From Coast to Coast!

A few weeks ago Nunzia, my roommate Elizabeth, and I went on a Giro d' Italia (Tour of Italy)! The purpose of this trip was for Nunzia to be encouraged by other Italian believers, and for her to see what the Lord is doing throughout Italy!

We left Salerno and got to Rome around lunch and headed to the Rome STINT girls' apartment. After dropping our stuff off, we then headed out for lunch to this fun little restaurant that was around the corner from their apartment.

Nunzia and I on the train to Rome! 

Lunch in Roma!

 After that we went to get coffee with one of the STINT girls in Rome and her friend Virgina. It was so fun to talk to them and hear their stories! I can say that it was so encouraging for me to see their love for the Lord!

The Trevi Fountain

The Pantheon

 After that we went to see the Fontana di Trevi (trevi fountain) and the Pantheon and of course gelato from Gioliti! For those of you that I haven't told, Gioliti serves the greatest gelato on the planet.....literally.  If you ever find yourself in Rome, please go there.  

We made it an early night, because we got up early the next morning and took the train to Florence.  Once there, we all went to an Evangelical church that a lot of the Agape (Italian Crusade) staff that lives in Florence attends. It was so much fun to hear songs that we knew in English translated into Italian and seeing so many Italians worshiping the Lord together! I didn't understand much of the sermon (still working on the language after 9 months!!!), but Nunzia, who is a believer, said it was great! We loved it and it was so fun to get to experience that with her! After church, Nunzia and I went and grabbed lunch at this little cafe, then headed back to the National Office to hang out with  another Staff member of Agape. We listened to her story of how she came to know the Lord, and how the Lord is using her in Florence. Again, it was nothing but encouragement to us to see what the Lord is doing throughout all of Italy! After our visit with her, we spent some time touring Florence! We went to see the Ponte Vecchio and the Duomo, which is THE church in Florence! 

In front of the Duomo in Florence

We walked around the world famous leather market and even stopped in a few stores (don't tell Rob!!!)! I even tried on a wedding dress! It was so fun! 

Elizabeth, Nunzia, and Me in Florence

My Wedding Dress! Haha!

We grabbed some food to make for dinner at the National Office and headed back to take it easy. The next morning we headed up to Bologna! We got to Bologna just in time to make it to staff meeting with the team there! It was fun to see what other staff teams are doing and what all the Lord is teaching them. After the meeting, we went to lunch with their team and some of their Italian friends and then went to campus! We split up and went to share with some of the students there using this tool called Solarium. It is a set of pictures that you either lay out or let someone look through and ask them questions about how they relate to the pictures.  The pictures may be of a sunset, some glasses, melting snow man, etc.  I know, I know, sounds funny at first but all of the pictures are designed to allow for some great follow up questions about their faith and relationship with the Lord. After campus we went to the Marcos' home (our wonderful hosts) and just hung out with them for a while.  

Bologna! (one of my new favorite cities in Italy)

The next morning we got up early and spent a little time in Venice.  I have to say it is a really cool city and Elizabeth and Nunzia had never been! We were sad though because it was raining, but we were determined to make the best of it! 

Trying to decide if we wanted to buy a sweatshirt because it was so cold! We went with the scarf instead! 

On top of a bell tower that overlooked the entire city! It was so pretty, but WINDY!! 

 We got to Venice and hopped on their metro (which are boats) that take you around the city! We were going to St. Marco's Square, which is a big piazza that you must see if you are ever there! Right as we were docking, the sun came out! It was windy and cold, but turned out to be a beautiful day! We had the best time walking around the city and just spending time together! 

We wanted to ride a Gondola, but went with just taking a picture with the the rower instead!

Tired after a long fun day!!

We made our way back to the train station and headed home to a delicious meal cooked by the Stint girls! Nunzia was really encouraged and was confirmed through the trip in her conviction to follow the Lord's call into ministry! We had the best time on our trip, and it really was so great to see what the Lord is doing all over Italy!

Happy Birthday Rob!!!

Happy Birthday Boo!

I hope that you have had a wonderful day! I wish I was there with you to share those GEORGETOWN CUPCAKES with you! 

I just want you to know how thankful I am for you, and all that you mean to me! Your love for the Lord is nothing but contagious and is such and encouragement to me every single day! I can't wait to spend the rest of my life by your side! 

Since it is your 23rd birthday, I will stick with the theme of 23 reasons why I love you!

1. Your love for the Lord

2. Your laugh

3. That you put up with my stankiness

4. That even when you are down, you still always encourage me

5. Your diligence

6. I love that I can talk to you about absolutely anything

7. Your not weirded out by my CHS (Clammy Hand Syndrome)

8. You love me sacrificially

9. You always point me back to the Gospel

10. Your beard

11. You answer my phone calls at any hour, even when it is 5:30 in the morning

12. That you flew over to Italy twice to see me

13. Your dancing skills

14. How you think through everything

15. You are going to be an amazing dad and husband

16. You always will eat what I cook, even if it is not good

17. I love it when you say "Jeanie"

18. When you watch "my movies"

19. Your smile

20. Your love for your family and mine

21. Our dates (even the Skype ones)

22. Your honesty

23. That you chose me to spend the rest of your life with me!

I love you and miss you so much but can't wait to see you in 24 days!!!

Buon Cumpleanno Mama!!

 Happy Birthday Mom!!

I hope that you have a great day! I am sad that I am not there to celebrate this day with you! There are a million reasons why I love you but here are 10 reasons why!!

1. Your love for our family
2. You made me always clean my room (I see why I need to now that I am about to be a married woman)
3. A GREAT COOK
4. Helping me plan a wedding from overseas
5. Your gift of hospitality
6. Knowing how to encourage me when I am down
7. When you get "tickled" at something funny
8. For helping write that paper in High School because I waited till midnight to start it
9. Your love for the Lord
10. For praying for me

I love you so much more than you will ever know and want to thank you for everything! I hope that you have a great day! I love you and miss you and can't wait to see you in less than 40 days!!

Happy Birthday Sister!!!

Happy Birthday Sister!!!!

 I love you and miss you so much!!

I hope that you have a great day!!

I can not tell you how much you mean to me! I can't wait to be home in less than 2 months and hang out all the time!! I love you and miss you!!!

Happy Belated Valentine's Day!

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!

The Team on Christmas Morning!

My family opening my presents for me on Christmas Eve!!!

The Boys on Christmas Eve!

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!

Valerye, Christina, and I in the Phone Booth! 

Kept my eyes open just in case we ran into William and Kate! Unfortunately this postcard was my only sighting of them! 

Lucia and I on the London Eye! Thanks so much for showing us around!

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.

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!

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!

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!

Haviland (one of the girls on the WSN regional team), Elizabeth and I with the Rock of Gibraltar in the background.

Cindy, Tinsley, Missy and I after lunch one day!

As you may see, this was made in FAIRHOPE, AL! It was fun to have a little piece of home in Spain!

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!

Cindy and her excitement for being my Valentine date!

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!!