The Journey Continues

I have been meaning to post an update for several weeks, but life (as usual) is flying by at a rapid pace leaving little time for me to sit and write. However, I'm determined to keep a record of this missions journey we are on!

The first week of September, Stephen and I flew to Chicago for our Missions Placement Consultation, where we were picked up by Dave Davis who is on staff with our missions organization, TEAM. He drove us to the small town of Carol Stream, IL where the TEAM headquarters is located and dropped us off at the apartments where we would be staying for the next 3 nights.

After a good nights sleep, we walked across the parking lot to the office and reported for Day 1 of meetings with various members of the TEAM staff. We were a nervous and excited all at the same time, but felt right at home when we were greeted with a sign that said "TEAM Welcomes Stephen and Brandy Verner"! During the day, we met with 6 different people, were given a modern language aptitude test (which we were pleasantly surprised to score very well on), and had lunch at a great little Italian place across the street (how appropriate). After the day's meeting were done, we hopped a train into Chicago for some sight-seeing and some of the world's best pizza (aside from that in Italy, I'm sure).

Day 2 consisted of 5 more meetings, one of which was done over Skype (our first experience with video chatting). Then, with the help of a borrowed car, we drove to nearby Wheaton, IL for dinner. As we ate and talked about our time there, overall we felt very confirmed in our call and pleased to now be part of the TEAM family. The next day we headed back to Atlanta and life as usual.

About a week later, we received a letter stating that we were "officially appointees with TEAM"! You cannot imagine the wonderful feeling this brought after almost a year of working through the process to get to this point. However, we know that this is just the beginning of this journey God has called us to.

The next step is raising financial support. We are responsible for raising 100% of the money we will need to live and minister in Italy, plus the amounts needed for training before our departure and outgoing expenses to get us there. It is not a small figure, but we know that God is faithful to complete that which He has started. We are praying that God will raise up people who can catch the vision for what He is doing in Italy and join with us in prayer and financial support. The spiritual darkness there is great, but we are going to join the light that is already shining, growing stronger day by day. We know that God has a plan and a purpose for the people of Italy and we are honored to part of that. I invite you to join us...