
- The permit to be in the building for church is so close to being approved and finally given to us; Italian bureaucracy is notorious for rules, loops in the rules and postponements.
Praise Reports:
Tuscany conference went great!
Footsteps of Paul Trip went well, everyone stayed safe and the sites were a breath of fresh air to visit.
Doors are opening in the community to reach believers and non-believers alike.
Work responsibilities are filling out and I am getting more of a handle on what I can help out in.
Friendships with local Christians have been growing and have been encouraging to have.
Bible College finishes this week with two graduates!
What the Lord has been teaching me:
- Give God what little skills or abilities you think you have, and He will make them bloom in only the way He can.
- God prepares us for future work today, even when we don’t realize it.
- God blesses and gives to us out of His heart to bless us when we follow and obey Him in His calling.
- Life needs to be recorded – receipts for purchases need to be written to remember for my budget; we also need to remember what God has done in our life so that we don’t forget the good and the necessary things He has done for us.
God bless,
Nathaniel Hibbs