Harding University in Florence Come Go With Me to Italy Vieni Con Me In Italia! I sat on the train once again, for the last time in twenty-one hours, I would arrive in Amsterdam to catch my fl ight back to the 202 Harding University in Florence States . I wanted to cry , but couldn 't. My heart was pained becuase I hated to leave the country people that I'd come to love so freely. But still no tears brimmed, for I could be thankful for my growth as a friend, as an individual and as a servant in Christ. As the train pushed north - rapidly , loudly and relentlessly - I got up from my seat and stood by the open window to see blurs of Italy for the last time and to concentrate on the previous five months of my life - trip by trip , day by day , city by city , painting by painting , friend by friend , word by word. With a smile , I thought of the train station floor in Venice. Mike , Claudia and I had been in Venice during the massive Spring Festival; the hotels were booked with thousands of visitors, so we ended up sleeping on the train station floor. I remembered feeling like a vagabond and not writing my mot her about it. But I also thought of the euphoric , high feeling of freedom - freedom from material things ali i had with me was a backpack, freedom to be myself , to discover , to share and to simply go. Some of us would jump on a Float Trip Italian Style. A couple enjoys a trip down the famous canals in Venice . photo by James McCreary . train at night , not knowing where we would wake up the next morning, or we 'd purposefully get lost in Paris, Heidelberg, or London - just so we could enjoy the challenge of finding our way around and seeing every facet of the city. Next I thought of that ancient city of Athe ns , the Acropolis, steeped in the history. of art , politics , philosophy and Christianity. I was able to see it from our hotel window (a window from which also dangled that faithful washed-out blouse - one of the three I had packed for the Greece trip - drying so that I could wear it the next day) . And peacefully, I recalled one night in Athens , when James , Merrill and I had climbed to th top of Mars Hill to look out over the Rights of Athens, not one of us saying a word, but each of us sitting on a different part of the hill, straining our minds to think of what it would've been like in Acts 17 when Paul appeared before the Areopagus right there on that same Mars Hill. My commitment to the Lord was strengthened that night, renewed by conItalian Spring Sing. Paula Robinson , Jackie Wyat t, Teresa Matherly , Sharon C lanton , A lana Isom, Terri Jewell and Kristi Thorson pe rform on Talent Night their ve rsion of Harding 's Spring Sing. - photo by James McCre ary .
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