WOW! I am not a good blogger at all! I have not blogged in FOREVER! These last few months have been sort of crazy! With so much traveling going on around Christmas, getting back in the swing of things, and then our midyear conference, time has just slipped away! I can not believe that I have been here for 5 MONTHS already! And still have 5 more to go!
Here are a few highlights since the last time I blogged!
We had a great Christmas! It was definitely hard being away from my family and Rob, but I got to Skype with my family on Christmas Eve! I even got some presents that my family opened for me! Christmas eve, we had everyone over to our house and Jonathan made his grandmother's fried chicken! We had salad with ranch dressing and macaroni and cheese to go with it! It was SO good! A good southern meal, just what we all needed! Christmas morning the roomies and our guest (one from America, and a STINTER from Rome) made pancakes and sat around our den opening stockings and then got ready to go over the to Shoemakers to have lunch with the rest of the team! It was great to be able to spend Christmas all together! We really started to feel like family!
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The Team on Christmas Morning! |
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My family opening my presents for me on Christmas Eve!!! |
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The Boys on Christmas Eve! |
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The Roomies on Christmas Morning! |
We got to go to London on our way to our Mid-Year conference in Spain! Here in Italy it is really cheap to get flights, but the catch is that you have to usually spend the night in different cities to get the best deal, because they don't have connecting flights, so you have to make them yourself. SO...some of us decided that we would go to LONDON! It was so much fun, even though we were there for one day! We met up with some friends we made in Salerno that live there and they showed us around! We got to go on the London Eye (largest ferris wheel in the world) with them for FREE! We had the best time eating fish and chips, speaking English, getting Starbucks, and just walking around the city!
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Valerye, Christina, and I in the Phone Booth! |
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Kept my eyes open just in case we ran into William and Kate! Unfortunately this postcard was my only sighting of them! |
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Lucia and I on the London Eye! Thanks so much for showing us around! |
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All of us in front of Big Ben! |
After we spent one day in London, we headed back to the airport and headed to Nerja, Spain! Let me just say it was BEAUTIFUL! We had the best weather! Sunny everyday! It was a great time to catch up with the other teams all over Eastern Europe, Africa and the Middle East! We got to celebrate with all the other teams with what the Lord is doing in their cities! It was a restful time for our team, and a lot of time to enjoy one another and spend time with the Lord! We had talks in the mornings, in the afternoons we had free time to explore the city and meet with our regional directors, and at night we got to have worship!
My favorite talk was given by our very own Paul Mayer! He is the WSN (Worldwide Student Network) director for the South East! He gave a talk about the Holy Spirit. Our team has been talking a lot about the Holy Spirit lately, and it was so good for us to hear!
How do I know if I am walking in the Spirit?
- Do I feel the joy and vitality of serving God?
- Do I desire to spend time with God through prayer and His inspired word?
- Do my relationships increasingly honor and glorify Christ?
- Am I regularly, faithfully sharing my faith in Christ with non-believers?
- Am I growing in faith and knowledge of God daily?
- Is there evidence of the fruit of the spirit in my life?
- Am I using my spiritual gifts to serve the body of Christ?
There are so many obstacles to being filled with the Spirit. So many things can get in the way like my pride, my attempts to meet my own needs, my worldly desires, my desire for the approval of others, my own lack of faith, my own unconfessed sin.
John 7:37-39- On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water." Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to recieve, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
While the Holy Spirit dwells in me, I do not always allow him to "fill" me up to the point where He is leading my thoughts and actions. I realized that I was missing out on a lot of blessings because I so often live on my own flesh. The Holy Spirit wants to fill us, lead us, and live through us!
I had a lot of time to spend in prayer and asking the Lord for specific things that I don't allow the Holy Spirit do. It was so great to get to fully rest in the Lord, and prepare for these next months as we start back ministry in Salerno.
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Our regional team from the South East were so great and brought us CHICK-FIL-A sandwiches! Might have been the best sandwich I've had in a LONG time, even though it had been frozen and was cold when I ate it! |
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We had a free day and we went to Gibraltar. Where we are right there the mountains on the right are spain and the ones that you can barely see on the left are Africa! |
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In Gibraltar we got to play with some Monkeys! I was so afraid that it was going to go to the bathroom on my head! |
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Haviland (one of the girls on the WSN regional team), Elizabeth and I with the Rock of Gibraltar in the background. |
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Cindy, Tinsley, Missy and I after lunch one day! |
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As you may see, this was made in FAIRHOPE, AL! It was fun to have a little piece of home in Spain! |
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Thanks so much for everything Paul!! |
We are now back in Salerno and getting ready for this next semester! Students are finishing up exams and aren't out much because of the COLD weather! We are having an Italian movie night this Friday and Cindy and I went out to look for the DVD. We found the Chronicles of Narnia fairly quickly, and had some time to kill so we had a little fun in the LOVE piazza!
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Cindy and her excitement for being my Valentine date! |
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My excitement for getting to see my FIANCE and his parents in 23 days!!! |
Please continue to pray for our team and our ministry here in Salerno! School starts back soon, and we will be back in our normal routine! Hopefully I'll be a better blogger and blog again soon!!