Prayer Request

Hey Everyone,

We are writing to ask that you pray for Carli on Wednesday. She has an interview with a Preschool here near our house. It would be a great answer to prayer if she gets this job. It would save her 10 hours a week of commute. Thank you for your prayers and support,

We love you all,

Justin and Carli

Be Still

Hello All! I am keeping this post short. I just want to share a few thoughts with you all from this week.
  
Some days I feel like the world is all turned sideways. I feel like everyone else is going about their normal lives and I am the only one who notices something is off. Then I get a chance to stop and take a step back and realize I was looking at the picture wrong.  That is what this week has been for me (Carli). I was out of work for the latter part of this week because of sickness.  I am so thankful for this break, because it gave me time to think. I think it is easy as humans to get so caught up in things that we have to get done in the day that we sometimes miss what God's purpose for the day is. I know I often get so caught up that I forget to slow down and just be still. This is something that Justin and I both strive to be better at this year. To be still and know that He is God. Everything else fades away in those moments, but what if they were not just moments? What if they were more than just moments and actually began to make up our whole day or week? It is something that we pray for ourselves and for you.  We pray that God will help you to slow down and focus on Him. To take every day captive and through this we could see the bigger picture of our purpose on this earth.

Moving on to my next thought... Justin wrote a little poem the other day and I thought it was very beautiful. (I may be a little biased.) I thought some of you might enjoy reading it too.

"The day shows hints of spring, beauty that has not yet arrived. The light waits on its time. It must wait still until the blossom of the bud. Still those who stay in darkness know not of the grace which has already shown its splendor. It shows not with hints and glimmers; as if to be holding back in secret. The light of this passing world shone brightly but was forgotten. All was but lost and yet the light, yet faint began to grow however many do not see or hear. Spring comes to those who love it, not just to those who enjoy its beauty."


Thank you for reading and praying for us. We are so thankful!
Carli & Justin

A few prayer needs:
*Justin is preaching at Mosaico Church on Sunday
*Carli starts Italian language classes this week
*Continued direction about ministry opportunities here

Winter 2014

Justin & Ryutaro

Hey Everybody,

We can't believe we are over half way through January. We both worked more than usual this week which was good and challenging. Carli struggled at work this week. She knows that she loves working with kids, but ever since she has returned to work she has not had a peace about the situation.  Please pray for direction in this area of her life.  If there is something else she needs to be doing, we pray that it would be made evident.

Last Sunday at church we learned about what church looks like as a community. It was very challenging and insightful.  We as a church hope in the coming months to begin two community groups.  One will be for the large amount of college students that study abroad in Florence.  We have been so encouraged by the steady flow of students each new semester brings.  Most of them have an eagerness to serve and learn. The other group will be for long term residents of Florence.  In both groups we will be going through a series on the basics of the church. Our prayer is that in the coming months our core group will be in one accord and grow in strength.

Now that all of the Christmas and New Years festivities are complete we are beginning to see our friends with have been ministering to on a regular basis again.  Please pray for these relationships to continue to grow and that God would continually give us opportunities to share Him with them. We may have mentioned them in past blogs, but here are four of them: Clotilde (retired lawyer and Justin's student), Sergio (native Florentine who we eat with every week), Ryutaro ( young Japanese believer searching for direction in his life), and Simona (young woman from Romania who is searching for truth).

Thank you for your prayers and love.

Justin & Carli

A New Week

Hello everybody,

We hope that you all had a great weekend and Epiphany. We are back at work and going about our week as usual. Last weekend, we had a great dinner with some friends who aren't believers. They wanted to have us over to recap from before Christmas. We have had some good discussion with them about spiritual things and have made a good friendship with them. We also took our time cleaning our house this past weekend because we have a little mold problem. Since many of the homes in Florence don't have dryers, we have to dry our laundry indoors. This of course, causes moisture and leads to things like black mold. We finally broke down and bought a dehumidifier, (thanks to New River) and hope to have a much dryer house in the coming days.

Carli and I have been searching and praying for a solution to Carli's job problem. She enjoys where she works, except she doesn't get paid on time. I spoke with someone in Florence at another school about Carli's predicament and so we sent her Curriculum Vitae over for the director of this school to look over. Please pray for this job that she potentially may get. We need her to be closer to home and not work so much so that she can devote more time to the ministry needs of the community.

Finally, please pray for our spiritual direction. We feel like we are where we need to be, but we are asking for clarity with how we can be used in this new church plant. We are willing to serve as much as we can, we just want it to be God leading and not us trying to make something happen. Our core group of believers is small but is united when it comes to making much of Jesus in this city. This is our prayer for our neighborhood, communities and nations within these city walls.

We wanted to post a picture of our square near our house. This square holds lots of people each and every day. The "Piazza" is something that we are unfamiliar with in the US but is part of the Italian culture. Tons of people from this section of town meet here throughout the day. Older people come to talk to life long friends in the morning and hundreds of young folks gather late into each night talking and smoking pot. This is where community happens for so many who are lost in Florence. Do we as the bride of Christ have a real community? This is a question every one of us should ponder.

Thank you for your support and prayers as we all work for His Kingdom,

Carli and Justin

Welcoming the New Year

Happy New Year everyone!

Carli and I just returned to home after taking a Christmas break with our families for the last two weeks. We really enjoyed our stay and are grateful to everyone who blessed us with all the good food and company. We are excited to get back to work and ministry here in Florence. The Lord has given us rest and we are praying to stay faithful and obedient this new year with His plans for our lives.

First please pray for Mosaico Church.  It is a recent church plant here in our neighborhood. If you would like to check it out here is a link to the website: http://mosaicochurch.org/ We are praying that the Lord raises up long term leadership in this church plant. Next we are praying for Carli's current job situation. Her contract will end in June, so in the coming months we will begin searching for a new job. Please pray that the Lord shows us where she needs to be working. We ask that you pray for Justin as he starts back work tomorrow. Pray that he can balance both work and studying for his driver's license in the next few months. Finally, we ask that you pray for our visa renewal. We hope all goes smooth this next month with immigration so that we can continue to stay in Florence. We are trying to get better at blogging so expect us to write more often this year and please take note that we have changed the name of our blog.

Thanks so much again for your support and prayers.

Carli and Justin