Praying for Oaks in Rome: Nuovo Inizio in Tuscany :)

Ciao ciao ciao!!
We are finally here! :)

Nuovo Inizio ("noo oh voh een-eets-ee-oh"), means "new start" or "new beginning," and that's exactly what it has felt like for the past week-ish, as I've moved to Italy.

I feel like I have so many stories to tell, so much to say, but it kind of overwhelms me to try to fit it all into words. SO - I added a ton of pictures, because the old expression says, "A picture is worth 1000 words" --- so I pray with all my heart that you'll be able to enjoy seeing the sights of the Tuscan countryside and experience a little of what I did this past 3 days.

We got into Rome on Monday, 9/15, and throughout that first week, we worked on a lot of administrative & "settling in" details.

On Sunday 9/21, my teammates & I boarded a train for the countryside in Tuscany. We got to the "Fattoria" (Italian for "farm"), and spent then till today (Wednesday), with new staff members for Agape Italia in all different cities around Italy. Some of the National Staff members were there, and it was so great to meet them and other missionaries in different cities to share how the Lord has brought us together, to move to Italy, to share the love and hope of Jesus with these beautiful people.

PLEASE feel free to email me if you want more stories or more details--- I'd love to answer any and all of the questions you have--- I just feel weird about writing all of you a novel for right now. I'll get better at this whole blogging thing as I continually work on processing this whole transition, and trying to be a much more concise writer. :)

I'll leave you with a quote, and then my pictures --- again, please email me if you'd like to chat further. With much love, Ella :)

A 08-09 Rome STINT team tradition: The Piramide. :)

My lovely teammates! Front row: Kanda, Jenny, Kerry, April.
Back row: Jimmy, Sam, Ella, Chris, Brian

Look at this cute little mister with whiskers! :) Some of us called him "Shadow," and others, "Spooky," but either way, this friendly barn cat was our friend all week long. :) Here is Jimmy showing much love to our precious little friend. :)

The cook for the entire conference (Barbara), agreed to stay a whole hour after her shift was supposed to be over, to help us learn how to make a few Tuscan dishes. She taught us how to make a traditional Tuscan lasagna-- not with the Bolognese meat sauce, but with the Tuscan meat sauce (Tuscans use Olive Oil, not butter... because Tuscany is in the South of Italy where the Olive trees are plentiful-- where they aren't in the North so the people of Bologna use butter in their meat sauce.) Anyway, this woman was a sweet friend and I couldn't understand much of what she said (as she spoke in all Italian), but she did show us how to make a great Lasagna, as well as a spaghetti dish and a steak dish. Delicious! :)