We've Arrived!

Ciao! We made it to Italy without any problems, which is an answer to prayer! It's been a bit of an adjustment to make with a 7 hour lay over in Newark, New Jersey. When we arrived it was 7:45 am here in Italy, making it 1:45 am in America. We didn't get much sleep on the planes but the sleep we did get was good. We had to take a good nap this afternoon. We went to downtown Milan around 5:00 and saw some of the tourist areas. One being a Gothic style church, it's called the Doma church and took over 400 years to build. I really do love the architcure and style of the buildings here. We had gilato and an awesome dinner tonight.

Tomorrow starts our English clubs, the staff here have gotten 51 people signed up for our clubs!! It's really exciting for the church to get to use the University this way. They haven't been able to do this in the past in Torino. Be praying for good rest for us tonight!! That we would have strong attendence this week in our classes. For relationships to develop quickly.

Anyway, I will be posting again soon!

Jordan

T Minus 5 hours to Italy!

Ciao!!!! So, were about to leave College Station to head to the airport in Houston. We fly out of Houston at 8:15. So, we have to leave at 4:30 this morning. I ask you to be in prayer for us!!

- Team unity
- Safe Travel and Non-Delayed Flights
- Strong Health
- Adjustment to time change
- Effective English Clubs
- Adjustment to the culture
- Clear sharing and understanding of the Gospel
- For people to accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior

Thank you for your support and prayers. You will get to see pictures and stories soon!!!!

God bless!

Jordan

Italy Support Raising once again!!

So, last May I traveled to Turin, Italy with our church on my second overseas mission trip. The trip last year went so well that I prayed about being more involved and had a desire to return. When I got back to College Station I was talking with one of the pastors in my church, Ray Muneich, about the trip. After much discussion with Bo our trip leader, Ray thought it would be good for me to train to become the trip leader. So, this year I will be a “Trip Leader Apprentice.” I will be involved with the trip trainings and a leader on the trip. By God’s grace this experience will equip me to lead the Italy mission trip in 2010.

This spring break will be when we return to Italy, March 14-22. The trip to Italy will be sponsored by Fellowship Church and Great Commission Europe (GCE). The purpose of this trip is to share the gospel with students at the local university in Milan, Italy. There are plans to plant a church in Milan and our focus will be to help the team already there through English clubs.

In order to make this possible, I need to develop a ministry team for Fellowship Church—a group of ministry partners who will join with the church and myself in this effort. I am responsible to raise $2,000. In order to meet this need as quickly as possible, I am trusting the Lord to provide people who would like to invest gifts of $200, $100, $50, or whatever amount is comfortable.Will you prayerfully consider giving to Fellowship Church to send me on this mission trip? You will be helping influence people for Christ by helping to send me to Italy. I must have the first half, a total of $1,000 by January 18th, and the total amount is due February 15th.

Italy Day 7

So, here's whats been going on. Friday we had our English conversation class and we taught on Work. We taught vocabulary words on work and some grammar too. Then we had a Bible discussion and talked about the Parable of the Sower. The parable of the sower talks about a sower who plants seeds. Some of the seeds get thrown on the road, some among thorns, and some on fertile ground. It says that the seeds that get thrown on the ground get eaten by the birds, the ones with the thorns grow but the growth is choked, the fertile ground grows and is what becomes healthy. We asked who the sower is, and they said Jesus. Then we asked them what kind of ground they think they are. Each one gave an answer and most were honest, some said fertile, some said thorns, and some said the road. It was cool to see how honest people were, they said they wer thorns because they let the cares of the world get in the way. I got to share that I am for the most part fertile ground, but that there are still some thorns, and with God's help he has shown me how to pull the thorns out, to pull the roots out so that the thorns don't grow back.

Friday night we had a party that we invited all the students too. It was our "Country/Western Party", we played country music and everybody got a bandana that they wore. Myself and another girl on the team taught everybody how to two step and we did that for a while. Then Sarah and Jennifer taught them a line dance, and we did that too. Everybody danced and had fun, most everybody got the dance moves down. Then a guy who put his faith in Christ shared his testimony of what his life was like before and after. The Italian spoke in Italian so I had no idea what he was saying. The party was a big hit!

Yesterday we went to Laggo Magorie, an a part of Italy that has three islands. The weather wasn't good but we did enjoy the time, it was neat getting to see how the mountaineous areas were covered in clouds because of the rain. We saw post cards of how beautful the island is on a sunny day and were in shock of the difference. We did get to hand out with the students that decided to come with us.

This morning we had church at Il Refugio and it was cool. Thankfully the songs they sang I knew in English and the teaching was translated. We went and ate at McDonalds for lunch today. So, naturally we took photos of the place, lol! It shows that we are American and I'm glad. :D I will keep you guys posted on more!!!

Were getting our line dance on!

Ready, Aim, Fire, Reload!!! :D

Hanging out with Columbian students at Lago Magorie

Hanging out with a student from Ecuador and Sound Korea.

A picture of Laggo Magorie

The worship team at Ill Refugio the church were working with at church this morning.

What's been going on!

So, I'm finally getting some time to update. We have been real busy! Planning our English lessons, teaching English classes, and hanging out with the Italian students. It has all been time consuming, sometimes a full nights rest isn't enough. Of course were still adjusting to the time change. We've really gotten to build some good relationships with the Italians over here. They are so neat to work with! My heart goes out to them because they need the truth of God in their lives. Here are some photos that I want to share with you!

Our Begginers English Class, Sarah, Cathryn, and myself are the teachers.

Us with a local Italian Sabrina who showed us around Turin!

The Intermediate Class, Jennifer, Christiana, Dan and Barclay are their teachers.

English Club Class 1

So, today we had our first English lesson. I'm teaching the begginers class with Sarah Brown and Cathryn Mayo from my church. We taught on the subject of friendship and it went well. I taught them some vocabulary words and Cathryn taught some idioms. We then had a bible study where we taught on Mark 2:1-12, we talked about the story and how friendship was related in that story. It was neat to meet the students in the class, they can't speak English very well and hopefully they will be able to speak better English and learn about God through our classes. :D

I have got to say that coffee over here in Italy is sooooo much better!!! For lunch I had a marachini (Spelling?), which is a cappucino with nutla chocalote coating the glass. It is really good! Anyway, I better go for now! I hope to upload some pictures later!!!

Jordan

Siamo Qui!!! We made it!!

So, after our long flight's we made it. We missed our connecting flight due to a gate number change, and us not knowing that. We stayed in Germany for about 6 hours verses 4. Thankfully all 11 of us were able to be booked on the next flight. So we made it to Turino about 6:00 PM in Turin time which would be about 1:00 pm Texas time. Anyway we've got to ready for our first English lesson for today!!! Be praying for us, I will update more later!

Ciao!!

Jordan