Hello from Italy! or Buongiorno! :)

Buongiorno di bella Italia!

It's been a couple of jam-packed weeks since we last updated! We have taken two 4-hour van rides, one plane trip, and nine trains to be in three countries (Belgium, Germany, & Italy) working with youth from four different military bases (S.H.A.P.E., AfNorth, Camp Darby & Aviano) in the last 14 days!

Throughout it all, we have felt so privileged to have the opportunity to work alongside so many wonderful men and women of Christ and to know that this is our life now!

On Valentine's day we left the S.H.A.P.E. (Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe) chapel for the middle school service project in Kaiserslautern, Germany! We worked with a local church there called City Mission and helped them with their ongoing ministry to the destitute population around them. We have NEVER seen a group of middle schoolers (from two different bases) work as hard or respect each other as much as we saw on this trip. In the evenings, after they had worked all day we had club times (like chapel) with a great speaker, Dale Mace who works with MCYM in Lakenheath, England. His theme verse was Genesis 1:27, and throughout the week we learned "because you're worth it!" It was an intense - physically, emotionally, and spiritually - four days, and we were so blessed to be a part of it! Especially since three of the girls from S.H.A.P.E. came to a saving knowledge of Christ during our time!

We got back to S.H.A.P.E. on Thursday night, and Saturday morning we flew to Pisa for a week at Camp Darby. Camp Darby is a much smaller installation, and as such there is only one MCYM staff person working there, Jessica, so she has to be very reliant on volunteers or handle the load alone. It was refreshing for her to have a "team" for the week.

We had the opportunity to run her middle school and high school club meetings (youth group), help serve the middle school students lunch on Monday, chaperone a high school ski trip on Tuesday, help with middle school girls group on Wednesday, and assist her with a huge BBQ fundraiser (for their high schoolers to go on service project) on Thursday!

On Saturday, we arrived at our next "assignment" assisting MCYM in Aviano, Italy. We hit the ground running on Sunday morning, helping with a big pancake breakfast (a fundraiser for their high schoolers' service project). Austin was able to perform some much needed maintenance on Pam(the community director)'s car on Monday, and we helped run their middle school and high school clubs on Tuesday! We will be here until the end of next week (March 13th), and will probably have many more stories by that time!
Thank you all for your continued prayers! It is so wonderful to know that we have such a big team standing with us in this ministry!

Anyone who would like to contribute financially is welcome to send their tax-deductible donations in the form of a check or money order to Harvest Bible Fellowship, 5567 Painted Rocks Road, Woodland Park, CO 80863. We are also able to accept donations through PayPal (click the "Donate" button in the right sidebar) which would allow you to use a major credit or debit card, or have funds transferred from a bank account. Donations made via PayPal are also tax-deductible.

Ciao!