good news. lots and lots and lots of good news.

On my last update, we only had one years worth of funding for our journey. Since then LOTS has happened!!!

As you know Eric and I sent our almost 100 letters for fundraising to individuals, as well as an additonal 20 or so to different churches around arkansas, ohio, and west virginia.

we waited and waited and waited.. we recieved here and there, and then all of the sudden the blessings just started pilling up, one on top of the next!!!

we recieved numerous individual donations- .....many of which were extremely generous and made us re-evaluate our own regards to money. we have prayed intently that God will bless these people who seem to understand the blessing of giving best. By their donations, not only are they helping the ministry in Italy to grow, they are increasing our faith and further preparing us to embark upon this journey.

 Aside from the individuals, the churches began trickeling in as well. Rock Creek Church of Christ, a very small congregation between the mountains in West Virgina, a church family of maybe 100, has pledged money to us monthly for the two years. WOW. congregations here in cabot, little rock, and parigould have also pledged monthly and one time support!

even still, all of these blessings did not yet add up to the two years worth of funding we needed. in the mean time, the interest in our house was lacking. we had no offer and it seemed a little fuzzy. i can tell you that i was troubled with doubt. meaning subconsciously. i tried desperatley not to give in to it. instead i sought God the best i knew how, and He God gave me the real faith i needed to not give up. so with all things laid asside, we stood still and waited in prayer.

A few weks prior we had sent a letter to West Side COC in Searcy. my art professors Dr Keller and Dr Choate (both excellent professors, artisits, and mentors, whom I vary much admire and am thankful for their presence in my life) both happened to serve on the missions committee there. Dr Keller and his wife Sally led the Avanti Art program in the summer of 2008. Along with nine other girls, this was when I first discovered and fell in love with Italy. I emailed Dr K to inquire about West Side's decision, or if they had even received the letter. He wrote back with good news, the committee wanted to meet with us.

After LOTS of prayer that following Sunday we met with them.

we laid out a budget breakdown, along with our story and aspirations as part of the Avanti program. the head of the committee then explained the church's wish to support only members and to support them %100. they enjoy being  a part of the journey. he then proceeded to ask if we would consider becoming a part of their family. The elders would have the final say in regards to funding, but he was hopeful that the answer would be yes.

the answer was indeed YES! i cant explain to you the affrimation i felt at that moment. for the first time in my life i truly felt that i was where i was supposed to be, doing exactly what God had planned for me to do. I felt justified. everything, every moment of disappointment, hurt, fear, all of it was worth it to be standing there in that moment of JOY. ive never felt this type of joy before. its real. its pure and %100- nothing lacking from it. its peace and understanding- all of the fruits altogether! WOW. it felt good. not to mention being able to share this change and growth with my parnter in this life. this is the cherry on top of it all.

as wonderful and as much of a mountain top experience as this is, THERE IS MORE.

our house was becoming stagnant. you know what i mean, just sitting here. no action, no interest. i wasnt really worried about it, especially because of the miracle we had just witnessed. it was until a neighbor pointed out the slow moving of the selling process. he reminded us how much we would be upside down financially and was wondering what we thought about this. i mulled this over in my mind for a few days. we began considering trying for sale by owner. we prayed some more. about a week later, my realator txted me and was asking us to maybe consider dropping our price.

this was the red flag. i called her that evening and explained that if we dropped it anymore, it would not be possible. we were already upside down 1000s of dollars only becasue we were paying the relator. i explained that we just did not feel that it was being good stewards of our money to pay them that much ... this was very difficult because she is a wonderful woman of faith and has been a blessing to us as a friend. she understood and we let her go.

not even a week later, eric was talking to some friends at work about out journey and our progress so far. a friend overheard him mention our house then came over and said "your house is for sale? ive been looking for a house now for months in maumell area." he continued that he had had no luck. the area was too expensive for what he was looking for. he became interested in looking at our house.

the following week he couldnt wait to come. he instantly fell in love with it. he even wants the furnishings. he told us that he would love to have the convienience of it already being designed and there.

by next week he will have given his apt the one month's notice they need and we will begin the paper work. thus putting us moving out beginning of july. perfect timing because my family is taking us on vacation with them starting the second week of july. following this training for avanti is last two weeks of august, and then by second week of september ciao ciao america and bounjourno italia!!

all of these blessings are only possible because we are Gods children. He has made this possible, He is moving so steadily through us and around us, and it feels good. His timing is truly perfect. ALready we have witnessed many miracles and we cannot wait to see the rest of the goodness He has planned!!

Get ready- this will be a life canging journey.

on our way!

 87 letters sent out today!!

cant wait for the surprises God has ahead!

Mark 11:22-24

"So Jesus answered and said to them, "Have faith in God. For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be removed and be cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you will receive them, and you will have them."

web page hit counter

just a little mustard seed to move mountain......

http://www.biblestudytools.com/search/?q=faith&c=nt&t=nkj&ps=100&s=Bibles 


James 1:6-7

ALL ABOUT AVANTI

AVANTI ITALIA

http://www.avantiitalia.org/

HISTORY

“Avanti Italia” (A.I.) is Italian for Onward Italy. It is also the name of the forward-moving mission team composed of college graduates or people of college-graduate age who devote two years of their life to spreading the Gospel in Italy. In 1986, a new program was initiated by Howard and Doris Bybee. Howard, who had spent 25 years himself as a missionary in Italy, and his wife continue to work with the program as state-side recruiters today.

The mission team is sponsored and carefully guided by the College church of Christ in Searcy, Arkansas, through a subcommittee appointed by the elders. Current members include Dr. Evan Ulrey, Dr. Carl Mitchell, Dr. Cliff Ganus, Dr. Fred Jewell, Bob Corbin, Scott Finley, Howard Bybee, Paul Love and Jim Woodroof. The decision was made to require students to graduate from college before participating in Avanti Italia in order to allow them to gain added maturity and to avoid the possibility of permanently interrupting their college education. The committee screens all applications, in an effort to select workers who are spiritually and emotionally suited for this challenge.

THE PRIMARY GOALS OF A. I. :

1) To use our individual talents in sharing the Good News of Jesus the Christ with those who are seeking to have a more perfect relationship with Him.

2) To learn to share Christ with others more effectively.

3) To participate in mutual encouragement and edification with the Italian churches of Christ.

BEGINNING THE PROCESS . . .

Before leaving for A. I., the workers are given two weeks of intensive training in Searcy, AR, with classes in evangelism, doctrine, atheism, Christian evidences, cults, group dynamics, and cross-cultural communication. Immediately after training, we leave the states to begin our work in Scandicci and throughout the community Florence. 

WHAT will we be doing?

The main method of outreach is teaching private Bible lessons in the English language. In advertising, we are completely up-front about our purpose. Our team members teach an average of 15 Bible lessons a week, and we often have to place names of interested persons on a waiting list. We have developed our own curriculum, which includes basic grammar lessons, a set of "bridge" lessons that span the gap from grammar review to English conversation about the Bible, our own editions of the Shawn Daggett "English Using the Bible" books, and advanced studies in the core Gospel message.

Besides our private lessons, we organize an evangelistic study in Italian at the Bible School on Tuesday nights. We also have a weekly women’s Bible Study. On Thursday nights, we attend another Bible study at the church building for discussions among Christians. In addition, we strive to serve the members of the churches of Christ throughout the entire country by hosting seminars with guest speakers and sending invitations out to all of the Italian congregations. In August, we help with a yearly retreat sponsored by the Florence congregation. At this lectureship we meet Christians from all over the country who often invite us to help with their projects.

Much of our work could be described as friendship evangelism. We make friends with people and share God's saving message with them. To get to know our students better and to help them get to know each other and the members of the Florence congregation, we often organize evenings of games, music, food, or a video. Sometimes we help with summer camps for young people from the Italian churches. Whether we are having friends over, going to eat at someone's house, or taking an excursion together, we're never lacking opportunities to share the love of Christ with our friends.

Each team member is committed to finding ways of using his or her individual talents to contact more and more people for God's glory. For example, some have become members of the Scandicci band. As a result, several of our students have come from the band, and have been baptized. Other A.I. members have coached boys' basketball, taught music in the public school system, helped with a local ambulance service, and volunteered at the local hospital. Each member tries to find his or her niche.

WHERE WE WORK:

Most of our work is centered at the Florence Bible School in Scandicci, which has a living/dining room, kitchen, large classroom, library, offices, and living quarters. We also teach some Bible lessons at the Florence church building located in Florence proper, and occasionally we travel to other cities to help out with special projects or seminars. After sufficient orientation and language study, A.I. members may be assigned to work full-time with congregations outside of Florence. In such cases, the workers are closely supervised by the local church leaders and by the Woodroofs on a regular basis.

ORIENTATION

Their stay in Florence begins with an orientation to help the new members adjust to Italy, take care of official business and paperwork, set group goals, learn how to teach the curriculum, and learn more about their teammates. Since speaking Italian is a priority, all members attend language school for about three months. This serves as a springboard into the language and culture.

MAKING A DIFFERENCE

Since its beginning in 1986, scores of people have been taught the Gospel and have been baptized. Since Florence is a cosmopolitan city, we have been able to evangelize people from other countries, having taught and baptized students from Kenya, Taiwan, Nigeria, Argentina, Albania, and Korea. Although evangelism is about as challenging in Italy as it is in the U.S., we are convinced that there are many who are seeking to know God's will for their lives. Our neighbors have thanked us for "reviving" the school, and many people who have called about lessons have mentioned that they are just as interested in knowing more about the Bible as they are in improving their English. This is the work of God in the hearts of our friends and the result of much prayer.

some photography of Firenze (aka Florence)

ME AND ERIC

This was taken our first night together in Rome 2008.

HOUSE FOR SALE!

its official. as of yesterday our house is for sale!

yesterday eric and i spent the entire day cleaning and organizing. we are planning to sell everything before we leave to help pay off any debt etc. before we leave in august.

oh. also, today we got our carpet professionally cleaned. i dont think ive told you this yet, which is strange because its such a huge part of who i am, but im an artist. i graduated this past july with a BFA in painting. i enjoy modern art, portraits, watercolors, COLOR. anyways, all that to say that my "studio" room in the house is the reason for the cleaning...paint stains EVERYWHERE. this, an entire story altogether (see my other blog- www.isoac.blogspt.com- post- carpet stains). i was amazed at what they could do. i was certain that we were going to have to completely repace the entire room- but those boys in blue they really know what they are doing. it looks like new. come on buyers.....

here are some photos of our very first house- one that we love and and the same time happy to leave =)

La Scoula....

First of all here is  a link to the official Avanti -Italia site! 

http://www.avantiitalia.org/

This is the Bible School in Scandicci Italy where we will be training and living.

in session

This is going to be a LONG post.... get ready. I have to start back from the beginning, summer of 08, to catch you up to speed with where we are now. 

As an art major at Harding University I had always dreamed of visiting Italy. It wasnt until my junior year that a new program became available that was designed specifically for art students. As opposed to the normal semester abroad study programs, this program was only for the month of July. It was much more affordable, and I would be studying mostly my upper level art courses.

Long story short, I purchased the plane ticket and arrived at the Avanti Italia Bible School in Scandicci the beginning of July. Because this was a completely different program our group of ten girl art students, stayed instead of at the Harding Villa, at the Avanti italia Bible school. This was the first time I had even heard of the program. After living at the school and in italy for over a month, I completely feel in love with the culture, people, and country of Italia.

Returning to the states in mid august of that year, Eric and I were forever changed. Our eyes had been opened to the world around us, and a desire to expand our hearts began.

in the mid time, our life was in transit. i was finishing up school in the next summer and Eric and i had some major decisions coming our way. where did we want to be? to go? careers? more education?? by this point eric had already been working for the Sate Dept 3 yrs and felt that he was just beginning to feel settled. he also was in the process of obtaining his Surveyors Licence. i also was still undecided. i would be graduating with a BFA in Painting, which would set me up to get my Masters of Fine Arts. I have always desired this. However, the details were foggy. Cut to the point, we ended up finding a nice house just outside of Little Rock and settled in. We purchased the house in April of 09 and by July we were itching. Thoughts of Avanti and Italia flooded our minds. we wanted to go, now was the time...but how? we began researching.....still having just bought a house, unsure about funding, we were unclear about the details. After much prayer and consideration, it was around August that we made our decision- we were going.

We decided to step out in faith. We prayed for strength and encouragement and that if this was truly Gods will that HE would make it possible.

It wasnt one thing that changed me that summer- not a big moment that I can say aha!that's it! I feel as though my whole life God has prepared me and more importantly MY HEART for His work. My favorite Bible verse is in Philipians, 1: 6, NKJ "Being confident of this very thing- that He who has began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Christ." This verse is a promise that God is willing to do  good work in ME. isnt that an awesome promise?? Ive always been in search of more. . . .  I believe that the sky is the limit to all those who love and serve Jesus the Christ.  

Love is the key . When Jesus broke it down in the New Testament He said in Matthew 22:37- 39 "Jesus said to him "You shall love the lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and the greatest commandment. And the second is like it: " You shall love your neighbor as yourself." This life is about making relationships. Loving each other as Christ did-this is what its all really about. 

In Italy I stumbled upon a place that I felt that I could make a difference. I feel in love with the culture, the land, the people. At the end of the day I want to know that I have not only loved God with my whole heart, but served Him with my whole heart as well. I feel He has prepared me for this. This fall Eric and I applied to be missionaries at the Bible school in Scandicci Italy. There is lots to be done before the time comes to leave. Financially, emotionally, spiritually, ALOT to prepare. We are praying everyday and giving Him to reigns. This blog is dedicated to our journey.