On the Move

Now that our summer plans have been revised a little it looks like we'll be moving again. We're going to spend the month of June in Salerno disciplining the MLK students, following up new believers, and doing evangelism on campus. I am pumped about the time I get to spend with such great staff from the states this month and the much needed fellowship of the summer project students. At the end of the month my ICS team will move about an hour north to Caserta where we will live for July. In August, we will move to two different camps being hosted by this church. Our hopes during July are to build relationships with the students involved in the church at Caserta and lay a foundation for a Campus Crusade team to be placed there. The church in Caserta is a new model partnership for us. We are hoping to work together to build up a student movement to reach the university campus in Caserta and the surrounding campuses in Naples. During July we will also be checking out what is going on in Naples spiritually. We'll be asking questions such as: Are there any existing groups of believers?, are the students there just as fertile ground for the Gospel as Salerno students, etc. It will be a time of adventure and exploration. These are the things I thrive off of so I am excited to be leading this time. Pray for Caserta that the foundation for deep relationships with the students would be constructed before we arrive. Pray for our relationship with this church that we would be servants of them. The students will all be coming down to Salerno next week to spend time with the American summer project students to catch a vision for ministry. We are hoping to show them a picture that you can be young, fun, relatively normal and still be a revolutionary Christian that shares their faith.

MLK Group in Salerno

So the first couple weeks or so here have been beyond hectic. As well all know we can plan and plan but things won't always go the way you planned. I've spent most of the time in meetings and figuring out just what our job as ICS looks like in Salerno this summer. I am excited to say that we actually have what looks like a schedule for us and our role has been more clearly organized. We met with the group of believers in Salerno, MLK, and talked with them about our desire to come alongside them. We talked with them about how we have a piece of the puzzle in reaching Italians for Christ and how they also possesses an important piece of the puzzle and the need to put these two pieces together. One of the pastors, Antonio, is completely on board. He has invited us to disciple/train the MLK group of believers for the next 4 weeks. We will meet on Mondays for training and time in the Word and on Wednesdays we will go out on campus to put into practice what they learned on Monday. There will be a time afterwards to talk about you experiences and ask questions. I am super excited about this partnership with MLK. Our desire is that they would be raised up to disciple other Italians that come to Christ through the stint team and summer project teams here in Salerno. Please pray for wisdom in teaching each week. Pray that we would be humble and show them we are not here to grow our name but rather to grow MLK into a powerhouse of evangelism and discipleship on the Univ. of Salerno campus. This Sunday Antonio has asked us to bring the entire summer project to the church and tell them about Campus Crusade for Christ and why we are here. Pray for clarity in our Italian speaking and that this church would catch a greater vision of reaching the world.

Monday in Salerno

I slept much better last night which I am so thankful for. I actually feel a little rested today. Thank you for praying and please continue to do so. It has been a pretty low key day for my team. We spent a few hours driving and shopping at the Carrefou (Italian walmart) for the essentials i.e. toilet seat, shower rod, clothes rack, etc... I am thankful that's over & done and we can settle a little more in our house. Our landlady, Sarah, came over to meet the Davis' and give us more keys. She is very interested in what we do. She has talked ot us about how she see her friend really feeling and living her faith rather than it just being a ritual. Pray for her that she would come to a real realtionship with the Savior. One problem for our apt. is the water it has intermittent times of ice cold water with scorchingly hot water therefore showers are not the most entertaining. But overall the place is great. Such a blessing.

In the afternoon I had a meetinng with the leaders to talk about each of our roles for the summer. We are all really excited and have big visions for the minsitry in Italy. I walked away excited about the possibilities for this nation. This afternoon I may walk a little with the summer project kids to get to know them a little better and enojy much needed community.

Ahh! Mosquitoes!!!

Ok so I'm sitting here writing these posts and putting up pics and I am realizing it's going to be one lonngggg summer. The mosquitoes here are insane maybe even worse than Pisa. The bad part is I have severe allergic reaction to them, they itch for weeks at a time and swell while leaving scars. So for me this is counting the cost a little!! I am currently getting eaten alive. I forgot to buy bugspray in the states and bring it back. It is ridiculously expensive here. That will be the first package I ask from my mom.

Salerno Arrival

I arrived in Salerno two days ago and I have seen the answer to many of our prayers. We have a great apartment very close to the summer project. The rent is in our budget and we are going to be able to use the same free internet that the project gets. In light of that, I am going ot try and update my blog as often as possible. I haven't been very good about making it a priority but this summer I'd love to keep you update so that you can be praying with us day by day as we work here. I can't begin to tell you how excited I am about the opportunities the Lord has given us here this summer. We are going to be able to take part in so many different ministry environments. It's going to be busy the next 3 months but this is the lifestyle that I thrive off of. The Lord has placed this project in my path at just the right time. I am learning more and more that I really was created for change, challenge and to juggle 3 balls at onne time in my life. It's how I work the best.

There is one thing you can be praying for me specifically and that is my sleep. I often have active dreams that cause me to wake up feeling strange emotions or overwhelmed. Last night was one of the worst in a while. There was real panic and fear as I slept and when I woke up I was overwhelmed with unexplainable emotion. I am certain that it is attacks from the enemy to make me devoid of energy as we enter into such a busy and critical summer for our ministry. Please pray that the enemy wound be bound and that I would wake up rested each day. Pray this not only for me but also for each of my teammates/roommates this summer: Angela & Jim Davis, and Amanda Craig. Thank you for joining with us in praying.

Asparagi anyone??? It's like grass it's so tall here.

The lungomare in Salerno. Looks pretty in pics but there's a lots trash on those beaches!