Tomorrow We Leave

It's hard to believe, but these months of preparation and planning have led to tomorrow when we finally take off for Italy. We have a few specific prayer requests to share with you.

• For safety as we travel tomorrow and Friday. Specifically, please pray that six in our group who got bumped to a later flight (meaning a nine hour layover) from Munich to Bologna would be able to get seats on the earlier flight with the rest of the group. This is huge because getting in earlier will give us a few hours more to rest and get over jet lag before we hit the ground running.

• For Mark and Ruthie Brucato as they and their team in Italy prepare for the camp in Bologna. Ruthie has been very sick lately, so please pray for a full recovery for her.

• For strength and stamina in the heat. The schedule during our time in Italy is pretty intense, so pray that we will be focused on the purpose of our trip. Also, I (Shelly) checked the weather this morning, and it looks like it will be in the 100s for the first few days that we're there. We will not have air conditioning in our hostel, and most of our days will be spent outside with the kids.

• For the Italian youth who attend the camp. Pray that their hearts will be open to hear the message that Jesus loves them and that lives would be changed this week.

Last Sunday, Todd Augustine gave a challenging message from Philippians 1:12-19, and it has stayed with me all week. He talked about the difference between the words "paramount" and "tantamount," and he said that "paramount" means above and beyond everything else as opposed to "tantamount" which means on equal footing. In this passage, Paul shows that the gospel is paramount to everything else in his life because even in his suffering in prison, Paul desires that the gospel go forth. Pastor Augustine challenged us to make the gospel paramount in our lives--that is, the overarching reason for everything we do.

That is our prayer as we go to Italy--that the gospel would be paramount. That we would not worry about our own personal discomfort, but that we would be most concerned that the kids with whom we play games and teach English next week would see Jesus above everything else.

Thanks for praying!