prayer update

In looking back at the prayer requests I mentioned in September, not much has changed.

Using my time wisely to visit different ministries:
Rome: visiting a church plant. Oct 29-31
Sicily: visiting a family that could use another person there to teach English. Oct 31- Nov 5
Verona: visiting a church plant. Nov 5-8

Three very different places and different ministries.
Please pray that God will make it extremely clear whether or not it would be good to join any of these missions.

Guarding my heart well
I have made a few new friends. This time has not been without its bouts of loneliness, but God is faithful to provide what I need when I need it.

Keep growing spiritually
Thank God for technology. Right now I'm listening to NewSpring's Man Vs. Wife series and NorthPointe's Game Plan series. I'm also loving my reading through the Bible plan because right now I'm in the Gospels and reading all four Gospels together... It's insightful to see the details given/left out by each of the four books.

Homesickness
Again, technology. Skype has been my friend, although to me it's comparable to a cell phone in America, so I'm not on all that much... Through facebook I've been able to stay in touch with many of my friends. I always love hearing from people... My MCC family has been great in keeping in touch. I miss them a lot... Other than people, I miss Taco Bell, ranch dressing, free wifi anywhere (doesn't really matter because we have it at home but it's rare to find wifi here), Panera.

I'm going to add a few prayer request:


Safe travels and that I don't get lost. Anyone who knows me well knows that I can get lost like no other. It always leads to other adventures, such as my time in Mossa. I have no idea how that happens. I know how to read maps. I go by landmarks rather than street names (good luck finding street signs in Italy... I don't know what most streets and piazzas are called).  


Contentment. I am always missing SOMEONE wherever I am. I am trying hard not to think too much about December. I am going back to America without a job or a plan. God has always provided what I need. Like I've said before, I'm a planner and I think God likes to keep me on my toes.

This picture is on the wall at church:

Matthew 11.28: Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.


I'm beginning to think that this time in Italy is not meant JUST for seeing about future ministry opportunities. This is a Sabbath. It just happens to be 3 months. I can sleep in, I've rediscovered beautiful things to take pictures of, I can travel to see friends. These are life-breathing activities for me. 

*sigh* I'm halfway through my adventures in Italy. I'm praying I make the most of the time I have left here.

random thoughts.... on Canada

And you thought this blog would only be about my ITALIAN adventure. ;)

I got a new free Neil Young download from itunes and that got me thinking about America's northern neighbor, Canada. (For those who do not know, Neil Young is Canadian -- that is enough to make Canada cool, but I thought I should continue my search for cool Canadians -- no pun intended - ha!)

While looking at a list of famous Canadians, I saw Christopher Plummer's name, so that led me to think:
October 28th on Oprah, they are reuniting the cast of The Sound of Music.
I LOVE that movie and wish I could be in the audience for it.
Julie Andrews is one of my all time favorite actors.
I mean, she's just magical.
Mary Poppins, Maria, The Queen in Princess Diaries
And yes, she even has an awesome October birthday (10.1.1935).

I lived a year in metro Detroit and never set foot into Canada. I've been to Toronto airport, but that is it. Never been to Canada. It is one of my life goals.

Let's just take a glance at why the world is not the same without Canada (or Canadians):
*Christopher Plummer
*Neil Young (obviously I've already mentioned these two)
*Tim Horton (this one is specifically for my roommate, Laura)
*Matthew Perry (my favorite character from FRIENDS)
*Sandra Bullock
*Celine Dion (I've been listening to her a lot lately -- laugh if you want, but I'm happy that she had her healthy twins recently)
*Anna Partridge (she's not famous but she's my birthday buddy and friend from camp! Thought I'd just add her in for fun)
*Michael J. Fox (ok, I'm a kid from the 80's, how could I NOT put that down!)
*The Moffatts (anyone remember them? NKOTB = BSB. Moffatts = Hanson... Obviously NKOTB/BSB were better and the Moffatts/Hanson were for joking purposes).
*Devon Sawa (seriously had a crush on this kid... Casper... anyone?)
*Shaina Twain (they love her over here in Italy... :)
*James Cameron (thank you for Titanic. I only saw it once.. but you made millions because girls loved seeing Jack slip through Roses' fingers)
*Robin Scherbatsky (yes, from HIMYM -- I'm hooked on that show!)

Ok, I think I've proven my point... Canada has value in the world.
I hope to visit it someday... I hear it's beautiful!

Newspring Fall Series

Every fall Newspring Church in South Carolina has a series about marriage, relationships, dating...

For the past three years I have listened to them.
I was blown away by the "Beautiful" series. It is hands-down the best series I've ever heard. Ever.
Last year they did "Don't Get Married Until..."
Last Sunday they started their new series, "Man Vs. Wife".

I look forward to this every year because marriages are a huge part of life and divorce is sadly becoming more common.

Check it out if you want. Here's a snippet of what he said to singles (because these series aren't just aimed at married people!).

Based on Philippians 2.1-5:
SINGLES GIRLS: You cannot be like-minded if you love Jesus and you’re dating a guy who does not love Jesus. You cannot have the same love if you love Jesus and he does not. You cannot be one in spirit and purpose if you love Jesus and he does not. If he’s not dedicated to a church, he doesn’t love Jesus. Christ is the Head of the Church – are you going to tell Jesus that you love his Head but you don’t love His Body? He might have a commitment problem, which is why he wants to live with you but not marry you. If you think he’s really committed to you, go home and tell him you’re not going to have sex with him for six months to focus on the relationship and see how long he sticks around. Beware of the guy you consistently have to make excuses for. That is not who Jesus wants you to be with.

SINGLE GUYS: men need to learn how to fall in love with Jesus and STAY in love with Jesus over and over and over again. Then and only then will you be committed to a woman you said you’d be committed to.

October Birthdays and Christmas!

October birthdays are fantastic.

Some of my best friends have birthdays in October:

October 11: my wonderful college roommate, Laura!

October 15: Tiffany... We have known each other FOREVER... 

Seriously. And I'm so happy we're still friends!

And as most of you know, I spent nine months living with the Nugents. 

My little buddy, Rachel Rae, is 5 today -- October 25!

This picture is from December 2009, so it's been almost a year since that picture. Even since I left in September, I can tell from Kelly's pics on her blog that Rachel is growing... She is so precious to me... and I'm pretty sure she's one of the only people who kept me sane last year! Time spent with those three Nugent girls was priceless. 

Thank you Rachel, for enjoying the simple things of life, like hula hooping, playing outside, playing with Barbies, and for all the little video clips we took this past year. 

(from left: Nicole, Rachel, and Morgan. I am obviously the one with dark hair... haha...)

 Morgan has the same birthday I do: October 23! She is my birthday buddy! She has a super contagious laugh and enjoys life. She enjoys reading as much as I do. 

Don't want to leave Nicole out of this post (even though her birthday's in June)... she has been emailing me while I'm in Italy and I LOVE it! :) She and Morgan are doing Bible Bowl: Genesis this year! I'm excited for them.

Yes, the reason why I know October birthdays are fantastic is my birthday is October 23.
This year, my birthday was full of great food and time with my sister Irene. 

We went to breakfast and had a brioche and cappuccino.

Then we went to her dad's store where we had wonderful food (as always).

You guys in America are celebrating fall with your pumpkin spice latte.
I'm celebrating fall with pumpkin lasagna.

My special birthday coffee... I only had one sip...

Later that night we went to Giddy Up Diner, a 50's/60's American style diner.

They brought me cherry cheesecake with candles while Marilyn Monroe sang happy birthday in the background.

 I'm not one to like cheesecake, but this was FANTASTIC! yum yum.

 Mara, me, and Irene. LOVE these girls. It was fun celebrating my birthday with them.

Yea for October birthdays. I sure do miss the fall colors in Michigan: 

(taken last year from the church house)

PS -- 2 more months until CHRISTMAS! 

Jeni P... this post's for you...

For those of you who would like to watch this video, please do. The talk is 28 minutes long (with a few songs at the end, so it's 38 minutes total), so make sure you have time for it. This is the guy who wrote Gracenomics, the book I reviewed a while ago. He moved his family for six months to Bangkok. It's the question of safety vs. following God.

Main point: The pursuit of safety stands in the direct opposition to the pursuit of God. You have to chose one or the other.

Kindle resources

I don't know if you know this, but there are hundreds of free books waiting to be read...
Kindle can be downloaded onto your computer (so you can read books on your computer for free without purchasing a Kindle) and you can get some pretty great books.


Login to Amazon.
Click Kindle Store --> Kindle ebooks --> Kindle Bestsellers. You will see the top 100 paid and the top 100 free books.


Among the books I have downloaded are all the Jane Austen books (books prior to 1920's -- I could be mistaken about the date -- are free, meaning a lot of the classics!).


Right now #8 is called Naomi and Her Daughters: a novel. (I'm thinking it's the story of Ruth in a new way -- and she's one of my favorite Bible characters!)
I have gotten free books by Max Lucado, John MacArthur, Bill Hybels, Charles Stanley, Gary Smalley...


It's been good for me since I mainly work in life to support my habit: buying books. Since I'm not earning an income at the moment, it helps that these books are free. :) 


Just thought I'd share in case someone out there doesn't know about the awesomeness of the free Kindle books.

late night karaoke

Sunday after church I went to karaoke with some new friends! And yes, I did sing a song! haha... I sang You're the One that I Want (from Grease) with Antonella.

She's from Sicily and she was visiting her cousin, Mariantoinetta (on the right in the picture below).

It was fun to hear the Italians sing American songs... and they definitely rocked the Italian ones. :) 

Can I get a Witness?!

One of my favorite parts about church is the testimony time. Now, everything's in Italian, but I've shared a couple of times at church while someone translates for me.

This past week, I mentioned that for the past nine months I've been reading the OT. While I'm grateful for that time and the lessons learned from so many of the people in it, it's refreshing to see JESUS come into the picture as the fulfillment of everything they were waiting for. I love reading the Gospels.

Just finished reading the Sermon on the Mount and was reminded of camp this summer in Jeni P's Matthew group.

Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. ~Matthew 7.13-14

FOREIGNER

Yesterday was a fantastic Monday.

I got my kindle, kindle cover, and extra battery! 

I got real mail from my good friend Wally! :) 

I mailed two letters (sorry it's taken so long... I still haven't bought any postcards, so yeah....)

I keep thinking that people know my travel plans until they ask me what they are. 

My mouth and my brain don't communicate sometimes...

Rome Oct 29-31

Sicily Oct 31-Nov 5

Verona Nov 5-?? 

I'm WAY excited to be traveling Italy and see some of the country I've never seen before. It will be an adventure for sure as I will be traveling alone and have to rely on my handy dandy Italian-English dictionary and my mad Italian language skills (ok, I don't really know much Italian, but I'm learning!).

In answer to the often heard question, how are you doing: 

I have had a few breakdowns in feelings of loneliness here. It's not easy being in a new place, not knowing the language and trying to find your way around... 

Being a "straniero" (foreigner) here reminds me of seeing the Hispanic people at Walmart in line with WIC cards. I was patient with them in trying to explain that certain items were not covered by WIC. I liked being in the fast lanes when the Hispanic men were buying boots and clothes or when the tall guy from El Rodeo (best Mexican in BH!) came in my lane. I tried remembering some of my Spanish from high school while they counted out the money in Spanish. 

Anyway, just a reminder to all you Americans: Please be patient with the foreigners living in your land. It's not easy and they are stepping out in faith that they can make it there. 

PS -- in looking for a cool picture to put here, I found this.

Might be one of the best concerts ever... and I WILL see Styx in concert someday!

I saw the SIGN...

I'm a huge fan of SIGNS (real ones, not the movie).

Here's one from England 2006:

Lolly and I LOVE Franklin Road.

Here are two from the Barcolana I went to on 10.10.10:

And... this one is downtown and always makes me laugh:

Might as well call this bank "Liar, liar pants on fire". haha....

Anyway, I think one of the BEST SIGNS in the world have been around for quite some time.

Yep. The stars. 

A sign to Abraham.

A guiding light to the kings searching for THE King.

Beautiful creation that reminds me that my problems are so small.

That these same stars were the ones that Jesus looked at.

Oh the connection with the past and present because of the stars. 

I LOVE LOOKING AT THE STARS! 

Thank You, God for signs from creation of your promises.

Food update

Mutti = ketchup
Top picture: cauliflower and cheese casserole that Mara (Irene's friend) made one night. It was fantastic.
Top right: my glass of Coke. It had ice, which I haven't seen in forever! haha... They put lemon in the glass, too.
Bottom right: spicy pasta. I can't remember what it was called, but it was good.
Last pic: pizza from one of my favorite places -- pizzasoia primavera. This was a simple salame pizza... it was delicious.

Words cannot describe my love of all things pasta!

PS -- Coke from Georgia (the country, not the state) tastes weird. We got a 6 pack of 1.5L Cokes... and they taste... different.

It's no secret...

I LOVE CHRISTMAS.

October is my favorite month. I'm definitely missing fall in Michigan... seeing all the red trees and everything beautiful about fall.

But my favorite day of the year is December 25! I count down by month and I am not ashamed.

I just started reading the Gospels in my chronological bible reading plan. I am reading all four gospel accounts -- and I love it! Just got done reading about Jesus' birth. What a beautiful story with a variety of characters...

While I was reading, I couldn't help but think of Linus from Peanuts. He gets it. Christmas is about Jesus coming down to earth. How humbling. How loving. How precious and perfect. What an amazing God we have and I love his birth story. I could read it over and over and still be amazed.

PS -- I love the small glimpse of Jesus as a middle schooler. Just goes to show how awesome middle schoolers are! (There's no mention of him in his teens -- haha).

War Monuments

In the past two months I have visited quite a few War Monuments/Memorials. While Tiffany was working one day, I went by myself to the US Navy Memorial. I love learning about what happened and find myself appreciating the sacrifices people made. It makes me want to talk to older people who remember the Wars before they start dying off and no one knows their stories.

It was fantastic getting to walk around with Tiffany at the beginning of September in DC. We saw:

WWII Memorial

Vietnam Wall Memorial (this was sobering because this was our parents' era).

Korean War Monument

So it's no surprise that when I saw this:

... I wanted to go check it out.

Turns out this Memorial is called Sacrario militare di Redipuglia. (Check out the link -- apparently this is Italy's largest military memorial)

This is Joe and me. He's my stepmom's brother-in-law (he's married to her sister, Anna). The entire day yesterday I hung out with Joe, Anna, their daughters Natasha and Anika, Anna's mom, and Natasha's daughter, Georgia. Joe and I were the only ones up for exploring this as the rest had seen this before and were tired from the exciting morning in Trieste for the Regatta.

Each step has a list of names of soldiers who died there. If we had more time I would have climbed to the top where there are three crosses and inside of the graves, there are the bones of thousands of unknown soldiers.

My favorite part of this place, although sobering, was going into the bunkers or as they called them trincea blindata (reinforced trench)

Here's a video of me and Joe inside:

I had to take a funny picture with all this serious stuff... 

I got my picture with some men who dressed in the uniforms from back in the day... Taps just started playing as we were taking this picture, so they don't look too happy.

Lately I've been finding myself praying a lot for Claudio, my Italian friend who's in Afghanistan until April. There was news that four Italians died in an attack close to where he was. I just pray God's protection for him and the others who are over there right now. Please join me in praying.

10.10.10 in Trieste, Italy

Yesterday was 10.10.10. I was in Trieste, Italy. What a beautiful little city with the perfect combination of mountains and sea. It is Italy's own "windy city". Trieste was settled in the 3rd Millennium BC! That's BEFORE CHRIST -- whoa! I mean, that's ANCIENT! Most Americans have very little understanding of what history is since we are such a new country!

I went there to see the Barcolana 101010: a sailboat regatta in Trieste (if you open this up in Google chrome it should have an option to translate the website into English). I recommend watching the highlight video (video link is in orange). I saw it all live -- the guys on the winning boat with their wine... It was the perfect day for it!

I thought this was funny: it was actually like face painting for kids...

They are still trying to make me a coffee drinker... so I had a cappuccino. Not bad, but I still would've preferred a Coke. :) 

One of the many pictures of sailboats. Fantastic day! 

I visited Saint Justus Cathedral, although it was closed so we couldn't go into it. This was a very cool door... this picture doesn't do it justice. If I go back, I'll get a better picture.

All things Italian

In trying to learn Italian, I just finished watching Sotto il sole della Toscana (Under the Tuscan Sun). I plan on watching 13 Going on 30 and 10 Things I Hate about You (you all know how much I love/miss Heath Ledger...). Here's the site in case you want to join me in this adventure. No subtitles, though...


I also wanted you to have a little taste of some youtube videos I saved under a playlist of mine called "All Things Italian":


Family Guy // Everybody Loves Raymond // Notto Sento // MINA // Italy vs. Europe


1. I don't watch Family Guy, but this was funny and I sometimes wish it was this easy to speak Italian. 
2. I LOVE Everybody Loves Raymond. I can relate to Deborah in feeling like an outsider, but sometimes you just have to join in... and I totally understand her while she's listening to the audio Italian... 
3. Found this video while searching for a site with Italian movies. I love it -- romantico!
4. Italian's version of Madonna.
5. This is quite accurate. I've seen my fair share of scary driving/crazy parking, tons of smokers, and heard about their politicians who stick around FOREVER. And yet I still love Italy. :)


Hope you enjoyed this little lesson on Italian culture...