Riddle Family In Italy

Our Table (Week #7)

I missed week six!  Sorry about that.  Last week and this week were very similar though.  It was quiet today.  There were a few people that would stop to talk to us and there are many people that know us now that do not mind talking to us.  That is a good thing.  We realize that the Italians do not talk to us (Americans) as much as they do other Italians.  It is hard to trust someone different than you, no?  They speak a different language, have funny ways and just do not understand, do they?  It has given me a whole new out look on how we ourselves look at people from other countries that come to the United States to live. 

More on this line of thought later...

Time Flies...

...When you are having fun...when you are older...when you are living overseas.  I think!  It is amazing to think that we have lived here in Italy for two years now!  Lots of things have changed in that amount of time.  More things than I can list but here are a few:

1. We have moved from the country in the States to a city of 500,000 people here in Italy.

2. We have learned a new language and can communicate with a whole new group of people.

3. We have gone from sending our boys to private school in the States to home schooling to public school here in Italy.

4. We have gone from being trained in Seminary to putting training into practice.

5. I have learned that God is a lot bigger than I ever thought!

We have been blessed these past two years.  That is an understatement to say the least, but we have been blessed to get to know a whole new group of people and learn how they live and know God.  They have shown us care and we have been able to show care in return. 

We look forward to the next two years here and how things will change even more for us and our family.  We will grow and at this point, only God knows how.

Our Table (Week #5)

This week was slower.  I think that there are a couple of different reasons.  #1: The weather was really bad outside today.  It rained really hard and the air was rather cold (8 degrees C/46 F).  So for the most part people stayed home as much as possible today.  #2: There were a number of people that received a Bible from us last week.  That was a good thing to see because many of these people talked to us some today.  It is good for them to see that we are not just here one day and gone the next.  #3: The holidays are now done and people are starting to get back into their normal routines.  It will take just a little bit of time for them to get back and be in the normal swing of life again.

It is also good to be able to talk to some of the people at the market.  There are many who are getting to know us rather well and we enjoy that.  It is also good to be able talk to and understand the people more as our Italian continues to improve over time. 

Keep these seeds that have been planted in your prayers and we will keep you posted on any growth that we see.

Our Table (Week #4)...

I packed everything in the Multipla this morning and went by the church to pick up the Bibles that we would be handing out at the table today.  The Bibles come in packs of 20 and I grabbed one pack and thought, "If we give out this many we will be doing good!"  I really had no idea.

I got to the market and set up the tables with the calendars on one end and then on the far end, I stacked the Bibles neatly.  These are very nice Bibles that we are giving out to people.  They are the RSV translation, white cover with red letters and it is the entire Bible, not just a New Testament and the Psalms.  I really did not know how they would be received, but it is something that we really wanted to do as a church to plant seeds in this area. 

Phil and Angela (an Italian member of our church) showed up soon after I got the things placed and things started to move.  There were not a lot of people going in and out of the market at first and I thought, "Maybe we should have stayed home today."  With it being after a big holiday period, we wondered if it might be slow today.  It started that way but it was soon to change.

Dino and Mara showed up since they were here visiting Mara's Mom for the holidays and they helped us out a lot.  For about an hour, Dino, Mara and Angela handed out calendar after calendar and many people walked away with Bibles in their hands and little guides that could help them read through it in one year!  We ran out of the daily calendars that we had and continued handing out the weekly and monthly ones that we had to people.  It was great to see people accept them!

There were three things that I noticed today:

1) Italians reach out to Italians better than Americans reach out to Italians.  I better understand that my roll here is to encourage and help train Italians to reach out and not be afraid to do so for the Kingdom of God.  It is the Italians that will grow the church! 

2) There are a lot of people hungry for the Word of God!  Many people truly looked grateful to receive a Bible in their hands.  Many asked if it was a Jehovah's Witness bible and we said, "No.  This is the Christian Bible."  They looked relieved. 

3) There were a number of younger people that walked away with Bibles today!  Many of them work right there in the market and it will be an area for us to return to and follow up with some of these people and how they are getting along with the reading of their new Bibles.

PRAY FOR THIS!!  We handed out over 40 Bibles to people today!!  Pray that some of these have fallen on good soil and that in the future we will be able to water, nurture and harvest these seeds that were planted today.

Visitors in Bari...

We had visitors with us here in Bari during the week between Christmas and New Years.  It was a lot of fun to have my brother and his family here with us for a week and show them a little bit of what our life is like here in Italy.  It was also great to watch our three boys and their two boys play together again! 

They arrived on Saturday after a longer than expected layover in Rome tired but happy to be here.  It was fun to watch our boys open their gifts from the States and hear the excitement in their voices.  The best part was watching Micah open his quilt!  I hope to get the video uploaded someday but that is still a little beyond my computing expertise! 

We were able to walk through part of Old Bari and Tim and Tara got to see the boys sing in church on Sunday.  That was cool.  Then we visited Alberobello on Monday and Lecce on Tuesday.  These are two of our favorite places here in southern Italy and it was nice to be able to show these cities to Tim and Tara and their boys.  New Years Eve and New Years Day were quiet days at home.  We did get out and walk around in Carbonara so that they could see the places we see every day and meet some of the people that we talk to. 

It was a real blessing to have Tim and his family here with us during the holidays.  That is not something that we will be experiencing very often depending on how long we are here in Italy.  It was not really a time that we got a lot of rest.  Many nights we were up well past midnight talking about all sorts of things.  The loss of sleep was worth it though and if they were still here, I am sure that we would still be up late talking tonight! 

Family is a blessing and we are grateful for the family that we have and the time that we have been able to spend with them not only this past week, but also the other visits that we have had from family this year.  We look forward to seeing more of you this year!