The First Week is Finished!

Wow its hard to believe we just finished our first full week here in Roma! This week our missional team "Curlz" spent time at the university Tor Vergata. We were at the campus of Literature and Philosophy which is just outside the city. On Monday my action group and I met a few girls who were having lunch on the lawn. They were really nice and super friendly. We met them a few times each day to say hi and chat a little but they werent very interested in spiritual things. However on Wednesday Kate, Brittany, Jenny, and Kanda met some other girls who ended up meeting us last night in the Center for Gellato. We are looking forward to seeing them again this next week and getting to know them better.

Please pray for us to be able to share the gospel with them and that the Lord would capture their hearts.

Please pray for the language barrier to be broken as well as we seek to learn more Italian and as we come to meet more Italians!

Ciao Bella!
Hope

Above is one of the cafe's we go to for breakfast and time with the Lord.

And the Metra- there is a ton of graffiti everywhere.

Our Missional Team in Roma..We Love our Gelato!!!
(Ty, Hope Mike, Kate, Brittany, Jenny and Kelly)



Here we are at Il Colesseo!

Hope and her action group (Kelly, Kate and Brittany.

Il Colesseo (Colessium)

First week fully on campus

Ciao!
Hope and I have been teamed up with a few of our students to join the missional team at "Tor Regada" and have had fun getting to know Italian students and build relationships with them. We are hoping to grab tiramisu with many of them this Thursday night and talk with them more about spiritual things so be praying for them. Ty, the student I have the priveledge of discipling this summer, and I went on to La Sapienza with a longterm intern here, Brian. We met up with Federico, a student from Venice that he has known for 4 months and is really close to starting a relationship with Christ. Like many Italian students, he is agnostic. We were talking today and was asking me questions about who the Holy Spirit was and what He was doing in my life. Afterwards he stated, "I want to experience the Holy Spirit!" He is so close to making this decision to follow Christ so please pray for him. Gotta run and meet some students for dinner...

Arrivederce-mike

Ciao!

Ciao Friends!
We are here in Roma and are loving it so far! Last night I met with my action group for the first time. It consists of three women, Kate, Brittany and Kelly, and myself. We went to a seafood place. It was adorable and very Italian. It was the first time I have ever tried squid and octopus and clams. The squid and octopus werent too bad in the seafood salad but I didnt like to clams. Two of the girls got a pasta dish with crawfish in it. Their faces when they got their meals where hilarious. Over all I liked the place but I am not sure we will be going back!

Today is a free day and Michael and I are going to try to meet up with two Italian students we met yesterday to go to a park. Please pray for them- Marianna and Andre that they would want to meet and that we would begin to build a relationship with them as well as have opportunities to share the gospel!

Thanks for all your prayers!
Ciao!
Hope

We are here!

We got in a couple days ago and are getting oriented to the culture. So far we have eaten lots of pizza, pasta and kabobs. Hope and I came with a team of 23 with students from Miami of Ohio, UVA, Purdue, Clemson, Rio Grande, Cleveland State, Lubbock Christian, and Madison from Harper College. Today was our first time on campus interacting with Italian students. They are so relational and want to hear more about this Jesus. Over half the students are either hostile or indifferent towards God and it is very different than one would think being the launching point for Christianity. We are excited to build relationships and see the gospel change lives here. Gotta run but we will write again soon!-mike

T- 24 Hours to Briefing

Wow! We leave for Rome briefing in less than 24 hours! Today was a whirlwind as I look back on it. It began at 9:00AM this morning at Millinium Park for the Aruna 5K hosted by my Cornerstone students. There were about a dozen South Asian American Students who participated by raising/ donation money and running/walking the 5K. The students raised over $500 for an orgainization in Mumbai, India! It was a blast to see them complete it.

After that I met up with two girls who are going to Rome with us, Carrie-Lynn and Carmen, as well as the two girls who are staying in our home this summer, Emily and Ashley. The five of us went to the South Loop shopping area to get some last minute things for Rome and groceries :)

The afternoon followed quickly with cleaning and laundry and then to top it off we all had dinner together- Deep Dish Pizza from the best pizza in town, The Art of Pizza.

I think we will be ready to go come Sunday at 4:00PM. I am starting to get really excited!!!

Counting the days

It was a beautiful day today! Earlier Hope helped me get my fish tank ready for being gone for 6ish weeks and now I'm sitting out on our porch watching the El roar by while I write emails and work on talk. It's wild to think we leave in less than a week and about all that will happen Lord willing before then. I hope you are having a great day! You can follow our blogs as well on my facebook profile as well so feel free to stop by and let me know how you are doing! Well that's all for now. My dad flew in town to see my sister's baby and celebrate our birthdays so we're heading out!
ciao-mike

Roma

We leave in a week! Hope and I are excited to give this site a makeover in preparation for updating you frequently about what the Lord is doing this summer.

One praise so far this week is that one of our students, Madison, who has had difficulties raising support, has seen $2000 pledged in the last couple days and only has $2200 left to raise by next week so please continue to keep her in your prayers.

More updates to come!...