Dear friends and family,
Its officially AUGUST! Kristin and I cant believe how fast these first three months have flown by. It seems like yesterday that we were stepping off the airplane in Rome getting ready to catch the train up to Florence to begin our work. Now, as we look back, its been a very busy three months. Between Kristin’s language school, a few different students, a couple of day trips, visitors from the states, church potlucks, and more, we have been sometimes overwhelmed. It has been a rollercoaster ride so far! All in all, we are happy and now enjoying a bit of a lull before we begin the next phase of our lives here in Italy.
For those of you who don’t know, Italy literally shuts down in the month of August. Its called Ferie D'Agosto and it basically means "we all go on vacation to the beach for a month". My three students that I have been studying with are all gone. Luigi is on his way to India to see about starting a pizzeria in Bombay. Carlo is on his way to Santo Domingo for business before he heads to Ethiopia on a business trip. Roberto is away with his parents at the beach. I’ve given them some different books to read while away and I hope that it will continue to help them in their spiritual journey. Pray for these men.
Every August in Florence, the church organizes a nation wide get together for study, prayer, encouragement, and fellowship up at the Harding villa. Its called the "convegno" and its quite a bit of planning! It’s basically a miniature Lectureship. Its coming up on August 22-25 and it will be attended by about 100 different Italian Christians. We are really looking forward to making new friends and learning more about the individuals who are keeping THE church alive in Italy. This will provide Kristin and I a GREAT opportunity to get to know two different church groups in particular. This leads me to the next phase of our work.
We will be moving to a little town called Citerna for the fall months to work along side my father with his new overseas program. From August 30th until December 1st, we will be living and working out of this little city on the hillsides of Tuscany. We are really excited about this transition! It will provide us with two great opportunities. The first is to be able to work alongside my family as they have a TON of experience with the work in Italy and with living in a different culture. It will be wonderful for Kristin to be able to spend time with my mother as they both have a lot in common. My mother was also dragged (only kidding) to Italy as a newlywed (close enough)! Its also just good to be around a Godly couple that will give us, I'm sure, a ton of good advice on how to live and how to work in a foreign land. We will continue to attend with the Florence church and we will simply take the train in on Sunday or Saturday nights and spend some time with the brothers and sisters.
The second reason is the main one. We will spend the next three months researching two different churches in Italy who have invited us to come and work with them for the next year and a half (time remaining after December). The two churches are the church in Rome and the church in Catania, on the island of Sicily. Two VERY different opportunities.
Rome is one of only two churches in Italy that have Elders (that I know of). They have two part time preachers and have known me my entire life. They are a wonderful congregation that loves God and finds themselves literally in one of the most culturally diverse cities in the world. With the constant flow of tourists and immigrants looking for work, there is a massive need for workers. We would be able to do a lot of work involving foreigners in Rome and it would be a wonderful experience. It would not be easy work at all. Rome is the capitol of Catholicism. The Vatican City is around every corner and it will be a work that needs more than just the two of us (this is my plug for those of you who feel the need to do something great with your lives!). It would also be very expensive! Rome is one of the most expensive cities in the world to live in.
Catania couldn’t be more different if it tried from Rome. Catania is a city of about 350,000 people with a surrounding area of about 1,000,000 inhabitants. It has the largest Church of Christ in Italy with about 100 members. It used to be about 150-200 but numbers have dropped in recent years. They have asked for the past two years for some Avanti workers to come down and we have finally accepted the invitation to go and check it out (along with the Rome work). Its a totally different culture! Southern Italy is a bit like living in the south in America compared to living in the North. Not even close to the same as living in Florence. Catania is on the beach and is a very family friendly culture. The church at Catania has ALOT of youth. Youth in Italy is defined as anyone younger than 30. They have a lot of young couples, young singles, and a lot of kids! There is something about the south that just seems to be a little bit less apathetic to spiritual needs compared to the north. This opportunity is wonderful. Again, a city of 1 million inhabitants. We need more workers!
So over the next 3 months we will spend at least a week or two in each of these cities checking out the possibilities and seeing were we feel God is pushing us towards. We ask for your prayers in our decision making. We are deciding the next two years of our lives and were we will be spending them. We hope that this email finds you all doing well. God bless you all! We hope and pray that the work for the Lord in America is going well. Keep up the faith. Teach the Truth. God will guide. We love and miss you all!
Sincerely,
Brandon and Kristin Edwards
Its officially AUGUST! Kristin and I cant believe how fast these first three months have flown by. It seems like yesterday that we were stepping off the airplane in Rome getting ready to catch the train up to Florence to begin our work. Now, as we look back, its been a very busy three months. Between Kristin’s language school, a few different students, a couple of day trips, visitors from the states, church potlucks, and more, we have been sometimes overwhelmed. It has been a rollercoaster ride so far! All in all, we are happy and now enjoying a bit of a lull before we begin the next phase of our lives here in Italy.
For those of you who don’t know, Italy literally shuts down in the month of August. Its called Ferie D'Agosto and it basically means "we all go on vacation to the beach for a month". My three students that I have been studying with are all gone. Luigi is on his way to India to see about starting a pizzeria in Bombay. Carlo is on his way to Santo Domingo for business before he heads to Ethiopia on a business trip. Roberto is away with his parents at the beach. I’ve given them some different books to read while away and I hope that it will continue to help them in their spiritual journey. Pray for these men.
Every August in Florence, the church organizes a nation wide get together for study, prayer, encouragement, and fellowship up at the Harding villa. Its called the "convegno" and its quite a bit of planning! It’s basically a miniature Lectureship. Its coming up on August 22-25 and it will be attended by about 100 different Italian Christians. We are really looking forward to making new friends and learning more about the individuals who are keeping THE church alive in Italy. This will provide Kristin and I a GREAT opportunity to get to know two different church groups in particular. This leads me to the next phase of our work.
We will be moving to a little town called Citerna for the fall months to work along side my father with his new overseas program. From August 30th until December 1st, we will be living and working out of this little city on the hillsides of Tuscany. We are really excited about this transition! It will provide us with two great opportunities. The first is to be able to work alongside my family as they have a TON of experience with the work in Italy and with living in a different culture. It will be wonderful for Kristin to be able to spend time with my mother as they both have a lot in common. My mother was also dragged (only kidding) to Italy as a newlywed (close enough)! Its also just good to be around a Godly couple that will give us, I'm sure, a ton of good advice on how to live and how to work in a foreign land. We will continue to attend with the Florence church and we will simply take the train in on Sunday or Saturday nights and spend some time with the brothers and sisters.
The second reason is the main one. We will spend the next three months researching two different churches in Italy who have invited us to come and work with them for the next year and a half (time remaining after December). The two churches are the church in Rome and the church in Catania, on the island of Sicily. Two VERY different opportunities.
Rome is one of only two churches in Italy that have Elders (that I know of). They have two part time preachers and have known me my entire life. They are a wonderful congregation that loves God and finds themselves literally in one of the most culturally diverse cities in the world. With the constant flow of tourists and immigrants looking for work, there is a massive need for workers. We would be able to do a lot of work involving foreigners in Rome and it would be a wonderful experience. It would not be easy work at all. Rome is the capitol of Catholicism. The Vatican City is around every corner and it will be a work that needs more than just the two of us (this is my plug for those of you who feel the need to do something great with your lives!). It would also be very expensive! Rome is one of the most expensive cities in the world to live in.
Catania couldn’t be more different if it tried from Rome. Catania is a city of about 350,000 people with a surrounding area of about 1,000,000 inhabitants. It has the largest Church of Christ in Italy with about 100 members. It used to be about 150-200 but numbers have dropped in recent years. They have asked for the past two years for some Avanti workers to come down and we have finally accepted the invitation to go and check it out (along with the Rome work). Its a totally different culture! Southern Italy is a bit like living in the south in America compared to living in the North. Not even close to the same as living in Florence. Catania is on the beach and is a very family friendly culture. The church at Catania has ALOT of youth. Youth in Italy is defined as anyone younger than 30. They have a lot of young couples, young singles, and a lot of kids! There is something about the south that just seems to be a little bit less apathetic to spiritual needs compared to the north. This opportunity is wonderful. Again, a city of 1 million inhabitants. We need more workers!
So over the next 3 months we will spend at least a week or two in each of these cities checking out the possibilities and seeing were we feel God is pushing us towards. We ask for your prayers in our decision making. We are deciding the next two years of our lives and were we will be spending them. We hope that this email finds you all doing well. God bless you all! We hope and pray that the work for the Lord in America is going well. Keep up the faith. Teach the Truth. God will guide. We love and miss you all!
Sincerely,
Brandon and Kristin Edwards
