My first language course in Italy

Last summer my wife took a beginning language course to improve her Italian. I met with a tutor, really my friend, Andrea, a language student at the university here. We met for 3 months in person and on skype when I returned to America in August. We want to continue to meet but in addition I am taking a language course at a school here in Salerno to improve my Italian skills. I am way better in writing, reading, and understanding than speaking. In some ways my speaking is one level down compared to the other 3. So I am taking lessons in a higher level this week. I might drop down a level for next week so that my speaking might improve, I do not know I have not decided yet. UCF gave me a great foundation in Italian 3 years ago when I took two semesters my senior year of college. You guys can pray for me as I study and try to figure out where I should be as I feel inbetween two levels right now.

In the midst of learning language, planning for this semester, and getting settled in, I have got to spend some time with some students. Some of the highlights that you can pray for is: I will be meeting with Peppe to discuss John over the next month. We are going to look at 5 chapters every week. Pray that God opens his heart and that through the Holy Spirit I am able to answer his questions. If you know any good online resources about the book of John please shoot me a comment. I have an idea of how I want to do it but I always appreciate help. We arrived at this decision to study John after a long talk about humanity, the Bible, and the person of Jesus. I know God has the capacity to change his life as he has changed mine so please pray for us.

Also pray for Salvatore. He has become more interested in spiritual things over the times I have met with him. He wants to study the Bible in a group setting sometime. Pray that this would come to fruition and as sometimes students want to learn English and not necessarily talk about spiritual things. Pray that our talk of the gospel last week begins to change his life and will happen again.

Lastly I want to leave you with something that we have been experiencing in Salerno. Today is ash Wednesday, which is the beginning of Lent. The period before this is called Carnevale. The word comes from "carne levare" which means to "take away meat". During this period kids dress up like they would for halloween and use silly string and confetti on other kids. Yesterday was the actual day of carnevale equal to that of Fat Tuesday. There are many parties and not just kids dress up. The weather was really bad so it was not as good as normal. I did not take any pictures because I always had my camera when the weather was bad but here are some pictures I found online of carnevale in Salerno.