This chapter of Pasta, pizza, and Pinocchio answers questions about missionary work in Italy. Originally published in the Nazarene Missions International mission book series by the publisher now known as The Foundry, the book carried ISBN 0-8341-0612-4. Some material has been updated for this ebook edition.
Ebook: Pasta, pizza, and Pinocchio: Questions and Answers about Missionary Service in Italy (part 10)
Historical note: These answers largely reflect our years of missionary service in Italy. References to our children, missionary colleagues, travel times, compensation, and the church's presence in Europe describe circumstances at that time. Some guidance has been updated for this edition.
No, we didn't feel that our call was to a specific country. In fact, none of the three couples serving in Italy at that time had felt a specific call to Italy.
Our mission leaders sought to match individual missionaries' gifts and skills with requests from mission field councils for additional missionaries. That process led to the assignment of the Longs, the Lovetts, and the Culbertsons to Italy.
You are right in thinking that American culture is related to Italian culture. But that didn't mean we felt immediately at home in Italy. The language, food, buildings, cities, cars, political system, and currency were different.
Perhaps more significantly, ways of thinking and communicating often differed. We found that family ties and personal relationships often played a more central role in everyday life than we were accustomed to in the United States. Taken together, these differences produced what anthropologist Kalervo Oberg called culture shock — at least they did for us! [ More on culture shock ]
Among close friends, including friends of the same sex, we noticed more kissing and hugging than we were accustomed to. At church, for example, friends often greeted one another with a kiss on each cheek. We also saw good friends strolling down the street arm in arm. Such familiarity usually reflected an established friendship. The immediate back-slapping familiarity practiced by some American men could seem presumptuous to the Italians we knew.
Meal schedules often differed from those we knew in the United States. Lunch might be eaten around 1:30 p.m., while dinner might be served at 7:30 p.m. in northern Italy. During our time in Sicily, we encountered evening meals served as late as 11 p.m.
I also had to adjust to dining practices in some restaurants. When I put my napkin in my lap, waiters sometimes brought me another one. Apparently, seeing no napkin beside my plate, they thought they had forgotten to give me one!
What looked to us like a disorderly crowd waiting for service, or a chaotic traffic jam, sometimes had an order that participants understood even when it was not obvious to an outsider.
We had enrolled Matthew in an Italian public school. Rachele had not yet started school.
Yes, American schools were available, but they were expensive, and we had concerns about the environment in some of them. We chose Italian public schools.
Not necessarily. Students educated abroad can enter American colleges, although admission requirements vary. We expected to supplement our children's studies in English and American history to help them transition to American schools during home assignment years and, eventually, college.
Once a year, the entire missionary staff — all six of us! — met to report on our individual ministries. We evaluated what we had and had not accomplished and sorted out our priorities for the coming year. The aim was to develop a shared strategy.
Normally, missionaries worked in areas and on projects suited to their interests and abilities. It didn't always work out ideally in practice, but that was the intention.
Russell and Donna Lovett moved to the Naples area in the summer of 1978. They worked in evangelism and church planting and took responsibility for two existing but struggling churches. Russell also assumed responsibility for pastoral training on the district, along with interim duties as mission treasurer and literature coordinator. He also served as district president of Nazarene Youth International (NYI).
Yes, especially those of us living in Rome and Florence. Both cities attracted many American tour groups. During some of our summers in Florence, scarcely a week went by without our seeing someone from the United States. Tourism was an important part of Italy's economy.
We were able to travel freely within Italy. One difference we encountered was that hotels reported guest registrations to the police. When checking in, we had to present government-issued identification, such as a passport.
Because our churches were scattered across the country, our responsibilities required considerable travel. We also traveled outside Italy at least once a year for church events in northern Europe.
We spent eight months in Rome studying Italian. While there, we took over from the Fullers as tour guides for visiting Nazarenes. We came to know Rome well, but we continued to enjoy returning there.
At St. Peter's Square, we could stand in a seventeenth-century setting, look at an ancient Egyptian obelisk, and admire St. Peter's Basilica, whose architects included Michelangelo. The present basilica occupies the site of a fourth-century church.
Florence was a three- to four-hour drive north of Rome, where another Nazarene missionary family lived. Naples, where another family lived for a time, was about another three hours south of Rome. The Longs also lived in Sicily for a while, about 14 hours by car from Florence. We were therefore quite geographically separated from one another. [ More on living in Rome ]
We men saw each other more often than our families did. We met about once a month for district board meetings and other responsibilities. Our families were together perhaps three times a year at district assemblies, religious retreats for U.S. military personnel to which we were invited, and annual missionary council meetings.
Under the arrangements in place during our service, the Nazarene General Board set a common salary and benefits schedule for missionaries. A cost-of-living allowance varied by country and was intended to provide a comparable standard of living.
Career missionaries received an additional annual increment after their fifth year of service. Single missionaries received 70 percent of the salary set for couples. These figures describe the policy at that time.
During our first term, we lived in a three-bedroom apartment on the second story of the Florence church building. The apartment had high ceilings and marble floors, which were more practical there than the wood flooring we knew in the United States.
On one side of the church was a small grassy area where the children could play. An outdoor concrete stairway led down to that yard.
The Fullers and Longs had similar living arrangements in Rome, while the Lovetts rented an apartment in the Naples area.
A good first step is to contact the World Mission office at the Global Ministry Center in Lenexa, Kansas. Explain your sense of calling and ask about preparation and opportunities for service. The staff can suggest useful experience to gain and practical next steps. [ More on knowing God's will ]
At the time of the original book's publication, Nazarene work was established in many European countries, including some without expatriate missionaries. The original answer listed Austria, Belgium, Sweden, Liechtenstein, and Monaco as countries where Nazarene work had not yet been established. That list reflects the situation at the time, rather than the church's current presence in Europe. [ Continue reading ]
| Thanks to all of you who made our missionary ministry in Italy possible... [ more ] |
