Springing Forward While Looking Back

Happy Pi day! More accurately, happy gray, rainy, slightly sleepy Monday! What a perfect day for coffee, snuggling up on the couch and reading a good book. Too bad my near future doesn't include any of those things. Because, coffee is already in my past. Tear drop. I have no excuse for being tired, though, I accidentally got so much sleep last night. By accidentally I mean I went to bed at 10:45, thinking it was "actually" 11:45 with the recent time change, not realizing it would've "really" been 9:45. Time change, the struggle is real. Just don't go down that road of "but it's REALLY..." Embrace that new time, we're only prolonging our adjustment. Wow, this could get really deep really fast.

Anyway, why am I moving to Italy? To be a missionary volunteering with Gallery 4, using dance, art, and music to share the Gospel. Two big events shaped my life that helped prepare me for Italy. One was the first mission trip I ever went on when I was dancing with Ballet Magnificat. Before that, missions never appealed to me. I thought it was great that people were painting houses in Haiti and holding children in Africa, but it didn't seem right for me. In my second year with Ballet Mag, I went with the Events Company to Honduras, where we used ballet, performing and teaching, to share the Good News of Jesus. Using a skill set I had trained many years for, to bring glory to the Lord and as a first stepping stone to talk about Jesus? Yes please. Not only that, but to see a people who love Jesus like I do and how their culture shapes the way they worship and interact with each other, different strengths and weaknesses than American churches, was eye-opening to me. Having only traveled within America, the country where I was born, I suddenly wanted to learn more about different cultures, to try and understand how their world-views were formed, and for them to know Jesus. I realized on the plane ride home that if the Lord ever called me to missions, for the first time, I was open to it.

Events Company performing at a school in Honduras for over 1,000 students

The second event was when my parents, JohnPaul, and I took a 3 week vacation to Europe. We were able to go to London, Paris, Bologna, Florence, Cinque Terre, Orvieto, and Rome. I loved every second of it, (except leaving Paris, I shed a tear or two) but I left a part of my heart in Florence. I wanted to go back so badly. I love my home in Michigan, but the only two times I have not wanted to go back was flying home from Honduras and flying home from Italy.

About the same time we got back from Europe two friends of mine were heading to Florence, Italy, to work with a ministry called Gallery 4. Naturally I started talking to them about it, and soon I had decided to go see if it was something I might like to do. September-December of 2015 I spent with Gallery 4 as a vision trip. I was hoping three months would be enough, that I would have my fill of Italy and that would be it, but no. I came home shortly before Christmas and took several weeks to pray about returning longer term, but I think I knew that was where God was leading me even before I had left Italy. And so, on December 31, 2015, I made the decision to pursue moving back to Italy.

If you made it this far, thanks for reading, I feel pretty special. Coming soon, the process of moving to Italy and what's ahead!