Journal Entries

The following is my journal entries during the trip.

Day 1 => Travel
(below is a picture of Steven and I on the plane)-Flight was good, only problem was a small girl behind me. She jumped up and down a lot, so I didn't get much sleep. :(

Day 2 => Arrival!
(below is a picture of the Duomo)

-We took a bus from the airport to the train station.

-Arrived at the hotel. Staff is very helpful (they speak ~25% english), and rooms are nice.
-The entire team had to take a nap... we were all falling asleep during orientation.
-Travel to visit Duomo & a castle
-Ate at a restaurant near hotel

Day 3 => English Clubs (family)
(below is a picture of Bicocca, the University)-Steven and I found an Italian bar to eat breakfast at. The hotel serves breakfast for 4 euro, but at the bar we can get it for 2 euro. I love how good coffee is inexpensive here. I hope we bless the two ladies that work there... I wish I spoke Italian. Two years ago we brought so much business to a coffee bar that they (Roberta and her husband) were able to go on vacation.

-Every year we come Frank encourages us to claim a promise. I read a lot trying to find a particular verse, then right before our morning meeting I found it! Proverbs 16:9 I chose this one because we had done so much planning, but I really wanted the Lord to lead us. Steven chose a verse in Exodus when God was speaking to Moses. (I will let him tell about that.)
-Worship: Good time this morning. Hotel people tell us that they are enjoying the music... which is gooooodddddddd... cuz we have no where to worship except the hotel.
-Teaching: Genesis 24 [Frank]
--servant's name isn't mentioned once
--servant prays specifically for Rebecka to do certain things
--servant trusted the Lord and WAITED!!!!
--servant testified to the Lord's work already preformed
-Travel to Bicocca & Lunch: ate at cafeteria. Got a lot of food for very little euros.
-English Clubs: Good to meet the students. I didn't realize how advanced our students would be. They really speak English well.
-Dinner: a little frustrated because we don't really know where everything is... I miss Turino. Ate at a kabab place (they serve Turkish food... falafel) I ordered Falafel and baklava and really enjoyed it. Hopefully we will have some students join us tomorrow, so that we can find places. No one really knows the city yet.

Day 4 => English Clubs (friends)
(below is a picture of Steven at the bar in the morning)

-Morning Quiet Time: Steve shared with the class yesterday that we could have a child in about a year. That kind of scared me because that means that I have to work very hard to be healthier in a year. I'm excited that he wants us to be pregnant in a year, but I'm afraid I will disappoint him. PCOS stuff is really starting to get to me. I feel very insecure a lot over here.
-Breakfast: One of the ladies in the coffee bar speaks English!!!! She moved to Italy from England eleven years ago. We hope to develop a relationship with her.
-Time with Steven: He really encouraged me to not worry about finding places to eat (I was really discouraged last night). I really enjoy meeting with him. We aren't in the same room at nights so I NEED this time to get stuff off of my chest. I <3 href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hebrews+11">Hebrews 11
--examples of faith and blessings received because they obeyed God's commands.
--encouraging because God fufills promises!
--persevere because we may not see the promise in this lifetime!
--Jordan shares about job hunting
--Matthew 17:20 Faith in Prayer life
--1 Peter 1:8-9 Faith for unseen
-Travel to Bicocca & Lunch & Planning time: planning was difficult because it seemed to drag on and on.
-Class: Good, played two truths and a lie. I really enjoyed getting to know the students.
-Dinner: very difficult again. Tomorrow we have plans to go to a disco (club) that serves a buffet.
-Bed Time: So many issues with self esteem... and PCOS. Basically, PCOS is my fault. I feel spiritually attacked. Stayed up to talk to girls. Very good for me, however, we didn't discuss PCOS or self esteem issues.

Day 5 => English Clubs (scavenger hunt)
(crazy picture of Will... crazy picture day!)

-Morning: Today I will avoid the word Turino! I think that I came to Milan with too many expectations. We are very much a ginni pig team. This is the first time that Irrefugio has hosted English Clubs in Milan and the university and hotel are much further from the center so there are less restaurants and bars. I hope today we will split into smaller groups when we eat. The problem is that there are not too many restaurants to choose from. Another frustration I have is with the students. Tonight (and today) the schedule is different, but on Thursdays and Friday I hope that more of our students will join us. Last night the Beginner and Advance classes had TONS of students at dinner. I'm sad because I feel like they don't like us, which doesn't help with self esteem issues. :( Also frustrated with living arrangements.... I feel disconnected to Steven. Bad Morning. (I missed worship and the teaching to talk with Steve... and to cry)
-Travel to Bicocca & Lunch: ate focaccia. Love focaccia. Went to the grocery store just to see things. I love Italian grocery stores. It really cheered me up. Steven and I ate with Andrew, Frank & Tao. Had a good discussion about how issues you are dealing with back home really intensify when you come overseas. Good discussion.
-Scavenger Hunt: Very FUN! Kinda crazy because everyone was talking at once and everyone had different ideas. However, I just relaxed and let the group work it out. It was fun and I really felt like we connected with some of the students. Also happy about all the pictures we got.
-Travel to Disco: So the buses often go on strike here... and it's kinda stressful, because you have to get to where you are going before the shut down. After we finally got to the center we walked around for a while. This was also very good for my heart, I enjoyed the old world charm of the center.
-Dicsotech: Surprised how much fun I had. We payed ten euro and got a buffet dinner and two drinks. Tried some of Dan's coke and rum..... GROSS! I don't understand rum. Food wasn't Italian, but still okay. We sat out on the patio with the students and talked a lot! We left with Ben and Errine before the dancing started. We got to talk with them about being married and in another country and all that jazz.

Day 6 => English Clubs (food)
(below is a picture of Steven and I at a fountain before the disco)

-Morning: Steven and I brought brioches (croissants) back from the bar for Andrew.
-Worship: everyone in general is very encouraged because conversations at disco went well. Students are opening up to spiritual conversation... however very slowly.
-Teaching: Q&A [Ben & Frank]
--everyone asked about long term missions.
--Some thoughts I have about this.
---I have faith that God will lead us directly!
---Is our ministry "College Students?"
---Raising Support = :z (crazy scared face)
---I am so emotional... am I a good missionary wife.
-Travel to Bicocca & Lunch: ate with Steven, had focaccia again.... this stuff is going to make me fat.
-Planning time: Best yet! Extremely productive
-Class: NO ONE CAME! very surprised... kinda sad because we had such a good lesson. However not that discouraged. We moved to the advance class. I'm practicing being grateful for other people's success.
-Dinner: ate at a Pub/Grill place. Very good food... however, not very Italian... lol! There was outdoor seating and it felt like the states again... kinda comforting. I had rotisarrie chicken with grilled veggies and roasted potatoes and white wine. Steven had lasagna and red wine. He like my wine better so we switched. The red wine was okay, but the white was excellent. Too bad we didn't see the bottle so we could get the name. We sat near Ben and Errine again, and really really enjoyed talking with them.

Day 7 => Last day of English Clubs & Party.
(below is a picture of the Intermediate Class)

-Morning: Truly encouraged by other team member's relationships. Steven and I continued to talk about long term missions and how we have no idea where the Lord wants us. We are confident he will lead us though!
-Worship: Couldn't get having children off of my mind. When this happens I just tell the Lord that I will trust him to give me children, and that I'm sure there are children in my future because I'm crazy about kids.
-Teaching: Nehemiah [Frank]
--a need is motivation for a movement.
--new wine in old wine skins, new heart in old church => resist change
--movementts continue to move
-Lunch: Hung out with Steven!
-Class: we basically had a discussion the entire class. We talked about food and cultures.
-Party: Intermediate got 2nd place in the scavenger hunt. All the students and Texans were exchanging numbers and info.
-Dinner: ate with Dina, Giulio and Cristian. They suggested a place called RossoPomodoro (RedTomato). It was REALLY good, however, kind of unusual because it was a chain... you just don't see many chains in Italy. We got pizza. Mine had ricotta cheese and a sausage. So good!
-Play City: I bowled in Italy! That was crazy. We had a blast.

Day 8 => VERONA!!!!!!!!!
(below is a picture of Steven and I at the statue of Juilet)

-We basically walked around a lot. We ate lunch and took a lot of pictures. Verona is beautiful! It's a small town where Romeo and Juliet was set. Very romantic, and very fun to talk to the students about Italian culture some more. We had a red wine that was AMAZING! I looked for it in a grocery store but couldn't find it... sad day.

(below is a picture of the view from a hillside)

Day 9 => Traveling home.

-Good to go back. EXTREMELY hard to leave Steven there. Cried. Plane ride was very turbulent and I really missed Steven. On the up side... not jet lag! WHOOP!

(below is a picture out of the window on the way to Verona)

An Update

Hi All
I sent this to family and friend when we were in Milan. I wanted to post it here so you can kinda see how the week started. Hopefully I will have a complete summary up soon! Thanks for praying and continue to pray for Steven and Bo, because they are still very much in Italy!!!

Email: We are in ITALYYY!!!!!!!!!!!

We have arrived...... actually we are about to start our third day!

Our plane ride over was very long, however, a very smooth ride. We got to Milan on Sunday morning. The team was pretty tired by the time we got to the hotel, so we ate some pizza and all took naps! We went to see the "Duomo," which is the big Gothic Cathedral in Milan. We also got to see a castle!

Monday we started English Clubs. 50 students signed up last week and we had about 35 attend. Frank and the team told us that that was a great turn out. Some of the names of our students are.... Irene, Cristian, Silvio, Dina, Matthew (he is actually an international Asian student... his real name is not Matthew), Giulio, & one more but I forgot his name... just call him Robert. We would really appreciate it if you prayed for the students. We had a lot of fun in the class, the Italian students LOVE to talk.

We are about to start day three or day two of classes. I'm going to meet Steven downstairs in 15 minutes and we will walk to the coffee bar and get some breakfast. We found a place where we can eat for 2 euros!... and it's very Italian :)! After that we will have worship time in conference/breakfast room of the hotel. Then we will head out onto the tram to travel down to the University Bicoccoa. We will do a little planning for the class.... the topic today is friends (yesterday was family). Then eat lunch at the school cafeteria, have our classes, and eat dinner. Classes start at 4:30pm and end around 7:30pm. That is about 10:30am to 1:30pm your time... pray pray pray!

Thanks, we love you! And we are having a great time.

Off and running!

K. Guys... here we go!

I can't believe the time has finally come. I have never been so excited about getting up at 3am in the Morning!

Our flight leave from Houston at 8am
We have a lay over in New Jersey till 6pm
Then we will arrive in Milan, Italy at 7am on Sunday!

They are 6 hours ahead of us, so if you could remember to pray at 10am, that should be about the time that our classes start (4pm Milan time).

Thanks!

San Marcos

This is turning out to be an eventful year!
(& I thought we were done with those after the wedding)

Our church is planning to do a church plant in May of 2010 in the grand ol' city of San Marcos! The church will be geared towards Texas State University.

Steven and I attended a meeting for the church plant this past Sunday. We had the opportunity to ask lots of questions and see exactly who is going with the team and what some major goals of the church will be. We heard rumors about the church plant and had considered it a little bit in the past, however, now is the time for a real decision!

We need a lot of prayer because we have to make a decision within 2-4 months. I'm not sure if this is just how life goes, but it feels like the Lord is really teaching us how to make decisions quickly.

So... just so the family knows, here are some reason we think the move would be good.

• The young church will need steady members to support the College Ministry, and Steven and I could provide that. As well as work to develop community aspects of the church.
  
• Steven could be transferred easily to the San Marcos area through TxDOT.
• There would be more opportunity for Steven to progress with in TxDOT if he is in a bigger city (as in it would be difficult for him to progressing in his career with TxDOT Bryan... however, nothing is impossible with the Jesus!... a Whoop!!!).

And, of course, a few reasons for not going.

• Further away from both sets of family (including Christine )
  
• Potentially more complicated for Steven to get license because he will be transferring in the middle of his rotation.
• There is a big temptation to go because a few of our closer friends are going. (We really need to check our motives and make sure moving would be in God's will)
  

To explain why we have to make the decision soon, I have also made a little list. We have a solid plan for staying College Station, and that makes things very comfortable. However this a great opportunity to serve the Lord... we just need a lot of prayer.

• Steven will need to gather all documentation of work performed for TxDOT Bryan, as well as, contact information of the corresponding supervisors to apply for his license the San Marcos area. This is a big undertaking, but it could turn out to be a good thing.
  
• We need to know where to target Fallon's job hunting (either BCS or San Marcos areas).
• We need to tell our landlord the decision of whether or not we will renew the lease in August, and with that we need to look for a rental property in the San Marcos area if we decide to move.
  

So anyway... That is what is up. Please PRAY PRAY PRAY!!!!!

We would really like to know your opinion. Family is very important to us, and we value your opinions!

Love you all!!!

Getting to Know Milan

I have been "google-ing" around to find out some info about Milan. I thought it would be fun to share. So if you have time, explore the links I have below.

Did you know that the largest Gothic Cathedral is located in Milan?
The entire city is basically planned out around this cathedral. Duomo

Milan is the "Center of the Universe for Fashion." fashion shows, latest trends

The famous painting of the Last Supper is in Milan. We probably won't go to see this (maybe a picture outside of the church though)... but here is where it is and some information about it. about, map, goolge view

In Turin, there were many little parks to walk through on our way to the church. Here are two of the bigger parks in Milan. Giardini Pubblici, map & Parco Sempione, map

Two years ago, Steven and I took a walk around the city to see some of the great architecture. Hopefully we will have an opportunity to do that again. It didn't take very long and it's good for Civil Engineers to appreciate Architecture... because, you know, we are so terribly functional! Hopefully we can grab a student and they can tell us about the history of each one. Here are some churches.

• Santa Maria Presso di San Satiro, About, Map
  
• San Lorenzo Maggiore, About, Map
• Basilica di Sant'Ambrogio, About, Map
• San Fedele, About, Map
  
• San Giorgio al Palazzo, About, Map
• San Gottardo in Corte, About, Map

Unfortunately I do not know which University we will be working with so I can't show you that. Also, since this trip is to help out a church plant, I can't show you the church. However, here is stuff from Turino! If you can find the "Mole", it is the tall spiral in the picture, the church in located on the bottom floor of a building just northeast of the Mole. The university is located southeast of the Mole. It is easy to find because it is the only building without the terracotta roof tiles. :)

Well. We leave in two weeks and we are both very, very (very, very, very, very) excited! The trip will probably go by as fast (or faster) than the trip preparation went. Continue to pray for us!