Riddle Family In Italy

Bomb Blasts and Earthquakes...

It was quite the day here in Italy for all the wrong reasons!  Saturday morning we started hearing reports of a blast at a school in Brindisi that killed at least one student.  Brindisi is a city an hour south of us.  Now it seems that they are finding a number of clues as to who committed this brutal act.  From what we are reading in the papers here, it is not being considered a Mafia action.

Pray for: the family of the 16 year old girl that was killed in this blast.  Also for the other 16 year old girl that is still in intensive care because of the injuries received during the blast.  Pray also for the students at that school in particular but also for students in general as there will be many worries about this happening at other schools.

Then, less than 24 hours after this blast, up north near Bologna there was an earthquake!  I believe the last number I heard was that there were seven people killed.  We know a number of people in that region and we have heard from some of them.  They are alright but were (no pun intended) shaken by the event.  

Pray for: the people in the area as they deal with this event.  Many people here in Italy are facing very hard economic times and to have an event like this thrown at them also is a crushing blow.  Pray that the people in the area would feel the peace that only Christ can give.  

John 16:33

The Forest...

Living in a city is not all that easy.  Especially when we are people that grew up our entire lives in the country.  Both of us grew up on farms with lots of wide open spaces around us.  It was quiet.  It was nice.  When we got married, we still had open space even though we lived in Harrisonburg for eight years.  The yard in front of our apartment was a haven for us and our three boys.

Now, here we are in the middle of asphalt, concrete, cars, people and noise.  We have a hospital right next to us and the sirens sound rather often.  We are in the complete opposite of what we grew up in and with.  Now we send the boys down to play in the parking lot of our apartment building.  Our cat goes outside only on the balcony and plays in the flower bed.  This is "nature" for him!

We try to get out of this "concrete jungle" as often as possible and one of the places we go is the Foresta Mercadante.  It is about a half hour drive for us but it is well worth the effort to get there.  Our boys get of the "beaten path" immediately and walk among the trees, plants and flowers that are there.  It is a haven for us.  Often we go during the early afternoon and there are rarely any others there and so we have the forest to ourselves.

We enjoy our lives here and the work we are doing to build the church here.  It is good though to get out and find parts of "God's green earth".  It is more relaxing there!

Fun before the Concert....

SO...what do you do while you are waiting for your brother's concert and there is a limited amount of space to move around?  Let's see...

You can freak Mom out by sticking a pen in your lip!!

Or...maybe a piece of paper!

.

If that is not enough, then try this!!

Adam sings and our other sons grow things out of their lips!  The Riddle Family's got Talent!

Adam is our Singer...

Of our three boys, it seems as though Adam got all the musical talent that we have as parents. At least he is the one that is showing a willingness and a desire to show the talent!  

For the past two years he has been a part of the school choir and has really enjoyed singing at various events during the school year.  He also likes the idea of getting out of classes for choir trips in the spring!  

In the coming year Adam will enter into the middle school.  There he will begin to study the flute!  He has enjoyed playing the recorder at the elementary school and is really looking forward to learning a new, more difficult instrument in middle school.  We hope to get some video of him at some point that is good enough to put on here!

Easter Artwork...

We saw this idea on facebook and we really liked it.  One of the issues that we work with here in Italy is the use of artwork in worship. Because there are so many statues, images and figures that can become the object of worship, we need to be careful to not encourage this aspect of the culture/religion.

After talking to other members of the congregation though and showing a photo of this to them before hand, we decided to use this for our Easter decoration in the church facilities.  

The empty tomb, the empty crossed, the butterflies and the flowers all express new life!  The sermon from Nicola that evening also reminded us of the new life that we have in Christ. 

We hope that we can continue to find ways to use art here in our church community to express what we believe to be the Gospel message without taking away from that message.  Our God is a creative God and He gave us the ability to express ourselves through art!  We can use art to praise Him!

The Questura...

Every year we have to renew our Permission to Stay (Permesso di Soggiorno) here in Italy and every year the process to do this changes!  The official way is to take our documents to the post office, mail them to Rome and get an appointment time to go to the Questura (police station).  At the Questura we present ourselves and they confirm who we are, where we live and where we come from.  Then, about a month later our new cards arrive and we can stay for another year without any problems.  

How long does this process take?  How long should it take?  

For the first two steps (mailing documents and presenting documents) all of us need to be present; yes, even our three boys.  They have to be sure that it is us that we are renewing and that the boys are the same boys that we have had with us for the past five years.  The boys enjoy this in one way because it generally means two days out of school.  So, lets keep count here of the hours:

Documents to the Post Office: 1 - 3 hours depending on traffic and the number of people at the post office that day.  This year it was about 1 hour. (1 hour)

Now we get to the Questura visit.  We have to show up with all three boys again but we never know what the process is going to be from one year to the nex and in this year's case, one week to the next.  I went to the Questura the week before our scheduled visit to get one form that I knew we were going to need and found out that we were supposed to come and get a number early in the morning to get our place in line.  This was something that I had done in the past and so it was not unusual even though we have a document that says, "Be at the Questura on 7 May at 11:38am", we still have to get in line and get a number.  Now where are we in time?

Get additional document week before: 1.5 hours (total:2.5 hours)

I go to the Questura at about 6:15 am and when I arrive I ask where I can get my number for our visit.  The two officers look at me and explain that I need only to show up at the appointed time and I will get in; there is no need for a number.  "Are you sure?" I asked.  "yes, we are certain."

I go out and look around for a little and then I see some people beginning to gather at the entrance to the immigration office door.  This door/gate is on the sidewalk and we have to wait outside in order to enter.  I walk up and there is a list being passed around in order to get a number!  I put my name on it and wait.  

About nine o'clock the doors open and the police begin to let people in, but not according to the list but according to the appointment times!  Mel shows up with the boys about 10:00 am and we are waiting on the sidewalk with everyone else that had not been let in yet.  Our appointment time comes and goes and we are still on the sidewalk, waiting...

About 1:00 pm we finally enter the building and we find another line of people; all those that had been allowed to enter before us!  Here, people begin to move up in the line as much as possible and even walk in and cut the line.  We love the order that there is here in Italy!

3:00 pm and people that have been waiting are getting upset.  Our boys are passing an empty water bottle back and forth to pass the time and people continue to get more and more upset.  The people working at the Questura are getting more and more upset at the other people that are getting upset and the cycle continue.  Beautiful!

About 3:45 pm we are finally called and go into the office.  We present our documents and ourselves.  All this information is placed in the computer (a computer that does not remember who we are from last year!) and we are told that we can go.  We get back to the house about 5:30 pm.

This visit: 11 hours (Total: 13.5 hours)

We only have one visit more to go in order to get our cards.  Wait!  We have to go back to the post office and pay one more bill in order to get them also!!  This count will continue...

Growing Up...

It was an interesting morning here for me.  I have been watching Micah grow for the past 13 years and he has remained our "kid".  I can not even call him our little boy because he stopped  being little a long time ago.  Now he is only one inch shorter than his Mom!  

Today I had the pleasure of teaching Micah how to shave!  It was fun to see him figure out how to put the shaving cream on  and then take it off with the razor without too much blood!  It was good for me to see him growing in this way.  It was a step toward manhood.  I still see in him my "little boy" from years ago (right, 2005), but more and more I am seeing the young man that God is building him to be (left, 2011).

Good Bye...

Saying good bye is never an easy thing to do.  Moving from place to place the way that we do we have a great deal of practice in saying Good bye though.

It is different when it is at the end of a life.  

Randy,

Your will to live never faltered and your faith in your Savior stayed strong and your courage over the past three years was an example to us all.  

Today you rest in the presence of Christ; healthy, joyful and without pain.  We miss you here but we will see you again.

Good bye my friend.

Five Years...

We have been here in Italy now for five years.  We have changed, to say the least!  

Our boys have grown,  just click on the one taken recently (left) and compare it to the one taken in 2007!  Notice that Micah is now about the same height as his Mom!

We have learned a new language and in doing so we have learned to communicate with a whole new group of people.  We have learned to live in a new culture that is very different from the one we left in the States.  

We have learned a new appreciation for God and what he does in our lives.  We have grown in our faith here in ways that I do not think that we would have had we remained in the United States.  We left our comfort zones and came here and we have seen that God is faithful in guiding when we are faithful to follow where He leads.

Will we be here for another five years?  That, only God knows.  Right now, we follow the call to serve here and now.  There is much to do here and we will continue as long as God calls us to be here.

I am sure that we will change even more in the coming years!

40 Years...

On March 1, 2011 I celebrated my 40th birthday with little fanfare.  The day started in one of the best possible ways; my six year old son, Isaiah, came into our bedroom before I had even gotten out of bed and gave me a big hug and kiss and said with a smile, "Happy Birthday Daddy!".  It really does not get any better than that!

Forty years!  There are times when I wonder what I have really done in my life; where has the time gone?  As I look back and see the places I have been and the people that I have had contact with, I realize that I have truly been blessed in this life. 

I hope that in the next 40 years, if God blesses me with that many, I can be a blessing to those around me.  I have often heard that life goes down hill once you pass 40, but I can not see it being that way.  It is only now that life begins.  You have lived life and know more about what you can and can not do in life.  You understand how to go about things in a way that you did not comprehend five, ten or twenty years ago.  The advice you give now comes with experience to demonstrate what you are saying.

I pray that each of you who come to this point in your life journey would be able to see how life is a blessing from God our Creator.  I hope that we can all give back to Him and to those around us just a little of the blessings that we have received. 

John 15:12-14 "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.  No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends.  You are my friends if you do what I command you." (NRSV) Can we follow the commands of Christ? Lets try.