Working With the Whitmans

Yesterday morning, I left early to go to Perugia, where I was going to help out the missionaries with some construction work. I got on the bus in Novafeltria to go to the city of Rimini (one hour), got on a train there (45-min wait) and went to Falconara Maritti (one hour), got on a different train (hour and half wait) to Foligno (another hour and half ride) and made a quick flying leap onto the waiting train headed to Perugia for the last leg of the journey which was only a half hour. So, by the time I made it there, it was 1:30 in the afternoon. Fortunately, I was able to email the missionaries while I was on my journey, because not all my tickets had the train times (they issue tickets that be used for a block of time, not to a specific train), and I didn't know exactly when I would arrive. Rachel Whitman was there waiting for me, and so it was then a short drive to their home. We ate a quick bite to eat, then headed over to the church to start working!

Unfortunately for me, Fred Whitman actually took a trip to Brazil while I'm here, so I won't be able to meet him, but his son, Jeremy, is the one that is in charge of the project, so his absence won't be impacting my work very much.

Here's what I did yesterday:

I installed the handicap bar next to the toilet - a challenging task because I didn't know exactly what what the construction of the wall was, and didn't have "my" tools...so I at times had to be creative.


Took down some old plastic "raceways" that some abandoned wire was in along this wall. We will fill the holes and paint it before I leave.


Did some drywall on the stage. We aren't done yet, but we called it quits for the evening at about 7:30. Then Jeremy (Fred's son) and his wife Francesca had me over for supper. We had a great time, great conversation!
They then took me to what I think was "downtown" to check out a jazz festival that was going on. On the way, they showed me several things:


The bottom section of this arch dates back to the time of King David! The top part of the arch is from the Roman era (roughly the time of Christ), and the arches to the upper left are from the Medieval era. There are other walls from these eras all throughout the city too.

Probably one of the cooler things that they showed me was a city that had been open-air at one time, but then for the purposes of protecting the city, they enclosed the ENTIRE section of city...and then built buildings on top of it! So you can look up and everything has arched ceilings in this (now) "underground" city! Hard to explain, but if I get to go back, I'll take more pictures and figure out the history. VERY cool!


We then got to the concert. It was nice, but very loud, and lots of cigarette smoke. We stayed about 4 minutes, then we were ready to go. It was getting late, and I needed to be up in good time today to get a lot of work done.

Thanks for reading! Leah is doing well, but very bored as her schedule has changed some, and won't be performing until Saturday. That means fewer rehearsals during the week.

We both want to thank you for your continued prayers and encouragement. Give us (especially Leah) a holler on Facebook or email. Her email is leahbeth08@yahoo.com. She would love to hear from you!

God bless!
Dave and Leah