New Friends - Little Old Italian Ladies!

by Leslie

I think my favorite thing about being here so far is meeting the natives. They are everything they appear to be in the movies - warm, hospitable, friendly.... sometimes a little cautious at first. But it is true, if someone they know makes the introduction, they accept you right away. ( I recommend Letters to Juliet to get a feel for the people. We saw it the other night at a theatre that shows American movies with Italian sub-titles.)

Monday morning I had the pleasure of meeting some of the anziana of Fiesole - these are the little old ladies of our community. They meet every morning in the Tabacchi. This is a little store that gets its name because it sells cigarettes, but it also sells caffe and morning biscuits and has a few little tables set up inside where the anziana can sit and chat and play lotto while they have their caffe. My friend, Tina (who is American and has befriended our family,) invited me to go with her and of course I jumped at the chance to meet these adorable women. The place is only about 200 yards up the street from our house.

So, I met Pina, Lucia, Margarita, Patricia, and Giovanna. They were dressed up and ready to meet the day. They were warm and asked me questions and were kind enough to speak slowly! Not one of them speaks a word of English, so this was very good for my Italian language growth. Pina showed me pictures of her now deceased husband and son. Lucia and I realized that she and Grace have the same birthday. Giovanna didn't win anything on lotto....

Later that day we got on the bus down in the city, and who was on there but sweet Lucia. She recognized me right away and was so thrilled to meet Mark and the girls. She very patiently conversed with me all the way up the hill. We talked about what we were making for dinner, how many siblings we had, how long we would be staying in Fiesole.... So much fun!!

On Wednesday morning Mark and I had a meeting at the bank to see if we could use an Italian bank to help reduce the outrageous fees that we are getting from Bank of America to use OUR money (that’s another story!!) and after the appointment we stopped in for coffee at the tabacchi. Of course, a couple of the ladies were in there along with a new one named Franca. I had to catch the bus for language school, but Mark was staying for a few minutes. The best part was when Franca and Lucia were arguing over who was going to pay for Mark’s cappuccino!! He was a big hit!

The girls and I think that we should go up to the tabacchi every morning and get caffe and chat with these ladies. Probably the best EVER way to learn the language. Praying that God will give us grace with the language and opportunities to share the love of Jesus with the ladies. I am thinking maybe “Maddalena” as a Christmas gift will be just the ticket!!

Magdalena for Christmas!

Job 42:1 "I know that you can do all things, and that no plan of yours can be thwarted."

This whole journey of ITALY has felt like jumping into a rushing river and just being carried along by the current. God is doing things here and is allowing us to be part of it. Soooo exciting!!

My "role" here is to be part of the team that distributes the film "Maddalena" (Italian version of "Magdalena".) God gave me the idea for using the evangelical church here to help us in this task. Of course I had no idea who to talk to or how to go about it, but since I have felt the presence of the Holy Spirit so strongly since our call here, I knew that HE already had it all planned out. I just needed to grab that log floating by and HOLD ON!!

This past week has proven that my sense was correct. It started last Tuesday with a meeting with our new National Director (Franco Bosio.) Through a translator I was able so share my ideas - Franco had already been given some of this information at an earlier meeting. He and his wife added their ideas for further distribution. Franco was so excited about it that he got on the phone during the meeting and called his friend Paul Schaffer and told him that we would be calling to set up and appointment.

Paul is a Canadian believer/evangelist who has lived in Italy for 35 years. He basically knows everyone in Italy who would be interested in this project. I was thinking I had some days to prepare, but Paul said he wanted to meet with two days later!! So, on Thursday our team (Elfi, Kylie, and me - see photo!) met with him. He is very familiar with The JESUS Film, but had not heard of this version. Once we explained the vision for what we felt God leading us to do, Paul jumped in with both feet. He too was very excited. He said he would personally hand out the DVD to about 20 pastors in Florence and the surrounding areas before their monthly meeting in mid-October. He asked us to come to the meeting to explain our ideas and to ask for a commitment from these pastors to join in. He sent me an email on Friday saying he had already contacted 2 other pastors who were ready to be part of it - and his quote to me, "The ball is rolling... now we just need to keep up with it, the Lord will surprise us!" GOD IS SO GOOD!!!

You will hear more about the projects in the weeks to come. But in brief, we are planning (LORD willing) to distribute approximately 2,000 DVDs during the Christmas season through the churches here in Florence. The idea is for the members of each church to commit to giving away the DVD to friends and family who need to hear the Gospel.

In March, we will do a country-wide distribution for a very important holiday here called "Festa della Donna" (Festival of the Woman) on March 8th. This may include a distribution of up to 10,000 DVDs!

So... the water is fast!! Yikes!! But how exciting to be in this rushing river!!

Please pray for God's direction as we work on these projects.

Thanks for your interest in this Italian adventure,

Taking Jesus to the nations, for His Fame and Glory,

Love,
Leslie

Jasmine, the Italian Voice of Maddalena

Sidenote, right off the bat!

(You might be interested to know that I found Haagen-Dazs Belgian Chocolate ice cream at the Esselunga yesterday... eating it as I write this!! And you may think, “Why would she even care about that when she has a gelateria across the street?” But the truth is, this ice cream is amazing, and tastes like the USA!! Sometimes a girl just needs that.)

Okie Dokie, back to Jasmine.

Last April, when Mark and I came to the premiere of “Maddalena” here in Milan, we met the most interesting and wonderful woman. Her name is Jasmine and she did the voice of Magdalena for the Italian version. Not only is she a voice actress, but she is an evangelist who loves Jesus with every fiber of her being. She and I 'clicked' immediately - like you just do with some people. I listened to her testimony about how God rescued her from darkness, as she told it through tears. She shared how the time she spent dubbing “Maddalena” was so rich as she could relate to the woman she was playing in the movie. After spending only two days together, we hugged and kissed each other, promising to stay in touch.

Once I got home I found her on Facebook and we have kept in touch. I knew I needed to spend more time with her, as God had knit our hearts together. We invited her for a visit and she took the train down from Milano last Friday to spend the weekend with us. What an adventurous woman!! Well, we spent three days walking, talking, eating, laughing, crying, and praying together. She worked on her excellent English skills and we worked on our terrible Italian skills. The girls and I figured that she was a pretty reliable source for how to pronounce words in Italian since that is her JOB!! She taught me how to cook the pasta just right, and how to make the coffee taste even better... (she adds a pinch bit of salt!) She also bought me some of those tiny little coffee cups, called “tazzine da caffe”, so that all the Italians that come here don’t have to drink their espresso out of a giant mug!! What a precious time we had. God just confirmed yet again that our being here is part of His plan for our family. We are blessed beyond measure.

Permesso Update

On August 17th (below) Les posted a lengthy, hysterical description of our 7-hour trip to the Questurra (hereafter, The Q). Our goal was to obtain our Permesso di Soggiornio (Permission to stay in Italy this year). You may recall, that trip yielded nuttin (Italian for nothing) but an angry Italian woman and 4 frustrated Americans.

Since then, our Agape Italia office received a letter from the Chief of Polizia saying the Q folks were wrong about denying our Permesso! So, at the crack-o-dawn on Monday Les and I went back to the Q with the Chief's letter for round 2.

Think of The Q like you would the DMV. One large room and lots of windows behind which work people who don't really wanna be there either. The cold waiting area is not particularly clean, and the bathroom...oh my! Just hold it. okay?!

The young Italian man who helped us was indeed surprised to read the Chief's letter. He was jovial and pleasant, working diligently to help us obtain the cherished Permesso. We spoke of America, California, the beach, and ultimately invited him to visit us!

BAM! Five hours and 20 electronic finger prints later we were outta there! The young man behind the glass made all the difference in the world...

Hey here's a thought: Why don't we - the church - be stunned by our CHIEF'S letter?! How about we conduct ourselves in pleasant joy as we work diligently to help lost people obtain their "permission slip" to get to heaven - namely, the Gospel?! We can make all the difference in the world for Christ's sake and glory and fame!

Here's what Chief Jesus' letter says:

"For our sake He made Him to be sin Who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God." 2 Cor. 5:21

Bottom line: by grace alone, through faith alone, place your trust in Christ alone for your permission to go to heaven.

If this does not make sense to you, please contact Les or me, or a friend you know to be a follower of Christ. We'd love to help you obtain your permesso!

If you'd like to talk, this is our back door. C'mon over!