Mr. Accordian Man

Every Saturday morning I wake up to the sounds of an accordian being played right outside of my window. Now, the first time I heard this I was very confused because lets face it...we just don't get much accordian in the States, but then after I was finished being confused I was quite angry that this man decided to play the accordian outside of my window early on a Saturday morning. Since then I have heard him every single Saturday morning and it has just become something that I have learned to expect and as long as I am already up, it is really quite charming. But I feel like Mr. Accordian Man is an excellent metaphor for the rest of Italy. Italy's quirks have become something I have learned to expect and even love, but every now and then the question is lurking in my mind...is this charming or annoying? Lets run through a couple of examples...

1. In order to make dinner, I will need to visit 1-3 little shops between the hours of 5pm-8pm, but along the way I will give a "Buona Sera" to the shop keepers on my street as I pass them, since I pass them everyday.
2. I have come to know the dogs that roam the streets of Salerno and we have even named a couple of them. A couple are permanently sleeping right outside of my building and I love petting them even though some of my teammates would advise against it. And I'm pretty sure everyone in this city owns a dog because they take them everywhere...shops, restaurants, the bus. But then as I am walking down the street, one eye always has to be glancing down because as soon as you let your guard down your foot could end up in a pile of dog poop.
3. It is just to be expected that when I want a glass of coke I will pay anywhere from 1-3 euros for it, but then on the other hand why am I drinking coke when there is wine?

Don't confuse this post for thinking that I don't love living here...because I do. My slow walking, food loving personality fits perfectly in this culture.

One quick story for the road...Monday evening I was minding my own business, reading some John Piper while sitting at the kitchen table and Morgan came in and we started chatting, then all of a sudden a burst of high pitch screams burst forth from our living room. Turns out Sarah Love and Francine were going through a bag of kitchen stuff from last years STINT team and they found a treasure. So, Sarah Love threw open the kitchen door while holding the treasure above her head screaming in a caveman type fashion. She had found a box of brownie mix AND it had a syrup pouch! The joy had overtaken all of us and we were screaming and embracing eachother, but the real joy was Sarah Love's reaction to the brownie mix. It was so pure and raw. The image of her clutching that box will never leave my mind. (This last paragraph just took me a solid 15 minutes because I couldn't stop laughing).

God bless you, Betty Crocker. Our STINT team is forever grateful.

God is good!

So we have now officially been on campus for 5 days now. For all of you who don't live in my world, that means going on campus at about 10 am and beginning spiritual conversations with students until about4 pm. Now let me just say that this was the scariest part about coming on STINT for me. But alas God is good and he has provided amazing conversations and of course some extremely awkward conversations along the way as well. For example, when they don't speak any English and I speak very very little Italian or perhaps when a group of students has to go because they have to go to class and they invite you to come along. As the dumb American desperately trying to make Italian friends, I follow them in the classroom. Lets just say it was a bad idea and there was a video playing involving George Bush and war...which was our que to leave. But besides all that, God is good and our team had the privelege of seeing 3 people accept Christ in the past 2 days! A-MAZING! I have always been one to doubt initiative evangelism and how effective it actually was, but this just goes to prove that it is completely out of our hands. Especially since we don't speak their language, very few of us have experience in evangelism, and half the time we're not even sure why we're here. But once again God is so good and He uses those who have nothing to offer, but filthy rags to expand His kingdom. For such a time is this...

Please pray for Paola, Nunzia, and Francesco as they learn to love Jesus.

In other news...
I have been meaning to tell you about each one of my teammates, but lets be honest I am never going to do that, but thankfully Francine (the assistant team leader) is on the ball. So here's a link to her blog in order to learn more about the people I spend 24 hours a day with. http://www.happyintheson.blogspot.com/

I went to Positano last weekend, which is a beautiful little city on the Amalfi coast about 1 hour away by ferry. It was a nice day of laying on the beach and walking around looking at shops. And we saw this girl that we thought was Nicole Richie, so clearly we stalked her until she turned around and we realized it wasn't her at all. All I have to say about Positano is "Che Bella!" (Which means how beautiful and is what the Italians say in response to everything...I love it...I'm bring it back to the States)