The new Rays

One of our first activities we did, once we got to Tampa, was to go to a Rays game against the Minnesota Twins.  We always try to do at least one fun, non-support related event a week so that we do not go crazy.  The first inning was littered with scoring with 8 runs scored by both teams including a fly ball that landed one seat over and two and half rows up into an old lady's lap.  I was not on my 'A' game since it was just the 1st inning and did not go over there and snag it since there were open seats and I could have.  The Rays ended up blowing the game in the 9th after they were up two runs and all they needed was three outs.  This was my third Rays game in their 11 years and I thought I was watching the Rays of old who only won 70 games in a season once in their previous ten years.  I would say the other crazy surprise of the game was an older gentlemen in the section over from us received a baseball to the top of the head after it bounced off the upper deck but he was okay.  Thats it for the sport report, back to support raising!  Enjoy the pictures!  

Keep On Keeping On

We are nearing the end of our 8th week. Support is going well, we are on pace to reach our goal still, but we are starting to get more one time gifts than monthly which could be a problem later on. I am learning when trusting God for things that current circumstances do not mean a thing, Chicken wing. Sorry had to do that. Anything could happen the next day or the next week, so what is happening now is something you kinda just put in the back of your head and look on. We attended our small group bible study last night. We are just starting a new series that we are going to attend when we can but we are going to be starting to be all over the place. We just had dinner and did an introduction to the book and I was encouraged and so was Amanda. We absolutely loved being a part of it last spring before it had a summer intermission. We both love being around people who like going deeper into each others' lives and the fact their are people that are from different stages of life. I wish we had a picture of everyone to share.

We are heading out to Tampa to make our first 2-3 week excursion on the 18th. At first I was okay and ready to go. Then, I got really frustrated because some things were not working out as I had hoped and now I am doing well again. This situation is just another one of the circumstances where I knew God was working because people were praying. 

I felt like I was always on the side growing up as the one praying for people as they are in difficult situations, but now as the one prayed for, I know it makes a difference in our everyday lives. It is really hard to explain, but I can actually feel my faith being affected. For instance, stuff kinda turned around about the Tampa thing Tuesday night. I realized it today that our church had a quarterly prayer night that we could not attend that without a shadow of a doubt we were being prayed for there. Thanks to everyone who is praying, keep doing it!! Let me know what your prayer needs also because the primary people I am praying for are people I am talking to and that are excited about our ministry.

Check out these videos

I just wanted to take a minute to highlight two links to video clips that are now available on our blog.  If you look over on the right side of the page, under the links section you will see 3 things listed.  The first is a link to setup an online gift.  The next two are video clipping about the ministry in Italy.  The first one, The Condition of Italy, was made by a former UCF student and now professional video producer/editor/guy.  It talks all about the spiritual climate of Italians, especially among young people.  If you want to know more about why we are going to Italy, this is a great place to start.  The second video, Marko Rosetti's Testimony, is the impact that the ministry has had on the life of one man.  Marko has had the opportunity to meet many of the students and staff that Campus Crusade has sent to Salerno over the past four years.  His family owns the hotel where many of the short term students had stayed.  By just seeing the lives of Christians in fellowship with one another, and through many intentional conversations over the years, Marko has come into a personal relationship with Christ.  It is powerful to see and to hear the words come from a man who has been impacted by the ministry.  Both of these videos are a great glimpse of what gets us excited about the ministry in Salerno.  Enjoy!

Meet more of the team

In addition to the long-term team, there is also a group of interns that are making a ten month commitment to live and work on the campus in Salerno. They recently attended a briefing in Colorado for all of the teams of interns being sent all over the world. Most of them are recent college graduates although two of them are returning for a second year of interning in Salerno. You will also see Jutty and Abbey (and Bryce and Addison) and Amanda Craig in the picture as well. Since they are supervising the intern team, they also attended the summit. All of the interns are leaving for Salerno next week so please keep them in your prayers as they are making some last minute preparations and saying goodbye to lots of friends and family.

Post Fay

The Tropical Storm is finally over!!!! I have to eat my words a little about getting a little bit of rain because some places around here got about 2 feet in like 4 days. Things were a little dreary with us not seeing the sun from when it went down last Sunday night until this past Friday and us not having many appointments. God did provide Amanda with two part time steady jobs which is a total answer to prayer!!!! We are focusing on this week and things are already 10 times better than last week with much more appointments and no storm. We also are looking forward to this weekend with Josh and Cheree's wedding this weekend, as I am a groomsman. Just a little update...thanks everyone for their prayers!

<--Josh and Cheree

Tropical Storm Fay and the storm we call our lives

Ahhhhh......Hurricane....no tropical storm....headed for Tampa....no headed for us...nope headed for Fort Pierce and we have some rain. I love when this happens and it always does. The storm changes direction and the weathermen are not really predicting where the storm is going but are really more like announcers in telling us what is happening. No one knows what LeBron James is going to do before he does it so why should we know what God's wonder of the hurricane is going to do?

Anyway enough of that because I can go on and on. Amanda and I are still going strong. Appointments have gone down a little this week but the Lord is still good! We are at about 23% of committed monthly support! We are still learning how to work together, we know how to be married as two working professionals, but not as two missionaries on one car and with one computer. This season of our lives has definitely pushed us closer together making us rely more on each other than we were relying on each other before. There are so many things that both of us have a say in and have to work together at them like never before. In staying with storms, we can call our lives a storm sometimes. With all the crazy stuff that happens in everyone's life one can be drowned by the rain, tossed by the waves or "storm surge" and blown about by the winds and feel like things are not fair. In Matthew 8:23-27, Jesus calms the storm when all the disciples were afraid in the boat. What gets me about this story is that Jesus was asleep when the storm was going, He was already calm before He calmed the storm. It does not matter how large the storm, He is more powerful than any of it! We can trust that even though storms come, Jesus will calm them. His disciples did not have faith, He called them out for it and still calmed the storm. We can trust Jesus to calm the Tropical Storm Fays of our lives!

Meet the team

We thought that we would introduce you to the rest of our team so that you can put some faces with the names. So here they are...

First, this is Jutty and Abbey Valiquette. Jutty is going to be co-leading our team. In the picture are their two children, Bryce, on the right, who is 16 months old, and Addison, on the left who 4 months old now. They are leaving for Salerno very soon so please be praying for their travel. It could be pretty tricky with the two kids. Here's a link to Jutty and Abbey's webpage if you'd like to check it out: www.justinandabbey.com





Next we have Amanda Craig. (Yes, that's right, 2 Amanda's on a team of 7 people, I can't explain it). She is co-leading the team with Jutty. Amanda has been living in Italy for most of the past few years. She's been in Orlando this summer raising support and receiving some more training, so we've had a chance to get to know her a little bit which has been a blessing.








And finally we have Bentley and Sarah Love Crawford. They both attended Ole Miss and interned there with Campus Crusade for the past year. Before that, Sarah Love spent a year moving on the campus in Salerno. We got to know them this summer too during New Staff Training. They are both very friendly and certainly have that southern style to them, if you know what I mean.













So this is them! These are the people that we are going to be ministering with for the next few years. We are so excited to be there. Just working on this post has reminded me (Amanda) of how much we want to be there soon. Jutty and Abbey are leaving in the next week and Amanda is leaving a few weeks after that. Bentley and Sarah Love are still raising support like us so they don't know when they are leaving yet either. I can't wait for the day that we are all there together. I know God will do it, all of it in His timing.