We as a family just completed reading The Jesus Storybook Bible, by Sally Lloyd-Jones. And we have to give it TWOGIANT thumbs up with the highest recommendation to everyone with or without children. The subtitle of the book is "Every story whispers his name." It is excellently written, captivating for people of all ages and most of all points each well-known Bible story back to Jesus and God's plan. Jones writes in the introduction:
"There are lots of stories in the Bible, but all the stories are telling one Big Story. The Story of how God loves his children and comes to rescue them. It takes the whole Bible to tell this Story. And at the center of the Story, there is a baby. Every Story in the Bible whispers his name. He is like the missing piece in a puzzle -- the piece that makes all the other pieces fit together, and suddenly you can see a beautiful picture."
We purchased the deluxe version which includes the book on CD. The kids love to listen to it in the van and we can see, especially with Samuel how it has increased his desire to think and talk about God. He gets so excited to read his real Bible and picks up the storybook anytime he has reading time. Yesterday instead of bringing home a drawing, he brought home a prayer he wrote to Jesus:
"Dear Hevenly Fother, pray yuo Lord I prays and love yuo Jesus and yuo God and Jesus Name Amen."
So precious, especially with those spelling errors and backwards J's. And "prays" should be spelled "praise." We love to see his heart and mind meditating on God's word. What could make a parent happier?
Okay, so the last two weeks have not been the greatest for me physically. And everyone knows when the Mamma is down it makes life hard for everyone else too. I don't want to be a complainer but I do realize the importance of prayer and so post the following to ask just for that. It all started after our lovely and perfect day on Lago Maggiore. I could feel my neck had a "kink" in it for a while and had headaches coming and going more than usual prior to that. However, after that trip I started to have intense, constant headaches, you know the kind that Advil won't even help? I finally discovered that ice helped numb the pain and bring temporary relief. Another week went by and things were getting worse. Okay, so having a sinus/head cold on top of that didn't help any. I found it difficult to turn my head to the right and kept myself very limited in housework. I knew I needed an adjustment for my pinched nerve, but chiropractors are hard to come by here in Italy so you don't want to go to just anybody. Finally, I asked our field council for help and Melissa knew a doctor through an English student of hers. Networking is pretty much the only way I might have heard about this doctor. My follow up question, was well, has anyone been to him? No one had, but he was trained in San Fransisco. That brought a huge peace of mind to us and thus we pursued making an appointment. Because seriously there is no way I can go on like this until June!
Thursday afternoon we were able to get in and I was very much impressed with the care I received. Some God-sent blessings were that his office was just a couple of blocks on the same street as Catherine's house and we were able to drop the kids off there for what ended up being 1.5 hours around dinner time, and the second was that the doctor spoke English well. That is such a help when talking medical-talk! He ran several tests I have never had in the US and was then more accurately able to help me, especially in the neck area. I was so tight and inflamed that he wasn't able to completely set things "right." But I can feel the pinched nerve is now relieved even though I still am experiencing some pain. I need to get an x-ray on Wednesday and then another adjustment on Thursday that will also address my lower back issues.
Pretty messed up, eh?! I think we all know where Luca gets his high pain tolerance from.
Jonathan was envious of the echoes in the room that came from the ginormous cracks. But he said it was the best 100 euros he has spent this month. So I'm thankful things are looking up but still have a ways to go with feeling complete relief again. Thanks for your prayers regarding this! Jonathan has been a trooper, but I hate adding to his already stressful life and be another worry for him. The kids have been so sweet in their prayers for me--I have been extremely blessed by my wonderful husband and children!!
The Holy Shroud Exhibition is now on display from 10 April to 23 May 2010. The shroud is believed by many, but disputed by others, as the burial cloth of Christ which bears his image. The last time the shroud was on display was in the year 2000 for the Year of Jubilee. For the city of Torino, Italy and for that, the world, this is a BIG deal. It is estimated that there will be 2.5 million pilgrims coming to view the shroud in the course of the next six weeks. Yesterday, we contributed to those numbers, but would classify our visit as a cultural pilgrimage instead of religious. According to the Archbishop of Turin, "The Holy Shroud Exhibition is a spiritual and religious event, it is neither touristic nor commercial." And from our impressions and observations the majority of the crowd would agree with him.
We made a last minute decision to go yesterday after picking up the kids from school around 12:30. We reserved a time slot for 2:00 on the internet and off we went during a time when the number of visitors was lower. All I can say is, I would not like to see what the high-traffic times are like! We entered the line at the back of the palace gardens and knowing our whereabouts in relation to the church, set in for a long wait. The line was immense and it took us 1.5 hours to complete our wait! Glad we brought the large stroller and lots of snacks. And it was a super smart decision in the end to go during Luca's nap time as it made for a more mellow Luca, who then tolerated his confinement to the stroller much better than usual. As we neared the church there was this increasing heavy silence in the air. I've never been in a crowd so quiet. Another reason to be thankful that Luca didn't reach a meltdown point!
We watched a 3-minute video pointing out the markings on the shroud, were given a card with the facial image on the front and a prayer on the back to pray upon viewing the shroud. Having a stroller allowed us to be in the front row for viewing. The cloth was impressive but almost had a photographic look to it with all the lighting on it. While taking in our brief moments of observation someone read a prayer through the sound system. They said no flash photography allowed but still flashes were going off in the crowd. The pictures we have are from Jonathan's iPhone as it was more discreet to use and without flash. If I would have known that video recording was okay, I totally would have brought my camcorder. Oh well, maybe next time in another ten years.
Due to all of the attention being placed on the shroud, we have decided to capitalize on this opportunity. We have printed 5,000 cards with a picture of the shroud and the verse "Why do you seek for the living among the dead?" on the front, with our contact information on the back. Those who receive the cards can request a free booklet about the shroud which also contains a clear presentation of the gospel. We have just begun distributing these cards in Caselle and we are hoping to reach the majority, if not all, of the homes.
Distribution began yesterday by two women in our group and with several hours of walking got 500 cards out yesterday. More are going out today and over the weekend as we have small groups from our Caselle church helping as they can. Instead of our ladies Bible study time on Monday, we will distribute cards in Caselle as we can see it will take hours of work to get these 5,000 cards out. Please pray for us as we distribute these cards. Pray that the Lord would put them into the hands of people who are truly seeking. Pray that we may be able to make many new contacts and that many new opportunities to share the gospel will result.
Yesterday we took a day trip to Lago Maggiore. Click here to read more about the lake. It is only an hour and a half away from us and made for the perfect getaway. We drove to the town of Stresa which is located on the shores of Lago Maggiore and which served as our launching point to get to the Borromean Islands. It was a gorgeous day to be out exploring the beauties of the islands. Jonathan took over 400 pictures! And probably would have taken more if it wasn't for the kids complaining about stopping for yet another picture! We visited two of the islands. The first one was Isola dei Pescatori. We spent about an hour there before venturing on to Isola Bella for the rest of our day. If you are interested in reading more about these places I'll leave that up to you to click on the above highlighted links.
Oh, I just have to mention that THE highlight of the day for the kids was the boat ride out to the islands. We were it's sole patrons having arrived before the flood of tourists and the Captain allowed the 3 kids to take the wheel and drive us out to the islands. Samuel was beyond beaming in his excitement! He needed some gentle prodding to keep on course. Luca made us all sea sick, rocking our boat with hard turns back and forth. And Emma was so serious and intense we could barely get her to turn her eyes away from her job to snap a picture. This was serious stuff and no distractions please for the little captain!
The rest of this post captures our day in the below slideshow. Sorry if there are a lot of pictures! I have a really hard time narrowing things down.
No Easter family pictures for us this year. Samuel was feverish the whole day and I stayed home with the kids from church. I guess next Sunday Emma will be able to wear her Easter dress. :) We did have two of our colleagues, Melissa and Catherine, over for lunch. We had a great relaxing afternoon and evening together--and of course some good food! Here are the kids with their chocolate eggs from Jonathan's English class. And that's how the Italians do Easter baskets.
I love how Luca wasted no time in sneaking in a few pre-breakfast bites. He was more after the chocolate than the toy inside.
This past week went by rather quickly. The days are non stop when the kids are home from school. It has been SO good despite the disorderly house and exhaustion each night. I had several goals for this vacation which included varied fun and educational activities. So far so good in accomplishing that. Samuel has a boat load of homework to do over vacation, so we have been devoting at least 1 hr. each day to that in order to be done by the time he returns to school. I have been working on teaching Emma how to read in English and she is really catching on quickly and reading more each day. Today she even read some of Samuel's homework in Italian.
And then there is Luca who spiked a fever of 104 on Wednesday afternoon. His fever continued for over 48 hours with no other symptoms of stomach issues or a cold. When we would ask if he had "ouchies" he would only say that his bellybutton hurt. Today he is back to his normal vibrant self. But then, Samuel came down with the fever last night and it has continued on in to today. Guess that means me and the kids will be staying home Easter Sunday :(
The weather has been good and in the mid-50s, except for one day of rain. So we have had some good playtime outside as well. Emma is begging for me to bring out the swimming pool but I told her it had to get to 70 degrees before I would even entertain that thought.
What a great week as well to do activities focusing on the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus! Last year we did a playdough mountain to help tell the story of Easter. This year we added to our family traditions of making Resurrection Cookies. It was an awesome activity for our whole family. Jonathan read through Scripture and talked about the significance of each ingredient and of course the visual, touching and doing involved further embedded the story in the kids' minds. Too bad our tombs were a bit mushy and not empty in the morning. Not sure what I did wrong. Maybe the cookies were too big? Who knows, but they do taste good!
Starting a new Easter family tradition
Crushing the pecans--like Jesus was crushed and beaten for us
We have never done an Easter egg hunt and it looks like tomorrow that won't change our tradition as rain is in the forecast. Instead of having Easter baskets here in Italy, they have these enormous football sized (or even as large as a tall decorative floor vase) chocolate eggs that are hollow with a toy on the inside. I figured why spend the 10-15 euros per child when we could make our own giant eggs. So that is how paper mache came in to the list of activities. It was a bust with the kids. Samuel didn't want to get his hands sticky and Emma only tolerated it for a little while before getting annoying with the stickiness herself. So Mamma completed two coats of mache on three balloons all by myself.
My little crafting helper
The finishing touches of gluing the tissue paper on the eggs was tolerated much better as it was less messy. I will fill their eggs with little candies and that will be their Easter egg basket.
Check out Emma's precision!
Our display of Easter baskets with the "chick" Emma made at school. I think it looks more like a turkey, but hey.
Oh, and to our surprise one of Jonathan's English classes gifted him with 3 chocolate gift eggs for the kids. So sweet of them!!
