Church and Thanksgiving Saturday

The Church in Udine put on a Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday as an outreach.

Italians are curious about Thanksgiving.

A few people from the church shared their testimonies. 

In my Bible reading, I recently read: Acts 2.46b says "They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts."

As I looked around the room, I realized it was probably something like this.
Italians know that the dinner table is a place of great food and conversation.

Good food:

These are my friends. They are beautiful women... and so much fun. Our favorite pasttime: karaoke. haha...

Lucy's sister Franca came with me and brought her family. Love them! Andrea, Ugo, Franca, and Paolo.

I am thankful for THANKSGIVING SATURDAY with my beautiful Italian family and friends.

ABC...

My time in Udine (where I am living right now) began when I visited Italy for the first time in 2007. I spent three weeks in Italy visiting my stepmom (at that time, she was still my dad's fiancee!), stepbrothers and stepsister.

In 2007, I met Ken and Ruthann Wells (along with their six kids). Ken is the leader of the church plant here in Udine.

I also met Jesse and Heather Faught, a couple who was ministering with the church in Udine. One day while talking to Heather, she mentioned that Italy is a really tough place to do ministry. She said it was the missionary graveyard -- most people who come to Italy to minister don't last. My initial thoughts on hearing that were: Well, good for you. You're in Italy and YOU'RE making it. I am just going to go back to America and continue ministry there. But when I got back to America, I could not stop thinking about the people. God has put this desire in me to go back to Italy, to tell them about Jesus, to share life with Italians. I am not sure what the future holds, but I am more willing today than I was in 2007.

While I am here, I go to ABC... Assemblia Biblica Cristiana. It is at 5.30 pm.

The street the building is on:

*side note: Don't go to the website. It is not active.

Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Romans 8.35

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

 This church plant is part of the Saints Equipped to Evangelize (S.E.E.). It include SBI (the Bible school I have written about before) and ABC Language School. In October, I had the chance to sit in on a few classes. The kids met in a library.

Young ones:

The older kids:

Adult class:

That night Maureen, Emily, and Sarah (the English teachers) had a Mexican night for the advanced students.

There is something appealing to me about teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) because of the interactions that would bring with Italians. I am checking out my options, but coming back for a few months to do ESL would be a good step along this journey.

Serenissima Bible Church

As I continue on my journey of seeing different ministries in Italy, I was really happy to reconnect with Rob Krause. I met him once in 2007 when I attended their church's outside baptism service.

I finally was able to see where Rob was serving: Serenissima Bible Church.

Here are some pictures of the building:

They have a little closet area where people can bring things they don't need anymore. It's kind of like a little goodwill store, except you don't have to pay, you just take and give as you have need.

Kids classroom... I loved the pictures! 

Purple! Bevenuti = welcome!

Books for sale.

Place for the older kids to do Bible study.

Rob and Sandy Krause.

My family donated money for this outreach material. They are calendars with daily Scripture. 365 verses for people to read! 

Had dinner with some great people. Italians. Americans. Afghans. Great Mexican food. Great conversation. Great God we worship.

I am blessed for all these experiences. The Kingdom of God is so much bigger than my mind can handle. Seriously. The Global Church is a beautiful thing.

Sometimes others can say it better.

Saw this picture on another blog and I want to share:

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One of my favorite blogs is from Mark Beeson, senior pastor at Granger Community Church. I love that he includes his beautiful photography, relevant Scripture passages, and insights. 

He has been on a sabbatical the past three months through the Lilly Endowment Grant. He has been in Italy. He is being recharged. 

Maybe you need to hear the reminders that he offers:

God Watches Over You. I am confident that He is watching out for me. I have had so many adventures and I have been kept safe and secure through them all.

Recently, he also did a post with the Robert Frost poem. It makes me laugh every time I read that poem because I remember reading it in high school. As I am looking for the right path and wisdom from God to know which way to go, this post resonated with me. 

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This post is by Los Whittaker. I like his blog because he is REAL. He challenges and encourages. He shares everyday moments with his family on his blog. This post was simply precious. I love children. Watch the video. Hear the words poured out from a child's heart. So beautiful.

Sometimes other people's stories intersect with mine and I am so thankful for that.

Journey

In my last year of college, I was part of a fantastic small group. We did fun projects and shared life together. One of those nights was spent going through magazines and making collages. Here is one that I made:

If you can't see it, the quote in the middle says: 

"It's not necessarily the peak -- it's the approach to the peak. There's greatness still to come."

I am on a journey and I love that God has placed a friend in my life who is on a similar journey.

Meet Jeni P.

Jeni and I met at Deeper Life in 2007. We were both rookie faculty that year. Now we look forward to every summer when we can reconnect. Thanks to Skype, we've actually done a better job of keeping in touch this year! 

Jeni is teaching English in Thailand right now. She's testing out the waters in becoming a long-term missionary. It is amazing to me that while I am experiencing life in Italy checking out mission work, Jeni is doing the same in Thailand. It encourages my heart to read her updates on her blog and I couldn't have worded my own feelings about God's timing and preparation than this. As I stop to think about the God moments along my life journey of where I am now, I am amazed. 

I would like to come back to Italy to teach English for a bit. The relationships I have made, the people I have met, the interactions... they are all so very valuable to me. God has made the Italians a unique, beautiful people. I want to be here to share Jesus' love with them. These are my thoughts right now as I have less than two weeks left in Italy. 

I am looking forward to coming back to America, but I hope to be back in Italy sooner rather than later... 

jolly ole england

I just got back from a trip to visit friends in Birmingham, England. It was wonderful to hear British accents, read things in English (!), experience the BullRing (HUGE mall), the German Market that was in town -- so much good food! I enjoyed some Starbucks and Subway along with Refreshers and J2O.

I am a small town girl at heart, but I love cities. There's a simple treasure at taking something so big as a city and carving out your little place in it. I have come to love the little area I know in Birmingham.

I went to see HP7 with Brian and Lydia. What a fantastic couple. 

I got to see Jenny briefly while checking out the Canvas house.

I got to chat with Natalie about being a missionary in Europe. It was good to hear from her and also to see what her husband Rob, Natalie and the Canvas team have done since I saw them last. I was in Birmingham for the first time in the summer of 2006. Our team from KCU were at the Pavilion the same time Rob and Natalie were. Rob and Natalie were scouting out the area for their ministry. That summer they were not dating, but now they are married and have one stylish little addition to their family: Benjamin!

*sidenote: during our summer at the Pavilion, we painted things such as the door of the gents bathroom. We're still proud of our work. :)

Dennis and Fi were dating when I came in 2006. Now they are married with a son, Ethan! He is such a cool kid! Didn't get a picture of Fi's older kids, Kate and Adam, but they have grown so much! 

I didn't know if I would see them or not, but I got to see the family Lolly stayed with: Fiona, Emily (13), and Katie (10). I received my first Christmas card from Katie. It's super cool and I love it!

One of my favorite things in life is quality time with people. My heart is full. I am thankful!

O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou, Romeo?

My last stop of my tour of Italy was Verona, the land of Romeo and Juliet.

Verona is the quietest Italian city I've been to yet! It was so weird to me not to hear many car horns beeping... people talking loudly in the streets... very strange.

But I like Verona. While Romeo and Juliet's scenes are hidden within the city, the people carry on with their lives.

I like northern Italy. I like southern Italy. I just plain like Italy! There are differences, but in the end, they all need to know and love Jesus!

The team I met there was TeamVerona from Team Expansion.

The team consists of team leader April Houk along with John and Ann Blackburn. The TeamVerona website is not up to date as some of their team members have decided to pursue other ministries. I met John and Ann at the 2007 National Missionary Convention. It was good to see them again and spend some time getting to know them. April is moving back to Texas this spring to get married!

Sunday morning we had church service in April's living room. It was just April, John, Ann, me, and two of John and Ann's children -- Bryan and Avonlea. Bryan reminds me so much of my stepbrother, Bryan. I'm sure they'd be friends if they ever got the chance to meet! We played a fun game called Matchmaker (anyone got Fiddler stuck in their heads now?!). It was a game where you had 5 choices of a certain thing (5 different cars, pets, vacations...) and you had to guess what the other people would choose. It was simple yet fun to get to know everyone better! We listened to a message through itunes podcasts about walking righteously.

Sunday's lunch: Skyline chili and chocolate cake! YUM!

Sunday night entertainment: ballet of CINDERELLA!

God's work is being done here in Italy by wonderful people like the people I met on my trip. They shared their homes with me as well as their stories. I will forever be grateful for the experiences I have had on this 11 day journey through Italy.

just a small town girl....

...took the midnight train...

to Acireale, Sicily!

I was meeting up with Josh and Carmela Daugereau. I met them in 2007 when I was in Italy for 3 weeks. I attended an outdoor baptism service for their church.

God knows how much I would enjoy a few days with these beauties. Meet Benedetta, 4 and Hannah, 6. They are the precious treasure that belong to Josh and Carmela.

In Sicily, I went chestnutting (yes, this is an official word.... or maybe not? It means to collect chestnuts), tried an arancino (it's a MUST if you ever get to Sicily), survived an earthquake (or two -- while sleeping... I thought I was making the bed shake because of a dream or something... so I just went back to sleep), made homemade gnocchi with Carmela and the girls, and viewed the magnificent Mt. Etna:

Made a few new friends. Spent the day with Valentina (a girl who knows Josh and Carmela and wanted to try out her English!) and her friends in Catania. It was great! I miss them already! Luckily, we are facebook friends now!

On Wednesday (Nov 3) I got to experience the midweek church service. It is always good to gather with Italians.

Josh and Carmela work with Aurora Mission. One of the things I appreciated about this mission was the ITA -- Italian Theological Association. They teach Italians! Many Italian pastors have little or no Biblical training. While I was there, they had class with Jerry Wragg, who has worked alongside John MacArthur.

Here's another video that spurred me on towards making this trip.

They sell a few books at the school. Josh told me that printing Protestant Christian literature is risky in Italy since less than 1% of the population is Protestant. It's not a big money maker, thus not a lot of good literature. It makes me want to translate some of my favorite books for the Italian ministers... hmm...

So much great Kingdom work being done here. Thank God for families like this one:

PS -- I'm tired and have posted a lot today, so posts about Verona and churches in the Udine area will be another day (possibly tomorrow?).