Out of the Shadow of Il Duce

Sitting on the sofa after a day of teaching at Progetto Archippo here in Parma. Progetto Archippo is a ministry of Gruppo Cristiano Latino Americano (Latin American Christian Group), a wonderful multicultural church with a great vision that extends far beyond Parma, with a heart to see Italy changed. I was given the topic of leadership, but couldn’t help myself from shifting it every so slightly to something closer to missional leadership. What’s the difference? One accepts the idea that management and status quo can be okay. The other rejects it. Or one allows for the leader to think primarily of the needs of the church. The other thinks of the requirements of mission. There is just something in me, something that is getting stronger each year, that can’t stomach thinking about the church outside of the context of mission. That’s why I couldn’t teach on leadership without filtering it through the needs of mission.

So that’s what I brought to a group of twelve, mostly young, leaders. A bit smaller, perhaps, that hoped and expected, but that’s okay. As I’ve been told before, do your best with the ones who are there, rather than get distracted by the one’s who are not.

We spent the day considering the challenge and call of mission (not an activity for the select few, but the calling of every follower of Jesus) and the part played by church leadership in enabling effective mission (including the search for our vision, protecting the vision, and never letting the church get too settled. I had planned to write a bit more about what I mean by that last part, but it‘ll be long, so I‘ll save that for another entry). There is a lot of hunger to grow here, so it was an easy group to talk with, and the kind of people who seem willing to do what it takes to grow.

It was also a diverse group, representing Italy, Cameroon, Nigeria, Dominican Republic, Brazil, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Columbia, Albania, and probably more.

Speaking on leadership in Italy is not a simple thing. With such awful examples of leadership throughout their history, the concept of leader is not a positive one, and leaders are held with suspicion rather than respect. Think not only of the recent examples of Berlusconi and the never ending parade of recent scandals at all levels of government, but all the way back to people like Mussolini. In fact, Mussolini ruined what would have been the common and helpful word for leader. He was commonly known as ‘Il Duce’, which simply means leader (just like Hitler was called ‘Fuhrer‘). In the aftermath of his time at the top, a time that was a disaster for Italy, it became associated with the kind of leader he was-dictator, authoritarian, brutal. Nothing appropriate for a church leader. Or any leader.

Other words such as ‘direttore’ are also laced with authoritarian or self-serving implications, so they were no help. In the end we were forced to rely on English words like ‘leadership’ and ‘management’, because Italian words without negative meanings attached were simply unavailable. To me, this represents the desperate need for the training of leaders here in Italy. For the church to grow, leadership will have to be redefined and re-explored for the church. It’s hard to see much Kingdom growth if this need isn’t addressed. Unfortunately the lack of healthy leadership has created a legacy of schism and isolationism within the Italian evangelical church, not a good situation in any church, much worse in one so small. Please continue to pray that strong yet serving leaders will be raised up through out Italy, and the good examples that have begun to rise to the surface-such as in the excellent church in Parma-will shape the future of the church in Italy.

 

Am I fit for The Hunger Games?

Last Sunday morning I (Julia) woke up after an anxiety-inducing dream.

In my dream I was leading a team of people to a destination I’ve never been to before but I was given directions and a map. We were following a tricky path-narrow passages, windy roads, shadowy alleys and getting through many doors. I was so focused on getting my team to the destination I didn’t realize that somewhere along the way I’d lost my shoes and my camera.

My quick steps came to a halting stop when I looked down and saw my naked feet. I got so scared I wouldn’t be able to continue my journey because my comfortable walking shoes enabled me to keep moving. From that point on I was committed to finding or replacing my shoes even if I had to turn around and walk all the way back. But all of my frantic racing around was in vain-I couldn’t find them. And I couldn’t even think of the fact I’d lost my camera. How will I ever find the money to replace it? It used to bring me so much joy and excitement but now it’s irretrievably lost. In one journey I’ve lost two things that mattered so much: something I needed and something I loved.

The dream wouldn’t lose it’s grip on me throughout the day. I felt so defeated. It came so unexpected, there seemed to be no indication that my ability to move forward was compromised. I was trying to consider everything around me in a reasonable light but I was feeling emotional and finally I turned to God for explanations. “What does it all mean? Why can’t I keep moving forward just when I thought I was on the right track and picking up speed? Why are there always so many obstacles on my way? I can’t keep walking without my shoes! They are what enable me to walk!!”  

All of a sudden I heard his voice saying to me, “You’ve lost your shoes, you haven’t lost your feet.”

Those words were enough to bring balance to my racing heart and emotions. My mind turned to a scene of the book I’ve recently read “The Hunger Games.” In the story the heroine, Katniss Everdeen, was forced to play in a reality game in the futuristic country of Panem that replaced the North America we know. In the game she was compelled to fight for her survival for the entertainment of the rich and the powerful. Early in the game she gets badly burned but has no choice but to ignore the pain to climb a tree to escape her pursuers. Her hands are in excruciating agony yet she keeps going up because her life is literally dependent on it. Would I be able to do the same if my life was hanging in the balance? I’d like to believe I have the same fighting spirit in me. Do I?

That scene brought me back to my dream. It was clear that I’d lost my shoes some time before I noticed it but I kept going. However as soon as I’d realized the loss I got paralyzed in fear. Why in the world did I think that I couldn’t keep moving forward just because I’d lost my shoes? Is it impossible? No. Will it hurt? Most likely yes. Was I really so wrong in thinking that something is so essential to my success is nearly an accessory? My feet and my strong and capable body enable me to keep making progress and moving forward, my shoes merely make my walk more comfortable. How many more things in life do I consider a necessity while they are no more than trifles that make my life run smoother? In the end, the verse that came to my rescue was, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach good news.” The feet not the shoes.

I’ve written about the life of sacrifice I feel Jesus had asked me to live in the past. I’ve accepted it but in each step I take towards him I discover new depth in what it truly means. It’s not always the obvious what has to go. I can’t just look at someone else’s life and copy it to make it pleasing for him. I can’t be another Mother Teresa or Heidi Baker. Our souls are different, our lives are different; so will be our sacrifices. Most of the things worth having are brought in the world with a good amount of pain and discomfort. Why then do we measure our lives by the “blessings” like steady job, security and popularity?  In other words, everything that is designed to protect us from any traces of discomfort.

We get so consumed by thinking that we just need one more thing to really, passionately serve God. But God isn’t calling us to be obedient in some idealized future. He is calling us to be obedient here today in the middle of our incompleteness. Like Paul discovered, it’s when we are weak, tired, and at the end of our strength that we get to see God’s strength.

Open Doors

Our sincere apologies for the delay in doing anything with this blog. In my defence we had something all written up, ready to go, and saved on our wonderful laptop. Unfortunately, a careless moment with a glass of water has cost us all of that, and a bit more. But that only counts for a part of our time.

Really it was a bit of an odd time. We were a bit distracted with some things needing to be done with our house back in Port Alberni. Without a renter to pay the rent it was a bit of an anxious time. But as so often happens, God came through in unexpected ways. This time it was a chance for Julia to teach English and show the city to a school and parents group from Russia for a week or so. (This is where she is as I write this, taking a stroll around Windsor Castle at the moment, if I’m not mistaken.) The upside is that through the job we are provided with everything we would have lost with a vacant house. Unexpected, unlooked for, and perfectly timed. Guess that’s just how God works. It always impresses me how the things that God does so often come from left field. One of these days I’ll figure our just how useless anxiety is and, when everything gets turned on its head, I’ll start to look for something creative and unexpected to crop up just when its most needed.

And another piece of news: I was just offered a part-time job with a non-government organization called Christian Aid, a very large aid organization here in the UK and Ireland that works on behalf of many denominations through advocacy and projects around the world. I’ll be helping Church of England diocese build relationships in countries around the world. It’s a new challenge, and yet another unexpected provision.

It’s all pieces to the puzzle, and although none of these things is earth shattering or a revolution to where we are, it’s wonderful to sit back and see God’s hand at work, moving us from where we were yesterday to where we are today, and where we are heading in the future.

A Chord of Three Strands or Valentine’s Day Musings

There is a passage in Ecclesiastes that was a key feature at our wedding, and, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful in the Bible. Getting ready for Valentines Day and thinking about my relationship with Julia, it was this passage that has come to mind:

Two are better than one,
because they have a good return for their labour:
If either of them falls down,
one can help the other up.
But pity anyone who falls
and has no one to help them up.
Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm.
But how can one keep warm alone?
Though one may be overpowered,
two can defend themselves.
A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.

Before I was married, I don’t remember ever thinking deeply on why God set up the institution. In my mind, it simply existed. We marry because we fall in love, of course. But ten years on and a few more experiences in the rear-view mirror I realize that God brought us together because he saw on a deeper level than I ever could that help was needed to unlock me, the deeper me, the me that had lain dormant and undiscovered.

One of the things that I have observed as a pastor is that, like an iceberg, 90% of us lies hidden beneath the surface, invisible to even ourselves. Therein lies strength, potential, creativity, ambition, wisdom and a host of others. We are more than we realize, and have more to offer, only very few of us can ever access this place without the help of someone else who not only sees us as we are but as we were created to be. There is a Christ-likeness to this responsibility, where like Jesus we see a person beyond their brokenness to the image of God within.

Of course it’s not only us married folk who have this help-God is not less generous to the single. Only at some point we need someone in our life who doesn’t just know us, but knows us intimately, who has access to the deepest recesses of our soul, who is our equal or, in as many ways as possible, our better. And then, we offer the same, because it is not one carrying the other but two together in equality and reciprocation.

For me this has happened through Julia. When I look back at all those things of which I am most proud-my greatest accomplishments and victories-in the background she stands as one who made it possible. Maybe that’s why I like this passage from Ecclesiastes so much…

A good return for labour? Definitely. I know I would have left many opportunities untapped without her encouragement. God knew I needed someone to give me a bit of a kick. To work with someone I respect and admire has been a privilege.

And in the crisis moments-of which there have been many-there is someone who can offer a perspective that I can’t always see, and who can remind me of the things I forgot were true.

But it’s not just that we need each other for the journey, it’s that it wouldn’t be nearly as much fun. It’s not always smooth, and not always simple, but I wouldn’t want to do it with anyone else.

So to Julia I say thank you, I love you, and look forward to many more days in the coming years where we can step back and realize how incredibly fortunate we are to have each other.

On the Champs-Élysées, Paris; Photo Credit Lisa Gratton of Ophelia Photography

Jesus in “Unexpected” Places

One of the things that has been on my heart lately has been to get the youth we are working with to think as missionaries, which isn’t always the easiest thing for those of us, who have grown up in the church and with the comforts of a good youth group, to do. But I have felt it to be important not only as part of a potential greater move of the church to be more active in the community but as something no disciple of Jesus can get away from.
So, borrowing heavily from the old “Soccer Sunday” idea that was such great fun back in the old days of Thunder Bay, I thought dropping by one of the local parks with some of the guys from the church in order to get a game going would be a good idea.
It as better than I could have hoped.
We got there around the same time a small handful of kids from the neighbourhood showed up. Soon there were at least 15, and maybe more. I can’t remember too much about the game except that I played at the level one would expect from a Canadian i.e poorly. I consider myself the comic relief. Also, the language was quite different than one would normally get in a church youth group, and the potential for fights was not all that different from hockey.
But I had a great time. In the youth group, we have spent a significant amount of time talking and praying about those who don’t know Jesus, and what we are to do about it. But praying in a room in a church building can never convey or impart the urgency as looking an individual in the eyes, knowing that Jesus loves them enough to die for them, and realizing that they have no idea. The theoretical quickly and forcefully becomes personal. The requirement to reach out to them-not requirement in the sense of rules, but in the sense of ‘how could we not?”-was something I felt very deeply.
And with that came a sense that where we were was exactly where Jesus was working, that he too cares deeply about those kids, but that he was already there and active long before we were. I felt that in stepping out into that neighbourhood, we were encountering Jesus ourselves in a massive way.
For all of the time we spend waiting to encounter God in a church meeting, it seems to me that he is most vibrantly present where people are most lost, desperate, broken and hungry.
We read of a Jesus who spent time with sinners, who dined in the homes of the marginalized, who was accused of gluttony and drunkenness, who associated closest with those farthest from the religious establishment. Yet we still look for him in our respectable middle class churches. Turns out Jesus has been waiting for us in the last place we would think to look.
This isn’t to say that I take issue with Sunday services and what they can contribute. It is a privilege to meet together, to worship, and just to be reminded that we aren’t alone in our journey. But I have always found that when this service becomes representative of my walk, my relationship with Jesus turns into something one-dimensional, and decidedly inferior to what I know it can be. But when I start with mission, and end up celebrating with others what he has done, or come in need of encouragement for the journey, the time together takes on new meaning.
Which reinforces what I have been realizing for a long time: mission-whether to the other side of the world or to the guy next door-infuses everything with a depth that is forever lost when we forget or marginalize the Great Commission.

Lessons learned from Sk8er Boi

I took the youth to an outdoor skating rink in impressive Canary Warf this last Saturday, partly because it seemed like a good time, but mostly because being the only person who knew how to skate was good for my self-esteem.

Skating here is a bit different than what I’m used to from Canada, and by different I mean more expensive. But it was beautiful and fun and a great time.

But the best part of it was watching a few dozen non-skaters slip and slide around the rink, especially early on when the ice was extra slick, and the others extra unpracticed.

There were two main groups that stood out. Around the rim, clinging to the boards, were one group, shuffling slowly and carefully and safely in circles. The main risks they faced were the occasionally corner they dared to cut. As a group, they stayed mostly upright. But to say they went skating would be a bit of a stretch.

The other group were best personified by one of the youth, Nathan. Nathan had never skated a day in his life. Possibly he had tried out roller blades, but that doesn’t help much.

Nathan fell. A lot.

He was usually a mess of uncoordinated limbs flying at odd angles around the ice.

He trousers were caked with snow before our session was half over.

But you should have seen how good he was. Not at the beginning. At the beginning he was objectively awful. But by the end he was amazing, flying around the ice with only the occasional fall, unrecognizable from the skater who first tottered onto the ice.

It was fun to watch because although he didn’t enjoy falling any more than the next guy, it was all accepted as part of the process of learning to skate.

I love that idea, where getting anywhere significant includes the possibility of getting a few bruises and looking ridiculous. The church we are a part of here in London is considering a shift from a traditional format-Sunday services, select leadership, the usual church programs-to one that is increasingly dispersed in order to take the mission outward to the community.

Not that this doesn’t involve risk. Or the possibility of a few knocks along the way.

But for the chance to get somewhere amazing? It’s worth it all.

It may be easier to do what has been done before-hanging around the boards on the perimeter. But it is so much more fun to be the guy with the flailing limbs and trousers covered in snow, on the way to something great.

A bit of a ramble, perhaps. But I’m learning to really enjoy following the God who smiles on all sorts of adventures, if they are taken with a desire to please him. On one level we could not be more safe or secure, but at the same time there is an incredible adventure with all sorts of risks and unpredictability. I think Nathan will be a great model for me.

There may have been easier ways to spend the hour on the ice, but I can’t help but think he had the most fun.

Finding Inspiration in Turin

It may be a bit delayed, but I’m finally able to pass along a little of what I saw and experience while in Turin earlier in December. I’m not sure how aware the world is of Turin. It hosted a Winter Olympics, but other than that it doesn’t make it on a lot of list of must-do places in Italy, overshadowed, perhaps, by Venice, Rome, Florence and all of the other incredible cities packed into a small peninsula. It’s a shame, because it’s a great place, backed by the Alps, clean, friendly, and beautiful, especially when decked out for Christmas.

Turin is also one of the wealthiest cities in Italy. It was the first capital of Italy upon unification 150 years ago, and although it slipped in political importance over the years, it is the centre of Fiat production, which has helped it to develop in economic importance. Of course, as countless Canadian small towns dependent on the forestry or mining industries can attest, over-reliance on a single industry can really hurt when things take a downturn. Turin is no exception, as problems at Fiat have caused a painful ripple effect throughout the city.

I spent my time there with a two-year old simple church network (or house church network, if that is more familiar). Once a traditional church, they went through a time of re-evaluation which led them to a very significant change in the trajectory of the church.

Which is rather incredible, really. To change from a traditional church to one that is dispersed among various homes is no small matter. Most churches wouldn’t be able to do it. But if the church exists for mission, then the church must be built for mission, and this is exactly what they have sought to do, and what many fail to do. It is easy to exist for special interest groups within the church, and courageous to take another path.

What their present structure allows them to do so well is to move nimbly, to respond to opportunities as they come up, and to engage the whole church (or at least a greater part of it) in reaching the area.

While I was there, an evangelist from America had joined them for a spell. The church aggressively advertised, mostly around a local university, and then approached the event as not just an opportunity to add a few individuals to the Sunday gathering, but as a chance to plant a new church, where those who getting to know Jesus for the first time can do so together.

When I think of how we approach our future ministry in Italy I hope that we can have a similar willingness to pay any necessary price to see the Kingdom advance. So many churches expect growth without actually positioning themselves for anything significant to happen, which is no less ridiculous than my expectation that I will lose my extra Christmas weight without avoiding the trifle sitting in our fridge and hitting the gym regularly.

I’m not saying that every traditional church needs to become a house church (or that every trifle needs to be avoided), or that a change in structure will every be the solution to the challenge of mission. but there is something inspiring by their willingness to pay the necessary price to see God move.

I think that God has been waking the church up to the challenge of mission both next door and around the world, but this journey will always require something of us. The only question is what we are willing to give to see our mission fulfilled.

I’ll be home for Christmas…one day

So many thoughts and emotions are overwhelming my (Julia’s) heart this Christmas season that my rational brain is having hard time keeping up.

For those of you who are not familiar with our life, here is the deal. This is our first Christmas away from home. We’ve done everything to make it as normal as possible. We bought a real Christmas tree in a “home depot” type store in London only to find out it was probably cut a few days ago and was not going to last. We made homemade eggnog but the eggs curdled up and we ended up with 2 pints of milky scrambled eggs. We decorated our flat but realized that it was the crackling of our fire place that made our house back in Canada so “Christmassy”. We played Christmas music, baked Christmas cookies, wrapped Christmas presents, enjoyed London decked out in Christmas beauty. We were determined to have this Christmas “as usual”. Now 3 days left until the big day and it might be the unusually warm and sunny December or it could be the oddity of our situation but Christmas spirit is becoming more and more difficult to access.

In attempts to fight the blues I turn on my “go-to” Christmas tunes. No such luck…”I’ll be home for Christmas if only in my dreams” turns me into a blubbery mess. When my rational brain takes over again and tries to tell me that I have no right to feel this way because my home is not really in Canada it doesn’t help but leaves me with a sense of lostness. In 3 days I will be on the wrong side of the 30s. As if that wasn’t bad enough now to top it off I’ve come to realize that I don’t even have a home, a place where I belong, my childhood bedroom with all the sentimental stuff that is supposed to make us feel “whole and grounded”. I’ve moved countries 5 times in the last 13+ years and I’ve done it out of obedience to the call Jesus placed on my life. Why then do I have such a profound feeling of disconnect from everything that is supposed to feel familiar?

The truth is none of us are at home wherever we are. It’s just that my life exposes the condition more than in others. Painful that may be but I’d rather not feel settled and comfortable because it keeps me dreaming and longing for the place that is eternal, where I do belong. We hear so many messages this holiday season about what the true meaning of Christmas is. I won’t bore you with the list but the most popular is “spending time with the family”. Lovely sentiment but not the truth. The true meaning of Christmas is a distant promise and a dream becoming a reality through the Son of God becoming flesh and coming to live among us. I can celebrate that anywhere I am.

This quote struck me while I was reading The Faith of Leap by Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch. It may be referring to the church, but it is true for individual Christians as well:
“A Church which pitches its tents without constantly looking out for new horizons, which does not continually strike camp, is being untrue to its calling. We must play down our longing for certainty, accept what is risky, and live by improvisation and experiment.” Hans Kung

Stuff that matters to me

It’s been a while since we have posted anything here. It’s not that nothing has been happening, just not a lot that is deeply newsworthy. But it feels like time to check in as we are heading to Christmas and enjoying the company of Julia’s mum, who has come for a visit. And in less than a week (next Thursday, to be exact) I will be heading to Turing for a few days to spend some time with a couple of house church networks that are meeting there. We’ve been contemplating what our future ministry in Italy is going to look like, so we are both pretty excited to see if it is anything in this direction. Italy doesn’t seem to respond all that well to the more traditional (read: American) approaches to church, so it is at least worth a look to see if the simple church approach is part of the answer. Of course, rearranging the furniture isn’t going to solve every problem and overcome every obstacle. But I think it is more than incidental. I believe I am quoting Alan Hirsch when I say, “The medium is the message,” and I tend to agree. How we structure our life together says something powerful-for good or ill-about who we are and what is important. It makes sense that we should take care to say the right thing.

Thinking again about Italy, I suppose that many or most of you will have been hearing something about the upheaval going on in Europe at this time. As I write this, the EU leadership is in talks aimed at saving the Euro, as well as the Union as a whole. This matters deeply to us because so much of our plan is linked to the freedom that the EU gives us. Our evolving plan stands as this: gain UK citizenship for the whole family (already having this myself) and using this to help us skirt all kinds of legal issues as we establish an English as a Second Language school in a beautiful but spiritually needy Italian city. But if the EU disintegrates, or if the Italian economy collapses as everyone seems to fear, our plan-brilliant as it may be-heads in the direction of obsolete. At this point, I think that I’ve read every article written on the subject, twice. It is a bit of a big deal for us.

But then again, maybe not.

We have all these competing interests that seek to lay claim to our lives, to our faith, to our lordship. For our future, will we trust the nation-state, the free market-or the enduring faithfulness of God? Is God in charge, or are the global market forces? Does God make the decisions that will guide our future, or do Sarkozy, Merkel, and Cameron?

We are constantly getting pulled in so many different directions, whether to freak out when the newspaper says the sky is falling, to listen to the siren song of the shopping mall and its promise of wholeness standing just one purchase away, or any number or other forces tugging at our attention. And then there is Jesus, promising that if we seek the kingdom first, everything else will be taken care of.

It’s not that those other things aren’t important, or that we should disengage from the world around us. But it does mean that we don’t have to live or die based on the latest news report or what the stock market is doing. Behind it all, God is at work, always at work, and he isn’t the least bit concerned.

If you are wondering about the work going on in Italy, check out this blog post from Tony Hedrick, with encouraging news from Parma and one of the groups we have been linked to: http://4euroinformation.wordpress.com/2011/11/29/more-inspiring-news-from-acci-and-progetto-archippo-in-italy/.

Trip to Italy [Part III]

A bit of a break till we are managing to pass along our thoughts about the next city on our recent trip, but that doesn’t mean that our final stop was insignificant.

This particular city was Bologna, famous as the birthplace of lasagna, bolognese sauce, and the world’s oldest university. It’s not a small city-about a million in the metropolitan area-and rich in history. If you look at a map of the city you can still see the shape of the old medieval walls around which the city developed. The gates of must have been an impressive wall are still standing at the corners even though it was destroyed over a hundred years ago, not by an invading army, but to make way for almighty progress.

We were aided in our tour by our friend David Hannah, who works in university campus ministry for TEAM, and who arrived with his family in Bologna right around when we were touching down in London. David gave us a bit of a tour around the city centre-taking us into a few amazing places we would never have found on our own-and shared about their experiences transitioning into Italian culture. It is always encouraging to hear about what’s happening in Italy. On the surface things there seem to be moving a less than a snail’s pace, but under the surface there is the rumblings of something bigger on the move, which is deeply exciting for those of us who want to be a part of it.

At the same time, our time with David was a reminder that what we are getting in to is not the easiest thing in the world, a helpful reminder for an idealist like myself. When you add up the visa issues, the strain of learning a new language, the disorientation that comes with stepping into a new culture, the resistance to the gospel endemic in Italy, plus anything else that I am missing, it gets a bit overwhelming. I’m not even sure what the political and economic crisis in Italy would add to the equation. But I suppose this is part of the adventure, and despite it all, I meet very few who have regret for choosing the life. And I have been thinking recently about how nothing of value comes cheaply (think Israel having to battle its way into the Promised Land, the prophets facing abuse and rejection for speaking truth, Paul facing death and much more to share the gospel, and, of course, Jesus giving his life on the cross). The desire to see something big and dramatic of God-something bigger than I can explain, something of truly biblical proportions-is a large part of what has drawn me here. Maybe taking a risk and stepping in to a battle is the step we take to see something happen. And when I look at what the people of the Bible had to go through, even Italian bureaucracy holds no terror for me.

Bologna was an important stop because it has been at or near the top of cities we would love to end up in, since it meets all of the criteria we are looking for in our next home city. And while there continues to be outreach in various places in the city, like in the rest of Italy it is no where near enough to match the need. A lot can happen, of course, and maybe we’ll end up no where near Bologna. But it was fun to be able to visualize us setting up shop.

Hopefully we can spend some quality time there this summer, but I’ll have to save that musing to another time.