Buon giorno!

We needed to be up this morning for a group meeting before heading out to campus. We have these "Xplore" booklets that Ryan gave us at the beginning of project that we have been using during these group meetings as group devotionals. Today we talked about the "10/40" window and how the people that live in this region of the world don't have access to the gospel and that many people are afraid of going to these places (Middle East, North Africa, Indonesia, India, etc). One of the questions that was asked was what happens to these people when they die if they're non believers? Because if they didn't have access to the gospel, how could God send them to hell if they didn't even know about Him? This took us a while to think about... and it took a while for people to respond. I guess I will leave this question up to you to think about.

We all went to the grocery store after that and Whitney and I finally figured out how to weigh our vegetables! If I've explained this in a previous blog I apologize but ok so when you buy vegetables at the grocery store over here you put them in the plastic bag (duh) but then YOU have to weigh them and print out a sticker for them yourself! The first 2 times that Whitney and I tried to buy vegetables we didn't know this so we went to the register and the cashier would get mad because he or she would have to go back to the vegetable section and weigh the vegetable for us. One time it got so bad that the cashier just through the vegetable aside and we ended up not getting it. So this time we finally figured it out! We were so proud of ourselves!

After that we still had an hour to kill before we left for campus so I journaled/read and took a nap. Whitney, Kari, and Pat went to Bocconi because they were going to meet up with Vito. Ryan, Ross, Cenia, Brittany, Caleigh, Sarah, and I all went to Statale. I must admit... today was a rough day for me. I was really tired because we didn't get much sleep Saturday night and when I'm tired... I don't really want to do anything. I mean, I started out evangelizing really well like I was pumped but after the first 2 people we went up to said they were too busy studying or didn't speak English I started feeling like maybe God didn't want us at this school today. Maybe I should just stick to going to Bocconi. I was just really discouraged for the rest of the day... but being tired definitely added to it because I need my sleep and if I don't get it then I am not a happy camper. Brittany and I ended up finding the other 3 girls talking to this one Italian student out on the lawn so we just joined them for some encouragement. The girl they were talking to was so nice! She was so awesome! We ended up talking to her for a really long time and then she took us to H&M so that was cool just to spend some extra time with her. Hopefully we get to hang out with her again.

After that we tried going up to some more people but we only made another real connection with one more girl. I don't know I guess today was just one of those days. However, I'm just worried that because it happened so early on in the trip that I might be discouraged for the rest of the time. Please just pray that I get lots of sleep and that I would rely and trust in God and not myself and my own capabilities.

We came home and debriefed which was actually really good for me because everyone had such great stories from the day so that was really encouraging.

After that I did some more reading and I think I'm going to bed at a decent hour tonight so that I'm well rested for tomorrow. Davide is supposed to come over soon to meet up with all of us and get gelato but I'm just really tired. Let's hope for a better day tomorrow!

Thank goodness today was a day of rest. We were supposed to go to church today but didnt' receive the directions to the church in time so we just had church in our apartment. Ryan played some worship music and we just discussed our experiences here thus far. It was really good just to get the group talking. I slept, read, and ate the rest of the day so that was awesome. Kat and I also went for a run for our discipleship time. We found this amazing park that was really hidden in the city. There was some sort of festival going on because they had an inflatable jumper and other things. It was really nice to find a place like that in the city and of course running felt really good.

I was supposed to wake up this morning to go running with Pat at 7:30 but my alarm didn’t go off!! So sad. I ended up waking up at 7:55 and I felt horrible that I hadn’t woken up to meet with Pat. Thankfully, I found out later that Pat didn’t wake up either so yay! I didn’t feel so bad after all.

We headed to the il Duomo at 10:30 to meet Davide. He was already there waiting for us so we headed inside il Duomo right away. It is amazing… there are seriously no words to describe how breath taking the inside is. I lit a candle for one of my dad’s friends that got in a really bad car accident recently, so I’ll continue to pray for him. The only thing I didn’t like about il Duomo was that they had hung paintings between the columns inside. This would have been ok if these paintings had originally been there but they obviously were not originally meant to be there. I felt like this took away from the way the cathedral was supposed to be originally presented. After exploring the inside we headed back outside to the entrance of the stairwell to go to the top of the cathedral. The view from above wasn’t as breathtaking as the view from the top of il Duomo in Florence but it was still really beautiful.




top of the duomo!



After climbing back down we realized that we were all starving so Davide took us to a pizzeria. I had brought my lunch so I just got a tiramasu at the restaurant and let me just say… WOW. I was in heaven. MOTTO BELLA!

We were then free to explore the city on our own but I was exhausted and needed some me time so Ross, Ryan, Kat, and I went back to the apartment. I ended up taking a 2 hour nap and I felt very refreshed when I woke up.

Everyone came back and I read for a while. I already finished The Great Divorce and now I’m reading Sex and the Soul of a Woman. So far it’s REALLLY GOOD! Thanks Emma for letting me borrow it :]

We started making dinner and let me just say… rice is a lot harder to make then it seems. So that came out a bit sticky and soggy but it was still good! We made the most of it. While we were eating, one of the people on project found out some really hard news so that was really hard to go through. But we all just got together and prayed for the person because we know only God can make the situation better.

Two of the guys that Whitney and Kari met yesterday are going to come over tonight at some point. We hope that they get to know the guys really well and that the conversation continues past surface level stuff.

Today was a nice day to sleep in because we didn’t need to be ready until 1PM. However, me not wanting to waste time I woke up at 10AM just so I wasn’t rushed when getting ready. I also wanted time to journal and do my quiet time so it was nice to wake up with plenty of time before having to be somewhere.

Finally at 1PM we all met in Ryan’s room and we did another language lesson taught by Kat. She taught us how to conjugate a verb but to be completely honest I pretty much forgot… :]

We then headed to Bocconi which is the prestigious business school here in Milan. I felt totally at home at this school. The building was really nice (much like SMG) and the students looked just like the students in Boston. Upon entering the building they had flyers on the different programs they offer at the school. Maybe I could do my MBA here? Who knows what God has planned?

The first place we went to in the school was the caffe and this is where we found most students hanging out. We all wanted coffee to wake up but I couldn’t understand the menu so I just got a coca cola. LOL. Then we partnered up to go do evangelism and Caleigh and I ended up being partners. We didn’t take a tour of this school so everything was really confusing at first and Caleigh and I felt sooo lost! We just ended up walking around and we eventually found this group of girls and they were so wonderful!!!!! We talked to them about what they thought about spirituality, life, and Jesus. It was really interesting to hear their answers. One of the girls, Claudia, started giving us tips on where to go to shop and get gelato and see all these cool things. She drew us a map but I know we’re going to get lost! I got her facebook info so that hopefully we could meet up and she could show us where all these awesome places were. We would also just love to meet up with her again just to get to know her more and the other girls as well. I love making new friends! We talked to them for a good hour so by the time it was over it was time to leave the university for the day.

We headed back to our apartments and Sarah, Whitney, and I decided that we should probably go to the grocery store to buy some more food after our debrief meeting. Everyone else also had such amazing stories about the day. It’s amazing to see how God has definitely been controlling who we talk to and what we say and who partners with whom on the certain days. Isn’t it so wonderful and comforting to know that someone perfect is in control of your life and you’re not? I think it’s moto bella! At the grocery store we bought ground beef among other things so that we could make burgers because I was craving it so bad! They were very yummy. Then it was time for our training meeting.

Ryan had this really good powerpoint on the Philosophy of God. Basically it was all about how to engage in conversation specifically with atheists. One thing that Ryan reminded us of was that we need to be gracious and NOT right. I know for me most of the time I’m only trying to prove why I’m right and why they’re wrong. I know I usually don’t speak to them out of love or because I love them so it was really good to be reminded why we’re talking to these people. It’s because we love them and want them to know the love we know. I could get more detailed on the lesson but my brain hurts.

Then Davide came over to our apartment! YAY! He brought two friends: Stella and Eliza. They were so nice! It was really fun just to hang out with them.

(no pictures were taken today... mi dispiace!)

As I woke up today I didn’t realize that this would be our first day going on campus to do ministry. I thought we were just going to take a tour of the campus… so once Ryan confirmed that we were actually going to start evangelizing I honestly got really scared. The purpose for us being here is finally going to begin… woah.

We did a Bible study first and that was just really good to start the day. It was about how different people view the Bible: rule book, spiritual cup of coffee, source of wisdom, etc. Instead of viewing the Bible in all of these different ways we should just plainly see it as God’s interaction with His people. We also talked about how worship is a far greater thing then missionary work. Missions exist because worship doesn’t so we need to have our priorities in order. 1 John 4:19 talks about how we love because God loved us first. And that’s something important that we need to remember.

We then went out and got on the metro to head to il Duomo where we were going to meet Davide. Davide is a student that people on this project met a few years ago. They met him by doing exactly what we were going to do today: going up to people and talking to them about their faith. Ever since they met they’ve kept in touch which is definitely the Lord’s work.

We got to il Duomo and it was DEFINITELY a gothic cathedral. It was gorgeous! It was raining though so we went to a nearby McDonald’s to get some coffee until it was finally time to meet Davide.

We went back to il Duomo to meet up with him and he was already there. He was sooooo nice!!!!! Extremely welcoming and warm and friendly. He then took us to the Statale university which is one of the universities we’re focusing on while we’re here. This is the university he graduated from so he showed us the mess hall, different corridors, etc. He was a very good tour guide! It was then time for lunch so he took us to this sandwich shop on campus and the sandwich was so yummy! The cheese in it was SOOOO DELICIOUS! Moto bella!!! It kinda tasted like cream cheese but the man called it some name that starts with a c (I obviously forgot). After we were done with our sandwiches it was finally time to start evangelizing. AHHH. Davide took us back inside and once we were there he and Ryan went looking to buy a guitar (everyone has been wanting to do worship but Ryan hasn’t had his guitar).

Kari and I paired up. Before finally going off on our own, we prayed and that really calmed everyone down and boosted our confidences. Kari and I went to the mess hall to start. She and I sat down and discussed what tools we wanted to use first and how we would approach the students. We decided to first start with the friendship survey (basically asking how Italians view friendship). We wanted to approach students that were sitting down because this usually meant they had some time to talk whereas students walking down the corridors were usually on their way somewhere. The first 2 girls we talked to were so great. They were sisters and once was 22 and the other was 32. The 22 year old spoke little English and the 32 year old didn’t really speak any English. They asked us why we were doing what we were doing and we explained we were with Agape Italia and that it was a Christian organization. Not gonna lie it took us a while to admit that we were a Christian organization because we didn’t know how that would affect our conversation but they didn’t seem to mind so that was good. We basically got out of them that Italians really value trust and honesty. The next pair of girls we talked to were Gemma and Serena. Gemma was really spiritual and had faith in God but she didn’t like the church so she didn’t associate herself with it. (The church meaning the Catholic church). Serena also believed in God. With Gemma and Serena we did Soularium and I really feel God purposefully chose these girls to do this with. We learned so much about their spirituality which was really great. The last group of girls we met were Roberta and Erica. They were AWESOMMEEEE. Erica spoke very little English but Roberta spoke English really well! We did the friendship survey and relationship survey with them. From all 3 conversations we pretty much realized that Italian students our age are extremely similar to American students. The girls explained to us how it has now become the girl’s role to pursue the guy (they said boys are stupid). They also told us about how more and more people are choosing not to get married. Instead, people just live with each other and form a family without the title. People don’t see a point in getting married. It’s “too expensive”. That was really sad to hear but didn’t surprise me at all. I feel like the same thing is going on in America.

After spending all this time with the students and in the city it really started to feel like home. Milan is almost exactly like Boston… seriously. It’s almost scary how similar they are. The metro signs are the same, city/homey feeling, and other little things. I’m not going to be too specific just yet but I really feel the Lord is trying to tell me something… but this is definitely something I’m going to continue to pray about just because it is such a big decision.

After doing evangelism for about 2 hours we all met up again with Davide and Ryan. Ryan found an awesome guitar so yay! Davide then took us to this really cool church near the university. There was a separate chapel in the church that had been decorated with BONES! There were skulls and pieces of bone all around the walls. I mean it was organized beautifully but it was a bit strange. Kinda cool actually. Apparently these were the bones of the people that were buried at the hospital (the university used to be a hospital) so once they built the university they didn’t know what to do with the pieces. After that we went to Deutsche bank because a few of us needed to get some more cash. Then we went for some yummy gelato of course. Davide had to get back to the train station so we headed towards il Duomo. As we were walking to il Duomo this man kept following our group… all the way to il Duomo! When we finally sat on the steps to il Duomo Pat started talking to the crazy man. He finally went away. Thank you Pat for knowing Italian and possibly tiring the man out. Davide left but he said he would see us Saturday so it wasn’t too sad of a goodbye.

We then headed back to our hotel where we had a little bit of down time before debriefing about the day. Everyone’s stories were so encouraging. The Lord is definitely doing something great in this city. Some people got a few students’ contact information so that was awesome. I really hope those relationships grow into something bigger. Then we all ate dinner and just relaxed for the rest of the night. I journaled and spent a lot of time just with God because I just needed some me and Him time.

Ryan watched the final episode of Lost and after that we did worship for TWO HOURS! It was magical, as Kari would say. I love the Lord so much. :]

Kat, Whitney, and I were supposed to go running this morning at 7:30 but I went down to the lobby and they never came! I didn’t want to go alone for safety reasons so I just went back up to my room and fell back asleep for another hour :]. At breakfast, Kat told me she didn’t hear her alarm go off. This was very understandable considering how exhausted we all were the night before so it was no biggie. We must go running tomorrow morning though! All of these carbs are killing me!

We then took a taxi to the train station to finally head north to Milano! The taxi driver was so awesome! He told us how today was a horrible day because one of the bridges were closed because apparently the river was overflowing because a water tube exploded. He was also playing really good Italian music so I asked him who was singing and I think he said “Cirannini”? Something like that. I told him I liked this Italian music better than American music and he was surprised. He explained how most of the music people listen to in Italy is American music! I don’t know why, their music is awesome.

We got to the train station and as a group we prayed for safe travels among other things. It felt great to pray as a group. Then we got onto our train and headed to Milano! I got a lot of reading and journaling done so that was really relaxing. It’s nice to have some down time.

Milan is beautiful. I could see myself living here. The city is really modern but not too modern to the point where you don’t feel like you’re in Italy. I love love love love loooooove it!!! Our apartments are right near the train station so we didn’t have to walk far. However, Ryan and Cenia first had to go sign papers with the landlord so the rest of us waited near the train station just to hang out. I was starving so Kari and I went to get McDonalds. The McDonalds here sucks! The prices were really high and they had a limited menu. For example, they didn’t have a 1 euro menu, nor chicken selects, nor honey mustard, nor just a cheeseburger. It was very odd. We ate our food outside with the others and I dropped a few fries so I threw them to the pigeons. They should seriously make throwing fries at pigeons a sport because OMG I had such a great time doing this. I know it sounds ridiculous but pigeons fighting over French fries is the funniest thing ever! One pigeon will have it in its mouth and then the other pigeons chase it but then the pigeon can’t swallow it cause it’s too big so the fries fly out of its mouth and then another pigeon grabs it and it’s just this big chase it’s AWESOME!

When Ryan and Cenia came back we headed to our apartments. They are AMAZING! SOOOO CUTE. I can’t wait to invite students over for dinner parties. Once we unpacked we headed to the grocery store. I had already brought cereal and some Healthy Choice meals so I didn’t need too much for this week. I just bought a big tub of yogurt, strawberries, pineapple, bread, and orange juice. Oh and I had also brought peanut butter so I’ll make some sandwiches for lunch. (They only have Nutella here) We also all split the price for the cleaning supplies because we have to clean the apartment at some point (duh).

We got back to the apartment and put away our groceries and ate dinner. Yum yum yum. I’m so sick of pasta and rich foods. So I had cereal and yogurt. My favorite!

Random fact: they only have blood oranges here. They taste just like a regular orange but they’re extremely red on the inside. So when I first opened my orange juice I thought I had bought tomato juice instead but it tasted just like orange juice! Kinda weird.

After dinner we spent some time together as a group to share our testimonies. I was so proud of everyone who went. Thank you God for allowing everyone to be so vulnerable and honest with each other. Not everyone got a chance to go so this will be something we're going to do again but for the people that went I feel like I know them so much better now that I know their struggles and how they came to faith.

After sharing our testimones I suggested we sing God of this city by Chris Tomlin because I had been listening to it while I was journaling on the other girls' balcony and looking out to the city while listening to this song was just so powerful. We all went to the other girls' room and put the song and lyrics up on youtube, opened the windows, and sang our hearts out for the city of Milan. Amazing.

Later that night all the girls got together and got to know each other on an even deeper level. Tissues flew everywhere, tears were falling like a heavy storm but it was so wonderful. God definitely put us all together for a reason and I'm just so thankful for these beautiful girls on this project. We talked for a few hours because the next thing we know it was 1AM and we needed to be ready by 930AM which isn't too bad but still.

This night was just so spiritually and emotionally wonderful. Thank you Father. :]

I went on a run this morning!! Kat met me downstairs in the lobby of the hotel at 6:30PM and we ran to the river and basically made a big circle. It was such a good way to see the city and appreciate it. It was amazing.

The schedule for this day was pretty much the same as the one before. We went to the national office first thing in the morning to do some more training. A Crusade staff member named Scott came and did a Bible study and also told us how to approach the college campuses. Scott is a full time missionary with Crusade in Pisa… pretty cool. First we went over Exodus 34: 29-35. He explained to us how the book of Exodus is the root of the New Testament. A lot of the New Testament alludes to the book of Exodus. Random fact: Moses is painted as horned in Renaissance art because the translation of the Bible that they had back then got the translation of “veiled” wrong. So instead of the Bible saying that he was veiled, they thought it said that he was horned. Scott also kept reminding us that what we’re doing in Milan is glorious. Not to say that it’s glorious because “we’re such good people” but glorious because the message we are sharing is glorious. Also, the world glorious means worthwhile or “weighty”. Although our role is to preach Jesus Christ, we don’t have a role in the way people see Jesus. So our role is just to present Him to people. I remember someone asking me why I needed to go on a mission trip to teach people in Italy about Jesus (because Catholicism is so prevalent here). I knew why I was coming but I didn’t really know how to answer her question, but Scott explained to us why. Jesus is depicted everywhere in Italy (in all of the artwork) but he is not depicted as glorious (worthwhile). We’re here to teach people why Jesus is worthwhile… not just a pretty painting or someone who was a good moral teacher.

There are 10 million people in Milan and 500,000 students or more at the universities. WOAH. There are only 11 of us. However, what’s comforting to me is knowing that Italians work in networks. Meaning, when you meet one person… you’re guaranteed to later meet 4 or 5 other people. So if each of us forms a relationship with one person, we’re going to most likely form a total of 55 relationships or more.

Gary then spoke to us about the different tools they were going to give us to initiate conversation. Everything looked really helpful and I can’t wait to start going on campus and using the tools they’ve given us.

After the briefing we went out to lunch to this really cute restaurant near the national office. Gary and the people on staff are really good friends with the people that work there so it was cool to see the relationships that they had formed with them. They lady was so nice and cute. I ordered potato ravioli and it was so yummy! When we got the check the lady gave us a ginormous discount because she knew the staff. Very cool how once you form a relationship with people here they treat you like family.

We went back to the hotel to drop off our stuff after eating. The next 3 hours were supposed to be for sightseeing but I was exhausted so I just napped… for 3 hours. LOL. I was supposed to wake up an hour early to journal and read but… obviously that did not happen. I didn’t feel too bad about missing the sightseeing time because I’ve already been to Florence and I had gone running this morning so I already saw the city.

We were going to Gary’s house for dinner so we all took a bus there. He lives in a small village outside of the city up in the hills. Motto bella!! The view was amazing. He lives right next to a monastery so that was really cool to see. While walking through the monastery we saw a Franciscan monk! There are only about 20 of them at the monastery.

Gary’s house was BEAUTIFUL. So frikken cute! It was exactly what I had pictured it would be. Very Italian (obviously). They have a golden retriever named Taffy so as soon as we walked up to the gates to his house Taffy ran out to greet us. Once we walked into their yard, Gary’s wife had prepared some bruschetta as an appetizer. We stood around talking for a bit. Gary has two children: Davis and Courtney. Davis is 12 and Courtney is 15. They were both so mature and well spoken for their age. Davis is the most fluent in Italian and he plays basketball. Courtney is now being homeschooled because Italian school was way too stressful. Italy is a very shame based country so Courtney explained to us how they would have oral interrogations instead of written examinations in her class. The teachers would also read everyone’s grade out loud so all the students knew who was doing poorly. I would want to be homeschooled too if that was the way school was! Courtney and Davis both have done a good job adjusting to the new culture, however the first year was the hardest (of course). Courtney is leaving for Ethiopia in 3 weeks for her own summer project so she was pretty excited about that. Gary’s wife made a delicious penne pesto pasta with green beans and potato. Mmmmm. Then for dessert we had chocolate cake with homemade whipped cream! MMMMMM!

We then took the bus back to the city and I of course went right to bed. Apparently the second day of jet lag is the worst. The day before I wasn’t that tired so I was like “great! I haven’t been affected by jet lag!” But today, EVERYONE was sooooo exhausted.

At breakfast this morning they had this amazing hazelnut spread that was WAY better than Nutella.  I stole a pack to take home :]

After dinner we went to the national office for Crusade in Florence to get some cultural training.  The staff here is so nice and helpful.  The first thing we did at the briefing was go through God’s word.  Gary kept stressing how before I was born, God knew I would be here.  God knew since the world began that I would be here.  WOAH.  Apparently Crusade has been here since 1969 but only about 8 years ago did the stint teams start coming.  Intervarsity has some people here but not that many.  Apparently Milan has one of the best business schools… grad school anyone? Milan is also the fashion and financial capital of Italy.  Random fact: people in Florence love Jesus because “he was the first communist”. The people in Florence think Jesus was the first communist.  I personally don't nor does the group that I am with think he was. Understood?  We also learned that you can’t just generalize the people of Italy as “Italians”.  People from Florence are totally different then the Milanese.  For example, Milan is extremely conservative whereas Florentines are really liberal.  OMG and we also learned this cool thing called “squillo”.  Squillo is something that people our age do when they just want to say hello or tell you they’re leaving their house to come to yours etc. etc.  What they’ll do is call your phone and let it ring twice and hang up.  So you’ll have a bunch of missed calls!  It saves money because it doesn’t use minutes and doesn’t use text messages.  Something that was really cool for me was that at Boston University’s law program there are a lot of Milanese that go there so we could even work with these students when we go back home!   We also had a chance to practice some Italian so that was fun.  I think I’m finally starting to get the hang of it.  I’ve been really trying to speak in Italian intentionally today so that’s really helped a lot. 

After the briefing we went out to lunch and I ordered Spaghetti Carbonara.  It was yummy but I couldn’t finish it all!  Oh and in Italy you have to pay for water. LAAAAAME. 

Next, it was time to do some sightseeing!  We went straight to il Duomo.  It was SOO beautiful!!  I don’t understand how they built this place hundreds of years ago without the technology we have today and even today I don’t think anyone could build something as beautiful as il Duomo.  The painting on the dome was also breathtaking.  How could someone paint something so high up so perfectly… I just can’t wrap my head around it.  We then headed up more than 500 stairs to the top of the dome.  That was a work out!  The view from the top was gorgeous though.  MOTO BELLA!  :] 

After climbing il Duomo we headed back to the hotel to freshen up for dinner.  We went to dinner and I guess it was ok.  Kat and I split a pizza because we both weren’t that hungry and it would obviously be cheaper but no.  The waitress charged us for a second plate… and if she would have charged us 2 euro then ok I understand but she charged us both the amount for the pizza.  So basically she and I ordered a 15 euro pizza when it was 7.50 euro a pizza… SO DUMB.  Kinda ruined our night.  Then we went out for some gelato and that was alright too.  The pizza thing kinda killed our mood but whatevs. 

We didn’t have to be ready until 12:30PM today so I had planned on getting up to go running at 10 but… obviously that did not happen.  I didn’t sleep well again and that’s starting to get a bit annoying.  When we get to Florence tomorrow morning we’ll be staying in a hotel so hopefully I’ll sleep better. (We'll be in Florence for about 3 days receiving some cultural training from Crusade staff in Florence)

We all went back to our rooms to finish packing and since I had already packed when I got up I had some time to Skype with my family so that was nice.  Ethan was being a shy boy and a monster as usual. 

(guy in the middle is Ryan!)

The drive to Boston took about 2 hours and Whitney and I slept most of the time.  We got here and everything went smoothly: checking in, security, getting to the gate, etc. 

Location: Ashford, Connecticut