Quick Read

Here I’m going to write a condensed version of the previous month. You can find a more detailed read of each update below.

At the beginning of the month I arrived home from my long journey of driving an outreach team all around Italy. The team that I chauffeured gave me a generous gift of $1,000 and after praying I used a portion of that gift to answer my transportation prayers and buy a small scooter that another missionary was selling for $600! I had 7 days of rest and office work before I went strait into the Kingdom Camp where my expectations were blown out of the water when I saw every participant completely transformed! one of the young men will join our upcoming DTS. Immediately after the Kingdom Camp I went strait into a University camp with a ministry called Valley of Hope. all the people at this camp were more mature believers so we spent most of our time seeking God together and growing in our brotherhood. It was a very fun adventure and there is a lot of fruit already showing from this camp. After that camp I had 2 days to get as much work don as possible before a week of “new staff training and staff retreat”. After the time of R&R I clearly felt the Lord lead me to make a big change in my life! I will be leaving the Communications & Mobilization team and joining our DTS Staff team for the upcoming DTS! Read below so see how The Lord lead me to make this decision! I have also reevaluated my budget as my expenses will temporarily change as my responsibilities are changing in this season, especially if I end up going on outreach. We will start sending teams of Italians to the Middle East and keep an eye out for a possible podcast and short video updates on Insta and Facebook.

The Scooter

As I arrived back in Arco I was feeling burned out from the week of constant travel I had offered to the outreach team we had hosted. I knew that I only had one week to recover and prepare my teaching for the upcoming week. I had been craving the mountains, because that’s where I normally connect with God the nest so I scheduled a day to go on a solo hike to spend some 1 on 1 time with God. As I was getting ready for the day I started my quiet time, reading some scripture. As I started reading I realized that I hadn’t really gotten quality quiet time and I kept getting more and more hungry for The Word as I was reading. When I was finished I realized that 4 hours had passed and I it was time for lunch! This is exactly what I needed though! When I was done my feeling of burnout was gone and fire and hunger for The Lord had been reignited. My quiet time in the morning is now the most important part of my day. As I was finishing the preparations for my workshop teaching on using social media for The Kingdom of God I heard that our previous base leader was selling a scooter before he moved his family to the Netherlands. I was interested because this would be a great solution for my transportation struggles, but I didn’t have the finances budgeted yet. While I was asking God if I should try to purchase the scooter, I received a message from the leader of the team we had just hosted. He wanted to say sorry for the stress I had experienced while driving them for a week and gave me a gift of $1,000 to help cover some of my expenses during that time and as a thank you gift for my service. I saw this as a huge blessing and after praying about how to use it I decided to purchase the scooter for $600. This scooter has been a huge blessing to me and many others who I have allowed to borrow it.

Kingdom Camp

Going into this camp I was expecting the usual camp staff experience where I work my butt off the whole time in hopes that a few of the participants would experience God’s love and have their lives transformed. I was wrong. From the first night everyone was all in and nobody went home the same! I saw growth and transformation in every single person including myself and the other staff! I think every person at the camp and each relationship made will play a key role in the revival of Italy. One of the local Italian men even applied for the upcoming DTS. This is a historical moment as he will be the first local Italian from Trentino to go through our DTS! Hopefully the first of many!

Renew 24

I was so excited for this camp hosed by Valley of Hope! Hosted by a missionary family, the Testa family, these camps focuses on getting young Italians students from middle school age to university age into the mountains of northern Italy and teaching them how to enjoy God’s creation. In these camps they also provide ample opportunity to be vulnerable and open up about struggles back home. Then we help them seek healing from the Lord. The camp I attended was for university students. All who attended were already mature believers so the primary goal of this camp ended up being to Grow our brotherhood an men and enjoy a time of rest and retreat as we sought the Lord together. We had time to dream together and seek how we can work together to bring the great harvest God has prepared in Italy. I look forward to working with Valley of Hope in the future!

Intro/Staff Retreat

Shortly after returning from the VOH camp I found myself working as much as possible so I would be free to participate in the Intro and Staff Retreat that started in a couple days. My team and I were able to get enough media prepared so that we could be fully present in the training and Staff Retreat. This was my first time is an official “retreat”, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. As soon as we Had our first worship time together after arrival I knew this was going to be so refreshing and was much needed. One of our values as a Base is being Rooted in Community. One of the ways we practice this is by having our long-term staff live in different houses scattered through the valley. This allows us to invest many small local communities but can make it difficult to remain a constant part of each others lives in between schools. Having a few days to seek God together as one base in a beautiful location without cell service was the perfect solution to find a place of unity and rest before the next school starts this month.

!CHANGE OF PLAN!

Throughout this month I had been asking God about my purpose in Italy because I knew He hadn’t fully reveled of His plans for this season of my life yet. As I was praying He kept bringing up “Discipling young Men”. I know this is something that I really enjoyed in the past and used to be a regular part of my life in the states and as I Christian I believe that Discipling others should be a part of everyone’s life. Discipleship is a lifestyle, not just something you do for a season. I had already started discipling a few young men in my community, So I wasn’t sure why God kept bringing it up in my prayer times. During the staff retreat we were spending a lot of time praying into the upcoming DTS and one of the challenges we were facing was that we have more male students than female students accepted in the school and we didn’t have any male DTS staff to lead and walk with them in this very important upcoming season of their lives! While we were at the retreat I was approached by some members of the base Core Team and they said they recognized a gifting for discipleship in me and saw how I was discipling some of the local guys I had met. They asked if I would be willing to leave the communications & Mobilization team and join the DTS Staff team for a season. I would have immediately turned them down because I was verry committed to the way I was currently serving the base and I knew people were counting on me to use my skills with the camera and in editing, but because God had already been speaking to me about discipleship I told them I would pray about it. As I prayed I had one of those “So this is what you’ve been talking about” moments. I told the Core Team that I would do it if the Comms & Mob team would be willing to release me. Long story short God opened all the doors and I am now the newest member of the Global Missions Trail Blazers' DTS Team! He has only confirmed it more as I have started taking steps into this decision. This will be a challenging season of growth for me as I haven’t experienced this type of discipling where I am walking day in and day out with the young men I’m discipling for 6 consecutive months. There are a few thong that are giving me peace about my decision. The first is that we have at least 2 new staff that will be joining the Comms & Mob team in the next week that will help fill the hole that I am leaving. The second is that one of the challenges that we were facing in the Comms & Mob team was that the footage that the DTS Staff would capture for us wasn’t exactly what we were looking for and was difficult to use for the style and quality of videos we wanted to make about the AMAZING things God is doing in and through the teams we are training sending. This is one area I will definitely be able to help in while I am serving in the DTS Staff team. My plan is to return to the Comms & Mob team after this DTS is finished. Shortly after I joined my new team we received an application from one of our previous DTS graduates! Johnathan is a young Italian man who is my age and he has helped me translate some of my video captions before posting them. He’s totally on fire for Jesus and I’m very excited to work closely with him while we staff this upcoming DTS with Laura, Becca, and Janelle, Amazing women of God who are also leading and staffing the school. Keep me and the team in your prayers as we journey into this adventure that awaits us.

Closing

I pray and think about everyone back home in the States every night, sometimes unable to fall asleep. I’ve never missed you more than I do now and I’m looking forward to the next time I get to visit you all and hear all the things God has been doing in your lives. I will continue doing my best to keep you all updated on all the massive losses our enemy is constantly experiencing as The Lord continues to flow like a river in the wastelands, bringing life everywhere. Another prayer point is our base will be sending an all Italian team to an undisclosed country in the Middle East. There is also a good chance that I might be helping lead our DTS students outreach phase to the same country in a few months. This is not safe, but it is where The Lord has been leading our base and the safest place we could possibly be is in The Lord’s will. One more prayer request is that I will need to increase my budget slightly if I end up leading the outreach team. Feel free to reach out via email, Insta, Facebook, or WhatsApp if you have any questions or prayer requests or just want to chat. Also I will likely be discontinuing the VLOG and replacing it with a Podcast and some shorter video posts on Instagram and Facebook providing short and specific updates as I am very awkward speaking into a camera for long periods of time by myself.