How Things Are Going

So, we have not last night, but the night before. Our entire trip has gone really smooth. So much smoother than previous years. Marcus, Emanuela and Ugo met us at the airport and helped us with luggage. Ugo's van carried all our bags and we took most of them to our storage unit, since we move to Verona this Friday. All of our stuff in storage seemed in fine condition. No mold, no dirt. Great! Yesterday, we met our landlord from our storage unit and picked up our car. He had a nearby mechanic do a full onceover, filling fluids and tires, etc... He also changed out most of the filters, which he showed me were a mess. Then we went to check on our car insurance. Our agent wasn't there, but we talked to him and said we could pick up the paperwork today. After that we went out and got new phone numbers for our phones. In the mall, we sat and had a cappucino and some Italian breakfast. Once done, we took off to the pet store to get a few things for Brinkley (check out his blog here). He has been great!! Not barking when we have left him and getting on his regular routine of food and sleep patterns. The funny thing is, as I was writing that last sentence, he let out a loud bark from the other room! After the pet store, we went by the post office and Angie went in to pick up the packets we have to fill out to apply for legal living permits. We have to do that within our first eight days.

Anyway, last night we headed to dinner with several of our friends, Valeria, Luca and two of their kids, Emanuela and her boyfriend, Luca, Daniel and Simona, Maurizio and his girlfriend, Antonetta, Novella and Giulia, Marcus and Kyle (both on the Ancona team). It was a great evening of dinner, laughter and reminiscing. Maurizio's eyes bulged with excitement when I told him OU was listed in the preseason top five and that he was welcome to come visit us in Verona to watch some of the games and have barbecue! He came over many Saturdays here in Ancona and grew to love American Football. He is looking forward to coming.

Really, the only downside to everything has been my health! It's crazy. Because I had three teeth removed last week, I have been dealing with pain and headaches. The oral surgeons' office insisted that the pain would be better next week. Also, apparently, I slept with my right foot in a funny position on the middle and longest flight. It felt like I had a huge internal bruise. For the past two days, I have been practically limping at times. It is feeling much better this morning. The last thing is my reoccuring bronchitis. It is showing its ugly head once more. I can feel it down in my chest and I am having difficulty getting it out. I am praying for it to keep from getting infected and just getting through it. We have a full day ahead for our last full day in Ancona. We make the move to Verona tomorrow.

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).

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.

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.