I had the opportunity to travel to Florence Italy on November 18-22 for the purpose of visiting with Andrea Gallman and some of her fellow team members at Avant Italia.
I arrived in Florence early Friday evening on the 19th. The Avanti Italia (AI) building is located in a Florence "suburb" of Scandicci, about 4 miles from the center of Florence. The building is located in a residential area and houses the school, offices, common areas, and living quarters in the 3-story structure. The directors, David and Debbie Woodroof, their daughter Emily, and one of the Harding University-Florence (HUF) employees living at the AI building have cars for transportation. The AI team uses the cars for Sunday travel to church, but the AI team use mass transit or walk for the majority of their local transit needs.
When I arrived, I met several of the team members – David and Debbie, Emily, and one of the married couples working there, Eric and Jessica Smith. I had dinner with Andrea and her roommate, Angela Withrow who is from the Dallas area and whose family attends the Waterview Church of Christ there (I later discovered she knew my in-laws from Highland Oaks Church of Christ in Garland, where she used to live). Also at dinner were several students and faculty from Harding University-Florence.
Although separate organizations, HUF and AI frequently support one another. For example, they attend church together at the Florence Church of Christ, and occasionally share Sunday evening dinner and Bible studies. This past October a fire at the HUF villa forced temporary relocation of the female students to the Avanti Italia living quarters. Imagine expanding the living arrangements set up for three young women to handle approximately 15 additional college coeds.
On Sunday I attended the Florence Church of Christ with the AI and HUF team members who were in town. There were about 50 people there, some local and many associated with AI and HUF. Two families I met are former AI missionaries who have stayed in Florence after completing their AI commitment. An interesting cultural note about Sundays: Nearly all of the AI and HUF students meet at a nearby Café Bar for morning coffee (usually latte or cappuccino) with an Italian pastry prior to heading for church. This seems the norm for most Italians going to a church on Sunday morning. The building that the church uses was formerly a 19th century Orthodox family chapel, domed and circular in shape. The service begins with about 15 minutes of song requests – both in Italian and English. Other than these few introductory songs, all the service is in Italian. All guests are introduced individually (anyone remember when First Colony Church of Christ or wherever you attend was small enough to do that). The Lord’s Supper table sits in the center of the room.
I had lunch with Andrea, David and Debbie, two other of the AI team members, one of the former AI team families, and Kyle Thompson, assistant to the director of HUF. I had dinner with Andrea, Angela, and Peter McGraw who is from Memphis. That evening, I met the rest of the AI team (who had been traveling for the weekend): Ryan and Laura Stephens from Memphis, and Ermenita Zyka (an Albanian who has been with the Florence Church for about 5 years, recently graduated from University of Florence, and now works at AI).
Monday morning, after saying goodbye to Andrea as she and the rest of the AI team left for their final week of Italian language school, David and Debbie and I headed for a Café Bar for breakfast and fellowship.
David and Debbie gave me a little of their background and of the church in Florence, AI, and HUF. The Church of Christ there dates from the mid 1950s, and AI grew out of the English language ministry at the church. AI has existed as a separate organization since the 1970s, and HUF was established in 1980 (celebrating their 30th anniversary this semester). David and Debbie both worked for Harding University, David in the Media Department and Debbie teaching Sign Language, before they came to AI as the directors in early 2008. Neither spoke Italian before arriving. They consider their work as God sending them as they resisted at first this drastic career change and coming, but several “coincidences” persuaded them that this opportunity was God doing everything short of pushing them through the open door.
The present team Andrea is a part of includes three single women, two single men, and two married couples. David and Debbie use their role as directors to help keep the house and the team running smoothly. To help the team work together, they teach team dynamics and use what I would call their own unique Golden Rule perspective. For example, if someone is having a bad day, David and Debbie remind each team member that everyone of them has bad days and for each to remember how they wanted to be treated when they were the ones having the bad day. David is also responsible for keeping the house and computer systems in working order, and both help facilitate the new team members through the Italian bureaucracy.
The theme is, “This is Italy – expect things to not go as expected!” We are used to “instant results for many of our services in the US, but in Italy you have to wait in a line for almost everything. Everyone pays their utility bills are paid at the post office (no online bill payments or mailing the check). Renewing the annual health insurance (and other annual government paperwork) takes 10 months of processing. So David and Debbie help the new AI workers through this culture shock.
Andrea, along with all of the new AI workers, go through 3 months on Italian language school when they first arrive. They choose to use only Italian to communicate with each other throughout the day until dinner time to help reinforce their lessons. The school is upfront about using the English Bible as the resource for teaching English and advertises its English classes strictly by word of mouth from former students and the team. Lessons are free to all who enroll. David and Debbie consider it a testament to the past team efforts that this method of advertising is so effective. There is never a shortage of students. Now that the new AI team has finished their Italian language lessons, they will be able to spend the entire work day teaching English.
It appears that while the school is successful in re-introducing the Bible to the English students, it is not as successful with regards to students being baptized into Christ at the Florence Church. This is, for the most part, because of the Italian culture that places Catholicism as much as a part of the individual’s heritage as their family is. It is difficult for adult students, even with their deeper knowledge of the scriptures, to separate themselves from this heritage any more than they can separate themselves from their family. However, it seems to me that the school believes that the seeds for growth have been planted through each student, and through the children’s programs that many of the AI members organize.
AI also uses the American holidays to help teach American culture to their students. For example, this past Thanksgiving (for which they were preparing while I was there) they had over 70 Italian guests for an American Thanksgiving dinner. Andrea read the story of Thanksgiving for the assembled guests.
David and Debbie feel that Andrea is adjusting well and the team is working together well.
I was blessed to have been able to spend time with Andrea and the team that weekend, and having known Andrea since she was 8 years old, I am very proud of her.
Andrea has a blog as do several of the other AI members:
Andrea - http://lavitainfirenze.blogspot.com/
Lindsay Walle - http://lindsaywalle.blogspot.com/
Peter McGraw - http://peter-mcgraw.blogspot.com/
Eric & Jessica Smith - http://receivingsight.blogspot.com/
Ryan & Laura Stephens - http://avantistephens.blogspot.com/
Emily Woodroof - http://dafavola.blogspot.com/
Angela Withrow - http://angela-withrow.blogspot.com/
God bless,
Alan
