Emily in real life

Answer to prayer

I’ve had 2 fantastic answers to prayer this week. I can’t wait to share them with you!

#1. I have found a wonderful church to be a part of, 20 minutes drive from where I’m living at the edge of Milan. In Italy there really are not many churches in the whole country that are growing, open, and Evangelical… let alone close enough to go to on Sundays. I found this church last May when my School of Worship outreach team came through Italy, and we served and shared at this church. When I returned in August, the pastor welcomed me to participate with the worship team and to talk about any other ministries that I would like to help with. You don’t get offers like that very often!

In Eugene with friends, we prayed for the transportation situation. Because the church is 20 minutes outside the city, and I don’t have a car or vespa, it would be impossible to make a commitment to go/serve every week.

Now, one very dear friend has offered (for the present time anyway) to drive all the way to pick me up and bring me to the worship practices and home again. AND another friend nearby has also joined the worship team, and so I will have a travel buddy on Sunday mornings on the intercity bus, as well as a ride from the station to the church. I am so grateful!!!! Thank you for your prayers friends… you know who you are. :D

#2. For some crazy reason, a very odd thing happened when I entered Italy. The officer at passport control did not stamp my passport. He should have, but instead he just handed it back to me. I looked up the government websites and it said that in this situation I had to fill out a “declaration of presence” form and take it to the police. Yesterday I was on a wild goose chase across the southern half of Milan looking for the station that was supposedly closer to area of the city.

It was 1:30pm by the time I was in the neighborhood, still searching for the building. Listen here. Fact of Italian culture. Police offices, banks, post offices, etc. close around 12:30 or 1pm for lunch, and sometimes that’s all you get. You go in the morning or you wait until tomorrow. They aren’t open for service in the afternoon.

Here I was, 2 hours into the search for the station, hopefully around the corner, and yet probably about 10 minutes away from being sent home. Oh yeah, and it was raining! Out of the blue, as I was turning the last corner, I felt this really strong urge to pray that God prepare the way ahead of me in the office: (1) that they would let me in even if it was closed, (2) help me get anything I lacked, even as far as making extra photocopies for me for free if the 2 I made were not enough, and (3) to finally stamp my papers! not just telling me to leave it, “there probably wont be a problem.”

So I prayed and when I arrived, they buzzed me into the building. My worst fear, the first man looks at my paper and says “I’m sorry, you’re going to have to come back tomorrow” (in Italian, of course). But then I saw my prayer answered right before my eyes! A second man behind the first says “No, wait, hang on. Let’s go ask.” I just looked at him knowing “it’s YOU! You’re the one God sent to answer my prayer!” So I waited a few minutes and then I got to speak with an officer. He was very kind. He spoke ENGLISH so I could explain exactly what happened with the ease of my mother language. Then he proceeded to STAMP my papers and… wait… no. There was a paper missing. It turned out I needed 3 copies. So he just ran to the other room and voilà, he made me an extra copy!!!!! I have no idea why I should have prayed for that 15 minutes before, but there he was… making me an extra copy that I didn’t even know I would need, just as I had prayed for!!!

O Dio. God is so amazing, so good, so thoughtful, so intelligent, so complete. Clever God. It was awesome to have Him help me with this errand which I began frustrated, my mood matching the gray rainy sky. It ended with worship and love!

P.S. New prayer request - I have been informed that new laws have been passed and I will not be able to stay in Italy longer than 90 days. And I cannot return to Italy again until I have been out of the country for 90 days. This is super strict and I was not aware of the new law. Also, work visas are no longer being given to Americans. The ONLY way to stay longer than 90 days is to get a student visa. Please pray with me that God directs and makes very clear how I should plan around this situation.

Broken

Last week, all of the staff of YWAM-Italy gathered and there were about 15 of us. There in Pescara, by the Adriatic sea just blue and dazzling at the edge of town, allowing a little breeze to come in through the windows and brush away at the humidity.

It was nice to see everyone, but it wasn’t especially touching until we all shared from our hearts about our dreams, our insecurities, and what we committed to contribute to the group.

When we were “real” in front of each other, exposing the hidden part of ourselves, invisible walls fell down that had been between us - either built there by our imagination or left there by unresolved miscommunication.

When you witness brokenness—people being real—we can see that we are all just humans, and we need each other. Sometimes it pays to reveal your brokenness when it opens a door for deeper, more profitable levels of relationship.

Verona

I’m in Verona for a week, the city of Romeo & Juliette! and my new friends, the Rinn family.

Lemon ice on a wooden stick. by Emily Saylor

Right now I cannot post pictures until my computer is fixed (hopefully early next month). But here’s a poem I wrote yesterday on our hike to the Castello d’ Arco. Maybe you’ll get some images in your head by reading this…

This is one of those sweet moments you want to remember forever, but it flies away from your memory like an autumn bird that has to keep flying.

The sweetness is pale on my tongue. Lemon ice on a wooden stick. Above a wilderness of fig, olive, cactii, on a staircase of rocks, we find the little meadow paradise where we rest from the climb and wish we could believe our eyes. The lake and village far below, like another world running on a different clock.

The lemon is better this mild. Illusive flavor, I have to want it to taste it. The thick blue sky stands behind our backs, reaching over us to tend the mess on the horizon floor — brown stone, charcoal mountains, green cornfields, artist’s palette gardens. The villages are inhabited mosaics, alive on the valley floor.

This is the moment we try not to forget. So we feel it deeper. It’s like the pale tone of the rose petal whose ink deepens as it approaches the tip. And it has to end because it has an end. Like when a pirate captain ushers you to the plank, your last sure steps encounter an endless pale ocean.

riposo

After 3 months of intense program during the SOW (School of Worship) lecture phase; then 2 months of intense traveling during the SOW outreach to 8 countries; then an intense graduation week in Budapest; then a middle-of-the-night flight to Italy (that’s why it was cheap); and finally a 1-week kids’ camp in Northern Italy… it’s time for a rest!

And what a lovely place to rest. Lake Garda is a major tourist destination—a stunning mountain panorama backdrop, nestled between the Dolomite Mts and the Alps; the beautiful blue lake (largest in Italy); and too-charming towns around the rim and up the mountains with castles here and there.

I’m priveledged to be staying here while I volunteer with Bethel Ministries, a retreat place on the top of Mt Velo. I was only possible for me to come here because of the Dillis’ generosity to host me while I volunteer my help.

Cool blue/white skies. There’s a grand view of splendid rocky wooded mountains, a gentle breeze on my face, soft sunshine warming my back, and the sound of clear spring water constantly trickling in the fountain by the garden. I’m so thankful to be in this place while I rest, pray, listen, praise, and wait for guidance.

Meanwhile, I’m also helping the Dillis family with cleaning and preparation for their guests at the retreat, helping with the many household chores for a family of 6 living on a rural property, and learning from their knowledge and experience in cooking, organic gardening, operating a retreat, and as foreigners transplanted in Italy 7 years ago (they’re from Belgium).

glory to God part 2

and here is the reponse I sent my family the very next day June 19:

Hey!

I’m in Budapest! It is so great to be here. So much happened since we woke up Friday morning wondering how the heck we were going to get through the next 10 days… one detail after another has been worked out - thank you GOD!! Some people felt they should donate train tickets for the first part of our trip (to Belgrade), then one of the girls received money and was able to pay for dinner last night and the train tickets to Budapest, then we all grabbed every last Hungarian Forint coin we could find in our leftover currency collections and we had just enough to buy bus tickets back to the base! Then we got a text mssg that food had been taken care of for this week and breakfast would be waiting for us at the base. Then in the train, our compartment mates left before 1am and we managed to actually sleep half the night laying flat!

sighhhh :)

We got to the base in Budapest at 6am and there, in our welcome baskets were unlimited transportation passes for the whole week! I don’t know how they were able to do that!? And… schedules, and guess what? we’re going to a ballet at the opera house on Wednesday and eating out 3x this week. Queue the hallelujah chorus!!!!!!! [the transportation, ballet, and dining out were a gift from a church in Alabama]

My top 3 highlights of today
~ we’re in a place we know
~ we know we’ll be here for more than just 6 days
~ someone already knows what we’re doing for the entire week and gave us a schedule
~ I can relax, knowing this

… but there’s still more awesome news aside from all that … just before we left Serbia, I was able to have a skype appointment with the couple that runs the retreat center on Lake Garda [Northern Italy]. They invited me to come as soon as I’d like and I can stay as long as July 29 and as long as I’m helping, I can stay as their guest! Holy merciful Jesus Christ! YAYYYYYYY! …They’re running a VBS like program for local Italian kids June 30 - July 4 and would like help, the week after will be free for relaxing. double sighhhhhh :)

Thank you so much for praying already before now. Clearly God was listening and proved Himself faithful once again!