Bits & Pieces

Open Window

2009-02-19T06:33:00.002+01:00

Last night I slept with my window open for the first time ever at my house in FL. Thinking back there have been several nights where it would have been lovely to sleep with it open...you know when there is that perfect balance between chill and warmth in the air, but I still never did it. In the past the whole idea of sleeping with the window open kind of freaked me out even though I have always slept on the 2nd floor of wherever I have lived. Every girl can turn any situation into a man somehow kidnapping her in her mind. But then I moved to Italy. Looking back there was barely a night that I didn't sleep with the window open if the weather permitted. It's not because there were less creepy men because they had more than their fair share. It just felt right most of the time. This all sounds very romantic and I'm sure you expect a "coming into myself while living in a foreign country" story (warning: this may happen), but in all honesty I probably did this because we didn't have air conditioning and I was desperate for air in any form that it came in.

The moral of this story is that it was really refreshing. I felt very clean and fresh when I woke up this morning. So the question is why haven't I always done this? In Italy I started doing it because I assumed that's what people did and it seemed appropriate for the situation. I believe this is the downfall of me living in Ocala...I just do what I've always done and this puts me in a rut. There are too many expectations and presumptions that just exist in the air here. This isn't anyone's fault it's just the result of living where you grew up. Living in a new place forced me to do new things constantly and to morph into a revised version of myself, which was refreshing. I would like to be like that again. To turn to old world things (i.e. open windows, taking walks, cooking from scratch) that I enjoyed so much that I have already forgotten so much of now that I live in the land of the fast and furious.

So, tonight maybe I'll sleep with my window open...and maybe I won't.

Most Recent Developments

2008-10-06T15:27:00.005+02:00

This is my new niece Elizabeth Kelly...but we choose to call her Ellie. She was only 4 pounds when she was born, so as you've probably already guessed she was premature...to be exact 7 week premature! Check out how big my brother's hand is in comparison to her little head.

The next development is that my BANGS ARE BACK! I always feel more trendy, when I have my bangs. Even though this is a terrible picture of me you get the idea.

Politics Shmolitics!

2008-09-05T04:39:00.002+02:00

So as I'm sure everyone else is experiencing these days, politics are everywhere as the election is coming closer and closer and I am sooo over it! I really have never been interested in politics, which I expected to change as I got older because that just seems like something that happens as you get older kind of like waking up early and watching the news, but it really hasn't for me. Two nights ago I watched Sarah Palin's acceptance speech out of curiosity and I have to admit that it impressed me. She is a no nonsense kind of woman and I admire that about her. But watching the convention it was so weird to me seeing everyone freak out over these candidates and over America. I mean I think that I live in a great country, but these people take it to a new level. Living in Italy completely changed my perspective. Here's a news flash...the US is not the center of the world and it's not the only country worth anything in this world. This is an attitude that I no longer have patience for and I'm pretty happy about that. Once again I like the US so don't cast me as a hater.

Rant #2: I don't understand this equation. Christian = American = Republican. Honestly I can't think of anything that is more ridiculous, ignorant, and frankly not biblical. Are we seriously going to separate the Church over what politicaly party they are registered with?? I am from a small town and am currently a member of a very traditional church and I dare say that you would be quickly judged if you outted yourself as a democrat or if you didn't swear allegiance to this country. I no longer feel comfortable reciting the pledge of allegiance to the american flag. That may be extreme, but I don't want to throw around my allegiance out to anyone or anything. Jesus Christ did not affiliate with a political party or a country or even his own ethnicity. He always chose to be the outsider. I am not a Rebublican. I am not a Democrat. I am not an American. I am a Follower of Christ. Period.

Seasons

2008-08-27T04:15:00.003+02:00

If there is something that I am sure about in life, it is that there are seasons in life. As of right now, I know that I am in a season of "waiting" and foreseeable "boredom". This is severely different from my season of living in a beautiful foreign country and bring busy every moment of my life. But it's OK that my current season is so severely different. I think that's why we have seasons so we can learn can be content in all situations just like Paul said...i think in Phillipians, but I'm not sure. So here I am learning how to adjust once again. That's something that I don't think will ever change about my life.

So just like Ecclesiastes and the Mama's and the Papa's have said...there is a season for everything...there is a season...turn, turn, turn.

Encounter with a Gondola Driver

2008-06-14T19:34:00.006+02:00

Just a couple of weeks ago my team had our de-brief in Bologna, which turns out is such a fun and beautiful city. There is such a huge trendy/indie/earthy population which I didn't expect, mostly because there is so little of that here. But anyways, the Monday after our de-brief was the Day of the Republic here in Italy...something like our 4th of July, so we celebrated the Republic in Venice. I was very excited about this because I had never been and just recently my brother Carl had scolded me that I had lived in Italy for 2 years and had never been. It was awesome, it only costs 8 euro to get there by train, which is so cheap and unnexpected!

Anyways, our day in Venice was quite lovely. We had beautiful weather and got to see so much of it in so little time. It really is like walking through a movie set. So my encounter with the gondola driver begins with the fact that that day I was wearing a red and white striped shirt, which is typical of a venetian gondola driver. So on the way Rick and Mario are telling me that I have to get a picture with a gondola driver because it's just too perfect. This made me a little nervous, but I didn't think much of it.

So, we were eating lunch in a piazza and there was a gondola driver with a red and white shirt on just sitting there smoking, not really doing anything. This gondola driver didn't look very inviting, but Rick drags me over there anyways and starts to talk to him. So he asks if we can have a picture together and the guy gladly obliges. THEN Rick says OK let's get another one, but with a kiss! So he leans in for the kiss (on the cheek) and he decides at this point that his hand would be more comfortable on my butt!!! I just froze and wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. My team enjoyed a good laugh at my expense about this one. So, all this to say that being on a gondola with the driver singing to me doesn't sound as dreamy to me as it used to.

Here's the picture of my creepy new friend:

Here are some more pictures so that's not all you see of Venice

It feels like hurricane season

2008-03-03T19:54:00.002+01:00

Being from Florida, we are used to hurricanes coming through quite often and with that comes loss of electricity, eating everything in the fridge, and playing games with your family that you haven't played since you were 10 years old. Granted I'm not doing any of those things, but there is one very large aspect of this week that feels just like being at home during a hurricane...We don't have any water! You may ask...why don't you have any water Katherine...and the answer is I don't know. The city of Salerno decided that this was the week to make me gross and live like I was camping. Which isn't entirely true, they are fixing something. But honestly, have you ever heard of such a thing. An entire city loosing water for 3 days...on purpose!

My favorite part about this situation is how I found out about it. I walked out of my door Monday morning to start my day and the lady who owns the store downstairs stopped me and started speaking to me at the speed of light with a very thick napoletano accent. So I tried very hard to understand what she was saying and basically I left the conversation understanding "today, Thursday, no water". So I thought OK...worst case scenario is we don't have water from today till thursday and I didn't really think much about it. Then I went to campus and had lunch with a friend and he said "oh, do you know about the water situation in Salerno" and I replied with not really, because I wouldn't consider understanding 4 words as a victory of understanding. And my friend then went on to tell me that there would be now water in all of Salerno till Thursday morning and that is the best case scenario!!! I spent the rest of my day trying to figure out what I could possibly fill up with water so I could flush my toilet and when the last possible moment would be when I could take a shower to keep myself clean a little bit longer.

So now we are on the complete day 1 of no water. We use all things plastic, there is a trash can full of water next to our toilet, and I'm thinking that tomorrow is going to be a pony-tail day for all of us.

I'll keep you posted, but don't count on pictures.

I'm famous!

2008-03-02T17:34:00.001+01:00

This is what I get for talking to strangers all the time.

http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=Hnyp8FHYLAQ

In These Days

2008-01-23T17:40:00.000+01:00

So here are a few things that I'm enjoying in these days:

1. watching Desperate Housewives with my girls
2. my new shiney Nike shoes
3. sunny days (when they happen...)
4. listening/dancing to digital love by Daft Punk
5. the idea of leaving for Dublin and Spain this weekend
6. when I use a pronoun or the imperfect tense correctly when I'm speaking Italian
7. reply-to-all emails
8. drinking chai tea latte's
9. punching my side-kick in the stomach

Also, here are a few pics from my Christmas travels:

Lacey Mai is ready to go skiing!

Mario's family brought us Reese's! Lots of Reese's!
Welcome to Bardonecchia, Italy where most people love to go skiing, but instead I decided to twist my knee on Day 2 and drink Cappuccino for next 3 days.
Paris gave me Starbucks and I am forever grateful.
Rick and I at the Eiffel Tower.

the day we defeated 3 turkeys

2007-11-25T15:42:00.000+01:00

So we decided to have another Thanksgiving outreach, which I was really excited about. Of course, the hardest part about this is getting all the american goodies you need to make everything. But luckily between visitors and a visit to America we got everything pretty easily...at least on this side. The couple days before we had spent preparing many pies and casseroles and everything was going quite smoothly. I was really impressed. Let me go back a couple of steps...whole turkeys aren't real easy to find here, but we had made an order from a butcher on our street for three turkeys because we were hoping for 100 people so we thought that would do the trick.

Now begins Thursday...we woke up early and continued in the casserole process and it was time to pick up the turkeys and take them to the guys place. So I asked a couple of the girls to come with me because "I might need a hand". We went to the butcher and he proceeds to bring out 3 of the largest turkeys I have ever seen! The smallest one weighing 30 pounds and the largest one weighing 37 pounds!! None of us knew what to do...what are we going to do with 100 pounds of bird! We had to call the guys to come and carry them for us because they were so big. When we finally got them inside, they took up the entire kitchen table! We had to pluck feathers out of it...these things were probably shot the day before.

So seriously now we have to figure out how we're going to cook these things because we have one "full size oven" which is really about half the size of a normal oven in the states so getting these monsters in any of the ovens we had planned on was not going to be easy. So we started making phone calls and somehow we had figured out 2 other places. Because of the size of the birds we knew we needed to start cooking them ASAP. So we prepped the smallest one, but it was getting it in the oven that was the hard part. We put it in this foil pan and it started bending and the the side racks started falling off so we had to abort mission. We pulled it out and had to disassemble the racks. So we put it in on this pan so we wouldn't have to set it directly on the coils and hopefully not start a grease fire. We shoved her in, bent her legs backwards, and quickly shut the door.

Turkey #2 was going to be cooked at our favorite pizza place. So that wasn't going to be a problem. Now we only have one left and our friend who owns a hotel said we could cook it there, so we were feeling pretty good at this point. The only issue was getting it there. Our best option was to put the turkey in a garbage bag and put it in a laundry basket, so that's what we did. Marti (my friend from Pisa) and I started our trek to the hotel carrying a 33 pound turkey in a laundry basket. Yes, we got as many stares as you think we would and we each put a glove on one hand to prevent our hand from falling off from carrying this thing. Ok long story short we walked all the way down there and it wouldn't fit. And the woman who we were talking to kept hitting the turkey and exclaiming how big it was and that their oven is only for pastries. At this point, our best option was to call a taxi, which was the best decision we had made all day.

So begins the scrambling once again. The time is now 3:30ish. Even if we find a place in the next 5 minutes the turkey is going to be done till 10pm. The next phone call was bring the turkey to the pizza place because we're putting it in the brick pizza oven. How amazing is that! So they pushed it on in with that wooden paddle thing and that turkey was done in like 2.5 hours.

As I said before this was the day we defeated 3 turkeys in the most dysfunctional country in the world. God was so good to us that day and worked everything out. Just to let you know we had about 80 students come that night so it was a huge success and we have about 30 pounds of turkey un-touched. So if you have any good turkey recipes let me know.

My winter coat

2007-10-21T22:51:00.000+02:00

Well, today was the premiere of my blue pea coat for the season. Which means that it was really cold for the first time today. We ended up camping out at the boys apt for almost 7 hours today because we didn't want to face the rain and the wind. But when we finally went outside it was vicious. My umbrella flipped inside out, my entire front was soaked, and my shoes squished with every step. So we treated ourselves to a wonderful dinner at a restaurant very close to our house, which was its biggest draw. I have a love/hate relationship with my winter coat. I love it because its cute, it goes with almost everything, and it has magenta lining. I hate it because I wore it literally almost every day during the winter last year. You just get sick of it really. And it is the symbol of cold and wet. But for right now its something fun to accessorize with, so I'm just going to go with it. Look for pictures coming soon of my new cute hat.

Family Dinner

2007-10-18T10:15:00.000+02:00

So tonight we are attempting something that has been quite difficult thus far in Italy...we are gathering believers for fellowship. For those of ya'll in America I know this doesn't seem like a big deal, but it is rarely done outside of a church in this country. We are having all the students we know that are believers over for dinner, which I am attempting to cook an Italian dish for Italians which makes me a little nervous. Our main objective is fellowship. So many of our friends don't know that other people believe like they do and feel alone alot of the time. We are also going to cast some vision for the campus and how this can be their personal ministry. I am very excited about tonight, so please pray that they would come, that I wouldn't poison them with my cooking, and that they would desire to serve the Lord by reaching their campus.

Another Summer of Transition

2007-08-25T03:37:00.000+02:00

It's yet another summer in Ocala, which is as exciting as you would imagine it. The only thing that gets me through is watching re-runs of Will and Grace and my loveliest of friends that I miss so much when I'm away. My summer started off with a bang...I came home from Salerno and straight into my family reunion, which is a classier/older version of a southern frat party. Then three days later I went to Korea for Crusade's world missions conference/my team leader training. It was incredible and exhausting all at the same time. I had the pleasure of seeing a peak of what Revelation 7 will be like. I'll never forget that moment. The rest of July consisted of hanging out with my lovelies and raising support. And August is flying by. I was able to go to New York and see Jeremy and Steffany, which I don't see enough. And I'm just coming off a trip to Colorado where we had our STINT briefing. It was very similar to last year except for the terrifying feelings of doing ministry and moving to a foreign country that thankfully I didn't have this year.

All these components strung together equal the summer of transition. I've finished a year in Italy and now I'm back in the US, but I'm going back to Italy. So...do I hold onto Italy or do I invest in America? Sometimes I feel very torn on which way I should be going, but most of the time I feel like I'm just waiting for the next thing. Which is true. I'm waiting for two things: all my support to come in and to get back to Italy where there is purpose to my day. It's strange how that happened. I never thought Italy would feel normal to me, but it does. (Something about blogging makes me a little emo...sorry about that)

I'm trying to think of what else is new/on my mind...whatever I've got nothing. No reason to keep going just for the sake of a longer post.

March as I see it

2007-03-29T00:40:00.000+02:00

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.

Carnevale?

2007-02-18T18:06:00.000+01:00

So I've come across a new Italy trinket that I thought was interesting/weird. I know everyone knows about mardi gras which inevitably ends with Fat Tuesday where everyone gets really drunk and does stupid stuff. Well here it is called Carnevale and it is the 40 days leading up to Lent, where you would give up something to identify with the sacrifice of Christ. They celebrate a little differently here. Children have been running around town in costumes for the past month and they spray shaving cream and silly string at people in celebrationg for Carnevale. Does this sound strange to anyone? I guess parents just let them do whatever they want and that is their rebellion before Lent...I really don't know. Francine has already been attacked twice by kids while she has been walking. Today I was walking along the ocean, which is a really popular walking area, and I realized I was in the gauntlet of dressed up children armed with silly string and such. Thankfully it started to rain so I was saved from being attacked. But, alas, the big celebration is this Tuesday and I just know that my fate lies in the hands of these punks. So I'll let you know how that goes.

I know it has been a while since I have posted. It was right before my big trip, which was fabulous. I felt like such a jet-setter, except flying really cheap airlines and sleeping in airports. So I'm going to give you some pictures to help sum up my trip.

Dublin. This is Francine and I in front of a typical pub. It was cold, but oh so magical!

This is the view from my hotel room in Nerja, Spain (aka the motherland) where we had our Mid-year conference.

We went to the Rock of Gibralter for a day, which turns out is right across from Morocco (the hunk of land in the background). So, we thought it was fitting if we acted like african animals for the occasion.

We were trying to take a picture on top of the lions in Trafalgar Square, London and everyone else was ready, but I was having some trouble getting around the Lion's large butt. Nathan kept assuring me that he would catch me, but as you can see he was lying.

Back in Italy

2007-01-17T13:08:00.000+01:00

Well after 7 weeks of being in the States, I have returned to Italy. Our visas came through, really without any problems, which just goes to show you that God had his hand all over this. But in other news, none of the other teams in Italy have been able to get their visas, so as of right now we are the only STINT team in Italy. The other teams are making efforts to try to get student or work visas to come back, so please pray for them that they can return ASAP. I must say it feels pretty good to be back, granted there are many things I already miss about the US of A, including of course all the loves of my life, sushi, TV, starbucks... But I did decide that I don't really like the person I am at home. I become so complacent and my life is just too comfortable there, it scares me a little to be honest. Anyways, it's really good to be back with the team and having a purpose to my daily life again instead of just planning my day around my favorite TV shows (which I didn't actually do, only sort of).

The most exciting news as of late is that this weekend we are leaving for our Mid-year conference in Spain, which in and of itself is exciting because we get to hang out with all the Crusade people from all over Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa, but on top of that is the fact this it is my Motherland and I think part of my family is from the area that we are going to. And even more exciting news is that it costs way too much money to go direct from Italy to Malaga, Spain sooo we are going to fly through Dublin and spend a day there then have a team trip to London for 2 days on the way back. I am soooo excited about this! We are actually going somewhere that requires more than a bus to get there.

Here are some goals/new hobbies for this semester:
-Actually studying the italian language...I'm officially sick of speaking in 2 word sentences and hand gestures
-Re-reading all the Harry Potter books in preparation for book 7 coming out in July. I am currently on HP 2
-I have also begun crocheting, thank you once again Chrissy. My first attempt turned into some sort of deformed mushroom thing, so I have much to learn.

November at a glance

2006-12-15T04:51:00.000+01:00

Dancing it up at the MLK party to a techno version of "Our God is an Awesome God"

This is only about half of the people that came to our Thanksgiving outreach that went amazingly well! We had tons of great American dishes, about 60 Italian students, and a compelling message given by Hoswell who is on staff in Florence.

We were forced to celebrate Christmas a little early this year, so here is my contribution to Yankee Swap...a Pope calendar! Honestly I don't know why people didn't fight over it.

Meet Tanya Love. She is the newest member of our team. She is currently holding down the fort while we are gone.

Merry Christmas from Scrubby's BBQ in Ft Lauderdale. If that doesn't bring you Christmas cheer, then I don't know what will?

As part of your visa trip to Miami, we headed up to Orlando for numerous days of meetings then rewarded ourselves with a day'o'fun at Disney! Including an added bonus of our "boss" Paul Meyer coming and hanging out with us for a couple of days. One of the many reasons why I love Crusade!

Country folk in the big city...

2006-11-04T23:07:00.000+01:00

Last weekend our team made the almost 5 hour train ride up to Florence for a conference with all the staff here in Italy. Even though I was in meetings most of the time it was really awesome. In one room were people that have been with the ministry for 30 years and then some that have only been in the ministry for 2 months. As someone who just stepped into the picture, it was really compelling to see the vision of the people that have been in Italy for a long time and have seen the whole story. It really changed my perspective on where we're at in the ministry because from my point of view it seems like we haven't come very far since right now I'm just trying to get a Bible study going, but the ones who have been around are so excited by how much God is moving and has moved and can clearly see that God will continue to move. All that to say that I am just very excited about what God is going to do in Italy this year and the years to come, whether it's what I had in mind or not.

As it was my first time in Florence, I had many "firsts" in my life over the weekend. I ate pasta with wild boar in it for the first time...delicious! I bought a train ticket for the first time on my own. I stayed at a hostel, which was a little shady, but cute...even though I had to take a bird bath in the sink because my shower wouldn't give me some hot water. Most importantly, I bought my first pair of boots and YES I wear them with my jeans tucked in. They are fabulous. I will post a picture as soon as I take one.

What was funny about Florence is that it was so different from being in Salerno. Salerno is so small in comparison and we have almost no tourists here, but in Florence there were tourists everywhere and everyone spoke English. English just doesn't really exist here in Salerno, so it was really just strange at first. Oh and the pizza was just no comparison, just trust me that southern Italy is the only place to have true pizza! Here's a little slice of Florence for you.

The skyline of Florence at sunset.

FYI: You can take a segway tour of Florence, but just a tip if you're trying to blend in this isn't the way to go.

So, Morgan and I decided to sight see for an extra day in Florence, so of course, we went to go see the Statue of David. If you look behind us in this picture, you can see that David is a giant! I was so surprised. But what it actually comes down to is that there is a giant naked man in the room...and that's just awkward!

Mr. Accordian Man

2006-10-22T14:55:00.000+02:00

Every Saturday morning I wake up to the sounds of an accordian being played right outside of my window. Now, the first time I heard this I was very confused because lets face it...we just don't get much accordian in the States, but then after I was finished being confused I was quite angry that this man decided to play the accordian outside of my window early on a Saturday morning. Since then I have heard him every single Saturday morning and it has just become something that I have learned to expect and as long as I am already up, it is really quite charming. But I feel like Mr. Accordian Man is an excellent metaphor for the rest of Italy. Italy's quirks have become something I have learned to expect and even love, but every now and then the question is lurking in my mind...is this charming or annoying? Lets run through a couple of examples...

1. In order to make dinner, I will need to visit 1-3 little shops between the hours of 5pm-8pm, but along the way I will give a "Buona Sera" to the shop keepers on my street as I pass them, since I pass them everyday.
2. I have come to know the dogs that roam the streets of Salerno and we have even named a couple of them. A couple are permanently sleeping right outside of my building and I love petting them even though some of my teammates would advise against it. And I'm pretty sure everyone in this city owns a dog because they take them everywhere...shops, restaurants, the bus. But then as I am walking down the street, one eye always has to be glancing down because as soon as you let your guard down your foot could end up in a pile of dog poop.
3. It is just to be expected that when I want a glass of coke I will pay anywhere from 1-3 euros for it, but then on the other hand why am I drinking coke when there is wine?

Don't confuse this post for thinking that I don't love living here...because I do. My slow walking, food loving personality fits perfectly in this culture.

One quick story for the road...Monday evening I was minding my own business, reading some John Piper while sitting at the kitchen table and Morgan came in and we started chatting, then all of a sudden a burst of high pitch screams burst forth from our living room. Turns out Sarah Love and Francine were going through a bag of kitchen stuff from last years STINT team and they found a treasure. So, Sarah Love threw open the kitchen door while holding the treasure above her head screaming in a caveman type fashion. She had found a box of brownie mix AND it had a syrup pouch! The joy had overtaken all of us and we were screaming and embracing eachother, but the real joy was Sarah Love's reaction to the brownie mix. It was so pure and raw. The image of her clutching that box will never leave my mind. (This last paragraph just took me a solid 15 minutes because I couldn't stop laughing).

God bless you, Betty Crocker. Our STINT team is forever grateful.

God is good!

2006-10-10T23:33:00.000+02:00

So we have now officially been on campus for 5 days now. For all of you who don't live in my world, that means going on campus at about 10 am and beginning spiritual conversations with students until about4 pm. Now let me just say that this was the scariest part about coming on STINT for me. But alas God is good and he has provided amazing conversations and of course some extremely awkward conversations along the way as well. For example, when they don't speak any English and I speak very very little Italian or perhaps when a group of students has to go because they have to go to class and they invite you to come along. As the dumb American desperately trying to make Italian friends, I follow them in the classroom. Lets just say it was a bad idea and there was a video playing involving George Bush and war...which was our que to leave. But besides all that, God is good and our team had the privelege of seeing 3 people accept Christ in the past 2 days! A-MAZING! I have always been one to doubt initiative evangelism and how effective it actually was, but this just goes to prove that it is completely out of our hands. Especially since we don't speak their language, very few of us have experience in evangelism, and half the time we're not even sure why we're here. But once again God is so good and He uses those who have nothing to offer, but filthy rags to expand His kingdom. For such a time is this...

Please pray for Paola, Nunzia, and Francesco as they learn to love Jesus.

In other news...
I have been meaning to tell you about each one of my teammates, but lets be honest I am never going to do that, but thankfully Francine (the assistant team leader) is on the ball. So here's a link to her blog in order to learn more about the people I spend 24 hours a day with. http://www.happyintheson.blogspot.com/

I went to Positano last weekend, which is a beautiful little city on the Amalfi coast about 1 hour away by ferry. It was a nice day of laying on the beach and walking around looking at shops. And we saw this girl that we thought was Nicole Richie, so clearly we stalked her until she turned around and we realized it wasn't her at all. All I have to say about Positano is "Che Bella!" (Which means how beautiful and is what the Italians say in response to everything...I love it...I'm bring it back to the States)

A few tid bits

2006-09-27T18:04:00.000+02:00

I need to get better at posting on this thing, but anyways this week has been really busy. Something you should know about Italy though is that you can only really accomplish one thing per day. So my days have been full, but with really only a couple of events per day. I have been in language school, which has been really good and I am definitely learning. My teacher's name is Milena and we always ask her random questions about where to find good meatballs, what the mafia actually does, and how to properly use italian hand gestures. As of right now I MIGHT be able to carry on a converstaion with a 2 year old, so that is progress.

OK here is some Salerno trivia. The patron saint of Salerno is San Matteo (aka the Matthew who wrote the book in the Bible) and when he died they cut his body into pieces and spread him out all over. The exciting part is that we have his arm...yes his actual arm. It is kept in a crypt in the Duomo ( the big church in the middle of the city). So last week was a festival celebrating San Matteo and there were concerts and fairs and markets and then a big parade. I'm pretty sure all of Salerno comes out for this parade where they carry large statues of various saints surrounded by flowers and such. When these statues pass, people throw confetti and flowers from their balcony and cross themselves. And when the San Matteo statues passed there was quite a bit of hollering and clapping, but apparently in the past women have fallen to the ground and wept. Just a quick note...Jesus was not involved in this parade.

So we're trying to have a get together for all the students that were involved last year and the new believers from this summer, which is quite exciting because this is the first time I have had any contact with students. Yesterday we split up calling all the students and we were all a little nervous because we are just assuming that they speak English and that they will have some kind of idea of what "Agape Italia" is. I actually spoke with 3 girls and they were precious! One girl said "it would be beautiful to meet you". That made my freakin day! I loved it! Talking to these girls really got me excited about starting to do actual ministry with students. I think it really helped to connect a voice and a name to "italian students" that I've been praying to have a heart for, but had no idea who they were.

That's all for now.

P.S. I like comments!

My first Italian Kiss...

2006-09-17T23:45:00.000+02:00

So this weekend was a pretty big weekend for me here in Italy. My team leaders, Drew and Francine, went up to Florence for an Italy Leadership Meeting all weekend. So as all good children, we spent all day Friday cleaning up our kitchen and bathroom, which was just our first step into making 5 girls in an apartment feel like home. But while I was cleaning I found an excellent use for this mysterious European appliance in my bathroom, also known as a bedet...now if you don't know what it is I think that this would be an exciting Google search for you. So long story short, our floor needed to be mopped and we had no bucket, therefore the bedet became the bucket. And let me tell you it worked fabulously! And lucky for you the moment was captured...

Then later on that night we went out to eat, which was quite interesting because none of the Italian speakers were with us, so it was alot of pointing and smiling and nodding along, while other Italians were not so secretly mocking us. I ordered something that I didn't know what it was and it turned out to be delicious and the house wine was delicious so there were no complaints. Our server was this old man named Umberto and he was rather amused by us. We attempted to have a conversation with him at the end of the meal and as we were leaving I received my first Bacci! Now "bacci" is when two people greet eachother with the kiss on each cheek thing (but really you dont actually kiss you just make the kissy noise and press cheek to cheek). But here's the kicker...you always go left cheek then right cheek...well i went right cheek and almost hit Umberto right on the lips for our greeting. But thankfully I made a quick turn and just got the Bacci.

On Saturday, we ventured down to the Fourteen Points Hotel, which is the hotel that the Summer Project kids stay at every summer and we met Marco! Marco is basically the first christian that Crusade met here in Salerno, well actually a guy from Crusade led him to Christ and now he helps us out a ton. So he is like a legend in the Salerno Crusade world. There is an awesome video made featuring an interview of him that I will post a link of. So we met him even though he had no idea who we were and he is just adorable. He is the essence of "italian"...all cute and trendy with long hair and man capris. Then as we were leaving I experienced bacci #2...and from Marco! Oh, I love bacci!

So today we went to an actual church, which was exciting to see believers gathered together worshiping and serving the Lord in their culture. I was a little weirded out by the church, but that's OK...I'll get over it. Today was nice because it was mostly just working in these workbook things, looking up verses about loving our team, and reading "Let the Nations Be Glad" which I would highly recommend.

Here are some pics...

A view of the coast of Salerno

This is the street I live on

The beautiful waterfall in Amalfi that we hiked to...I know...I can't believe I went hiking either

My STINT family

Well here I am

2006-09-14T16:12:00.000+02:00

For those of you who are hoping to receive tons of personal emails finding out about the very minute details of my day, I hate to break it to you, but it's just not going to happen, therefore I created this just for you! But remember that I do love you very much! So I'll just jump right into it then...

I have been here in Salerno almost a week now and I can't even believe it. On one hand it feels like I've been here forever and then on the other hand i can't believe I've only been here a week. It is so beautiful here. Everything looks like it's leftover from 100 years ago. It is also very strange here. There is absolutely no schedule here. Shops close down whenever they feel like it, but between 1-5 you definitely won't find anything open because that is siesta. And then I was walking along the water and there are people out everywhere in the middle of the day...children, men, women, and groups of old men. And my first thought is "does anyone work"? Which is very American of me, but seriously I really don't know what people do.

Some of our adventures thus far have been taking a boat to Amalfi (which is about 40 minutes by boat) and laying out on the beach, then hiking up about 1000 steps to a beautiful waterfall. By the way, while on the beach I witnessed 3 old woman change in/out of their bathingsuits...something else I don't understand about this culture. Then yesterday we took a bus to this town right next to us to go to Carefour, which a store similar to Wal-mart, and we got off too early. We ended up walking for over an hour....at least 3 miles and all for some shampoo, cereal, and a few kitchen items. It was so ridiculous, but you just couldn't help but laugh! Especially since we passed 8 bus stops on the way!

Right now 8 of us are living in 2 apartments that are right across from eachother. I love them...they are right in downtown and we are a very short walk from anything we need. The problem is that 5 girls are sharing one of the apartments and we are a bit cramped, so right now we are trying to figure out whether to buy some bunk beds or to find another apartment (which we've been trying to do), so if you could keep out living situation in your prayers that would be great.

Fantastic pics coming soon!