Last week started off incredibly encouraging for me. Two Sundays ago I went to a lunch the Karrs and a member of their local church, Julia, were hosting in our area for a short term team of students coming to work in Rome for a week from Holland. The group was from Athletes in Action, a ministry that uses sports as a common language all over the world and a chance to meet people in new places. Myself, Cristina, Jason, and Caleb (the journeyguys) joined the Karrs and Julia to welcome the four Dutch students in our area. After a fun lunch getting to know each other, they wanted to worship. These sweet students started singing with us, and I was unbelievably thankful to have a chance to worship in English for the first time in over 8 months. Music is so special to me, and corporate worship is at the top of my list for things I miss from my life in Athens-these four, and the rest of their team, actually reminded me a lot of that fantastic SWAT community I've missed. That Sunday afternoon with those four Dutch students is one I will always remember. I went with the Karrs to their hang out time in a park the next Wednesday evening to see them one last time before they left Rome and join them in connecting with locals through volleyball, soccer, and frisbee. At the park I got to meet the rest of the team, and after saying bye to random park friends collected throughout the day we had a fun time eating with the Karr's local church (Breccia), talking about God's movement in Rome, and learning about the "crazy Dutch," as they say. Hanging out with them, the Dutch team and the tiny Italian evangelical church, was such a neat glimpse of the body of Christ!
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| me and the "crazy Dutch" from lunch..beautiful people I'm looking forward to seeing again in heaven! |
Last Thursday, Manuela and I met in the park for our first time talking about the Bible after she's read. I thought we would discuss maybe the first chapter of Romans, but she read through chapter 8! She had a ton of questions, many very difficult, but the Spirit completely guided the conversation and it was awesome. We talked about grace (our main topic), the justness of God, His Sovereignty, how He reaches individuals in different nations, and much more. Today I gave her a new Bible, since her old one is a Catholic Bible and she calls it a dictionary (it's massive), and she was quite excited to start underlining. Get this, she's also talked to her mom about grace and her mom was interested and came up with many questions!! Please be in prayer for not only her, but her family and friends she is starting to tell about Jesus as she is considering the decision to follow Him with her life and heart!
Right after that incredible afternoon with Manuela, Sharon and I headed to Ireland for a long weekend. It's pretty cool that Dublin was the one city I wanted to make sure I saw this time in Europe, and the Lord brought me a wonderful friend who lives there. While I was excited to see everything, really it was a fantastic opportunity to spend time with Sharon. The entirety of our first day (Friday) we spent with her family, in honor of her brother's confirmation. Since Sharon was in Dublin for a confirmation ceremony, religion came up often in passing and the Lord provided opportunities here and there for me to share pieces of what I believe or what's different in the evangelical church than the Catholic church. This trip strengthened our relationship, since we got four solid days together and I spent significant time with either her family or boyfriend as well. I'm looking forward to seeing doors the Lord opens from here...and praying frequently that even though she seems so far off, the arm that is never too short to save will lead her to Him.
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| Sharon and I in front of Newgrange, the oldest building structure (older than the pyramids!). Newgrange was one of many enclosed tombs for hunter gatherers 5,000 years ago. |
Tomorrow morning (or since it's post-midnight, later today) our team is leaving for a much-needed retreat. We have all been waiting for this ever since Steph surprised us with cute hand made invitations a few months ago, and it really is at the perfect time. Cristina will be leaving at the end of the month, the Coopers go stateside in June, then I have to leave in July, so we are all glad to have a weekend resting in our God, encouraging each other, and growing together before the summer splits. Life has been fun lately, full of people time and students that all of a sudden want to be around us often, but breaks are necessary. We'd love if you would pray for our retreat this weekend, that we would be drawn nearer to Jesus and return to Rome rested and ready to go!
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