Cravings of Pizza

So, when we are in the states Angie and I are usually enjoying the many foods that we miss when we are in Italy. And we have been. However, tonight I was watching a show about Italy on the travel channel.....then they showed pizza! Oh man it hit me all of a sudden, the flavors, the types (thin restaurant and thicker pizza by the slice) and of course the simplicity of it. Wow, is my mouth watering.

Newsletter - January 2008

Here is our January 2008 newsletter. Click above to view it or right click and choose "Save Target As" to download it to your computer. You need Adobe Reader installed to view it.

Perspectives

So, last night Angie and I went to our first night of a semester long class called "Perspectives". We are taking it to broaden our understanding of missions in order to be better leaders for the Verona team. We were in a room full of people from several denominations in a classroom at First Christian Church in Owasso, Oklahoma. It is a three hour class, every Wednesday night for several months. If the first night was any indication, it is going to be a great class. It feels like it is not only going to make me a better leader, but understand the heart of God better too! As we go to classes, I may try to post something here or there. As for last night, some verses that stood out were Genesis 12:1-3. They were verses that we grew attached to as we sought the city that God was sending us to and we talked about those verses last night. Then tonight at a small group of one of our supporting churches, Edmond Christian Church, we talked about those verses again. Is God trying to tell us something? Affirm something to us? If you get a chance read those verses and ask God what he wants to tell you through them. And also if you want to be challenged in your faith, check out "Perspectives". So far, so great. I'll let you know more as we go along.

If You Watch LOST

There is a great new promo trailer for LOST, which starts January 31st! You can check it out here...

http://www.tvweek.com/blogs/james-hibberd/2007/12/abcs_new_lost_trailer.php

I am getting excited about the return of one of my favorite shows.

I'm Vexed

So, I realized something tonight.....I am having difficulty allowing myself to feel comfortable in our new apartment. Don't get me wrong, I love it. Angie and I have already made it feel more like home. Friends and family have already come over and helped us make some great memories. Friends and family have also loaned us stuff to furnish the home, which is greatly appreciated. But the problem is this.....since we moved out of our apartment in Ancona, we have stayed in approximately eight different bedrooms in seven different places. Some of those were hotels, some were by the hospitality of friends or family, yet none were for very long.

We moved out of our apartment on October 23, which is about eight weeks ago. That means we have stayed in as many bedrooms as weeks since moving out of our apartment. That means we have had very little stability. That means my mind has gotten more accustomed to staying briefly in places, than for lengthier periods. And that has created a habit. Now, a couple weeks into our new home, I am realizing the difficulty in letting myself relax. We will be in this apartment six months. It's okay for me to let my hair down.....even thought my hair is short. I don't have to pack up all of my belongings tomorrow, next week or even next month. We can put down some roots. I have met a couple neighbors, "D" and Steve. Seem like two nice enough guys. I want to allow God the opportunity to refresh us while we are here in the states. I want to relax in the Lord. Will I feel that feeling of relaxation? I think so. But I wonder, when that will happen. Will I wake up one morning two months from now, and realize it happened slowly and I missed the transition? My Lord knows. My job is to be content. We don't know the future. We can't trust in the things of this earth. What is a home, but shelter that God has provided. Hasn't He always provided everything for us? Hasn't He always taken care of us in every situation no matter how grim it appeared to be? Yes, yes a thousand times yes. Now, I just need to reconcile my heart and my mind.

Ice Storm in Tulsa

So, we had only been in our new apartment in Tulsa for a week, when a major ice storm hit. It has been pretty bad, with up to half of the Tulsa residents being without power for one to three days. We have been very fortunate that our lone apartment complex has managed to keep its power on throughout the entire process. Our apartment has only had a few blinks off and on of our electricity and internet, other than that it has been great. Angie's sister, Mary Ann, and her two kids have been staying with us, while her husband, David, has been getting extra time making sure cable stays on for the homes that have electricity (he works for Cox Cable). My parents, and one brother lost their electric, so they went over to my other brothers house and he has two fireplaces....which ended up coming in handy since his electric finally went off today. At Wal-Mart today (my first journey out for two days) I picked up some more items in case the electric still does go off, like three cans of self-heating soup, a bag of beef jerky, several candles and heat bags, that once popped will provide small amounts of heat for 10-24 hours (depending on which bag you use). At Wal-Mart several of the food shelves were low or completely empty....my cashier has not had electric since Sunday. It's bad, but hopefully getting better. Here are some pictures.

Check out the thickness of the ice on these branches (above and below)!

Below you can see one of the many trees that fell in our complex...this one just happened to fall on one of the townhouses...ouch.
Below you can see the icicle beard along the truck we have been driving.

You wouldn't want one of these icicles to fall on your head.
This was the hot dog section at Wal-Mart (for all those using fireplaces and outdoor grills for cooking, I imagine).

The section below looks like it was part of the dairy section. Not sure if this was because it was shopped over, or because it went bad when Wal-Mart lost electricity.

And here you can see the empty pizza shelves, with one lone DiGiorno pizza left behind. There were more around the corner, but this sight was pretty shocking to see.

Moving Again???

So, here we are on the eve of yet again, another move. Tomorrow, Angie and I are moving from my brother's house into an apartment. Staying with my brother has been good and I'm glad we had the opportunity. Moving into an apartment however, will give us some routine, family space, stability and normalcy. Starting in January we will be travelling and speaking at several churches to promote and communicate about our ministry, and when we aren't travelling the apartment in Tulsa will be a great homebase to return to. Also, we are planning on inviting over family, friends and supporters to the apartment and providing them with some great hospitality.

Tomorrow will be busy, but good. In the morning we will get to the apartment, clean up after the bug bombs, and straighten what few things we already took over this evening when we got the keys. Then from 10 AM to noon, the cable guy will come to install internet and cable. Sometime after 10 AM several guys from Highland Park Christian Church will be coming over with all the furniture that many at the church have so selflessly loaned us while we are in the states for Home Assignment. We are awed and overwhelmed by the support our churches give us, and this is a great example. Later in the afternoon, we will work on the apartment, unpacking and moving things into their permanent position, then that night we'll come back over to my brother's house to watch OU play Missouri for the Big 12 football championship. Great stuff. I can't wait.

Breaking the Silence

Well, we've been back in the states six days shy of one month now. We are just now starting to relax. Five days after returning we headed out to Louisville, Kentucky for the Team Expansion team leader summit. It was a great experience for Angie and I to get to know other Team Leader's and become more prepared as a leader for our Verona team.

After the team leader summit, we stayed in Louisville a few more days going to various meetings with personnel at Team Expansion's home office and visiting our PACE church, Shively Christian Church. One day I got incredibly sick with fever and bronchial congestion but the next day it was gone and we were ready for to leave once more.

We then headed to Cincinnati, Ohio for the National Missionary Convention. We were able to connect with many old friends which is always good and hang out with Team Expansion missionaries as well as others. Our two main goals were find new churches for support and recruit for the Verona team. We spoke with several contacts in churches, but none seem to be able to help financially right now. However, we were able to interview and informally chat with several potential recruits. Many top notch candidates and we are in various stages of development with them. All in all, it was a good trip for us. We left Cincinnati Sunday and got back in Tulsa Monday evening.

The last few days have been spent with family and friends, enjoying the holidays and down time. There have been some negative stressors too, but the good definitely outweighs the bad and God continually supplies what we need in every given moment.

Tomorrow, I am looking forward to a good football game between the Oklahoma Sooners and the Oklahoma State Cowboys....go OU. Then tomorrow night I will be watching the Kansas and Missouri football game. The winner of that game will determine who OU plays, if OU comes out on top versus the Cowboys. Overall it should be a good day for college football.

We'll be working on things next week and then taking some vacation time during December which will combine with the holidays in order to provide us some great refreshment and recharging. We will be start doing presentations in January of 2008, so I will be putting the finishing touches on our promotional materials next month. And now to bed. G'night.

Moving Day...

Things have been a little crazy and abnormal since we moved, but still good. We have been able to bid farewell to most everyone that we wanted to before we left. We are thankful to the Casey family for allowing us to crash and work at their house during our last week.



Our moving day was very frenetic at first. The movers arrived at 7:30 AM on the dot (which if you know me is earlier than I like it) and they immediately installed the electric ladder. It is a ladder with a platform that raises and lowers. Check out the pics below.



Jason, Brian, Heather and Heidi all helped us throughout the day, which really helped the process happen. Jason wrote a great article describing many of our feelings at his blog found here: http://marchegiansun.blogspot.com/2007/10/moving-day.html.



We are not homeless. Tomorrow we head out to America where will be staying with family and traveling until December 1st. At that point we will move into a small apartment in Tulsa that we will stay in during our Home Assignment.



It has been hard these many months as we prepared to leave. We went through many different goodbyes throughout the months. It seems we are always saying goodbyes. Fortunately we only have a few more before we leave Ancona and then we won't have to say goodbyes like this for some time. See you on the other side of the ocean.

Moving Tomorrow...Really?

We are moving tomorrow. Even though I am sitting with boxes stacked up all around me and each room of the house looks more and more bare with each passing hour it still isn’t sinking in. Yes, it looks like someone is moving but is it really us? We have moved seven times (this will be move 8) during our eleven years of marriage. But we have lived in this house for six years! This has been home to Matt and I longer than any other place we have lived our married life! For me it is hard to say goodbye. It is hard for my mind to understand that this is my last day to call this home. I am sure it will sink in……probably about this time tomorrow when I look around and most of our things are outside on a moving truck…but for now I want to enjoy this last day as much as I can. I love my home here in Ancona and I want to remember this last day.
One more tidbit about moving. Out of the seven times we have moved it has rained every single one of those days. Guess what’s in the forecast for tomorrow? You guessed it….rain! Looks like we could be 8 for 8. I wonder what it is like to move in the sunshine?