The Beginning

This truly has been a new beginning for me. This is the first time I have ever posted on a blog, the first time I have ever lived in Italy, and the first time I have shared my life with so many people. I am very excited to be a part of this whole big thing, and can't wait to see how this whole year turns out, but I am excited to let you all in on how life in Italy has been going.

I flew to Italy with all nine of my team mates. (Here is a picture of us doing one of our famous pyramids...)

Top Row: Kerry and April, Middle: Kanda, Ella, and Jenny, Bottom: Me, Chris, Jimmy and Brian

We actually left America just in time, as I heard we missed the closing of a lot of airports by about half an hour because of all the trouble being caused by the winds from the storms in the South. I heard it has been kind of crazy with lots of power outages and such all around. We got to Rome and moved all of our stuff into the apartment which the men will be staying in for the year. The girls will be moving in to their place this Saturday, Sep. 27. We are so thankful to have been able to find two places so fast, and ones that have been accommodating to what our teams needs in terms of size. We are so thankful for the Lord's provision! The last week in Rome has been spent taking care of errands that had to be done in order to live in Rome for a year: metro passes, cellphones, permesso di soggiorno (which are basically licenses to live in Rome), and getting insight into Agape Italia (Campus Crusade for Christ) in Rome.

We spent three days this last week in Tuscany for Nuovo Inizio (noo-o-vo in-itz-ee-o), which is the new staff conference for all Agape Italia. Here we met the National Leadership, heard their vision for reaching Italy with the gospel, and heard specifics on how they forsee this happening in each city in Italy. It was really exciting to hear what the Lord has been doing in Italy, and what we are trusting Him to do in the next year. I got to help lead worship at the conference which was a joy to serve the people here in Italy in such a way. We also got to experience the beautiful culture of Tuscany, eat some really good cooking, and just enjoy God's beautiful creation in Italy.

Il Fattorio, or the farm. This is the beautiful place we stayed at in Tuscany

A lovely view of the Tuscan countryside!

The pool at Il Fattoriio and the lovely view behind it. I spent my mornings here reading my Bible and spending time with Jesus.

Just another site of what my team and I got to experience for 3 days. It was such a blessing to be able to experience this before we head off for a year of reaching Italian students.

That is all I got for now...and your comments on the blog our welcome, expecially if you feel like any improvements could be made. I feel like this is a process and I am excited to see what my posts will be like in the future. If you made it to the end thank you, and I hope you have enjoyed.