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.”
