Spring Break madness/magic :)

A tree on Via Pisa in Rome--- check out the new life springing forth in this city! PRAISE JESUS!

At the beginning of March, Alyssa made some soft, warm pretzels for the snack at our missional team meeting! The choices for "dips" in the blue bowls were: melted Velveeta (WOO HOO for yellow cheese! so fun!), melted butter, and a mix of parmesan cheese & oregano. So delicious! I need to learn how to make these! :)

Before Spring Break started, a few people visited a local Middle School (I LOVED THIS!) for "America Day," which the students were celebrating. The students had been studying American History and Culture for a period of time before the "American Day" celebration. The students worked in small groups to present various topics, which included things like: the geography of the U.S.A., a presentation about marshmallows (they don't really have them here!), and the history of the Revolutionary War & the Civil War. Even though I, myself, am American, I for sure learned things from these Italian middle schoolers about my own country that I didn't know before! :)
*WE as American guests were there to do presentations for them about America. Chris did a presentation about American Football; April & Kanda talked about American holidays; and I did a presentation on what High School is like in America. It was SO fun to be a teacher again, even if it was only for a 5-minute presentation. How GOOD of the Lord to grant me a day in a middle school here in Rome! :) :) :)

Okay, this picture seems a little weird, but if you look closely, you can see that on top of the white radiator heater, you can see a silver measuring cup. That measuring cup is full of butter (for making cookies or whatever we were doing at the time)---- and the recipe called for softened butter. If I were more prepared, I would have left it out to get soft, but I didn't. If I were in America and in this predicament, I would have just used the microwave to soften it. But we don't have a microwave here... so we have found ways to be creative. :) Thus-- you can see that we invented a little butter-softening system by placing it on the heater for about 10 minutes. Works GREAT! :) Haha. :)

Another great part about early March-- Sam and Chris came over one night to install KITCHEN CABINETS for us!!!!! WOO HOO!!!!! We had been living in this apartment from September to March with NO kitchen cabinets..... not the biggest deal in the world, but no cabinets with FIVE girls in one apartment kind of makes for a crazy kitchen. PRAISE THE LORD FOR THESE CABINETS!----- THEY ARE A HUGE BLESSING FOR US!! :)

Woo HOO-- Spring break is finally here! Here we're in a piazza in Trastevere (an area of the city next to the Tevere [Tiber] River here in Roma) with dear, sweet friends from Miami! (from L to R: Matt, me, Vince, & April). April & I live here in Rome as interns here, Matt is a 5th year student @ Miami who is really involved with Campus Crusade for Christ there, and Vince is an intern with CCC at Miami. YAY friends. :)

Our missional team of myself, Steve, Alyssa, and Sam was expanded with Miami students and Miami CCC staff! :) Here is a picture of our missional team at dinner on the last week of their spring break week. It was such a fun blessing to be in the mission with these friends!

Connections!! Myself with two very sweet friends from Miami!-----Jenny (my Bible study leader from my senior year at Miami), and Kim (I got the privilege of meeting with her for discipleship last year @ Miami). SO FUN to reconnect with these dear friends. :)

Also-- can I get a what what for students and staff from Ole Miss--- they were here during the 2nd week of Spring Break, and it was great to labor alongside them in this city!

During the 3rd and final week, our outreach was called "Aperitivo di Speranza" -- which means Aperitivo (a time to have appetizers/hang out) of Hope. It was an evening of appetizers which featured things having to do with the Arts that showed HOPE. We made play-dough, had canvases and paints for painting, paper for coloring, and lots of photographs which demonstrated hope. Here, you can see me contributing to the "community painting" that was a large canvas that everyone could paint on throughout the course of the evening. This was a GREAT outreach to do during the 3rd week because a lot of our students were from the Colombia Art School in Chicago-- and they loved it! The sweet friends from Kent State University also were so fun to have during the 3rd week! :)

The finale - The last dinner with our friends from the 3rd week of Spring Break. Jenny & I sit on the left, while you see our friends Matthew, Dan, and Alicia from Chicago. :) What a great group!

Van Wert Reunion, Bowling, and Fabio :)

Boy, where did February go? Here is where some of the end of it went!----

Adam Ries is studying abroad in Italy this semester, and he came to visit Rome one weekend with his classmates. As I saw a strange cell phone number on my cell phone (my Italian cell phone) I figured it was an Italian friend, so I summoned up the courage to speak in Italian and answered my phone in the typical Italian way--- "Pronto!" But instead of an Italian on the other end, it was Adam! Who would have ever thought that two kids from Van Wert would meet up at the Pantheon, walk to Piazza Navona, see the fountains, then walk to Campo di Fiori, eat pizza in an Italian restaurant, and grab some gelato together! It was SO fun to get pizza with someone who knows about Klosterman's and gelato with someone who knows about Rocky Top! Such a great evening of meshing Rome with one of my favorite other cities in the world: Van Wert. :)

On Wednesday (Feb. 25th), the STINTers went to "Bowling Roma" and bowled 2 games.
The best bowler: Kanda, with a total of 289 or so.
The worst bowler: me, of course, with a total score of.... mehhh who's keeping score, anyway? :)

Thursday (Feb. 26th) was our last morning of Italian language lessons with our tutor, Fabio. Brian, April, and I cooked a pasta bolognese lunch for him, complete with oatmeal chocolate chip cookies for dessert. :)

Fabio, Brian, me, and April -- after a lunch of great food and conversation. :) I pray that we can still keep up with Fabio and see him often even though we are done with language lessons. (Even though the last day of school type things always make me sad... let's be real-- it will be so nice not to have to do homework anymore!) :)

Fabio is also connected with a lot of Agape Roma staff (you can see Fabio, April, Brian and I here, along with Steve & Alyssa Dueck & Debbie Iannetti). A couple weeks ago, we had an American food fest with him. :) After hearing about "Kraft dinner" on an episode of South Park a few years ago, he really wanted to try some/didn't know what it was until we showed him a box of Kraft Macaroni & Cheese. So we busted out a couple boxes of the blue stuff that we have stored here from America, along with meatloaf and a cheesy zucchini casserole, and chocolate chip cookies for dessert. SO delicious, and such a FUN time with Fabio!

That's Amore

Ciao friends, and Happy Valentine's Day.

'Tis the season to talk about L - O - V - E. :)

As we all reflect on what it means to love and be loved, let me just encourage myself and you, too, to remember that the Word tells us that God IS love and we are only able to love because He first loved us.

Yesterday, in my Bible study/community life group ("Arco" group), we discussed love, specifically in relation to loving others and here were some passages that were brought to mind:

• 1 John 4:7-21
• Romans 12:9-21
• 1 Corinthians 13
• 2 Corinthians 5:14-15
• Colossians 3:12-15
• Hebrews 3:12-13...19

Specifically, in looking at the passage from 1 John 4... look at verse 18:
"There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love."

• In reading this verse, what comes to YOUR heart?
• What do you think it means to not be fearful in receiving love or loving others?
• How have you experienced punishment and fear in the past?... Do you think these experiences have anything to do with real, true love? Or are they of something else related to sin/junk/not true love?
• What do you think it means to be perfected in love?
• Do you see God's love as perfect and worthy of your trust? Do you see His love for you as something that can cast out or get rid of your fear, and therefore, He can perfect you in His love and truly experience Him more and more?

I know for me, that 1 John is always a challenging book of the Bible for me to process. Whenever I read it, I sometimes think at first, "MAN--- I am totally not living up to this or that... and I can for sure do better at this and that... etc." But then I stop.
I realize that God IS love.. and He LOVES me. I can just relax-- He isn't disappointed with me or frustrated with me. There is nothing I can do to thwart Him or surprise Him or take away His power or who He is. He loves me perfectly and unconditionally, and I can choose to abide in that love, and therefore be FREE to love others.

It is truly a beautiful and complex thing that I try to continuously wrap my brain around every day. But oh, it is worth it.

To be loved and love in return... so deliciously simple, yet so indescribably complex.

I pray for you, as you think about love, that you will choose to abide in HIS great love for you, and experience the joy and freedom you have in that love, to go forth and love others in return.
I ask, too, if you'd please pray for me as Sam, Alyssa, Steve, and I talk about love a lot this upcoming week with our Italian friends--- leading up to an outreach/dinner/gathering we're having on Thursday night--- all about love. I pray it will be a sweet time of connecting with friends and having deep conversations with them about the Sweetest Love we can have and taste and therefore give to others.

Thank you for reading--- I send you lots of LOVE from roma. :)