Our guest season could not have started better than with the movement we had in March. With Easter late and uncertain end-of-winter weather we risked having a lonely, cold and wet time in the Tuscan hills. Instead Casa Cares was filled with guests, a representation of the typical guests we have in the course of a season. An eight-day university seminar got the ball rolling, followed by a work weekend among friends considering the future of Casa Cares. Then 30 persons on a ten-day Tuscan tour finished the month with the typical trips to Florence, Siena, San Gimignano, Pisa, Lucca, Chianti and a local outdoor market as well as excursions outside the region to Assisi and Venice. They even had time and energy to visit local churches and an olive press! It was a very satisfying and enjoyable month. Only single guests were missing but there would have been very little room for them anyway.
The workshop on the future of Casa Cares brought together about 40 persons from around Italy who have known us in various ways and at various times in our 28 years of guest house commitment. The event was not easy to plan but it was well worth the effort. The idea was neither to dwell on daily issues nor to plot radical changes in our mission. We concentrated on facing current and foreseeable difficulties while evaluating whether the course travelled until now should be continued. The positive answer was clear and enthusiastic. Simple and welcoming hospitality with commitment in social service and environmental care were confirmed for the future. Unfortunately for the practical purpose of language we missed the voices and enthusiasm of our foreign friends.
Certainly we must attract more groups and single guests and develop more contacts. Ideally we shall continue to be active in the local community. Improvements in accommodations are always possible, and the further development of the property is a priority. For example, after years of planning, finally we have begun work on the chapel renovations. The limited funds we have will only take us so far but hopefully to the point that we shall have another meeting and activity area to offer our guests.
One of the most encouraging outcomes of the weekend was the establishment, in some cases the renewal, of work groups for programming, property, the land, finances, staff and promotions. It remains to be seen how practically the enthusiasm of the moment will evolve, but the step is in the right direction because our small staff, very dependent on volunteers, never has been able to tend to all tasks at hand.
A NOTE ON THE CHAPEL Some friends have already responded generously to our appeal for donations but of course the request remains open. We also plan to renew our search for public funding for the historical building, which is over 300 years old in its present form. A curiosity is that Francis of Assisi, after whom the chapel was named, and Waldus of Lyon, the motivator behind the reform movement at the base of our Waldensian Chruch, were contemporaries. Also, the Franciscan mission began with the repair of chapels, Francis having had a vision in which Christ told him, “Repair my church.”
The workshop on the future of Casa Cares brought together about 40 persons from around Italy who have known us in various ways and at various times in our 28 years of guest house commitment. The event was not easy to plan but it was well worth the effort. The idea was neither to dwell on daily issues nor to plot radical changes in our mission. We concentrated on facing current and foreseeable difficulties while evaluating whether the course travelled until now should be continued. The positive answer was clear and enthusiastic. Simple and welcoming hospitality with commitment in social service and environmental care were confirmed for the future. Unfortunately for the practical purpose of language we missed the voices and enthusiasm of our foreign friends.
Certainly we must attract more groups and single guests and develop more contacts. Ideally we shall continue to be active in the local community. Improvements in accommodations are always possible, and the further development of the property is a priority. For example, after years of planning, finally we have begun work on the chapel renovations. The limited funds we have will only take us so far but hopefully to the point that we shall have another meeting and activity area to offer our guests.
One of the most encouraging outcomes of the weekend was the establishment, in some cases the renewal, of work groups for programming, property, the land, finances, staff and promotions. It remains to be seen how practically the enthusiasm of the moment will evolve, but the step is in the right direction because our small staff, very dependent on volunteers, never has been able to tend to all tasks at hand.
A NOTE ON THE CHAPEL Some friends have already responded generously to our appeal for donations but of course the request remains open. We also plan to renew our search for public funding for the historical building, which is over 300 years old in its present form. A curiosity is that Francis of Assisi, after whom the chapel was named, and Waldus of Lyon, the motivator behind the reform movement at the base of our Waldensian Chruch, were contemporaries. Also, the Franciscan mission began with the repair of chapels, Francis having had a vision in which Christ told him, “Repair my church.”
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