High Carbs
They’re not exactly like your state troopers back home. They’re also not your normal traffic police. These guys are “above” the traffic. They’re federal-para-military-city-provincial-police and they deal in high crime like bank robberies, pedophilia, extortion, mafia, terrorism, and all kinds of bad ragu.
Whatta’ u’ guys want?
So, it surprised me when I came back from the States and received notice to appear before the Carabinieri as soon as possible for atti di giustizia. Now, atti di giustizia can mean a couple things. First, it can mean acts of justice like somebody is suing us, there’s a citation against me, or they caught me putting too much sugar in my coffee. Or second, however, the word giustizia is also the biblical word for righteousness. They could’ve been asking for me to appear to preform acts of righteousness — WHICH I’M MORE THAN WILLING TO DO.
I couldn’t figure it out. I was racking my brain. I was wondering what Andrew (our summer assistant) had done with my car or my house or how he had illegally extorted my chihuahua. I had nothin’.
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This is a short post on a giant topic: Italy’s culture
For our spiritual-minded readers, it’s the culture & its complexity that becomes like cement to the Seed. Hardened through centuries of empty tradition and ceaseless opining, the average Italian has become a strange synthetic of secularist-religious swirl. Everything is about appearances; refined appearances. In other words, it matters more how your dress your baby, what kind of watch you wear, or how clean your house is than how much you’re cheating on your taxes, cheating on your spouse, or cursing God with the vilest of language. This syndrome of “externalism” is called, La Bella Figura (The Beautiful Figure) and Italians are both artisan and artist in its performance.
I was sent a great article the other day. Actually, it’s a book review (on the New York Times site — can’t stand the NYT just to let you know). However, if any of you are at all interested in the nation of Italy - please read this article. Here’s a great quote from the article to help you catch the idea of the beautiful figure. “Italians, in other words, would just as soon look good as be good. The country suffers from an ethics deficit…Lying outrageously…is considered normal.” Ethics are the practices of an anchored moral system. Therefore, the best ethics are biblical ethics and Italy is so void of care for the Bible that whoa-la — disappearing ethics.
Take a few minutes and read the article. I’d love to hear your thoughts or answer your questions (that’s diplomatic code for “leave a comment on this post”).
Travels Completed (for now)
(warning: this post is a wee bit sarcastic and moderately funny due to intense jet-lag. Read at your own risk)
We touched down on a beautiful Venetian morning at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday. When you fly into Venice, the old city is just outside the right passenger window where one can easily discern buildings, squares, and canals. It was a balmy 72 degrees which was quite a beautiful change from our Phoenician departure of 265 149. We had 8 suitcases (each weighing 50 pounds) and 4 carry-ons (Another 500 lbs. — ok, I’m exaggerating a little — about my carry-on).
We were delayed in Philly an hour and a half after pushing back from the gate early. It so happened that when we were 5th to take-off, a man fainted in the airplane and caused a medical emergency. We had to pull out of line and head back to the gate. This was an interesting experience to watch unfold. The man had taken a couple sleeping pills and decided to wash them down with a couple cocktails at the bar (must’ve hated flying more than I do — try it with children!). With his personalized and customized drug-induced coma, the man couldn’t buckle his seat belt and the flight attendants couldn’t find a pulse on the guy. One burly attendant picked the guy up and suplexed him to the floor which began to revive the man. The EMT’s came. The pilot kicked the guy off the plane. A depressed baggage handler had to find the guy’s luggage (which was probably the most work). The police visited our plane too. Fuel and oxygen had to be replenished… yada yada…
The second to the worst part of this ordeal was that the man was sitting on the emergency exit aisle. The incident happened just after the attendants announced, “If you’re seated on an emergency exit aisle and do not feel that you can adequately handle the responsibility of the exit doors, please inform a flight attendant immediately.” Oh, and the worst part about this ordeal was that our children were sleeping while we were still on the ground consuming up valuable sleep-time. All parents know that you want sleeping kids while in the air! Jessi was a maniac for the first four-hour flight to Philly and one of the men near us saw how exhaused we were and decided that we needed to be patronized. Getting Jessi’s attention he says, “How do you have so much energy? You haven’t stopped yet. Where do you get all of that energy?” So I shared one of Jessi’s strawberry PowerBars with him — ya, right.
Forty minutes after our ascent and the sun’s descent, Reilly awoke and said for the first of a thousand times, “Daddy, are we almost to Italy?”
Things Not to Take on an Airplane
When traveling, I usually carry the most stuff. Well, the most threatening stuff that would require more searching & inspecting. (BTW, at the rate the world’s going, we’re only going to be able to travel in our underwear in men’s and women’s sections on the planes — and that may even be too dangerous b/c some guy will inevitably invent exploding boxers.) However, it’s Sandy that usually always gets searched. It must be her shifty eyes.
Yesterday, they pulled apart her purse in Phoenix and took away her Carmex and Hand Sanitizer. Chapped lips are a pain, but don’t take away the sanitizer when we’re travelling with kids. This can be a bio-medical threat! So now, I’m thinking that there’s some strange concoction of Carmex and sanitizer at 2 fluid ounces that can threaten a 767.
This is nothing like the guy we encountered when flying out of Denver a couple weeks ago. For 5 days, the news had been informing people, “No liquids, bottles, containers, lipstick, etc. etc.” When we got to DIA, the loud-speakers, big new signs, ticket agents, and security guards informed us of the same. Finally, we arrive at the security check-point and the guards selected the guy’s bag in front of us. They abruptly opened the bourse and pulled out a bottle of Wishbone Italian salad dressing. Sandy and I looked at each other in total disbelief. I wanted to see the authorities make the guy drink it to see if it was ok. What possessed this guy to think that a tube of lipstick wasn’t going to get on the airplane but his big ole’ bottle of lettuce flavoring would is beyond me. Hey, at least it was Italian (which, by the way, cannot be found in Italy because Italians don’t use bottled dressings — and is a funny look on American faces when they come here and discover this fact and are left with only olive oil and vinegar. We like that look; we’re a bit twisted.)
I received a great article about Italy and its culture that I’ll put in a separate post in a couple days. It’s worth the read (in contrast to this post). Also, I repaired the link to “Rob’s book wishlist”. Can one or two of you test it to see if the script is working right and let me know? Grazie.
Thanks to some great help from brothers Mike Rosowski and Brad Cairns, we were able to have a couple thousand new prayer cards made. If you would like to order some for your Church or have a couple for yourself personally, you can follow this link or click on “Request Prayer Cards” on the left hand menu of our site. The photo in this card was taken in April 2006.
The Last 5 Weeks
It’s really been tough to get something posted on any of our blogs this summer. We’ve been travelling and we haven’t been around much internet access. Also, my computer’s been giving me a lot of problems. We found it necessary to take about 6 weeks and travel to various churches that have supported us over the last 10 years to say thank you and report on the ministry.
Sandy returned from Italy with the kids on the 12th of June. She really needed a break away from all of the work and the kids really needed some family-time with grandparents and cousins. I returned on the 12th of July after completing a number of important steps in the ministry (i.e. a covenant renewal time in our Church, a baptism where 6 entered the waters, the care and ministry of a travelling musical group, and a load of preparation for the upcoming missions conferences and stops etc.)
Our travels have taken us to sites and Churches in San Diego, L.A., San Francisco, Columbus, Indianapolis, Chicago, Branson, & currently Denver. We have completed 5 flights and have 5 more to go. We’ve had 3 rental cars and borrowed 2 others. I think we’ve returned them all.
Overall, our kids have been travelling champs. I’m not quoting anybody we’ve visited though. 
We’re scheduled to return to life in Italia in a couple weeks.
Sandy Holds the Hill
Yesterday, August 7th, Sandy held another birthday at the top of “29″ hill. This year, we were in Denver participating in a missions’ conference. Last year, we were in Slovenia for her birthday. It’s a tradition for Sandy to be somewhere “different” each time she turns 29. Sandy is a wonderful wife, mother, and friend. We are so blessed to be in her life and we love her so much. Happy Birthday Sandy!
