Mi Dispiace…

{I’m sorry…}

Holy moly, it’s been a really long time!! I am so sorry to my faithful readers and friends… thanks for being so gracious with me, in the midst of my lack of blogging. I really cannot believe that it’s March 6th — can anyone tell me where February went??

My heart in this post is to bring y’all up to date as much as possible… but, as always, I really just wish that you could be in my back-pocket and experience life with me here in Italy!! (By the way, ANYONE is welcome to come visit!! :)) And also, this might be a REALLY LONG post… so be forewarned!!

JESUS…
has definitely shown Himself to be my faithful companion this month! There have been some really hard days in February, along with some amazing days where I just can’t believe that I’m blessed with this life. One of my favorite songs of the month of Feburary is “Psalm 62” by Shane&Shane… it is based on the actual song, so you can just go read that… but here are some of the lyrics:

He’s the only one
Strong enough to lean
My heaviness against
The weight of all my sin
Falling on a rock
Leaning on a fortress
Oh the wall of God, Jesus
He won’t move

On God I rest
My salvation
My fortress
Shall not be shaken
My mighty rock
And my glorious
I lay my head upon His chest
On God I rest

Oh I am calling out
Oh my soul
Oh my stubborn soul
Won’t you wait on Him
Wait in the quiet
Even in your fear
Oh your God is here, to lean on!
He won’t move

He has spoken
Hear his voice
I have come for the broken
So all ye weary come and rest

Ok, that was the entire song. I just couldn’t cut it down… it’s been an influential song in my life this month, both when life feels really heavy and when I am able to rest and rejoice in Him. I am so grateful for a sweet, tender God who enters into my heart right where I am… PRAISE HIM!!

Students…
were hard to find sometimes during February, due to crazy exam schedules! However, Jesus provided some SWEET interactions with students during this month — we had several great dinners with spiritual discussions, we got to deepen relationships with students, and we closed out the month with an AMAZING Valentine’s Day party (a few weeks late, but it was so worth the wait!!!)!! Hey, more details on those events are in my February Update Letter — if you don’t get that right now, either through e-mail or snail mail, and you want it… let me know!! I would love to send you a copy!!!

Language…
oh, language! This month, we closed out our time with Alessandro… we had our last Italian lesson with him on the 26th. And I miss him already!!! God provided such a sweet relationship with him — THANKS for praying for him!! Our last day was really great… we had lunch together after the lesson, and just got to chat and enjoy each other. We also sent him away with a thank-you card, which we tucked a “Knowing God Personally” booklet into, just so he can READ the Gospel in Italian, instead of piecing it together through our broken Italian conversations in lessons 🙂 Would you keep praying for Alessandro, that God would continue to tug on his heart and that we can continue to be Jesus to him… we’re planning on seeing him in April for fun!!

Also, with language… PRAISE HIM, I feel more confident than ever in my language abilities 🙂 The V-Day Party was sooo sweet for that… I spoke more Italian that day than ever… and it was really FUN!! It was so sweet to be able to feel like I could communicate (somewhat) with the students there… Praise Him for giving me an increased ability to understand and speak this language!! Would you pray for diligence, though, that I would continue to study/try to speak Italian, even without regular Italian lessons? THANKS!!

FUN!!
February was a great month… I just can’t believe it’s over!!! Some of the highlights from this month include:
**seeing my first movie in the theater in Italy (Slumdog Millionaire… in English with Italian subtitles…)
**getting to hear from our sweet National Leadership in Florence during a leaders’ gathering for a day… I LOVE the hearts of the people I get to follow!!
**bowling as a STINT team together 🙂
**a Valentine’s luncheon for the single ladies in the city
**sweet Valentine’s flowers and notes from our STINT brothers
**spending multiple Sunday afternoons with Jesus and Kanda at the “statue bar”… it’s a SWEET bar that used to be a sculpture school… if you come to Rome, you must go there!!

Here are some photos that document some of the above events:

AGAPE Single Ladies’ Valentine’s Brunch at Debbie’s…
Celebrating how uniquely God loves us on V-Day 🙂
From L to R: Me!, Ella, Kerry, Kanda, April, BethAnn, Debbie

4 STINT Ladies with the BEAUTIFUL Valentine’s Flowers our brothers got us!!
L to R: Me (I don’t do mornings well, can you tell?!?), Kanda, Ella, April

April and I in our Valentine’s Day outifts… complete with new boots :)…with the tulips from our brothers!

THIS is why you have to come to the Statue Bar… this is my capuccino and torta from my date with Jesus (and Kanda… we split that thing :)) one Sunday afternoon. Isn’t it gorgeous?!?

I love you!!
jenny 🙂

Back at it…

Do you ever have those weeks when you look back and wonder, “Wait, where did this week go?!?” That’s how this one feels to me… I just can’t believe it’s Friday already!!

Thanks for praying for Alessandro this week — we started our language lessons again, and spent 6 hours with him over the course of the week… that’s a  lot of Italian for someone who hasn’t really spoken Italian in awhile! But it was good to get my brain back into the groove, especially since I got to meet three new Italian friends this week and am going to see several Italian friends over the weekend!!

THAT is a testimony to God’s grace!! January and February have this reputation in Rome of being “dead time” on campus, because it is an exam period for the students. The system in Rome is really different, and I don’t really understand it, but basically students have 2-4 reaaaaallllllly big and difficult exams over the course of January and February. Apparently, they typically spend almost every waking hour studying for these exams, so they can be hard to get ahold of during these months. So, when I sent out 9 texts earlier this week to some friends, I wasn’t really expecting to hear much… but then 3 of them texted me back!!! That’s a third of those girls… PRAISE HIM!!  So, God IS moving, despite the reputation that January and February have!! Would you pray that students would continue to be willing and available to meet us, despite their busy study schedules??  THANKS!!

I only have a little bit of time before Kerry and I get to go meet with an Italian friend, but here’s a quick photo overview of what my holidays were like in Rome:

On December 13th, we had our Italian friends over to celebrate Christmas!! It was a really fun night of eating Christmas cookies, singing Christmas carols, and talking about why Jesus' birth matters to us... as well as dancing and ridiculousness!!

We spent Christmas Eve at the Vatican, watching Midnight Mass from outisde of St. Peter's Basilica. This is the team infront of the giant Christmas Tree, St. Peter's, and the Nativity Scene.

This is our Piazza... decorated for Christmas!! Note the "Charlie Brown Tree" in the middle 🙂 Check out the bottom of this post for a better view of our Piazza!

Our STINT Christmas Tree!!

The week before Christmas, some of my teammates and I escaped to the mountains in Northern Italy for a few days… This was the view from our balcony!! It was an incredibly refreshing time of being with Jesus and Ella in the mountains 🙂 I also skiied for the first time, which was an adventure! It was a sweet way to spend part of our Christmas break!

To finish, here is a short guided tour of our Piazza that the STINT girls live in…

THANKS for being in this with me!! 🙂

More than learning the language…

Ciao tutti! Sorry for the looong delay in posts. I hope you’re all doing well and had incredible Christmas and New Years’ celebrations! As always, when it’s been awhile since I posted last, I have a hard time getting started because there is just SO much to talk about! So, in order to avoid the overwhelmed, chest-tightening feeling, I’ll tell you all about Christmas time/post pictures soon… but for right now, we’ll just start with Alessandro, our language tutor.

Living in Italy, it soon becomes imperative to be able to speak some Italian. This is a pretty constant tension, since I often want to talk to the cute elderly woman on the bus or the little kid walking down the street, but just can’t since they only speak Italian. Not to mention the time that our shower was “raining” on the apartment below us. THAT would have been a helpful moment to understand what our Italian neighbor was saying…

So, in an attempt to be able to communicate with the sweet people around us, we’re studying Italian! Kerry, Jimmy, Sam, and I met with our tutor, Alessandro, 2/3 days a week from September to December, before we paused for Christmas. During those 3 months, we’ve had the opportunity to build a fun relationship with Alessandro… he probably thinks we’re crazy somedays, but we’ve had a lot of fun moments of laughing together about ridiculous stories or funny linguistic moments. It helps that my 3 language buddies are really fun, too!

Alessandro often asks us questions about our lives, to make us practice speaking the language. And, honestly, that’s the hardest part of learning Italian. I can understand it fairly well, and I can read most sentences and get the gist of them… but SPEAKING Italian?? That’s a whole other ballgame… so, Alessandro will ask us about our childhood, about our favorite vacations, or about important moments in our lives. 

By the grace of God, through these different conversations, all four of us have had the chance to share something about Jesus… just because it makes sense when we’re talking about our life decisions and our job. During the first two months of our language lessons, Alessandro would ask some questions about what we’re doing here, and our conversations have been casually drifting to Jesus!!

One Monday after Thanksgiving, the four of us were talking about how we’re thankful for our relationships with God… and Alessandro insistently asked, “What do you MEAN, your “relationship with God??” In what sense are you talking about??” This question gave us the SWEETEST opportunity to share, in broken Italian, the Gospel message about Jesus’ sacrifice for our sins on the cross that makes it possible for us to live our lives in fellowship with God! We talked about Jesus for about an hour and a half… it was AMAZING!!! And really challenging, in Italian… but SWEET!!

Would you PRAY for Alessandro? We start taking Italian lessons again this Monday, the 5th… would you pray for his heart, that he would continue asking questions, that we would continually have opportunities (and take advantage of them!) to share about our LIVES in Christ? Pray that Alessandro would have the desire to claim Jesus’ sacrifice for his sin, so that he can have that personal relationship with his Creator, too 🙂

Oh, and that same week we also had a really fun cooking lesson with Alessandro, following our last lesson before Christmas. He taught us how to make delicious meatballs! Here are some photos from that:

(From L to R) Sam, Jimmy, Alessandro, and the back of my head... Learning how to cook!

The master chef, Alessandro... also known as our favorite Italian tutor!

The Finished Product -- Delicious Meatballs!!

(From L to R) Alessandro (in his normal seat :)), Sam, Chris, me, and Jimmy with our lunch.

Quick Week Update!

Hi dear friends and faithful readers 🙂

I cannot believe that it’s December 13!! Where is the time going?? In two days, I will be in Rome for 3 months… that is CRAZY!! As always, there are approximately 1.485 million things that I want to tell you all about, but there is neither the time nor attention span for all that. Sorry.

BUT, I have a list of things that I will tell you about really soon… and to get you pumped for those future posts, here is a little taste: God + Italian lessons, that long-awaited apartment video, and a hopping dance/Christmas party with Italians!

For the time being, be encouraged that God is doing sweet things here, even this week!! I spent my week getting more training/encouragement as a leader in Rome (I lead the STINT team and a missional team… maybe more about our structure later :)). My days this week (Monday-Thursday) were spent with amazing followers of Jesus who want to help me grow, both in my relationship with Jesus and also in my leadership skills. One of my favorite parts of these days was being reminded that my hope is not in results or in what I see here, but rests completely in Jesus Christ!!

While I was being developed, my teammates were having an AMAZING week on campus!! My buddy in ministry, Kanda, was busy meeting with students on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. She spent significant time with a different student each day, all three of which are Christians!! These girls are such answers to prayer!! And this week, Kanda had the chance to build into their lives, continuing to encourage them to live their lives for our Savior who is worthy. I am blown away by how God’s working here, raising up disciples of Jesus!!

I was also really encouraged by the amount of relationship-building that took place on campus this week!! I’m not sure if this is good or bad, but 2 different students skipped class to spend time with my teammates this week… relationships are building!! After one of those students spent time with Kerry (a teammate) all day, she texted Kerry that night to say that she had been having a bad day, and spending time with Kerry was just what she needed that day. God is facilitating relationships between our team and Italians!!

I pray that these updates are encouraging to you! I am so proud of my teammates for hitting campus hard this week, and I’m rejoicing with them in what God’s doing in our midst and with us 🙂

praise HIM, from whom all blessing flow…

BONUS Material!! :)

Here is an older video, taken from our first week in our apartment back in September! I’ve been waiting to share this with you all, so you can literally step into our apartment for a minute and enjoy the 4 amazing girls that I live with.

So, here’s a snapshot of our life in September, right after we moved into our apartment. This is our first dinner together in our new apartment, on the dining room floor because we didn’t yet have furniture! Enjoy…

[p.s. Look for a full apartment tour video SOON!! :)]

The More Ridiculous Side.

Everything in my life seems to have some level of ridiculousness. And I like it. Normally.  And since this blog is a step into my life, welcome to the silly post about Thanksgiving!

Here are two ridiculous points of our Thanksgiving Event:

#1. A microwave oven, warming turkey in the bedroom. I mean, why not? The kitchen is kind of small, and we had a LOT of turkey to keep warm! Thus, the ingenious idea of plugging a microwave in by Chris’ desk was born. I love it.

#2. Yans and Sven, the guys’ pet alpine mountain goats. Yans (the bigger one on the left) and Sven (the smaller one to the right) are a great conversation starter and a HUGE hit with our Italian friends. And their names are really fun to say with a German accent. This is a photo of the boys from Thanksgiving day. Even though they are not American (we’re pretty sure they’re from Switzerland), they joined right in with the festivities! I’m sure there will be more photos of Yans and Sven to come…

Thanks for reading this silly post. I’m tired. I apologize for the nonsense. But I miss you all and hope this helps you see into my life a little bit!!

 

The First Thanksgiving…

 … for many of our Italian friends took place on Saturday, November 29th! It was really fun to invite about 55 Italian students into American Thanksgiving Traditions during this Outreach event. Our heart behind this day was to meet new friends, to strengthen existing relationships, and to love on Italians! So, come on into our day of Thanksgiving fun via this brief pictoral overview:

As you can imagine, it is no small feat to cook a Thanksgiving meal for 65 people!

 

 

One of our brilliant event coordinators/chefs, Kanda! (She's GREAT!)

 

Another one of our event coordinators/chefs, April, loves her some sweet potatoes!!

We made SOOOO many mashed potatoes for our Italian friends! Probably too many...

 

 After many hours spent cooking (and maaannny phone calls to figure out how DO you cook a turkey!), we were ready to party! As I mentioned earlier, this was the first Thanksgiving celebration for many of our guests, since Thanksgiving is a thoroughly American holiday!

Near the beginning of the party, we gathered everyone out on the terrace of the boys’ apartment to share the story of Thanksgiving, to share in small groups what we’re thankful for, and to talk about what Agape Italia (Crusade in Italy) is about. It was a sweet building-block in our relationships with these students, some of which we just met within the past few weeks!

 

 

 

Here's a portion of our guests, gathered on the terrace to learn about Thanksgiving and Agape.

 

The living room was PACKED with friends, loading their plates with turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, stuffing, and green bean casserole!

 

 Overall, it was a really fun day of connecting and building relationships. I can’t tell you how many times I was thanked for everything… the food, the pumpkin pie :), the environment. I was honestly exhausted by the end, but God is faithful and I can’t wait to see where He takes these relationships as we continue to puruse these students!

 

The Agape Staff in attendance at our Thanksgiving Outreach, including our friendly, local mountain goat, Yans. CW from back left: Me, Amy, Debbie, Brian Evans (Bevans), Brian McKee (BMac), Yans, April, Kanda, and Jimmy.

 

 

 

 

On Campus!

I really can’t believe that it’s December 2nd already!! It’s simply amazing that we’re nearing the end of this fall term here in Rome, and soon students will be heading home to celebrate Natale (Christmas) with their families…

But before that happens, I really want to get quality time with my student friends! Would you pray that I would be able to connect with students, since this is one of my last full weeks on campus before the holiday? We also want to have a Girls’ Christmas Night with our Italian friends, so would you pray for details in that event? THANKS!! God is faithful, He is moving here!

Here is a little taste of the largest campus here in Rome, at La Sapienza, on this rainy Monday…

“The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” {2 Peter 3:9}

[by the way… coming soon… an update on our Thanksgiving Outreach this past weekend!!! THANKS for praying!!!]

Let the peoples praise you, O God;
let all the peoples praise you!
Psalm 67:5

Il Giorno del Ringraziamento — Uno

{Thanksgiving Day — One}

Thanksgiving proper was a bizarre experience here in Rome, mainly because Italians don’t celebrate this holiday. So, outside of our apartment, it was a normal Thursday here in Rome! Within our apartment, however, we were preparing potatoes and corn for our American celebration. I am so blessed here by our Agape Families!! It was sweet to spend this Thanksgiving with two of the families who live and work here with Crusade, the Pattersons and the Lyles. It was also amazing to split the workload of food prep, seeing as I’ve never made a Thanksgiving dinner by myself before… The Pattersons have 4 amazing boys, ranging in age from 6 to 12. The Lyles also have a 3-year-old little girl. It’s amazing what these kiddos can do for a holiday away from home!! The guys on my team in particular really connect with these 4 boys. They enjoy doing many manly activities together, as you can see from the following video:

(Jimmy, Chris, and Patterson boys love them some Disney Karoake… especially the Cinderella “It’s Magic” song…)

They really are manly men and boys though — they spent Thursday morning playing American football in Circo Massimo 🙂

It was a sweet day of giving thanks and enjoying what God’s given us to celebrate here in Rome — which is a lot… and includes each one of you!! Thank you for being a part of what God’s doing here in Rome!

An incredible meal with amazing friends here in Rome! (You can see all of the fun kiddos at the end of the table...)

First Blog, Two Months In… Catch-Up time??

Wow, my first “real” post… there seems to be this unspoken pressure to make this post really good, since it is my first post in 2 months. Which might be why it’s taken me so long to get around to it… sometimes I don’t appreciate working under pressure. In an attempt to ease my worries, I’ve decided to give you all a quick overview of some highlights from the past 2 months. I wish I could’ve just had each of you in my back pocket this whole time, so you could experience first-hand what life has been like… but this will have to be good enough!!

Ok, here we go… (you can click on the images to make them larger… sorry for the inconvenient format)

Before even leaving the States, our STINT tradition of building human pyramids takes root. Here is one of our first, at Miami University — 3 days before flying to Rome!!

When we first arrived in Rome, the girls’ apartment wasn’t ready yet… so we kept all of our luggage and stuff at the guys!! This is me, sorting through my explosion of belongings in their crazy living room!!

Praise Him, during that crazy moving/settling time, we spent a few days in BEAUTIFUL Tuscany at a conference for us new people… Isn’t it gorgeous?!?

Another shot of the Tuscan wildlife… I like to pretend that I’m artsy.

When we returned from Tuscany, the girls’ apartment was READY!!! The balcony on the third floor is ours… you can see that we’re strategically located above an amazing caffe, Giolitti, which also has gelato and pastries…

April and I are excited to move into our new place!!

Chris and Brian are NOT excited to be riding in the moving van with our fearless driver, Jimmy.

Chris and Jimmy, pulling off an amazing feat… moving three mattresses and an Ikea couch at one time… aren’t they impressive? We’re really grateful for our buff, helpful guys 🙂

The girls made quite a few trips to IKEA those first few weeks… this is the fateful trip in which we got caught in a downpour with our purchases on the way home… memories.

Kanda is my buddy!! We’re on the same missional team, so I get the privilege of living life with her day in and day out… she’s GREAT!

Part of our ministry this fall was our Festa Autunnale! (Autumn Party!) This is a group shot… it’s not that great, but you can see conversations taking place between students… connections!! And you can check out the guy’s amazing terrace while you’re at it…

More Autumn Party fun… we carved pumpkins with our Italian friends!! This is Brian (right, my teammate), with Giovanni and Roberto, two of our friends.

Another pumpkin carving group… Albanian Mira’s on the right (she’s amazing!), with my crazy teammate Kerry holding some pumpkin guts and my mountain-man teammate Jimmy helping.

Another influence on our ministry during the past 2 months is the protests that have been taking place on campus. Students are currently protesting a new law that could privitize their public university and raise their tuition significantly. These “manifestations” have made our days on campus more interesting…

…as many students are involved in the movement against the law. This is a large protest gathering on the library steps at La Sapienza.

Switching gears… in the midst of the craziness on campus, the nine of us STINTers took a quick retreat to Venice… it was BEAUTIFUL!! This is a shot of the grand canal. I love the architecture…

more Venitian beauty!

I love these people… just so you all know, this is what would happen if these 6 people just found out that their cat had 1500 kittens. My favorite is Jimmy’s (orange coat) reaction… I’m so grateful for my team!! God is so nice 🙂

That’s such a super-quick overview… I really wish I could have video-journaled the past two months for you all… well, maybe not all of it. But most of it! It’s been sweet… lots of growth, lots of God-moments, lots of trust and learning, lots of FUN! Thanks for loving me and for walking through this year with me!!