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?).

you got some 'splainin' to do

I have been meaning to fully update you on my time here in Italy. What I experienced in my 11 day cross-country adventure through Italy. I have shared the night train conversations, but now I will devote some time to posting about the specific ministries I visited.

First Stop: ROMA!

I found out about ReachGlobal through Facebook. Actually, come to think of it, maybe Lucy (my stepmom) found them... I can't really remember that detail...

Their Rome Team is wonderful!

Trinity Kay: the woman I stayed with while I was in Roma.
Sarah and Brian Bennetch: the team leaders. Wonderful historical tour guides.

One reason why I decided that I needed to make this trip to Italy was this video that the Bennetchs posted on their blog. The need is HUGE over here in Italy.

There are great things happening in Roma! It was really exciting to be in such a historical city, although at the same time it was sobering to remember that so many were persecuted for their faith in Jesus.

I saw a lot of great sites: Trevi Fountain, Mussolini's house, Victor Emmanuel's monument, Saint Peter's Basilica, Colosseum, Roman Forum, and the Pantheon.

I ate lots of great gelato!

I was able to go to their Friday night Bible study. It was amazing to me. We sat down and had dinner together. There were about 12 people who came, most were in their 20's. I think there was only one Italian in that group -- the rest were foreigners. I LOVE that large cities are so international.

This is the beginning of their network/church plant. No Sunday morning meetings yet, so for now they are attending a church in Roma!

Sunday morning (October 31) we went to a church in Trastevere. Afterwards they took four little plastic Martin Luthers out into the streets and did a little Reformation history lesson for people passing by.

I am not very good with history, but they said that it was the 500 year anniversary of Martin Luther coming to Roma. I tried to find something online about it, but I didn't have any luck. If anyone's a better researcher than me, feel free to leave a link! :)

We had pizza at a place called The Mirror Pizzeria where they serve pizzas for 4 euro on Sundays! YEA!

Then, I took a night train to SICILIA!

transparency: internal struggles in dealing with dreams/nightmares

Words cannot express how much I relate to this post.

For real.

I'm copying it below to add my own emphases.

GUEST POST: Lessons I’ve Learned Losing My First Youth Ministry Job

Josh on November 14th, 2010

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When I graduated college a year and a half ago I was excited about where my life was heading. I had a diploma, a new marriage, and was about to start a full time youth ministry job at the church I had been interning at for the last year and a half of college. Many dreams were coming true all at once. Although we made financial sacrifices to be at this church, I was receiving some of the biggest paychecks in my 22 years of life and thought for sure we would make it work. Fast forward to now: I am still excited about what God is doing in my life, though it’s more about His presence than hitting life milestones. The road has been bumpy. Less than a year into my first youth ministry gig I was told I wasn’t what the church wanted for their youth ministry. It was a blow to my ego, my calling, my vocation, and my young family. My wife and I felt tossed aside by a church that we had devoted ourselves to for 3 years, the church we were married at, the church we called “home.” I’ve wrestled with a lot of things in the months since then, yet had incredible confidence in who God is and that He wasn’t done with us. These are some things I’ve learned as I’ve dealt with what happened and prepared for what’s next.

1. God’s plans are bigger than my dreams and nightmares. I knew I wanted to do youth ministry since I was a young teenager. I never had specific dreams of what that meant, but I imagined it looking like the church environments I knew. I didn’t picture California (being from the Midwest), the leaders and students I would work with, or the mentors I would have, but all of these things turned out better than I could have expected at my first position. I never imagined losing my first position so soon or that the circumstances of it would be so difficult- it was a lot more of nightmare than a dream- but I have seen God do amazing things through this experience that I never expected. I am thankful for the things God has done in my life beyond my dreams and in my nightmares.

2. The people in my life are “better than I deserve”. I steal this from a phrase Dave Ramsey says, but it characterizes the humility I feel towards all of the people who have supported me. I can’t say enough about how much my wife has meant to me, how she has loved me and challenged me to move forward in faith. We have been supported greatly by our families and the family of God. Friends and mentors have been there to walk with us. I know this time would have been much more devastating without these people God put in our lives.

3. Purposeful ministry has to be planned. I have learned a ton about ministry in the last few months from a lot of people and books. My head is filled with ideas that make me anxious to get back to youth ministry and let them out. From choosing and empowering leaders strategically to accomplishing all that the church is meant to be, it takes intentional work from the person in charge. Some aspects of ministry I could do with little thought, but valuable ministry comes from doing things on purpose with God honoring vision, leaders, and programs.

4. My life is filled with God’s grace. I think I have seen God’s hand in my life more in my recent experiences than any other time. These manifestations of God’s grace remind me how thankful I am to be walking through life following Him. The encouraging conversations with others, more part time jobs than I ever thought I could balance (FIVE at one point), sunrises driving at early hours to these jobs, better gas mileage than average, my wife getting a job on the last day of my severance, frozen pizza sales, and new experiences have all shown me God’s grace and encouraged me to keep walking forward with Him. I am thankful for the simple, complex, meaningful, and bizarre miracles of my daily life.

Losing my job was difficult, scary, and confusing. Walking through all of this with God has given me great peace throughout it. My wife and I have seen how blessed we are, and often say to each other that we love our life, even through this difficult time. God has provided for our marriage, our finances, and faith beyond what we could have expected – and this utter dependence on Him has humbled us as a couple. He has blessed us with incredible people to support us. He has grown me as a learner and taught me countless things. Best of all He has been present. I still don’t know when I will be back in youth ministry or even what the next few months look like, but I am excited for them and to see where God takes this adventure.

Mike Shaffer is an intern in social media at Saddleback Church and praying about his future in youth ministry. If you want to get in contact with him, here’s his email address. We had coffee this week and I asked him to write this post after hearing his story – proud of him and excited to see what God has next!

Lost and Found

Messages I have heard lately have been about how Jesus came to seek and saved the lost (Luke 19.10). Yesterday John Barber was a guest speaker at church. He talked about the parable of the lost sheep in Luke 15. I love that chapter. Let me share with you some of what he said:

If you do not have love for the lost, you do not have God's heart.


People are lost because the church is not where they are.
~~~~~
I also listened to GCC's recent Cowtipping message:

Good missionary – embrace the culture, learn the language, history, traditions, stories, metaphors and then learn how to tell the story of Jesus so that they can understand it within their culture. ... ... ... The church isn’t a building. It’s God’s people on mission. ~Rob Wegner from GCC's "Going Against the Herd" message.

John 1.14(MSG) – the Word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood.

~~~

Life experience relates as well. I went shopping today and lost one of my bags somewhere along the way. I was at home when I realized I left it somewhere, so I went back out to search for it. Again bringing to mind Luke 15. Thank God I found it, too! :)
~~~~

There is something precious about missions. It makes my heart beat.

I sometimes feel like the queen of excuses, but God always comes up with better answers. .

I'm still in debt. 

I don't know the language.

I would have to raise support... really?

Is Italy REALLY in need of missionaries (after being here two months, the resounding answer is YES!)?

Can't I just stay where it's comfortable in America (in Michigan) where I am loved and can love others well, where I will be surrounded by a close Christian environment? 

Btw, did anyone notice how many of those excuses dealt with money? God or Money: who is my Master (Matthew 6.24)?

God's not done with me in Italy.

I'm reading Bill Hybels' The Power of a Whisper: Hearing God and Having the Guts to Respond. I asked God to let me hear His still small voice. Throughout this week, He's made His presence known. 

Let's take a side trip back to my high school/early college years... I visited a woman from my church. She's an older lady and I love her dearly. She told me to my face, "Jenni, I think you would be a great missionary." Thinking about that right now gives me chills. It excites me and makes me nervous. At the time, I thought NO WAY I want to go to Africa and fund-raise and do all of the missionary work. 

Luckily my view of missions has expanded beyond that. There is a NEED in ITALY for REAL CHRIST FOLLOWERS to SHOW THE LOVE OF JESUS to the people here. I don't know how long it will take me to get back here in Italy, but I know that I'LL BE BACK. God has plans... yet to be revealed to me, but I'm going to try to make some plans (as much as possible). 

So THAT is my plan for now. 

conversations in Italian

Probably one of my favorite moments from my 11 day adventure through Italy was my night train conversation with Antonella and Sebastian. 

When I left Acireale, I had the compartment to myself. I thought I might be lucky and have the entire thing to myself for the ride to Bologna (where I would catch a train to Verona... and because my train was late, I had like 5 minutes to do so! But I got it! haha....)  So when this lady with three pieces of luggage comes in, I was a little put off. But God knew what He was doing. I explained that I did not speak Italian very well (Non parlo molto bene italiano). She was ok with that yet proceeded to ask me questions in Italian.

Di dove sei? (Where are you from?)

Quanti anni hai? (How old are you?)

Like any good mother (and ITALIAN at that), she tried to get me interested in her very single 39-year-old son who lives in Milano. 

In our conversation, she said some things I did not understand, so I would search frantically in my Italian-English dictionary. She would laugh at me as I did so, but I DON'T CARE! I'm sick of not being able to communicate with people.

Not very far into our conversation I asked if she spoke English (parla inglese?). No. So I went into the hallway and half-jokingly asked "Does anyone speak English here?" No. No. No. Then one girl a few doors down said she did. Her name was Franca and she works at a hotel in Zurich. She was young... I would think at the most 20. So she did a little translating for us. She was very sweet and offered food to me in case I didn't have any. She was traveling from Sicily, where her dad has family, to Switzerland where they live now. 24 hours in a train. Ugh... no wonder they got first class.

(I've never really been in first class ANYTHING, so I was surprised at how nice these people were. Most of them were older, as they can AFFORD first class. I had to get first class because they told me that was all they had left...)

There were also some guys standing around and Sebastian was one of them.

He was interested in helping me communicate with Antonella. Whereas she was not very patient with me, Sebastian would speak slowly, use hand gestures, and look things up in my dictionary. 

I talked with Antontella and Sebastian for a long time... HOURS. At one point in our conversation, they asked what I did in America. This is always interesting here in Italy, where I've gotten looks of amazement/confusion from people when I tell them I work with kids in churches: teacher of the Bible (lavoro con bambini in chiesa: insegnante della Bibbia). They thought I was a religion teacher. Not sure that I was fully able to explain the difference, but I think they got the idea that I teach the Bible to kids. I told them I was not Catholic but Protestant. They wanted to know the differences. 

 Prega a Dio? (Do you pray to God?) Yes.

Un Dio? (One God?) Yes.

I explained we believe in God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit (Padre, Gesu Cristo, e Spirito Santo). We pray to Him, not Him, Mary and the Saints.

They tried to explain to me that they pray to God. They also pray to Mary. They pray to the Saints (and listed off a BUNCH of them). 

They asked me about Mary. I explained Mary, madre di Gesu Cristo (Mary, mother of Jesus Christ).

It's hard enough to explain in English some of the differences between Catholics and Protestants, but then add in the fact that I don't know Italian well. 

We had some great conversations.

May God be with Antonella and Sebastian the rest of their lives. I hope they come to know and love Jesus.

Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect. ~1 Peter 3.15b

Gifted

Alright, so I just finished listening to the latest of the Game Plan series.

Could a message be more perfectly timed?

God guides through opportunities. What you are doing through your current opportunity is important.

People have plans, but at the end of the day, people talk about opportunities that come along.

You don’t know what God will do. Be ready.

If you’re in a position where you want to do something else, what are you doing with what is right in front of you?

Colossians 3.23: Wherever you go, whatever you do… right now… put your heart into it.

Questions to ask yourself: 

Would you give yourself the next opportunity if you were in charge?

Are you preparing for the next opportunity or are you just waiting on it?
What can you begin to do now to prepare for the next opportunity? What can you be reading? What can you do in the waiting time to make sure it’s not a wasted opportunity?
Is there an opportunity you are ignoring right now because the income does not match the workload?

The most strategic person in the OT besides Abraham and Moses was Joseph. Everything he did up until the time he was thirty years old was beneath him.

It got me thinking about life... Why is it that people assume that once you have a degree in hand, you know what you want to do? 

At the beginning of my 20's, I told myself that the 20's will be for discovering more about myself, what passions I have, how God has wired me. God has not disappointed me in that area. 

This past year at MCC was a lot about finding out about myself. My strengths and weaknesses, my personality, how God has wired me. So when I came to the message in the Game Plan series that talked about finding your gifts and utilizing them, I was excited. I have taken spiritual gifts tests before and scored high in exhortation, mercy/compassion, and service/helps. While these were still high, there were others that topped the list.

Given my current opportunities, it didn't surprise me that my gifts are changing according to this season of life. I still believe I have the other gifts, but others are being developed, and that is exciting to me!

Top three: Missionary, apostle, and shepherd.

Want to take the test?

Btw, if you are a Christian and do not know your gifts and/or are not using them, you are not only doing yourself a disservice but the Body of Christ. We NEED you and your gifts. God has designed you in a special way to fill special needs... and you are valuable. Get serious. YOU'RE GIFTED!