Naples and Rome Pictures

The Parthenon in Rome. We actually got to go inside this time!! Amazing that this building was built a couple of thousand years ago, and was only one of its kind until the 20th century!!! The largest free-standing dome in the world for 20 centuries. Pretty amazing. And it's still here.

A part of the ruins of the Roman Forum. We intended to get the audio guide of the ruins, but we couldn't find the store! So, because of that, I have no clue what this building was used for. If you know, feel free to tell us. :-)

This is a part of the ruins of the ancient Roman Forum from Palatine Hill. This area was once the Broadway of ancient Rome, however it was later used as a cow pasture!! Its amazing how much of it is still here after all these years.

We got a chance to challenge the church in Naples to a "friendly" game of soccer. It was the USA vs. Naples...the US didn't exactly come out on top, but it was a good game. Even I scored a few goals, so you know they were taking it easy on us!!

A typical street in downtown Naples. It was raining and the streets were still packed! Naples definately has a culture all its own.

More Pictures!!

This is our favorite ice cream shop in Prato (so far!!). We've been eating way too much gelato!!

This is the river in Prato. This is going to be our peaceful devotional place for the summer.

Here I am at the retreat on Saturday night giving a short devotional thought. Good thing Shawn was there to translate!!

Napoli and the first week or so...

Hey there,
So our first week has been a good one. We had an amazing time at the retreat in Velletri with all the other Christians from around Italy. We got to see lots of our brothers and sisters that we met 4 years ago on the campaign. We also got a lot of exposure to Italian, and some great practice in speaking and communicating with the Italians. Josie, of course, really showed me up, but I think I'm coming along ok. Better than last time for sure... :-) Anyway, Saturday night I was asked to give a short devotional talk for the meeting that night (Shawn translated for me, otherwise it would have been a really short talk!). So overall, it was a huge blessing to be there and be a part of the nationwide fellowship of the Lord's Church in Italy. Sunday afternoon, after eating an amazing lunch and saying tearful goodbyes, we packed into the car and headed south to Naples for the week with the Mahans and some of the AIMers that are working in Prato. It was such a blessing for us since we had really wanted to go down to Naples anyway, and this way we didn't have to go all the way there alone. It was great to see the DeMarco family, Genni, Massimilliano, Lino, and all the others from Napoli. We stayed with an American family that is working on the Naval base there. They have an amazing home with a gorgeous view, so we definately took advantage of that. We got to spend a lot of time with the DeMarcos as well. They showed us a little bit of downtown Naples, and we were able to hear about the work there, and hopefully encourage them a little at the same time. The work there, as in the rest of Italy, is difficult and can be discouraging, so please pray for the church there as they try to be a light in that area.

On Saturday we left Naples and headed to Prato, with a few hour layover in Rome. Mike and Anto had a wedding in Rome (failure to attend a wedding when you've been invited is an insult in Italy) that took most of the day, so we got the chance to check out a few of the sites we missed last time. We took a tour of the ruins of Palatine Hill and the Forum, and then walked over to the Pantheon. After lunch (which happens around 2 or so in Italy) we took a stroll all over central Rome, enjoying the beauty and the atmosphere of the Eternal City, as well as getting a little bit of a sunburn!

Saturday evening we drove back to Prato, which is only about 3 hours or so, but seems much longer after a long day in Rome, and when you have 9 people in a 6 passenger van!! Especially when one of those 9 is a two year old!! But we made it just fine, and settled into our apartment that night in Prato. We are sharing an apartment with three of the girls that are here with the AIM program, and they have been nice enough to give us one of their rooms (it's only a 2 bedroom apt.!) for 2 months. Sunday morning we went to church and visited with our brothers and sisters that meet here in Prato. We gave lots of hugs and kisses (Italians greet one another with a kiss on each cheek), and met the new members that have been added to the church in the last 4 years.

The last couple of days we have had the opportunity to relax a bit and get settled into our surroundings. We've gone grocery shopping, done our laundry, and walked all over Prato. We've also been working out our plans for the rest of our time here. As a group, we are expecting to be performing several puppet shows and singing concerts for various groups. As for just Josie and me, we have already started our private Italian lessons with Mike, and we are planning a couple of different trips to spend time with other missionaries here in Italy. There are also plans for visiting with the members of the church here, and meeting some of the evangelistic contacts that have been made here in the city. Our schedule is already getting booked, so it seems like we'll be quite busy this summer learning, growing, and serving.

I hope you all are doing well, and that God is blessing you all with opportunities to shine for Him in your own mission field. Please continue to pray for the work going on here in Italy, and for our brothers and sisters here that live and work in a very difficult area. They need so much encouragement, and often feel very alone and overwhelmed. Also pray for us, that God would use us to encourage and strenthen our family in Christ, and that we would see and understand more clearly God's plan for our future. Love in Christ,

Aaron

more....

This was part of the children's class! We had a blast!











Here we are with the campaigners and our cook Laida and her husband. They were so sweet, they cried when we left=)

Pictures

This is the villa that we stayed at in Velletri. It was beautiful, it housed 145 guests in the whole compound. Obviously, this was only one part of it, but I wanted you guys to get a feel for it.


This is "La PASTA". This is the first Italian meal that we had. Jealous?

Siamo Qui! We're here!

Hey everybody! First lemme, just say that we miss you all and have been anxious to get to a computer to be able to let you all know how we are doing. We are GREAT! Quick recap of whats happened so far.... really long, uncomfortable plan rides, then arriving in Italy,driving through Rome, arriving at the Villa in Velletri where the Retreat was. All of that happened so fast, but it was wonderful. We got some bonding time with the campaign group for a few days, as most of the Italians didn't get there till Friday night. It was a blast, we really connected with them and actually felt like part of the group. Finally, the Italian brothers and sisters arrived and it was amazing, because we already knew so many of them. They actually remembered us from 4 years ago, and that cool thing was that this time when they talked to me, I could understand everything! yay!!! I still can only speak like a 4 year old, but I'm really trying hard. You know me, I'm not afraid to make mistakes and look stupid if it means being able to communicate with someone. Aaron is doing great too! He's understanding alot, maybe we will both be able to hold our own before we leave=)We all got a discount at the beautiful mountain villa by cleaning up with the staff, so we washed 80 sets of dishes 3 times a day.=) it was so neat to be serving these people so that they could enjoy their time, and they appreciated us and our work. That felt good. The children's classes went good, I mean, our instructions in Italian kinda stunk, but the activities were great. They loved the singing too. So we had a good time. We lead a special activity for the youth ( ages 10-35 in Italy=) where we played mixer games and then read through the first 3 chapters of 1 Timothy and they seemed to really enjoy that. We had a big discussion session after the reading and they all got really involved. Many of them came up to Shawn Daggett( the leader) afterwards crying, just saying how much it meant to them to have time like that. See, in Italy the young people usually are alone, churches here don't have many young members. So for them to come and spend time and talk to other Christians is HUGE. It was really neat to be able to encourage them. Anyway, the retreat was a huge success, and we all got to know alot of Italian brothers. We all got to praise God together too. After all of that ended we had to say a tearful goodbye to the campaigners and the Daggetts and go on our way with our new family. We are now with Mahan family and their 6 aimers in Naples. They are on their vacation so we are joining them, spending time getting to bond and grow together before we go back to work. Naples is beautiful, it's by the sea and full of people. It's good to be back here as well, esp. because we already know so many people. Aaron and I have been troopers, we have had to spend alot of time away from each other because there has been soo much to do, but we are making it. and looking forward to a little bit of time alone to process all of whats happened=) Pray for that. Please keep all of youth who are going back to their towns a little discouraged and sad in your prayers, that God would provide opportunities for them to find Christian friends, mentors, and just a little encouragement. Pray for us to be able to serve whole heartedly even in the most awkward of situations and to do it with a smile on our faces. We want to shine, not to bring attention to ourselves, but so that God may be glorified through our work. We love and miss you all. You have no idea how much we wish you could share this with us. Please keep writing us, let us know how you are doing so... that I wont worry=) Nawh, seriously though. Fill us in our your lives too!
Josie- jallen4@harding.edu
Aaron- aallen4@harding.edu

On our way

Hey guys! Josie here. It's Tuesday and we fly out of here tomorrow morning at 6:oo. a.m. Early huh?=) We are ready to go and totally excited about the work we will be able to do over in Italy! We will be arriving in Rome to help with a Retreat of the churches if Christ in Italy. That should be a treat! We'll start off with a bang, seeing old friends and getting reaquianted with the language. We'll get to be a part of the children's program with the campaigners and we'll be teaching the kiddos Bible lessons that go along with the theme: "Traveling Through Time". It should be a blast, and lemme tell ya, the kids are gunna love my class. I'm gunna be acting out Moses parting the red sea..tee hee. At night we are even providing "fun" entertainment for the adults. Who knows how that goes, but it should be good for a laugh. We've got a "human Scavenger hunt" planned. I'm talking, " who has the biggest nose?" and "who has the loudest laugh?" kinda stuff. Very funny. Anyway, We are really looking forward to it all, well except for all the flights and all of the layovers. =) Please keep us in your prayers as we travel. And before I go, I just want to say a big fat THANK YOU to all of you who have helped make this trip possible! We love you very much and we'll miss you. Please feel free to comment on this site, to email us, and to even catch us on facebook=) Arrivederci!

P.S.

Posts by Aaron will be in blue, and posts by Josie will be in Pink! Aren't we clever?!