Finally settled

A lot has happened in the last 3 weeks. Jim has been working so hard day in and day out to try and get the team settled. Being the only one with fairly fluent language skills.. a lot has been required of him. He has been to tons of apartments and finally found 2 that worked for the guys and the Burrages. The guys got to move in on thursday and the burrages yesterday. Everyone was really ready to sleep in their own bed. We have had the Gallo family with us since the 13th. That is 9 people in our apartment! They were great roommates and Turner loved having a kid his age to play with all of the time. The Gallos have an apartment now but are just waiting for the power and water to be turned on. Everything is a process! They have been living out of suitcases for over a month now and are sooo ready to be in their own place. Talk about a persevering family! Last night was our first night as just the five of us since July 28th... it was a really sweet time and we enjoyed just being together.

We went to the Italy briefing last week. It was great for us to catch up with old friends and coworkers! One thing we did learn is that a lot has changed since we left 4 years ago. The office team has been really working hard on making Crusade/Agape Italia into a legal, credible, above reproach organization here in Italy. Something they discovered is that EU citizens have very high privacy rights. That means that we cannot post any pictures, videos, or stories that are about them without their written consent. So, I will try to figure out how to update you the best I can about ministry without doing anything illegal.

I guess the main prayer request for the moment is for Jim. He has been speaking all day in Italian about very complicated matters that concern us registering with the city, getting social security numbers, finalizing apartment contracts with landlords and realtors, figuring out how to get our vonage phone to work with internet providers over here, etc. The list really does just go on and on. He is exhausted and we haven't seen him as much as we would like. But hopefully now that everyone is settled and a normal schedule starts tomorrow... he will feel a little more relaxed.

Thank yall for praying for us and I will update you again soon!