I'm back

I think this is Friday. Wouldn't you know it, as we were coming back from Vittoria on Wednesday night, I started to feel sick. About midnight, I had pretty well emptied my stomach, and by 4:00 AM I was in the car headed to the airport in Catania. I didn't dare eat or drink anything until our plane left Rome, because it only flies out every other day. Over the 10 hours it took to get to Chicago, I started to feel better and had a little to eat while we were waiting for our plane to Sioux Falls. I got into Sioux Falls at 8:45 which was a little over 24 hours since I started. Thank you for all your prayers! It is going to take a while for me to understand what a powerful experience this all has been. Aaron and his family greeted me at the airport with "Welcome home" signs and lots of hugs from the grand kids, which makes me realize that it wasn't just me that has been impacted by this experience. I hope this can be an encouragement for you to let the Lord stretch you into doing something new. I'll try to add some last pictures. One is of the German volunteers, Arianna from the Scicli Church, Jovanella who is the administrator of the nursing home, and David.

Tuesday

Ok, I can't be using a calendar from 2010. I leave on the 10th, but that is on Thursday. We had a great time in Palermo, saw several cathedrals, several different markets,and some interesting country, since Palermo is on the north edge of Sicly. Monday night we went to the harbor and had fresh fish at a small diner (6) tables. They would bring out one kind of fish and then they would bring out another round of something different. I think we did 6 rounds,ending with shrimp and a fish that looked like a trout. I got black ink from the baby squid on my lips and David thought that was pretty funny! The country has such a variety,with old ruins and then next to that might be a really nice villa. There are still some German "Pill Boxes" along the road. It all helps in understanding what these people have gone through.

Sunday

We had communion services in Pachino and the congregation was very grateful for my visit. Latter we went along the coast to the point where the Ionia sea meets the Mediterranean sea. It was very interesting and a beautiful spot. We had communion services at the Scicli church this evening and they served wine in a common cup. That was an interesting experience! The congregation said I should come back in June. I guess that is the beginning of their summer when everybody is off work. Tomorrow we go to Palermo in the north of Sicily for 2 days. David has a pastor's meeting there. We get back in the evening and then on Wednesday at 6 AM we leave for the airport at Catania. The time has gone very fast.

Trip to Saracusa

We went to Saracusa this morning and had a beautiful day to see things. This is where St. Paul landed when he came to Europe, going from here then to Rome. There is a hugh Cathedral here built in honor of him. I added a picture of it and if you look at the foundation stones you get a sense of how old it is. Inside you can see some of the old collanades along side of the newer supports as the cathedral was updated. We had hot chocolate around the corner, but is was more like hot chocolate pudding.You'll enjoy some of the pictures I added from the open market. This afternoon we went to Vittoria for church and communion. On our way home we stopped at McDonalds! It was very similar to home and it was a good treat.

Friday

I painted two more classrooms this morning, so that will probably be all I will get done here. This noon I was invited to a family's apartment to eat. the elevator up to their floor was about the size of a telephone booth,so with 4 people is was full! It was a wonderful meal with pasta, salad, potatoes, lots of big mushrooms (breaded and fried), Artichoke, and cream puffs. The have a computer program that they are learning English, so they had a lot of questions of how to say different words. We went to an old (1200's) compound that was on the sea. It was quite something. This afternoon we went to Scicli for bible study and we made pretzels and ate them for lunch after. After we made the pretzel with dough, they were put in boiling water with baking soda for a couple of minutes and then into the oven.I could teach you! It sounds like a full day tomorrow, so I might not get a blog in but I hope to be able to take some pictures of the mediterranean sea meets the Ionia Sea.

Thursday

It has been a busy day. I patched the outside of the church with like a plaster of Paris material. It sets up so fast thatI had to keep a container of water with me just to use it. If the sun is shining tomorrow it sounds like we will paint outside. I was painting inside this afternoon in the hallway of the sanctuary, so now I'm trying to get the paint out of my jeans and sweatshirt. We had bible study tonight, the one that I prepared and David translated. In the discussion they were telling about how hard it is to get their adult children to come back to the church. After the bible study we sat down to eat along with the kids that were still here from the after school program. A family invite me to come over for lunch tomorrow at noon. The wife speaks a little English so it might be kind of interesting. Tomorrow at 3:30 we go to Scicli and do the bible study there.

Wednesday

We went visiting last night.It was quite a contrast. The first older lady was 89 and she pretty much was living and sleeping in her little kitchen. she did have a bathroom and bedroom but she said she couldn't lay down because of her breathing. The second house we went to had two sisters in their 80's who brought us into their library where they each had a nice computer and desk. The one lady had kidney failure, but said her last tests came back better.
Evidently someone bombed the police station here in Pachino so as we were coming back from a funeral, police with machine guns stopped us. It was interesting that I was carrying my passport in my bag with my IPad. I usually don't have that along, so thanks for your prayers. The funeral started out with the priest saying that he had asked God to unlock the gates of paradise for the woman who had passed away. Gives new meaning to the bible verse that says that Peter was given the keys to heaven.

Tuesday

It's been thundering and raining all day, sometimes quite heavy. I know I won't get a lot of sympathy, Aaron sent me pictures yesterday of all the new snow. I hooked up some computers at the school here and connected a stereo up for the kids. We went to a fish cannery on the edge of town. David put some wine and different dried and packaged fish in a couple of baskets for two ladies who have cancer here. The interesting thing is that the staff at the cannery deliver the items. The flu season seems to be pretty bad here. They closed the school and a lot of events in Scicli. I have been doing fine and getting pretty good at cooking my meals on a two burner hot plate.