Since I last updated, a lot has changed in the world. Life is like that sometimes.
It seems that since I've been gone a lot of chapters back home have ended, making way for new ones to begin, for new plots and story-lines to develop, for new characters to arrive, leave, and for new types of growth to occur. Thanks to Facebook, email, and the occasional Skype phone call I can see my loved ones embarking upon adventures of their own, these adventures coming in the forms of soccer camps to Brazil, new relationships developing, graduations, motorcycle trips across the US, babies on the way and arriving, screenplays being written, trips to China to pick up a precious adopted son, packing up and moving to new states, homes, jobs, and world travels of their own being planned and started. It's amazing how quickly things can change, and how in a mere four months a life can suddenly become almost unrecognizable from what it once was - in a beautiful way.
In the last month a great deal has changed in my life as well. When I last updated, I had recently left Taize, and was in Perugia, Italy, located in the Umbria region. Beautiful, let me tell you, and my time there was not what I expected when I arrived, but certainly turned out to be a greater blessing than I could have imagined. I spent roughly two weeks in Perugia relaxing, being Italian, learning the language, recuperating from 2.5 months of constant movement and travel, and basically: breathing. Perhaps more detail on Perugia later.
I left Perugia and went back to the Rome area to get ready for my flight to Brussels, where I would meet up with the people and organization with whom I would be serving in student ministry for two weeks at camps. (More on these camps later for certain). However, due to some last minute necessary changes, I ended up postponing my flight to Brussels by a week, and instead took a trip to Croatia and through Slovenia for a long weekend. It was glorious, it was necessary, it was productive, and it was filled with unexpected blessings, new opportunities, and new paths one could potentially pursue. While in Croatia one of the priorities was to make sure a "Happy Birthday" was issued to the one and only Z-bud, who turned 12 last month. One of the biggest downsides to traveling is missing your brothers' birthdays, or rather celebrating them overseas and far away from them. ;)
Back from Croatia the next week, life had flip-turned upside down, as the Fresh Prince would say. That following Wednesday I flew from Rome to Brussels via another RyanAir flight with a lot on my mind, but anxious to serve in the upcoming student ministry trips. In Brussels I stayed for only two days before heading out on a charter bus for an 18 hour drive down to Italy with high school students for a week of what they call "Beach Week" - a camp for military kids, to camp, experience the beautiful Italian scenery, live it up for the week on the Mediterranean, cliff dive, hike, visit Cinque Terre, Pisa, Lucca, Elba, and generally bask in God's beautiful creation. The organizations affiliated with this trip are MCYM, Club Beyond (like Young Life but in Europe), among others. So the first week was high school, the second week was middle school, and we were simply camping and hanging out with the students, making them laugh, having countless opportunities to serve them, while traveling with them, singing with them, dancing with them, exploring with them, and making time for conversation with them about whatever may be on their beautiful hearts. Those two weeks were filled with tremendous blessing, and I have now met so many new kids whose hearts are precious, whose lives are priceless, whose stories are unfinished and full of promise, and whose capacity and potential are endless. It is my prayer that they realize how truly beautiful and worthwhile they are, how much their own two hands are capable of, and that to believe in impossible things is not only something inspiring, but it is a perspective this world needs, for I believe it is not that reality is locked in, but that we have become people that have forgotten how to imagine, and therefore create, inspire, and dream.
Between the high school and middle school Beach Week trips, another volunteer leader Molly and I had the opportunity to explore Italy a bit as tourists for the weekend, so I brought Molly down to Rome to explore and feed her love for architecture and travel. We spent Saturday touring Rome, then Sunday laying around at the beach in Latina, Italy, relaxing and recuperating from high school Beach Week 1, getting ready for Beach Week 2 with the middle school students, which was just as incredible as the first week had been. Two weeks of exhausting but worthwhile ministry, and I think I'm still catching up sleep.
So where am I now? Well, I decided to stay in Italy after the Beach Week trips, and there are some more ideas for travel in mind. But there are one or two things here the Lord and I have decided to pursue, so pursue them we shall. At this point I'm unclear on when exactly I'll be stateside once again - given the flurry of changes the last month has brought, I could be back as late as early November - we'll just have to see how it all pans out. But in the meantime, life is still happening, change is still occurring, and having past the planned out parts of my existence this year, I now venture into uncharted territory, unsure of what tomorrow brings but thrilled to be making the journey and continuing to explore all this life has to offer, continuing to learn what it means to love and to serve, and continuing to have adventures as I meet people, hear stories, learn how to listen, pursue the Lord, learn more about myself, find purpose and calling, and discover what it means to live rather than simply survive. More on that later...
I love you all, and my prayers are with you. Hope to see you sometime this year. But for the moment, I live in Italy. How did life get to be so blessed? ;)
"I know I'm searching for something
Something so undefined
That it can only be seen
By the eyes of the blind"
-Billy Joel, "River of Dreams"
"Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans."
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