Team Member Arrival

So, in about two hours one of our team members, April Houk, is arriving at the airport in Verona. She is travelling with a friend of ours from college. That way she has help travel and baggage. Once she arrives, we will begin guiding her through her first steps in this new culture in which she finds herself living. It will be an adventure for us together!

Newsletter - May 2009

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Newsletter - April 2009

Below is the link to our latest newsletter....
April 2009 Newsletter


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Go here to read past newsletters!

Reality Entices

Now, that we have our pre-departure date set for June 8th, reality is setting in. First off, we know there is lots to do before we leave but so far God has been providing for us a smooth ride. One of the things we are doing is apartment hunting. This has been surprisingly exciting. I mean, I knew that Angie and I would enjoy this, but it has felt great. I am finding that part of myself that burns for Italy growing and growing. The thing is, while we have been living in a state of uncertainty, we could not dream of Verona all the time or it would have consumed us. In order to live in contentment while God was preparing us and our team, we needed to have balance. But now, it is unbridled. Three of the past four nights, I have stayed up very late, so that I could call about apartments in Italy. At 2 in the morning I am reaching them at 9 AM when they open. The other night I worked and called until 6:30 AM! The next night I went to bed at 11:30 PM, hence the one night out of four staying up. Previously, we have planned on picking out an apartment once we arrived in Italy, after gathering possibilities. However, we have been presented with a really good option. At this point we only have a couple more questions and we might proceed to put down a deposit, if they will let us from here in the states. As we put down roots, we create a stability that we have not had since we moved out of our apartment in Ancona in October 2007. This will feel nice. I have been searching in the neighborhoods nearby for stores, pizzerias, churches, coffee shops, restaurants, etc... It has been fun exploring with Google Maps! Hopefully, we'll know soon if we will have an apartment and I can post links on Google Maps.

New Prayer Topics

New Prayer Topics
You’ll start seeing some new prayer topics filtering through our prayer updates. Just write us if you would like to receive our prayer updates, which normally are sent twice per month. Some things you can begin praying about is our visas, apartment search in Verona, team separation and travel.
· Visas – we have to apply for religious worker visas from the Italian consulate in Houston. In order to apply, we have to meet all the requirements that the Italian government has for that particular visa and then compile all the documents that prove so. Then we must present those documents in person in Houston and wait once more while they pour over the application. It is a process that can take as little 7-10 days and as long as three months.
· Apartment Search – Starting next week, I will be contacting our real estate agent in Verona to begin putting together options for us to look at (and pray over). Hopefully, they will be able to send us photos via email so we can better imagine the situation and evaluate each apartments merits’. We plan on making our choice upon arrival in Italy during our first weeklong stay in Verona. Please be praying about this. We want to be where God wants us to be, not just down to the country or city, but the neighborhood, building and specific apartment. We believe that God has just the place in mind for us to do His work and help us to not get in the way of His plans!
· Team Separation – It is one thing to be in separate states within the same country, it is quite another to be a team separated by an ocean with differing roles and functions. Please pray for all of our remaining team members, as they continue advancing during this time of preparation and support building. Pray for us and April upon arrival to not feel lonely without the rest of our team in Verona.
· Travel – During the remaining three months, we have much travel planned. This includes travel to Houston for visa procurement, Louisville, Joplin, Kansas City and other potential sites. We would love to provide a final visit with each of our supporting churches, pray for there to be time and finances enough to allow that.

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.

Newsletter - January 2009

Here is our January 2009 newsletter, which is the first newsletter for 2009. Click above to view it or right click and choose "Save Target As" to download it to your computer. You need Adobe Reader installed to view it.

Newsletter - December 2008

Here is our December 2008 newsletter, which is the fifth newsletter for 2008. Click above to view it or right click and choose "Save Target As" to download it to your computer. You need Adobe Reader installed to view it.

Internal Longing

So, usually while we are in the states, we go through stages of contentment. When we first arrive we are thrilled at everything around us, food, family, culture, etc..... Then in the middle we start evening out and feeling less tempted to see, smell, taste, touch and hear everything. Then our last period of time before returning to the field is spent saying farewell to things and people here while getting exciting abouting getting back to our other "home". Well, about halfway through our time in the states, the longings start. Tonight sitting here on our couch in Tulsa I had one. It was very short, but intense. I imagined streets in Italy that I have walked on and how I longed to be there. I am excited about the prospect of getting back. I am excited about the new team that God is forming. I am excited about what our new team is going to do once we arrive and they go through language school. I am excited about what the Ancona team is doing, as well as the other friends in ministry throughout Italy. I think God allows that longing to lie dormant during the first months of our Home Assignment, or it would make it terribly difficult to be content. In recent weeks we announced that we would be extending our stay in America from the end of June until the end of September. We will be balancing those feelings of contentment and longing a few more months, so that our team can be more fully ready to head to Verona.

Breaking the Silence

Well, we've been back in the states six days shy of one month now. We are just now starting to relax. Five days after returning we headed out to Louisville, Kentucky for the Team Expansion team leader summit. It was a great experience for Angie and I to get to know other Team Leader's and become more prepared as a leader for our Verona team.

After the team leader summit, we stayed in Louisville a few more days going to various meetings with personnel at Team Expansion's home office and visiting our PACE church, Shively Christian Church. One day I got incredibly sick with fever and bronchial congestion but the next day it was gone and we were ready for to leave once more.

We then headed to Cincinnati, Ohio for the National Missionary Convention. We were able to connect with many old friends which is always good and hang out with Team Expansion missionaries as well as others. Our two main goals were find new churches for support and recruit for the Verona team. We spoke with several contacts in churches, but none seem to be able to help financially right now. However, we were able to interview and informally chat with several potential recruits. Many top notch candidates and we are in various stages of development with them. All in all, it was a good trip for us. We left Cincinnati Sunday and got back in Tulsa Monday evening.

The last few days have been spent with family and friends, enjoying the holidays and down time. There have been some negative stressors too, but the good definitely outweighs the bad and God continually supplies what we need in every given moment.

Tomorrow, I am looking forward to a good football game between the Oklahoma Sooners and the Oklahoma State Cowboys....go OU. Then tomorrow night I will be watching the Kansas and Missouri football game. The winner of that game will determine who OU plays, if OU comes out on top versus the Cowboys. Overall it should be a good day for college football.

We'll be working on things next week and then taking some vacation time during December which will combine with the holidays in order to provide us some great refreshment and recharging. We will be start doing presentations in January of 2008, so I will be putting the finishing touches on our promotional materials next month. And now to bed. G'night.

Tomato Juice, Rain and Graphics

So, earlier today it rained. It was a good rain. Not pouring and flooding the streets, but it wasn't sprinkling by any means. The rest of the day it has been cool (in the 60's) with a nice cloudy overcast. I love the rain.....just as long as it doesn't rain all the time!

I have been working on graphics for our new team. Mainly, prayer cards, but it is part of the overall design of our team's promotional materials. What I mean by that is, while I have been working on prayer cards, I have been keeping in mind the banner that I am going to work on next. And while I am working on both of these items, I am imagining/creating the design of our new website, stickers, etc..... But the prayer cards are almost done, just a little tweaking to do after receiving feedback.

Who else likes tomato juice based drinks? I don't drink tomato juice on airplanes anymore because I read that it can affect your stomach and you really don't need to mess with your biological functions and organs anymore than flying already does. But here on the ground, I love em. I just poured me a glass of tomato juice, then sprinkled some pepper, salt and tobasco sauce and finally finished by squirting in some lemon juice. Mmmm good. You should try it some time, although if you have other stomach issues you should leave out the tobasco sauce.

I guess, I need to get back on the graphics. That banner is not going to create itself.

How Does It Feel?

I have been asked the question "how are you feeling?" regarding our transition off of the Ancona team an onto the Verona team. It's a hard thought to formulate. I guess in many ways I feel numb. Not in a "I don't care" kind of numb, but in a I honestly don't feel affected inside. I know the way that I usually process things, means that once we are off of the team and we have returned back to the states, then moved to Verona, it will start to sink in and I will think fondly of the things I miss. If I stopped and thought, I know that I would feel nostalgic now, however, I haven't felt like I have time to stop and think right now. We have been going through this transition for almost eight months now and I have been taking it in little by little, and slowly moving towards this goal.

Before we joined the Team Expansion Italy team, I was working at Hastings Entertainment in Joplin, Missouri while working through college. Hastings, is kind of like a Barnes & Noble meets Blockbuster meets Best Buy (music and software depts only), in other words they had books, videos, video rentals, music and software. When I started there I was a cashier at the front. I remember telling my interviewer that I would be their best salesman. I'm not sure if that was too confident or not, but they did quickly see leadership abilities in me, as well as other character traits that prompted them to promote me as manager of the music department. I was good as a cashier and they saw that I might be good as a manager also. So for the next year and a half, until we heard the Lord's call to Italy, I was the music manager. They even started sending me to other stores to help them boost sales and do inventory. As a cashier and as a manager, I worked for Hastings. In many ways, that is how I see the two situations with the two teams in Italy.

In Ancona, we are part of Taking Christ to Italy, a Team Expansion PACE project (adopted and set in motion by Shively Christian Church, Louisville, KY). In Verona, we will be part of Taking Christ to Italy, the same Team Expansion PACE project. If God were leading us to another country I would be feeling very different I think. But God is leading us to another city, that is part of the same plan that we have been working towards for eight years now. It isn't a step away as much as a step forward in seeing this PACE project fully realized and God's kingdom grown because of it. I think it is because of this that I feel numb. It isn't because I don't love the people here in Ancona, I do. I know that God will add people from Verona to love in my heart. It isn't because I don't cherish the great memories that outweigh the bad memories with our team members here in Ancona. I do and will cherish those memories. I know this isn't the end, not really. I'll miss seeing our Ancona team members on a regular basis, of course, but at least we'll only be 3-4 hours away. We can visit and they can too.

It will also be tough to remove ourselves from a ministry that has seen great momentum in the past couple of years. The book "Good to Great" talks about momentum and how when people usually see momentum it is always after years of great effort and commitment working towards that momentum. I also know that God brings us momentum when we are ready, after he has taken the time to prepare us for what he has coming. This ministry in Ancona is at a good point and I look forward to seeing how God works here in the future. As we make the move, first in thought then in the physical realm, to Verona we have have to start over. Maybe not at square one totally, Angie and I already know much Italy....in any case much much more than when we arrived in Italy in March of 2001. But we do have to start over at learning a city, the people, their needs, the 'slang' for this region. We will start with very few acquaintances, like when we started in Ancona. But it is like a brand new canvas. One that we do not paint upon, but one where we are merely the tools of the Great Artist. Our new team are the brushes and paints, the oils and watercolors. When a master sets out to paint a masterpiece it is on the same blank canvas that anyone else can find. But it is through the particular strokes, colors, artistic talent and images one creates that it becomes a masterpiece. I greatly anticipate the two masterpieces that our Father is painting in Italy, in Ancona and Verona, along with the other cities where there are those that call out His name. I long to see the paintings finished and to see how we were used along the way.

So, how does it feel? I guess numb is only one aspect, the other is anxious. Anxious to see God's masterpieces of his people.

Winding Down

So we are approaching the end of June. Which normally would just be another month passing by, but in this case it is ushering in the end of an era. We are almost in our last month on the Taking Christ to Italy: Go Ancona team. August 1st, we will be officially only on the Taking Christ to Italy: Go Verona team. We will still be living in Ancona and seeing the Ancona team members and Italian friends who live here, but all of our other tasks will relate to the new team and the new city. It is an amazing ride that started eight years and two months ago, in May 1999. We have went through many ups and downs, while experiencing things we never imagined. As I sit and reflect on the past, I get sentimental, thinking of times gone by, dinners with friends (team or nationals), birthday parties together, holidays, etc... But before I get too sad, there is one more holiday coming up and a few birthday parties left. It isn't over yet, so we'll enjoy celebrating the Fourth of July as Americans over here in Italy. We'll relish the next few birthday events. And with our responsibilities for the team and church, we'll finish strong. Not because we'll feel good, but because God wants our best. And our best is what we will strive to give him.