Allen Family Update: Seeing America Through New Eyes

To our family and friends,

This July 18th marked one full year since our family moved to Padova, Italy.

It is difficult to believe that an entire year has already passed. In some ways, it feels as though we only recently arrived with our suitcases, our children, and a great deal of anticipation about everything that lay ahead. In other ways, Padova has already begun to feel familiar, and it feels like we have already been here for a couple of years. We have established routines, built relationships, learned our way around the city, and watched our children become increasingly comfortable with life in Italy.

The past year has been filled with hard work, new experiences, cultural adjustments, unexpected challenges, and many blessings. Our work here has been going well, and we have met some truly amazing people. We are incredibly grateful for the friendships that have developed, the students who have entered our lives, the conversations we have been able to have, and the many opportunities God has given us to serve.

Recently, however, something happening back in the United States has caused us to reflect on our experience of living between two cultures.

La Specola Museum in Padova, Italy

Watching the World Cup from Italy

As people from around the world have traveled to the United States for the World Cup, our social media feeds have been filled with videos from European visitors documenting their experiences in America.

They have filmed themselves entering enormous grocery stores (like Walmart or Costco), trying American barbecue (Texas brisket is the best), receiving free drink refills, driving on wide highways, visiting national parks, attending tailgates and baseball games, discovering regional foods, and talking with friendly strangers.

Many of them seem genuinely surprised by what they find.

They are amazed by the size and variety of the country. They comment on how welcoming Americans can be, how beautiful the landscapes are, how beautiful the sunsets are, how much food is available, and how different one region can be from another. Some arrive with concerns based on things they have seen in European news or on social media, only to discover that their actual experience is much more positive and complicated than the image they had been given.

It has been surprisingly heartwarming to watch.

As Americans living overseas, we regularly hear criticisms of the United States. Some of those criticisms are fair. America is not perfect, and neither is any other country. But it can sometimes feel as though the positive parts of American life are forgotten—or dismissed before people have the opportunity to experience them personally.

That is why it has been so enjoyable to watch visitors encounter America for themselves.

They are seeing the warmth of ordinary Americans. They are discovering that friendliness is not always superficial. They are experiencing the generosity that often appears when someone realizes that a visitor is far from home. They are seeing the beauty, variety, energy, and creativity that exist throughout the United States.

Watching their reactions has reminded us of many things we love about our home country.

Sometimes It Takes an Outsider

There is something special about seeing your home through the eyes of someone visiting it for the first time.

Things that seem ordinary to you may feel extraordinary to someone else.

An American may walk into a grocery store without thinking twice about the number of choices available. A European visitor may stand in the same aisle in complete amazement.

An American may consider casual conversation with a stranger to be normal. Someone from another culture may be surprised when a cashier, server, or person standing in line begins speaking to them as though they are already friends.

Americans may complain about the amount of driving required to cross the country, while a visitor marvels at the open land, changing scenery, and enormous scale of it all.

Sometimes it takes another person’s excitement to remind us that the familiar things in our own lives are still worth appreciating.

Living in Italy has given us this experience in reverse.

Learning to Appreciate Italy

When we first returned to Italy, many aspects of life here immediately stood out to us.

Italy has a way of making beauty feel like part of everyday life. We can walk through Padova and pass buildings, basilicas, piazzas, and streets that contain centuries of history. Places that people from around the world dream of seeing are part of the normal landscape of our daily routines.

The architecture is beautiful. The city centers are walkable. Public spaces are filled with people meeting friends, enjoying an espresso, shopping at a market, or simply spending time together.

There is also a strong appreciation for food—not merely as fuel, but as something connected to family, culture, place, and enjoyment.

Fresh produce is readily available. Seasonal foods matter. Meals are often prepared with simple, high-quality ingredients. Even ordinary items such as bread, cheese, olive oil, fruit, vegetables, and pasta can be exceptionally good.

We appreciate the emphasis on slowing down enough to enjoy life. An evening walk, an aperitivo with friends, a long meal, or time spent sitting together in a piazza can be treated as valuable rather than unproductive.

Italy reminds us that life should not always be rushed.

There is wisdom in taking time to eat well, enjoy beauty, maintain traditions, and prioritize relationships.

No Country Has Everything

One of the clearest lessons we have learned from living overseas is that no country possesses every good quality.

America has strengths that Italy does not have.

Italy has strengths that America does not have.

The United States often offers convenience, opportunity, innovation, space, variety, and an openness toward new people and new ideas. Americans can be exceptionally generous, optimistic, informal, and welcoming. There is a sense that people can begin again, build something new, or pursue an ambitious goal.

Italy offers history, beauty, tradition, fresh food, community, and a slower rhythm of life. It reminds us that progress does not require abandoning everything old and that some things deserve to be preserved from one generation to the next.

Both countries also have frustrations.

Life in America can become hurried, commercialized, isolated, and overly focused on productivity or weekend entertainment.

Life in Italy can involve bureaucracy, delays, limited convenience, and systems that are sometimes difficult for outsiders to navigate.

Neither place is a paradise.

Yet both contain things worth loving.

We do not have to diminish one culture in order to appreciate the other. We can be thankful for the abundance and friendliness of America while also appreciating Italy’s beauty, food, history, and enjoyment of life.

In fact, living between cultures has encouraged us to ask a better question.

Instead of asking, “Which country is better?” perhaps we should ask, “What can each culture teach us?”

Our First Year in Padova

As we reflect on our first year here, we are deeply thankful for the people God has placed in our lives.

Our work at La Via – Aula Studio has allowed us to meet university students and other members of the Padova community. We have shared English conversations, Italian lessons, meals, Bible studies, conferences, game nights, and many ordinary moments together.

Some people have entered the student center simply looking for a quiet place to study. Others have come hoping to practice English. Some have been curious about our family, our faith, or why we moved from the United States to Italy.

Those simple introductions have often grown into meaningful conversations and friendships.

We have also been grateful for the Christians here in Padova and throughout Italy who have welcomed us, worked alongside us, encouraged us, and helped us better understand life and ministry here.

Mission work is ultimately about people.

It is not only about programs, events, buildings, schedules, or plans. Those things can be useful, but they matter because they create opportunities to know people, serve them, and share life with them.

The most valuable parts of this past year cannot always be measured in numbers. They are found in conversations around a table, students returning to spend more time with us, friendships slowly becoming deeper, questions about God being asked honestly, and moments when someone realizes that they have found a place where they are welcome.

We came to Italy hoping to serve others, but the people here have also served and encouraged us in countless ways.

Living Between Two Homes

There are moments when we miss America deeply.

We miss family, familiar foods, certain conveniences, wide-open spaces, and the ease of understanding how everything works. We miss being surrounded by people who share our language and cultural background without explanation.

At the same time, we know that when we eventually leave Italy, there will be many things here that we will miss just as deeply.

We will miss walking through Padova’s piazzas. We will miss the markets, cafés/bars, architecture, trains, fresh food, and evening activity in the city center.

Most of all, we will miss the people.

Perhaps that is one of the strange gifts of living abroad: your heart learns to belong to more than one place.

You begin to understand that “home” is not always a single location. It can be found in different countries, different communities, and among different groups of people who have become part of your life.

Choosing Gratitude Over Comparison

Social media frequently encourages comparison.

One person posts a video explaining why Europe is better than America. Someone else responds by listing everything America does better than Europe. Before long, entire countries and cultures are reduced to stereotypes.

But our experience has taught us that curiosity is far more valuable than competition.

When we enter another culture only looking for its faults, we will certainly find them. When we enter looking for what is good, beautiful, and worth learning, we will find those things too.

The World Cup reaction videos have been so enjoyable because many visitors are allowing themselves to be surprised. They are not merely confirming what they already believed. They are experiencing America personally and permitting that experience to expand their perspective.

That is what we hope to continue doing in Italy.

We want to notice what is good. We want to learn from the people around us. We want to appreciate the culture without pretending that it is perfect. We want to remain grateful for our American roots while fully engaging with the place where God has called us to live.

Gratitude does not require ignoring difficulties. It simply means refusing to let difficulties become the only things we see.

Looking Ahead

As we enter our second year in Padova, we are excited about what lies ahead.

There is still so much we want to learn. There are relationships we hope will continue to grow, new people we have not yet met, and new opportunities for service that we cannot yet see.

We know there will also be challenges. Living and working in another country requires patience, humility, flexibility, and a willingness to keep learning. There are days when cultural differences feel fascinating and days when those same differences feel exhausting.

But through every part of this first year, God has remained faithful.

He has provided for our family, guided our work, placed wonderful people in our path, and reminded us that His kingdom is much larger than any one nation or culture.

Acts 17:26 tells us that God “made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth.”

Different nations have different languages, traditions, strengths, and ways of life, but every person has been created by the same God. Every culture contains people who need friendship, hope, truth, grace, and love.

We are thankful to be Americans.

We are thankful to be living in Italy.

We are thankful for the ability to see each place with a new perspective, and we hope we never lose the humility to learn from both.

Conclusion

To everyone who has supported, encouraged, and prayed for us throughout this first year in Padova, thank you.

Your support has allowed us to be here. Your messages, letters, video calls, and social media interactions have encouraged us on difficult days. Your prayers have strengthened our family and our work more than you may ever fully know.

Please continue to pray for the church in Padova, the student center, for the students and friends we have met, and for the relationships that are continuing to develop.

Pray that we will serve with wisdom, patience, humility, and love.

Pray that we will recognize the opportunities God places before us.

And pray that, wherever we live, we will always remain grateful for the good gifts God has placed around us.

With love and gratitude,

The Allen Family