Dear praying partners,

We cannot express how thankful we are of your support. Thank you for lifting our needs before the throne of grace! Here is some of our latest news and prayer requests (a little long since we are covering 2 months : ) ).

I can’t even speak English well, much less Italian! The 8 years we spent in Philadelphia helped me realize that I didn’t speak English very well. Well, at least by their standards. While I was the youth pastor at Faith Community Church I was made fun of weekly for the way I said something (by youth and adults). Just today I was in a crowded bakery in the center of Milan. I asked for and received my bread without incident, but I also wanted something else. After I asked for it I heard and saw the Italians pressing in around me giggling and knew I must not have said it right.

Nevertheless, we are all improving in our language. Amy and I are hoping to pass an official national Italian language test for level 2 by June. Right now we are continuing with language school and language helpers. The kids all received great report cards from their teachers. The teachers all commented on how fast they are learning the language as well as their great behavior. They are all enjoying the friendships they have made at school and are beginning to be invited over to their friends’ homes. Please keep praying that we will learn the language well and not get overly frustrated on the days when we don’t speak so well.

Anybody seen my toe? We have opportunities to go on day trips with our language school to various sites in Milan. It is both a language lesson and cultural/history lesson wrapped up in one. This month Amy had the chance to visit a cathedral where the three Wisemen were buried after their bodies were brought from Persia. The bodies remained in Milan until a German king, Barbarosa (red beard) conquered Milan and in 1164 took the three bodies to Germany where they now reside in Cologne. Apparently the Germans felt sorry for taking the bodies and returned a few pieces to the cathedral in Milan.

The one time of year when vandalism is legal. We have just made it through our second carnival season. It is a time of great festivities, especially for the kids who all dress up in costumes. Last Saturday there was a parade in our neighborhood as the three elementary schools made floats and randomly stopped traffic so that they could go down various streets. As the floats passed by the innocently stopped cars, the kids in the floats would blast them with silly string and foam. Even the trams that got stopped in their tracks fell victim. Amazingly, out of all the cars that ended up having to stop and wait for the parade to pass, I saw only one man visibly irate. Most seemed to smile and enjoy it.

Sick again?! We have really gone through a terrible spell of sicknesses over the last month and a half, and now we need to take 2 of the kids to the dentist. We have also been dealing with “pidocchi” (you can google translate that). Please pray that the Lord would bring healing to our family.

Moving in Ministry...Please pray as we begin to move more into active ministry with our team. While learning the language and culture will still remain our primary objective, we will begin to slowly get more involved in the various ministry related things our team is engaged in.

One last thing – we praise the Lord that we all have now received our permits to live in Italy. Also, the kids and I have received our residency in Milan. Amy will be going tomorrow to try for her residency. Please pray that she will not have any problems and they will accept that “Amy Stowers” is the same person as “Amy Smith.” I know that sounds a bit funny, but in Italy the wife does not take the last name of her husband. Since some of Amy’s official documents use her maiden name (like her birth certificate!) and others use her marriage name (like her passport), this can be a problem (and in fact already has been a problem since her maiden name is on three of our kids’ birth certificates).

Here is the link for pictures and videos. Most of them are of the parade...
http://picasaweb.google.com/ronrsmithjr/February2010?authkey=Gv1sRgCOLQ85bO07O1jAE&feat=directlink

In Christ,
Ron (for Amy and the kids)