dear friends, I just wanted to let you know that I will be changing my blog site soon and will post the new web address for that when it is ready!!!

 

Hi everyone! It’s been so long since I have updated you all on what is going on. Well as of today we still don’t have the internet at our apartment. Thankfully the guys on my team have it and they only live down the street. But! I have had the mentality that “I’ll send emails, catch people up, update my blog, and connect with others when we get the internet” so I haven’t been intentional to make time for it. So although I would love to have had more stories, pictures, and prayer requests up it’s a little overwhelming to go back in time so hopefully these mini updates will give you a glimpse of what life has been like. No one really knows how long it will be before we actually do get the internet (everything is a very slow process in this wonderful country!) so I thought it was about time to post some updates and stop living in the mental world of “when we get the internet…”  Enjoy! =)

“Be thou exalted” a phrase that has continuously changed my attitude, my thoughts, and my days as I’ve been here in the midst of nothing normal, easy, or routine. I get to trust the Lord with every part of my day and seek to exalt Him in all I do and say.

For the first time in my life I have put in earplugs before I lay my head on my pillow. For those of you who know my sleeping patterns, you know that I can sleep through ANYTHING, trains running through my back yard, lots of people talking, loud music, etc. Well, we live on a Piazza (like a traffic circle with a little courtyard area with benches in the middle) and it is so loud it actually wakes me up! So for the last 4 or 5 nights I’ve worn earplugs and it’s been amazing. I never would have thought that I would need a sleeping aid. =)

We’ve said this a lot since being in Italy. Things take a thousand hours that should really only require a few and crazy life stuff just happens, so we are just rolling with it! =) One of our most recent issues we’ve rolled with is a major problem with our plumbing. Kerry got home one day (the rest of us were still out) to find a note on our door that said “URGENTE!!!” She translated the letter and found out that it is “raining” downstairs in the office below us because of our pipes. They came and thought they fixed the problem only to find out that it was still broken. So we’ve had plumbers at our apartment every day this week tearing apart our showers and bathroom floors trying to fix the problem. They are just finishing up today so hopefully it really will be fixed, we are excited to be able to use our showers again. =) I’ll try to find some fun pictures for you!

 

We have made three trips to IKEA  (a very modern Swedish store that will meet all of your home furnishing needs for an amazing price =) they have them in the states. You can check out there website, its pretty cool.) So when I say “trip” I really do mean trip because it is pretty far away. There is one on the north side of the city and one on the south side. So it is about an hour commute if you are taking public transportation. On trip #2 it was just us girls. We went on a friday evening. We bought a lot of stuff this time so all of our hands were completely full. And when we stepped outside it started RAINING!!! We had 1 umbrella for 5 people, We don’t have hands to carry umbrellas even if we had more, it was 10pm (we were there until it closed!) and we had to get home via public transportation. It was awesome. We really all had joyful hearts and were laughing continuously because the situation was so ridiculous =) So here we were 5 American girls walking in the POURING down rain to the bus stop waiting for probably 20 minutes in the downpour using the umbrella to cover up purses and things that shouldn’t be getting wet. We had to switch busses. Praise the Lord that when we got off of bus #1 it had stopped raining. We had the joyful experience of standing at bus stop #2 for almost 30 minutes in our wet clothes. And then making the rest of the trip home with smiles on our faces. And one of the best parts about it was that when we finally got home at I think around 11:45ish we had a hot dinner waiting for us that a few of the guys had cooked. They take good care of us =)

 

 

 

Translation in Italian: “new beginnings”. This was the 4 day conference for all of the new staff in Italy. I loved this time as it was so helpful for me to learn the big picture of the history of this this ministry, the details of what is happening now, and to meet the national staff! We stayed at a fattoria (a farm) in northern Italy. It was very peaceful and quiet (something that is very absent in Rome!) and an amazing environment  for quieting my heart before the Lord and to regain perspective of why I am here and what I am trusting the Lord to do in and through me this year!

 

When we first arrived in Rome we lived in a Bed & Breakfast. It was kind of cute and close to the guys apartment which is where all of our luggage stayed. From the B&B (week#1) we went up to Northern Italy for 4 days for Nuovo Inizio (the all staff conference for Agape Italia, I’ll tell you more about that in a minute!) And then stayed at the Duecks (a staff couple here in Rome) until our apartment was ready for us to move into! We’ve officially been living in our apartment for a few weeks. In italy everything takes at least 5 times as long so the process of settling in has been slow, but I think we are almost there!

I officially have less than 4 days before I will be on an airplane headed to Rome! Thanks for coming alongside of me in this journey. I have few fun packed days before I head out! Tomorrow will be spent down in Oxford meeting with our coach for this year (Lindsey), saying goodbye to friends, speaking at the Campus Crusade for Christ weekly meeting (reverb), and having cookies afterwards with students while we share with them what we will be doing this coming year as short-term missionaries to Rome!

Praise the Lord with me as I celebrate and praise Him for bringing in all of my support and pray with me as I ask Him to continue to prepare my heart and to continue to help me with all of the details of getting ready to go!!!

I appreciate you!

Lord willing I will be leaving with my team on September 14th for Roma! It’s hard to believe it is only 3 weeks away.  I’m currently still in need of about $400 more in monthly support, OR $5,000 in one-time gifts. Please continue to pray that the Lord will provide for my every need and that I will get to leave with my team! If you or anyone you know would like to help me get to 100% of my support goals contact me or visit my giving page at https://give.ccci.org/give/View/0611504?pp=Search+Results.

This past week our team (minus Kanda who we missed so much!) was in Colorado for the STINT (Short-term International) Global Briefing. There were I think about 300+ people there for training all headed to different parts of the world! It was incredible to be there and see so many hearts beating for the Lord and ready to go to the ends of the earth to share the Gospel! What an awesome time of teaching, learning, and getting to know our teams. Below is a picture of Team Roma =)

From Left to Right; Jimmy, Chris, Brian, Sam, Jenny, Me, Kerry, & Ella

I’m looking forward to posting a lot more information on here as I learn more about all of the fun things that I can do on a blog. Coming Soon: A page about my ministry, Stories from Roma, and more about the journey that led to the decision to spend a year in Rome as a missonary.