Ciao da Italia

I suppose it is safe to say that life has changed since I last updated this blog! I have been living in Italy for a little over 9 months now and it seems like just yesterday I was packing up my things to make the big move to Europe. I have learned a lot in the last 2 1/2 years of ministry and I know that I still have much more to learn. Italians have a very different way of life than Americans. Reposo (or literally "relax") happens here every day from about 12-3pm. All shops, gas stations, offices, etc. are closed during reposo. Every August Italians take a vacation month, forget about trying to get anything offical done or any work on utilities during this month, you will be lucky to even find a restaraunt that is open! Fireworks at midnight on a Tuesday night...sure why not? A 3-4 hour dinner...completely reasonable. Road rules? Standing in line? Not really necessary. While all of this sounds a little frustrating and crazy to a hectic American (especially working in a military culture) it makes for interesting experiences! It also forces you to slow down and plan ahead. Needless to say, I'm learning a lot. The students I work with here at Caserma Ederle are awesome! Frequent and long deployments during this 8 year war make these kids tough and resilient and a little fragile at times too. While I am missing friends and volunteers during this current year long deployment, my students are missing fathers and mothers. Please pray for these students as they finish out this school year and head into summer, some will be graduating and moving to the States for college, some will be moving to a new community...for the 11th or 12th time and others will be hanging out with me this summer. This school year has been a blur. It was my first year as a Community Director and there has been a lot of learning, lonliness, successes and failures, laughter, tears, obstacles and fun! I could tell you about all of the awesome things that have happened, but I think pictures can do it better justice...

Time Flies

Hi everyone! I know it has been a while since my last post. The pace of this job seems to catch up with me sometimes. It seems like just yesterday the school year was starting and now we are almost at Christmas break! I don't know where the semester has gone. I look back to Canoe trips and BBQ's, to Costume Parties and bowling with frozen turkeys and at all of the new students I have met since September. I am excited about the relationships I have built and the conversations I have had. I think about all of the meals I've shared with students in the cafeteria or at my house on Sunday nights with my girls small group and I realize that even though it has been a difficult semester, a rebuilding semester, it has been a good semester. I thank you for your prayers and support. I love this ministry and I love these students.

Now that I have looked back at this semester in review I can start looking forward, to Christmas. I am especially excited this Christmas because I am coming home. I have not been home since February. That is a long time away from you, my family and friends. I have a beautiful niece that I am so excited to meet! I would love to get together with each of you. If you have the time or can make the time, please email me ( laura.a.livingston@gmail.com ). My trip would not be complete without sharing a meal or even just a cup of coffee with my partners in ministry and friends.

Whether I see you or not, I pray that you will have a wonderful Christmas Season!

"God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us." 1 John 4:9-12 (NLT)

Beach Break

Ciao Bella!

June 12-19 we took a group of 16 high schoolers from Heidelberg to join about 250 other students from American military bases around Europe to Livorno, Italy for a week long camp. From June 21-28 we took 30 middle schoolers to join about 300 other students back to the same camp. We slept in tents and enjoyed some amazing sites and a great speaker who shared God's love with them. The weeks activities included visits to the cities of Lucca, Pisa and Cinque Terre (which is actually 5 cities along the Mediterranean connected by a train). We also spend 2 days at the beach and 1 day at a water park. In the evenings we had club with funny skits, silly songs and an amazing speaker, Bill Paige. We also took our students to a carnival, a "county fair" (which was really just a chance for the students to dunk, pie or "shave" their leaders....it was a lot of messy fun), an entertainment night where all of the leaders performed in funny skits for the students, as well as a big block party dance the last night. We also had "tent time" every night were we really got down to the heart of the week and were able to ask our students the tough questions and see where they really were in a small group setting. At the end of high school week approximately 40 kids committed their lives to Christ and around 50 committed or recommitted their lives during middle school week. It was an amazing (and exhausting) 2 weeks but completely worth it! Thank you for your continued prayers and support. I still can't believe that God is allowing me to do this and I'm so excited that you can be a part of it!

They grow up so fast!

On June 6th the Heidelberg American High School Class of 2008 graduated downtown. There was the usual pomp and circumstance (pun intended) as well as indoor fireworks! (Something I'm guessing you would never see in the states.) It was a great ceremony. With this graduation came the end of the school year and with the end of the school year came a large number of PCS's (Permanent moves, many back to the states.) 3 out of the 4 girls in my small group moved back to the states. Please pray for all of the families that are readjusting to life in the states as well as to their new homes, schools and friends. Also pray for the students who are preparing to go to college back in the states. This will be their first time living an ocean away from their families. While it is sad to see so many students leave, it is also exciting to think of all the new relationships we will have the opportunity to build this new school year. Please pray for us as we are welcoming a new Community Director and planning for the Fall.

English and Power Tools

As usual I must apologize for my infrequent posts. I'm sure you understand how busy life gets sometimes. So I warn you, this is a long post. Hang in there if you can, there is some good stuff! I wanted to give a quick update on our AMAZING service project to Opava, Czech Republic. More information and pictures to come. Also, if you are on my mailing list please look for my newsletter coming to a mailbox near you shortly! (Hopefully it will be your mailbox or I have the wrong address!) If you are not on my mailing list but want to be, shoot me a quick email with your info.
Ok, diving in...April 4-12th we took 35 high school students to Mendolova Gynmasium to do ESL programs (English as a Second Language) as well as a small building project (we built a Pergola to be used as an outdoor classroom.) Our students gave up their Spring Break and various trips with their families to warm destinations all over Europe to serve the students who ranged in age from 10-20 in Opava. Opava is considered the "black hole of spirituality" in the Czech Republic and pastors as well as teachers from all over the area have been praying that someone would come and help them share the gospel with their people. To them, we were that answer. We really focused on building relationships with these Czech Students as well as serving them throughout the week. At the beginning we were met with some hesitation...this country was ruled by communism for years and years, but by the end of the week we were able to pass out bibles to students we had friendships with in both Czech and English as well as exchanging emails and pictures. At night we went back to the hotel where we were staying to join with about 360 other students doing Service Projects through MCYM at other sites around the area. We had some amazing worship music and truly wonderful speakers who challenged and encouraged our students.
I personally had a great time just sitting down at lunch with these Czech Students hearing about their lives and answering questions about mine, as well as really building relationships with the students we brought on the trip. It was a wonderful time to just hang out and get to know them and we pretty much had the freedom to talk about anything we wanted in the school as long as it was in English (which was helpful since none of us speak Czech.) The picture attached is my small group. I had a blast getting to know them and have had even more fun sharing life with them since we have been back home! Please pray for these girls. They are seeking God and I have seen some definite growth since we have returned.
Please pray for the Czech students that we have built relationships with and the seeds that we hopefully planted, as well as the local Young Life staff person, Jirka, who is starting up a ministry at this school. Also pray for our students that they won't lose that "camp high" but will have forever changed lives!
I leave you with an email from an American missionary in Opava. This is a snippet of some of the amazing things that were happening behind the scenes as well....

I've been getting some responses back from people involved in the Service Project this week, and I've been very pleased with the results of this project. It seems that the project rearranged a LOT of people's perceptions of Christianity and Christians... and challenged a lot of the Christians in their walks. On Sunday, Mr. Gebauer (Brian’s Principal) was invited up to talk about what happened, and he choked back tears as he described the power of seeing 50 kids walking around his school for over a half hour praying for his students that first Sunday afternoon. He also talked about how grateful he was for the opportunities he had to share his faith throughout the week because of the MCYM kids. At the Elim staff meeting on Monday, the conversation changed from the question we've long discussed ('Can transformative ministry even happen with the kids here at Elim?') to 'How can we create transformative ministry for our kids here?' It's a HUGE step in a very short time. We plan to talk through philosophy of ministry next Monday morning to give them the tools to think about how it can happen. One (non-Christian) staff member at Elim said that the place was pulsing last week with such a positive spirit that she wants you back much more often! This is remarkable that she felt this considering the fact that she does not even speak English. (Vera spent some time with her today talking with her about her testimony and telling her about the One who gives this Spirit.) This woman also told us that her daughter goes to Sramkova (Pam's site), and that the change in the atmosphere at the school was tremendous (that school needed it, and I challenged the MCYM kids on the first day there with this... apparently they took me seriously!). Apparently her daughter cried when she got sick on Friday and couldn't make it to say 'good-bye'.

One night we invited the principals of the schools to our evening program to thank them for letting us invade their schools. After their part, the regular evening program of worship and Bible teaching continued. The principal sitting next to me was amazed when he saw 360 teens singing. I spent the next half hour trying to explain that worship is a perfectly normal thing for Christians. Our discussion touched on Bach, the Hebrew Psalms in the Bible, and Charles Wesley as I pointed out that Christians throughout the ages sing praises to God. At one point he even argued that the music we provide is surely very different from the music in churches, or they wouldn't sing like this. The obvious reply as they started singing 'In Christ Alone'... I'm sure that the vast majority of these kids sing these songs in their churches at home. Instead of dull, unengaging and typical teenagers, this one person saw these Christians as transformed, vibrant and completely different from his students. Again, one person's shattered presuppositions about Christians.

One other interesting thing I found out later (but didn't include in my newsletter)... apparently Jirka was having a very similar conversation with another school official that night a little to my left, and the Gebauers were having the same conversation with the city official that evening a little to my right. It's apparently something God wanted to teach that evening across the board.