Pictures Finally

Us in Atlanta

Our Plane

1st night in Salerno

Training

Campus

We are here!

We have arrived in Salerno! After leaving at 6pm eastern time from Atlanta on 5/18 and we got to Salerno after taking two planes and a 3 hour bus ride at 5pm the next day.  Salerno is 6 hours ahead so there was about 17 hours of total travel time!  All of our 11 bags got to Salerno okay along with all the students bags which is a total answer to prayer.  We did not have to pay any for extra bags because the 7 other men other than me on the summer project we came with totally served us by checking in one of the bags and being responsible for moving the bags to Salerno. We have been pretty much been settling in since then and do a lot of training with the summer team that the year long interns have been doing.  

We got to witness an outreach that one of the churches that partners with the ministry and the other Christian ministry on campus put on at the hotel the project stays in last night.  Students were not the main focus so there were not many english speakers there for our students for summer project to talk with.  I did get to meet Pastor Antonio who is the other pastor we will work with other than Pastor Dominico.  

Today was our first day on campus.  We got to do about 2 hours of prayer walking as well as learn about where everything is.  One of the things that we do not want neglect this summer is prayer.  We are calling God to act and preparing our hearts for ministry when we pray.  It is a necessary part of ministry.

We have some pictures that we will post at a later time.  We have currently misplaced our camera cord in all our bags!

5 More Days To Italy!!!!

We are counting down the days.  There are 3 full days until we leave Saturday morning and 5 until we leave for Italy.  We are packing, getting bank accounts set up, planning for babies in Italy, trying to finish our New Testament Survey class, and trying to adequately spend time with all our family.  Between those things and all the ones in between, we are busy.  There is so much you have to think about before you leave the country, let alone move to another one. 

We have been eating at a lot of places that we really like that we will not get to eat in Italy.  I am a huge fan of Pei Wei so we got to eat there with my family a few weeks ago.  We have gotten our share of Five Guys Burgers and Fries and Jason's Deli's Ranchero Wrap with no jalapenos of course, right Amanda ;).  The one that got me was Jeremiah's Italian Ice.  Its only in Orlando area.  The "gelato" they have is good, but it knocks the real gelato of Italy.  I like Jeremiah's but does not compare to the real gelato of Italy.  Amanda is going to miss it though.  She will just have to get used to the real thing;)

There has been errand nightmares.  When I say errand nightmares it means store clerks not knowing what the heck they need to do.  I had to go back to a T-mobile store because the store's way of switching from post-paid cell phone plan(regular) to pre-paid(pay as you go) was different than customer service.  After much arguing they took back my extra SIM card that I bought :).  RadioShack is supposed to know everything about everything and help you buy the right product.  I found that was not true when I bought a European Power Adapter.  As soon as I got home, I found it does not work in Italy!  We bought the right ones online, but had to take the other ones back.

We found out that our financial support goal is going to go up by 10% so our goal is going to be about $8300 give or take.  That in some ways has been hard to take because as soon as we reached 100% we have to raise more for the new Walton.  In a lot of ways, we trust that the Lord has brought us this far, He is going to do the rest.  In a few others, thats easier said than done.  We are just ready to do what we have said we want to do for the last 8-9 months.  In a lot of ways we feel like we are starting the first day of school going to Italy.  We feel excited to go but there is a lot of nervousness about everything working out and about doing ministry. I am learning daily to give everything over to the Lord, everyday.  Well, need to go and pack some more suitcases.  I look forward to keep you updated.