Due Settimane (2 weeks)

Ciao!  I have officially been here almost two weeks.  Things are continuing to go well!  The new intern got settled in quickly, and already knows where more places are than I do!  But it's a blessing, haha.  I am slowly starting to learn my way around, and am picking up on the language a little more.   Yes, I'm just as shocked as you are!  Haha.  It is SO much easier through immersion.

This past Thursday, potential long-term teammates arrived in Roma, to check out what all was going on here.  They have been through a lot and have been on the mission field for about 9 years now.  But God has moved them out of their mission location and they are looking to see where God would like them next! So please be praying for them!  It is great to see them interacting with the refugees.  They can speak their language and are able to hold serious conversations with them for hours.  Such a blessing they are!  This past week has still be a lot of settling in and different things like that.  I have started taking a second level Italian "course".  It isn't really a course, but Agape has hired an Italian tutor to teach us; there are 3 students total.  I"m still unsure about whether I should be in beginner class or the "advanced" it was review but still I haven't done it since March, and it made me want to bang my head against a wall.  Something cool though, I believe my tutor works with the women's center I am hoping to work with.  It is ran by a nun, so I'm not sure of the religious standings in that area.  But they work with women and children refugees.

This week has been very tiring for me, but so beneficial!  We have spent a lot of time speaking with other team members and just being able to "share life" with each other.  It has been great hearing the testimony of our visitors!  We attended to feeding again on Friday, and it went rather quickly, but relationships and familiarity is being built!  On Saturday God was definitely among us!  We went to help at an Italian church, in preparing for a feeding at lunch time.  The women in charge of this ministry cook a hot meal and disperse it in a specific area.  After fixing about 80 lunches we were off!  It was great being able to serve all the refugees!  This is also the first time I really had conversations with the refugees.  I met several people from Afghanistan and Pakistan.   I would say a huge prayer request would be friendships being set up.  As I learned from a missionary friend, many men from these countries do not speak to women in a casual setting such as this.  So it is very different, somewhat making things difficult.  But God is breaking barriers!  I saw it with my own eyes that day!  Also, that day, we went with Tim to look at another potential spot for the Reading Center.  The area was very close to where refugees could walk and was very spacious and cheaper!  It would be a great fit for what we are trying to set up!  God provides!  Please continue to pray!

Sunday, was a very hectic day.  Joy (Tim and Rachel's daughter) hit her head severely, she is currently in the hospital having tests done.  PLEASE BE PRAYING.  They say she is making everyone in the place laugh, which sounds totally like her!  We had a dinner on Sunday for the entire agape team we are apart of (about 15 people).  We had delicious soup, dip, and meatballs.  Not to mention incredible pumpkin tiramisu!  sooo good!  After the dinner we went to served to the refugees.  I was able to talk to a woman who works with church planting in Roma, and who will be attending the seminar on refugees we are having on Sunday.  It was a hectic day, but good bonding time as a team.

Prayer Requests

Joy's tests would come back normal

Comfort for Tim, Rachel, & Joy

Openness in the hearts and minds of the refugees

Continued learning progress with the italian language

The Reading Center building

Praise to God for the work HE is doing here

If you have any prayer requests, please let me know!

EVERY tribe, EVERY tongue, EVERY nation.

Ciao from Italia!

I have made it safely to Roma, Italia!  My flights went very smoothly, praise to God for that one!  I arrived here on the 14th of October.  My first obstacle, finding Tim at the airport, haha!  After about an hour of carrying my junk around, dropping it on escalators and moving walkways, and trying to use my phone, I found him... or he found me rather! Haha!  I am sorry to not have written these past couple of days, it has been somewhat hectic!  So I will try to do a replay of these last few days and then stay on top of this better!

Thursday- I arrived in Italy!  Tim met me at the airport, it took a train ride, subway ride, and bus ride to get to my apartment!  Once there I met all of my roomies: Meg, Beccs, Lauren and Crystal; I am actually sharing a room with Crystal.  They are all super sweet!  After changing Tim and I went to meet Rachel (Tim's wife) to get Joy (their daughter) from school, and grab some lunch.  We went to Zaza's for pizza.  I can already tell ordering food in Italian will be an interesting experience haha.  After having lunch at Tim & Rachel's I went back to the apartment to finish unpacking and fight jet lag.  I lasted until about 6 pm Rome time (11 am Memphis time), before I could no longer form correct sentences.  So I went to sleep and got woken up for dinner (fajitas made by the roomies!) and went back to sleep.

Friday-  Friday I woke up super early, because of my weird sleep pattern.  I was able to dive into the book, Redeeming Love, an incredible recommendation by Chris in Elgin.  At around 11 I met Tim and we went to meet people from his home church, who were on holiday here, and we went to my first feeding.  We handed out about 150+ sack lunches to homeless people.  We only served one woman, the rest were men.  I was able to meet the pastor of the church doing this outreach.  Their church is very international.  The services are given in English; the pastor is very Scottish, and the woman in charge of the feeding ministry is from Ghana.  They make about 500 lunches a week and hand them out on Thursdays and Fridays.  Afterwards we (Tim, the couple from his church, and I) went to check out the potential site for the Reading Center.  Please keep this site in your prayers!  It looks very up in the air on the location right now!  On the way home, we went searching all over the place for a bus pass, we tried getting my paperwork, and then I got out euros from the bank.  After all this I got home, and Lauren took me to the grocery store.  It was not too bad, something I can handle I think.  That night I met with Tim and Rachel for dinner, so that we could discuss the upcoming seminar they were speaking at.  The seminar was at Rome Baptist church in the piazza.  We discussed what evangelism meant and how to explain it to Italians, which led to the discussion of what the Gospel means.  Just some great stuff!

Saturday-  This day was quite an adventure.  I tried finding my way to the bus stop... I didn't make it, haha.  But thankfully I had a phone were I could call Rachel.  I finally made it to a bus stop and waited.  While sitting there I met a refugee from Nigeria, very nice guy.  We discussed his thoughts on how Rome just doesn't care and how he likes everything here.  It seemed very basic but was really cool to me :)  After meeting Rachel we left and went to a women's ministry gathering at their home church.  It was a bit difficult for me, but nothing to bad.  We watched a movie on Esther and discussed how we have seen God move in our life.  Thankfully I had Rachel there, because it was all in Italian.  But I met some very passionate women there!   One of which I will be working with on Saturday's and Sunday's!  After the movie and dinner, Rachel and I headed home.  It was just a good time on the bus ride home, I feel like we just got to talk, which I feel we hadn't got to do, and I got to hear more of her story.

Sunday-  Yesterday we went to Rome Baptist, or Roma di Battista, for church.  Tim and Rachel were able to borrow someone's car so they came and picked me up.  I have decided I am terrified of Italian drivers... they are NUTS!   We ended up late to service, but it was still a good sermon on peace and the beatitudes, which laid some ground work for  our seminar that afternoon.  It was a very different environment, the pastor was very soft-spoken something I am definitely not used to!  But the people were very friendly and open with visitors such as myself.   After church, we met up with Trinity (a girl I met from the women's event) and we all went to a restaurant called "La Baguette". I ordered for the first time in Italian!  But all I said was "lasagna" and pointed haha.  Their lasagna is very different here, not nearly as rich as the U.S.'s version.  Afterwards, we returned to the church for the seminar.  The population in attendance was mostly women.  I found out the person in charge of the food ministry there is a woman, which can be worrisome if difficult circumstances arise.  Tim and Rachel spoke on what evangelism means, which the crowd answered to.  One of the answers was the gospel.   So we got in groups and talked about what we thought the gospel meant.  The people in my group kept saying, it means good news.  So I tried breaking down, well yes but what IS the good news.  So we started discussing God's love.  Then we all got together and discussed the importance of the gospel and what it means.  We discussed how relational evangelizing is and different things like that.  Tim also discussed different safety tips, that I made note of for myself.   Afterwards I headed home for a few hours to rest before a feeding.  At around 8:15 Meg and myself left for the train station.  We met up with others and served hot tea to about 75+ refugees from different places, the ones I spoke to were from Iran and Afghanistan.  Just another awesome time!

So that is about it up to here, I would upload pictures but left my camera cord at home... so I will try my best to get it!

Prayer Requests:
Safe travel for the next arriving intern today
God's direction in what specific ministries to be involved in
The availability of the Reading Center
Openness of the hearts of the refugees and homeless individuals we encounter


In His Love.

Let me tell you how GREAT my God is!!!!

I haven't written in awhile, its been hectic in Memphis, TN for me.  I originally declined for my student that I needed to be able to "stay" in Italy.  I quickly started looking for how I could work around this.  The team leaders, Tim & Rachel Uthmann, and myself started brain storming for different ways to allow me to stay within in the time frame we had arranged.

This past Friday, I called the Italian consulate preparing myself to be completely frustrated with the woman on the other end of the telephone line.  I called and started talking about what was going on with my visa, saying I AT LEAST needed my passport so I could go for three months at least.  But the woman calmly asked for my name and looked up my information.  Her response was, "Oh yes, student passport?  You're approved.  We have spoken to the people in Italy, your request has been granted".  I was SPEECHLESS.  How great is our God?! I immediately began calling everyone and praising God for moving in such an awesome way!

Well, Tuesday afternoon rolled around, and I was sure my visa would be in the mail.  And it wasn't.  I was frustrated thinking "Well where the heck is it", "what do I do next?", and every question in between.  But Christ kept me calm through all of it.   My mom and I began calling, and the post office said to call in the morning to see if it had made it.

I got woken up this morning (Wednesday, Oct 13, the day of departure) by my mom telling me that my visa wasn't here.  So that meant I had to cancel my flight, and wait all over again.  So of course I did the most logical thing... just stayed in bed. (Ha!)   I then got a phone call from Don Gilbert, asking me about my trip and flight plans.  I decided to get up and see what "game plan" my mom had.  After trying to call the Italian Consulate, with no luck of an answer on the other of the wire, I just started getting ready like I planned on.  As soon as I got out of the shower, my mom said that she got a hold of the consulate but that it was not at the post office.  I asked once again, "so what should I do..."  My mom's response?  "Just get ready, and pray.  In fact, let's pray right now."  So my mom began praying, her prayer was literally this, "Lord, we know you know where the visa is"  JUST THEN, the phone rang.  It was the post office, they had found my visa!  It was 8:26.  We rushed to the post office and grabbed it then got to the airport.  How awesome is God!!!!!  He is the Great Provider!!!!!

God is just incredible!  I am currently sitting in the Charlotte, NC airport, waiting to board for Roma, Italia.  I will be boarding in twenty minutes!

Thanks to everyone for their prayers and support!  I love you all so much, and I am so glad you are apart of my sending team!

Psalm 46:10
      "Cease striving and know that I am God; I WILL be exalted among the nations, I WILL be exalted
       in the earth."


In His Love!