Sick as a Dog

I have been sick as a dog for over a week now. We arrived in Italy a week and three days ago. I was still recovering from three pulled teeth when I started showing cold symptoms. Those quickly turned to a sinus infection, with bronchitis tempting its way in. After a few days in Ancona, we moved to Verona one week ago on June 12th. Angie and I came down and got the keys to the apartment from our rental agents. We then cleaned some, got some pizza from a nearby pizza by the slice place and proceeded to sleep on air mattresses, the kind you go camping on. The next morning around 6:30 AM we got a call that the movers were looking for our building. They arrived and we started the process of getting everything put into rooms around the house. They used the same method as when they moved us out of our apartment in Ancona, that is they used a ladder with a motorized platform. It raised and lowered, bringing all of our stuff from the ground to our fourth floor apartment balcony. The owner, Pino, was at the top of the ladder getting stuff off. After he and I would remove the boxes/furniture from the platform, he would send it down, I would tell him where stuff went, then he and I would carrying to each room. Every once in awhile I had to head to the bathroom to cough up congestion. As the day went on it got worse and worse. After getting all of our stuff moved in, we just crashed. For the first time in over two years we are in a stable living situation. Between my illnesses and our tiredness, we couldn't do much that day. Angie and I have been doing what we could as the week went on. We didn't even unpack the TV until tonight!!! We just watched some stuff on the computer.

The thing is I don't even remember the last time I was this sick, oh wait....yeah I do, it was in March/April 2001 right after we had arrived in Italy the first time. I had stomach issues, got bronchitis and fell down two slippery marble stairwells landing right on the middle of my back. I think the enemy would love to use my sickness as a way to get us off balance from the start here in Verona. It didn't work when we first arrived in Italy and its not going to work now either.

On that note, I am retreating to bed to rest. In six hours we are getting up so that a plumber can fix a few things that should have been fixed before we moved in. But if that would have happened, we would have never met the man we are going to meet tomorrow. Maybe God has something in store for him.

Contracts and Visas

We got our passports back after expediting their renewal (the expired February 2010 and they needed to expire after September 2010 for the yearlong visas we are requesting. So, last week we made our way to Houston, Texas where the Italian consulate is that has jurisdiction over the state of Oklahoma, among a few others. We had to go in person to present our application and documents. We are requesting a visa for "religious reasons", which is one of the valid reasons listed on the consulate's site. The visas are good for one year, but renewable in Italy, in the form of living permits issued by the main police station of the city you are living in. In our case, Verona. After inspecting all the documents, they told us the visas should be ready in 7-10 days. Not sure if that is literal or "business days". It literal, we could expect them as soon as Friday, May 1st or as late as Monday, May4th. If it is business days, then it would be somewhere between Tuesday, May 5th and Friday, May 8th.

(A building in Houston reflects another much like a Monet painting)

This week, the rental agency sent us the contracts to sign for our apartment in Verona. They also sent the bank information for the international transfers which would need to be done for deposits, first month's rent and agency fees. We did the transfers on Tuesday and emailed them copies of the contract Tuesday as well. We will be mailing the originals this week.

Matt Preaching

Matt Preaching
On Sunday, March 22, I will be preaching at Sandusky Christian Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma. If you desire feel free to join us, the service starts at 10:00 AM. It is on 11th street between Yale and Harvard. I will be preaching on Biblical Leadership – Italian Style. I’ll be sharing some examples from Italian culture and history that illuminate the kind of leadership that God calls us to in the church. Maybe we’ll see you there!!

Pre-Departure Stage Has Begun!

Pre-departure Stage Has Begun
This week we received confirmation from a church that is supplying $4,000 out of the last $5000 that we needed in one time support. Since that is 96% of what were raising in one time support we are moving forward into our pre-departure phase. We are currently shopping for tickets around June 7-10th. That gives almost three months to do everything we need to do before heading back. Several tasks had to wait until we had confirmation, so now we can begin those tasks and in fact have already begun some. Thanks for your prayers, your gifts, your sacrifice and your support as we have gone through this very flexible period of preparation, training and support building. The time has not been wasted and we have been grateful for the extra time with family, friends and an America that we love.
April Houk, who is also ready, will be joining us in Italy about three weeks after we arrive there. Arriving prior to any team members will allow us to set up a more stable environment as they arrive and experience the culture, Italian style. It also allows us to take care of some of our specific legal and logistical tasks and then be allowed to put more focus on April and all subsequent team members that follow.

A Little Bit of Italy

Some of our Italian friends and their family are visiting the US right now. They are members of the church in Ancona. We were able to visit with them last Thursday, September 25. It is the most that we spoke in Italian since we arrived in America. It was very encouraging for Angie and I, because most of it came back very quickly. We conversed and translated for the American host family they were also visiting. We know that God has us in the states for His reasons, however, it was very nice to have this slice of Italy. It added fuel to our already existing fire to return. We look forward to the time in which God has planned for us to return. Check out the smiling faces below.

(Listed from left to right; Angie, Stefano, Emanuele, Matt, Matteo, Sylvia).

Dinner in Sirolo, Italy with Friends

Tonight, Angie and I headed to Sirolo, Italy. It is about a 20-30 minute drive South of Ancona. We went in order to meet some friends of ours for dinner and to spend the evening together. We got to Sirolo, which was a beautiful, cliff-side city, which overlooks the South side of Mount Conero, the mountain that just out into the sea, which is itself South of Ancona. The sun was just setting and it was a very cool evening, especially for August. The wind was lightly blowing through the city square. Angie and I proceeded to walk around the cliff railing and the rest of the townsquare while we waited for our friends to arrive. It was magical.

Once our friends arrived, we sat on a park bench and talked for a little while, then went to the restaurant. They had made reservations, which is normal in Italy, even at regular restaurants and therefore we had a table waiting. It was downstairs, so we went down. As we came down the stairs, we saw that the wall was half open and there was seating out of the balcony. As we sat down, we realized that off of the balcony was a cliffside view of the Adriatic Sea. The sun had already set, so we couldn't see the view, but imagined it to be very beautiful.

We had a great dinner together, then sat around the table for awhile talking. A normal Italian dinner can last for two to three hours, because of the familial socializing. After dinner, we split the check and went for an after dinner walk. Angie, Emanuela and Valeria spoke of womenly things and Luca and I spoke of movies and games of RISK and Axis & Allies. After we stopped at the videoarcade for Luca and Valeria's two young boys to gaze longingly at the teen playing, we went for ice cream, better known in Italy as gelato.

Then we strolled down the street talking with our friends and passing the time. We stopped at a few market stands that were open late, selling purses, mindgames, artwork, etc.... Then we started saying our goodbyes. We thanked them for a wonderful evening and they us. Then we parted ways, and Angie and I made our way to the car. It was a wonderful evening that deepened our friendship.

Cars....Who Needs 'Em? We Do!

It is interesting to note that we don't always realize how much we use cars until they aren't around. A couple weeks ago, I went to pick up our niece at the airport in Rome. When I hit the major Rome traffic, something happened with the car. I had been in snail speed traffic for about forty minutes, when all of a sudden the car died and never restarted. I wasn't sure what to do, but then a emergency tow truck came by, he looked at it and then said I needed to have him tow it to thier garage......it looked bad. I still hadn't picked up our niece, but had no choice but to let him take me and the car to the garage. After the mechanic looked over the engine he delivered the bad news. The engine block had overheated and they wouldn't be able to get me the car for several days. I had to leave it in Rome. I called a friend who lives outside of Rome (about forty minutes from where I was) and he got me and our visitors from the airport. He and his wife provided us with lunch before we took the late afternoon train back to Ancona.

About a week and a half later, we returned to Rome, via train travel, and picked up the car. It is a staggering large amount that three of our churches helped us cover. When supporters rise to our needs it always makes us feel supported, and basically feeling the love of God through his Body. About five minutes after picking up the car, the air conditioner stopped, then I noticed the level of gas was noticeably lower than when I had left it in Rome. Start the conspiracy music......Not only do I think they overcharged me, because I was a foreignor, but I also think maybe they even siphoned my gas and took out my freon for the air conditioner!

We came drove back to Ancona, with the windows down the whole way, reminding me of when I would ride with my Dad in his ol' green pickup truck also with no air conditioner. It wasn't bad, but for a four hour ride it the noise got to you a little. That was about a week ago, today I took it into our mechanic here in Ancona. He thought that they definitely overcharged me too, but agreeing there wasn't much I could do. Hopefully, the air conditioner just needs freon, but I'll find out tomorrow morning. Meanwhile, I am thankful to God for the life He has provided for Angie and myself. Thankful for all the good that we have seen in our lives. And thankful for seeing God's people act.

Expansion of Ministry in Italy

If you only read about us on this blog, then you may not have heard our latest news. Because of some new interest in Italy from potential missionaries, we are going to be leading a new team in a city yet to be chosen in the North. We will be praying, surveying and researching many Italian cities before determining which one God is leading this new team. We are planning to come back to the states in November 2007 to raise awareness and funds, as well as recruit and prepare a new team. Then in May/June of 2008 we hope to return to Italy with the new team and head to the new city.

Until then, we will continue to minister here in Ancona, doing the tasks we have been doing for years and still connecting our relationships to Christ. As we learn about the cities we are studying, I will post items of relevance.

The Day After Christmas...

Here in Italy, the day after Christmas is another holiday. It is St. Stephens Day. You may have heard it as the feast of St. Stephen. Stephen is known as the first martyr for christianity. An interesting one to note, because before his conversion Paul (known then as Saul) stood by and watched as Stephen was stoned to death. You can read more about it here. For us today, it has been a great day of rest. Everything is closed so we can't really do anything. I think some restaurants are open but nothing much else. Angie and I have spent the day relaxing and enjoying the time off from work. Throughout the rest of the week until New Year's Day, we have either days off, vacation time or holidays. We have been looking forward to this for several weeks now. Even last week I was working extra to make sure I didn't have to do anything extra this week. It is good to be refreshed in the Lord. We hope that everyone of our community (friends, readers, family, etc...) has had a wonderful Christmas season and will have a blessed New Year.

Broadening our Horizons

So this past weekend we went to CIY's OnPurpose here in Tulsa. Our entire team was there, so we got to spend quite a bit of time together. That was good. One of the speakers was talking much about God's will. Angie and I were soaking it in. Since we have chosen to follow God's leading to Italy in May, we have expanded our time commitment. We were first asked to consider a one year commitment to this field. Then we found out that language school might be six months in another city! We then decided to expand our commitment to six months for language school and one year in the target city. Next we found out that language school could be eight to nine months, so we said our commitment was for a year and eight to nine months. That lasted about two weeks before we just said our commitment was two years even. We have been functioning under that statement for a little while now. However, this past weekends' discussion of God's will got us asking some questions. "Who is putting the time commitment on this plan, us or God?" We determined that it was us and so we are changing our commitment to the following: We are going to stay in Italy as long as God wants us to stay there. If He leads us to something else, it would need to be with the same direction to which he has led us now. Bottom line is that we want to be where God wants us to be and nowhere else. So I guess that means we will continually evaluate our stay here.

Stepping forward...

Well, our heads are spinning. We went over to Jason and Heather Casey's house to talk to them about Italy. And it looks like we are doing this. I got the application from him today that we have to fill out for the missions organization Team Expansion. They have to approve us before it is official but on our end we are ready to go.