March as I see it

As always I am way behind on blogging, so once again you are going to get the shortened version of the story. March began pretty gloomy because apparently Italy's favorite past time during the winter is to rain, which makes going on campus very difficult. Everything we do is outside practically and when they go inside they just disappear, so that leaves us with a lot of wandering aimlessly. But then VISION TRIP came! Let me explain what vision trip is for all of you that don't live in the Crusade world. Vision trip is when students from the US come over for their spring break to see the ministry and how it is run and hopefully want to return to do ministry for a longer period of time.

Our vision trip consisted of about 25 students the first half of the week and about another 25 students the second half of the week. Basically, it was an american invasion on campus. The italians didn't really know how to respond to so many americans at one time, especially all the beautiful blonde girls (which that just got obnoxious). The week itself was so good. The sun was out. It was warm and students were everywhere. The students from the US were able to have conversations with italians and see where they're at spritually and over the course of the week we had 7 students accept Christ...in one week. God's presence on campus was so evident. We had so many good conversations that week with students that wanted more for their life. I must say that it was probably the most exhausting week of my life thus far, but that's ok. I was ready to collapse by day 2, but with a steady stream of coffee in my veins I perservered.

The day after vision trip we headed off to Rome for the weekend because 3 of my teammate ran the Rome marathon. So, of course we went to cheer them on. I must say that I do like Rome. It feels like NYC to me though, not really like Italy. We did alot of shopping and ate Japanese! which made my life. Sushi for the first time in many months. The next morning we watched the marathon which was very inspring. There were people that were in wheelchairs, that were blind, and so many old people running it. We cheered for everyone that came by and since we were the only ones cheering I think it was encouraging. Drew, Nathan, and Sarah Love all finished and with a pretty decent times even though they had suffered injuries during their training.

Lastly, I have big news. We found a mall! About 40 minutes away there is a Carefour (the italian wal-mart) and we heard that they had built alot of stores connected to it. So for our Saturday adventure we hopped on a bus and headed out there. It was beautiful. Our day started out eating Burger King, which was so amazing! You just can't imagine how good it is sometimes when you haven't had it in a really long time. Then we ventured through the mall and there were so many good stores with cute clothes and purses and it was truly a wonderland for shopping. I bought a shiny new pair of sneakers that I've worn everyday since. I love them. It felt just like America and sometimes that's exactly what you need.