Kanda in Roma

This year the set-up of Agape (Campus Crusade) in Roma is looking a little different. Or maybe a lot different. We’re still figuring things out.

Agape Italia in Rome is in transition. Last year, the STINT team (Short-Term INTernational, 1-2 years) and ICS (International Campus Staff, or long-term staff) were just beginning to work together in reach the students of Rome, Italy.  Just to give a brief history of recent years in Rome, the first STINT team arrived in 2001.  The first Rome ICS couple did not move here until 2006, while most of the ICS arrived in Rome the Spring semester (2007) before my first year on STINT.  It wasn’t really until the second semester this past year (Spring 2008) that both STINT and ICS were working hard together at meeting students and sharing the Gospel. With all this in mind and trusting the Lord to call more laborers to Rome in the near future, a new set-up was needed–Missional Teams & Arco’s.

Currently, there are 5 Missional Teams (arrows) in Rome–4 that focus on Campus ministry, 1 on families & neighborhoods.  Each missional team focuses on different faculties (majors) at the 3 major public universities in Rome (La Sapienza, Tor Vergata, & Roma Tre). I am on a Missional Team with Jenny (STINT), Brian (STINT), Brian (ICS), and Amy (ICS, she arrives on Monday!) and our focus is at La Sapienza (economics, psychology, & chemistry) and Tor Vergata. The Missional Teams are set up so that we are reaching a wider range of students with more of a focus and so that we are porous and in need of Italians to join us in reaching others for Christ.  Working as smaller teams also gives us as a whole more opportunities to test out new ways of meeting students, evangelism, and discipleship, which will hopefully increase our learning.

We are also divided into 2 Archi or Arco’s as we more commonly say in our Italian-English. Archi (Arco’s) is the plural of arco which means bow. The analogy is that our Arco’s are what are behind, support, and shoot our Missional Teams (Arrows).  As an Arco we are a community of believers who come together to study the Bible, pray together, and have fellowship. My Arco community ranges from a baby who is 10 months old to recent college graduates to families and to people who have been on staff with Crusade for 30 years. I love how this truly represents the Body of believers, and not just a specific age-range.

I think the new set-up is great, however it does have its challenges.  I think the greatest challenge for me is not getting to spend time with some of the other staff, especially those who I spent a lot of time with last year in Rome. Which I guess this just creates another change this year for me: being more intentional in spending quality time with the friends I do not naturally see on campus or through Arco. Overall, I am excited to see what God does with this new set-up to change the city of Rome for His glory.

2 Missional Teams at Tor Vergata!

As a part of the settling-in process, we went to IKEA. A lot. I went to IKEA 3 times within a week and a half probably for a total of 12-15 hours. Unfortunately, all 3 times at 2 locations IKEA did not have the duvet cover I was looking for, which just turned into disappoint for the rest of each IKEA trip.

The second time we went to IKEA and after being yet again disappointed by the duvet cover selection (they didn’t have the right size duvet cover), I was overwhelmed with disappointment and a bad attitude.  It was at the end of the week–a week full of the Italian bureaucratic system and working on settling in when all I wanted to do was get on campus, meet new students, and reconnect with old friends. When we were leaving the IKEA store after round 2, it was POURING rain.  We had no other option but to walk to the bus stop by the mall and wait. None of us had umbrellas, and even if we did we were carrying too much stuff to hold one. And with this rain, there was nothing to do but laugh and enjoy the ridiculousness of the moment.  God really washed away my frustrations and disappointment in those moments as I was being soaked to the core with IKEA purchases in hand. I love how He works like that.

On September 15th, the ‘08-’09 STINT team arrived in Roma.  The guys were able to move into their apartment, which was the girls’/MY apartment last year, while we girls had to wait 2 weeks to move into our new apartment. I admit it was a little challenging the first couple of days to get used to not having a home while the STINT guys were beginning to live in my old home, their new home.  During the whole moving-in process, I realized some expectations I had and was reminded how everything I and the Rome STINT team have is the Lord’s and we are simply stewards of these possessions.

Our second week in Italy we went to a conference called Nuovo Inizio (New Beginning) in Tuscany for all of the STINT teams and new long-term staff to get better acquainted with the ministry, Italian culture, and other staff in Italy.  It was such a blessing to see the beautiful Tuscan countryside, enjoy lots of delicious Tuscan food, and to experience a terme (“tayr-may”)  which are hot springs in Italy. The national staff team also shared more of the vision that Agape Italia has for trusting God in changing Italian lives so they truly know & follow Jesus. It was a great reminder of the direction that the ministry is taking and of what to be trusting God for this year. I may share later more about some of the thoughts from the conference that I am thinking through and wanting to focus on this year in Rome.

As for the rest of settling in, we girls are mostly settled in except we are still waiting for internet to be installed at our apartment, for kitchen cabinets, an oven, and some smaller details.  Our settling-in process was slightly interrupted when our apartment had plumbing issues.  Apparently the water pipes were “raining” into the apartment below us, which had been a problem before we moved in. It took a week of tearing up bathroom tiles and shower floors to find and fix the problem, but for the last week we have thankfully been able to use all of our water appliances.  Some of my flat-mates have said it seems like we keep taking two steps forward, and one step back in getting settled into our apartment, but I just think it seems very Italy.

Rome STINT team at Nuovo Inizio conference ( back: Jimmy, Sam, Ella, Chris, Brian; front: me, Jenny, Kerry, April)

08-09 Team Tradition: a pyramid!

April sitting amongst all the STINT team stuff at the guys new (my old) apartment.

Our first night at our new apartment AKA the Palazzo! (Ella, Jenny, April, me, Kerry)

One small step in solving the Palazzo Plumbing Problem 2008.

Cultural differences would pop up at different times during the summer, which often happened at the grocery store and in particular the produce section. My first time of buying fruit again in an American grocery store I was so excited to be picking up lettuce with my bare hands, where as in Italy it is culturally-relevant to use a plastic glove while handling the produce.

Later in the summer there was an instance where I was buying a couple of apples. After putting the apples in a bag, I froze in place simply from confusion. I couldn’t remember what was proper etiquette in America: did you weigh the fruit with the scale in the produce section to obtain a sticker with the price, or did you weigh the fruit at the check-out line? I literally stood there for a minute or two before finding my mom in the store to ask “you weigh fruit at the check-out line, right?”

Oh, how I look forward to seeing what other cultural confusion I experience after living in Rome for another year!

It has been an extremely long time since I have posted on my blog and updated you on life and ministry in Roma, Italy, so begins my attempt to share some snapshots of my life in the past 5 months. So why not begin with my time in the States this past summer.

If you did not know, my transition week between Italy and the States was probably one of the craziest and hardest weeks of my life. Just to sum it up, it was a week of: saying goodbye to STINT teammates/Italy, preparing to return to the States, being in a scooter accident with my teammate Amos who broke his leg, my birthday, finding out 2 of my cousins passed away on my birthday from a tragic accident, spending the night in the DC airport because flights were canceled due to weather, flying into the Cincinnati airport instead of Columbus and going straight to my cousins’ calling hours, and the next day missing the funeral because I already had plans to visit friends in Boston.

Wow. I share this with you just to let you know how my summer started off. I think all the chaos of this really made reverse culture shock hardly be on my radar screen of life. I also tell you this to share some of the most encouraging and meaningful words. When I was at my cousins’ calling hours as my uncle was standing in front of his 2 daughters who had just passed away, he said “what you are doing in Italy, sharing the Gospel, this is what it is all about.” In my jet-lagged, emotional state-of-being, I was stunned by how my uncle, who probably doesn’t remember saying this to me, reminded me of the eternal impact of my time in Rome and how weighty of a decision accepting Jesus into our hearts as Lord & Savior truly is. (If you want to talk more about this, please feel free to contact me.)

An overview from a few other highlights/challenges this summer:

• Support raising was challenging, yet again this year. It was a true test of trusting & believing God and His calling to return to Rome when it looked like the support was not going to come in.
• Spending time with family and friends was of course wonderful.
• I did a bible study by Beth Moore called Believing God, and it was a great time of getting into the Word and it kept me accountable in hanging out with some of my favorite people.
• Every week I looked forward to recording/watching the television show “So you think you can dance.”