Buon giorno!

The drive wasn’t too bad… I was a bit exhausted just because I hadn’t been able to sleep well the past few days.  I think it was just the fact that I wasn’t really settled anywhere yet and also just being anxious about the trip.  Hopefully I can sleep better tonight.

When we got to the Christian retreat center we’re staying at in Ashford, CT., we first met Kat and Brittany.  Kat is on staff with Crusade at the regional office in Boston and Brittany is going to be a sophomore at Purdue.  She is the youngest one here!  Kat and Brittany were both so friendly right when we walked in which was a relief.  Caleigh and I were so nervous to meet everyone else because we just didn’t know what to expect.  Brittany showed Cenia, Caleigh, and me where we would be sleeping so we could leave our luggage there.  All the girls are staying in one huge room with about 8 bunk beds and a communal bathroom.  I can already tell it’s going to be so great living in community with these girls, there all so loving and love the Lord so much!  Whitney is from North Carolina and going to be a junior at Appalachian State.  Sarah is from New York and goes to one of the SUNY schools there and she’s going to be a senior.  Kari goes to a university in Colorado and she’s from the 303!!  She is so full of energy, I love it! She is also going to be a junior.  There is only one guy student on the project… Pat.  Poor Pat. HAHA well, I mean he’ll be fine.  He’s 23 and goes to a SUNY school in New York as well.  He’s Italian so he knows some of the language.  There are 2 other Crusade staff members here:  Ross and of course Ryan the project leader.  Everyone has connected so well so far!

Once everyone got to know each other a little bit, Ryan started asking us questions just to discuss as a group.  He asked us what we were looking forward to and what our fears were, etc.  I’m sure you can already think of some of the things people said.  I said that my fear was that I wasn’t going to find anyone that wanted to go running with me every morning!  Thank goodness about half the people said they would go so that’s good because I would not go running alone in Milan.  Pat said he’s a runner so it will be nice having a guy run with us for security (even though Jesus is security enough of course).

After we did our little discussions the girls all came back to the room and that’s where we are now.  We’re all either reading our Bibles or journaling right now.  It’s so nice to be living in community with all these beautiful girls I love them so much already and I barely know them!  Imagine if the school year was like this… living with all Christian girls who journaled and read their Bibles every night… we would keep each other so accountable! 

When we were discussing our fears, Ryan brought up a good point that some people think we’re idiots for going to Milan and attempting to start a movement for Christ there on their university campuses.  We’re basically starting from scratch… in a foreign country… where there will be cultural barriers… and where people speak a different language.  How in the world are we going to start this big spiritual movement with just 11 of us!  But you know what, I have faith that it will happen.  With God anything is possible.  I’m currently reading 1 Samuel and today I was reading 1 Samuel 14 and my study Bible said this about verses 1-6,

“Jonathan and his armor bearer weren’t much of a force to attack the huge Phillistine army.  But while everyone else was afraid, these men trusted God, knowing that the size of the enemy army had no relationship to God’s ability to help them.  God rewarded the faith and brave actions of these two men with a tremendous victory.  With Him, there are always enough resources to resist he pressures and win your battles.  If God has called you to action, why not commit what few resources you have to God and rely on Him to win the battle for you.”

Milan is like the Phillistine army and the 11 of us are Jonathan and his armor bearer.  As long as we have faith that the Lord will win the battle for us… we can definitely start a spiritual movement in Milan.