Reach Rome

"I know a few italian words and several phrases, and along at first I used to keep them bright and fresh by whetting them on Angelo; but he partly couldn't understand and partly didn't want to, so I have been obliged to withdraw them from the market for the present. But this is only temporary. I am practicing. I am preparing. Some day I shall be ready for him, and not in ineffectual french but in his native tongue."
--Mark Twain, Autobiography, 1892


We attended the Wednesday night Bible study in a local brethren church. It's a good thing we knew the passage or we would have been lost! Brian studiously tried to follow along in his new Italian Bible. Afterwards, the elderly lady sitting next to me addressed me in french: she noticed that the little dictionary I was combing through during the study was french-italian. So it was a great relief to have a real conversation with this sister (a Salvation Army officer in Geneva many years ago). But, it felt like I was cheating, to speak in french. Just the same, I was blessed to make the acquaintance of this dear Christian Roman lady.