Oh my gosh; im in a hurry

Thursday July 22

Ok, plane came in, we got our bags from the luggage carousel, we gave everyone their things from various bags, and then everyone left for home. I had to ride with Debbie Douglas since my car was parked at her house. We were all pretty tired; the goodbyes were pretty short. I was carrying around $9,000 for Mark Gosvener in my pocket, so that was pretty exciting... especially in the security checkpoints where they frisk you down. Anyways, we are moving on here, I got home, saw my cousin Greg and went right to bed at around 2:00PM. The basement is nice because there are no windows. If I shut my door and turn the lights off, its total darkness. It works out pretty well. I woke up around 11:30PM and stayed up all night unpacking, washing clothes, and re-packing for Italy. I found out from Tayler Younge that there was a meeting planned on the 21^st at 7:00PM, which for me was going to be like 3:00AM, so I got the rest of my stuff ready for Italy, and went to bed. I woke up around 6:30PM. Andrew Millikan was picking me up since I took my car off insurance. 

We went to the meeting. After the meeting I was going to try and hang out with some friends, but Andrew and I were totally sleepwalking...but totally safe to drive. Not to mention that it was about 9:30PM when we left. We wanted to hit up Target, then get something to eat. We ended up going to Wall-mart since Target was closed then to Fred Meyer because Andrew wanted a passport pouch like the one that Tayler and Shannon got for me. I ended up sitting down on one of the demo recliners; next thing I know Andrew is laying on the couch next to it.. We ate at the Hot Cake House on Powell. I have to say, Good food... a lot of food... but when you are jet-lagged and tired its more gut bomb than anyone needs to put into their body. I did it though, and it defeated me. I ended up crashing at Andrew's place and we went to the airport together with his brother Josh. Now we are all on the plane headed for Philadelphia. We have a 1 hour layover there before we head on to Rome...

Saturday July 24

We got to Rome yesterday. The craziest thing ever happened to me while I was waiting for people to finish freshening up at the airport bathroom. I was leaning against the wall, and I totally saw someone I recognized walk by... “Uncle Bob!” Bob Lewis is the Brother-in-Law of my Father's Brother's Wife. Think about that one for a bit. He is a pilot for Delta. This was his first flight into Rome for work I believe. I just couldn't believe that it was really him. I mean what are the chances that I run into my uncle in the Rome Airport? We talked for a little while, I Introduced him to the team, and then he had to go... It was nice to see him for that brief moment... aside from my amazement at the whole situation. Dennis has got me acting pretty paranoid. I half expected people to constantly be trying to steal all my bags, and reach into my pockets through out the day. It isn't as bad as I was expecting but that is because I was on full alert the whole time; suspecting everyone that walked close to me or that was standing idle to be a thief... I was eye-ing everyone.

We had to take the train from the Rome train station to the Napoli train station. It took around an hour to get there. This train was by far better than the last one. It was quiet, smooth, but the pressure changes in the cabin were the worst I have experienced; even on a plane. I was constantly popping my ears trying to clear the pressure. We pulled into the Napoli train station and walked another half mile to pile our luggage in a location at that station for about an hour and a half. We had to wait till Tony showed up to pick us up. Dennis has already prepped me on the whole lifestyle difference between here and the US, so I wasn't too worried about it. Italians will place relationships above schedules, so many times things go a little late. I love it. When Tony showed up, we piled our things into two vans and headed into Napoli to where we were going to be staying for the night. Shannon Todd and I were in one van and everyone else in the other. We were following Tony in the van in front of us. Our drive spoke no English.. and we basically speak no Italiano. The driver would turn around and aks something like a long question to us and wait for a response... I didn't know what to do, so I would just pull a trick I learned from one of my good friends and look at Shannon as if she were the one that he asked the question to. (Thanks Chris) We had a pretty fun ride, we ran out of gas while Tony wasn't watching is rear view mirror and were sitting on their freeway for a little while. He finally came back, pushed a button in the van, and started it back up and we drove to the hotel. The hotel is actually very nice. The rooms are small, but honestly... there is nothing there that you don't need. I think it is perfect size. Maybe that's because I am a sample size kind of guy. The balcony looks out on the concrete jungle, but it has this really cool metal door that slides up and down electronically. Its a shield for burglary, and it keeps the room very cool. It also blocks out all sunlight.. which caused us to sleep in somewhat later than planned.

So, we checked in, went with Tony to a pizzeria, ate some lunch around 3:50PM, then checked out his families house, met his wife (Angela) and child (Gabriel), who are both adorable, then back to the hotel to freshen up. We went back out later that night. We were going to go downtown Napoli to see some historica buildings, some castles, and to walk down the Spockanapoli road. The castles were sick, though I didn't get a chance to take any real pictures. The Spockanaploi road is a very old road that divides the two sides of Napoli. I don't know all the history of it, but it is basically like a Burnside, the way it divides Portland. There are tons of old buildings on that road, and tons of old alleys too. They are all VERY cool looking. Tony wanted to take us to a resturant on the road that he knew. It was amazing, authentic, Noepolitan food. I had Muscles and they were delicious. The seafood here is outstanding. The night ended, and we crashed when we got back to the hotel.. The night was memorable, however.

Also I might note that Andrew totally hit on an Italian hotel staff today. He said' “I think you and I are good together. You are very beautiful.” Her initial response was “No, no.” I was dying. Andrew left the breakfast area pretty quick. Dennis told me that she did tell him that he was also very handsome. I dont think he understood her when she said it though. Later before we left he asked her for a picture and she totally said no. Way to go Andrew. I am now ready for the mission to officially start.

We drove for a little while; dont think it was quite an hour. And we got to a little villa looking place. It was an old flour mill. And when I say old, I mean 1000 years old; it is half as old as Christ... It is the coolest place ever. I would build a house just like it. We we had our “Pronzo” around 3:00PM this is lunch... a multi-course lunch. We then went out and started preparing some of our “Equipment” for the games that we will be playing with the Youth. For those of you who do not know. This mission is an English-speaking camp. The youth are mostly from the Church in Casoria. Though this is a mission trip our goal is to share the gospel through relationships. We are not doing bible studies, or verse memorization.. we are teaching them to speak English and building relationships with them so that we might be able to share the gospel when they are comfortable with us. Most evangelism is when you go tell people about Christ and more or less confront them with some hard truths. Dennis looks at it like this; when you do street evangelism you are, in a way, trying to force a door open, whether their heart is open to Jesus or not. If God opens the door it is a divine opportunity rather than a forced one. I am down with that.

So, here we are trying out our “Equipment” I don't really know what else to call it... we have some water balloons and one of the giant slingshot launcher dealy-bobs. We needed to give it a whirl. So to try it out, we filled up 3 balloons, and went way back behind some bushes. We picked Dennis as our target, and let the first one fly. We launched it way past him. We loaded up the next one as quickly as we could and launched it... It landed close enough for him to hear. As quickly as we could; we loaded the third and pulled it back. Meanwhile, we could see Dennis turn around, having no idea what is happening, and ask Shannon.. “Was that a water balloon?!” We launched: direct hit... Shannon was sitting down at a picnic table reading her bible; we nailed her bible right in front of her...   More exciting things just happened, Stay tuned. sorry for any grammatical errors.