Preparing for Milano

I also decided a few weeks back that since my copy of my amended birth cert is now 20 years old, it MAY be time to get a newer one. I called the secretary of state’s office to see if they would put an apostille on it, and they said they would, but still….. seemed like a good idea to get a newer one. So I went to Norwalk to get a copy.

I was really impressed with the new computerized system… you swipe your drivers license and it picks up who you are, where you live, and sets you up to get your printed copy just like that. then…… it asks if you happen to be adopted……

why yes! I DO happen to have been adopted. no good it says, go to the information desk.

so I go to the information desk where I am told I’ll need to order one from Sacramento. Disappointed but undeterred, I go back home, go online and print out the form. I need to have it notarized so they know it is ME requesting the doc, so I go to the UPS store, present the ID and have the form notarized. put all the money in and send it off. Decided to check online how long the average wait is: 18 WEEKs!!!!

Guess I won’t be getting this anytime soon……

OK, just heard back from my family: they went to check for mom’s birth cert at the comune [town hall] and there wasn’t any record there. This happens because frequently the Consulate is WAYYYYY behind on sending the docs to the comune, so… i’m going to have to head back to the consulate here and find out what is happening.

I just went through a hernia surgery a few weeks ago, everything is basically normal except for a little fluid that is remaining and causing swelling to stay. Pray that it would go down.

Also I found out that a soccer injury I sustained last october was much more serious than I thought, and rather than a ligament being stretched, it actually tore a chunk of my pelvis off. I’m starting some physical therapy to see if i can get back to playing sports, but if that doesn’t work than my soccer career [if one could call it that  ; ) ] is basically over. Fortunately the injury doesn’t really stop me from doing anything except sprinting, so if the Lord needed to get me to stop playing, then this was as a gracious a way to do it as i could possibly imagine. But until I know it’s Gods will for me to stop, I’d like to keep playing. So just pray it gets better. Thanks

dave

don’t even bother looking at the comments on the site. I’ve been getting spammed for months now. I need to stay on it, but occasionally I forget for a few weeks and … like now for instance.. i find myself with 1600 spam comments to delete.

Wanted to quickly say- Merry Christmas to all. Thanks for your continuing prayers.
God Bless you all in the new year. 

Ciao a tutti…. e buon natale!!!!
Vi ringraziamo per le vostre preghiere, e tanti auguri per il prossimo anno. Che Dio vi benedica tutti 

dave 

so sorry to anyone who has regularly been checking the blog… I know it has been over 2 months with no updates. But the fact of the matter is that there isn’t too much to report regarding this stage right now. I am still waiting on word from the Italian consulate that my mom has received her citizenship. Not really expecting anything until around August.

All of us have been going through some major trials. I have not worked much at all this year, and other than some residual pay in January for some work I had done in the previous year, I have not recieved any money yet either. Thankfully Shelly has been blessed at her work and gotten a pretty significant pay upgrade. We are also now getting some tax money back, which should keep us alive for a few more months. I know the Lord knows how much we need, and truth be told… I’m not really in any sort of panic over the situation, but this year has been a trial. Shelly also has some health issues: There was a slight scare over some swelling that the doctors thought might be arthritis, but it turned out to be a virus. She also has some sort of shadow on her chest X-ray… which we aren’t sure what that is, but tests should be coming back early next week. Thankfully however she has a great attitude about her health and is willing to go through whatever the Lord has for her. Ultimately I really believe that all we are going through right now is for the good and the Lord is working things in us that we will need in Italy. But honestly, Italy seems far away right now.

I have also found several friends on skype from Italy that are helping me with speaking Italian. And I continue to read my Italian Bible every day as well as trying to increase my fluency in the metric system.

And……. I’ve started riding my bike to work!!!!! I know… you’re asking… is that to be more Italian? do you want to help reduce emissions and save the planet? Do you want to get more physical exercise and be heathier? …um.. sure. All of those. But mainly my car is about to give up the ghost and I’m trying to prolong its lifespan a bit. But it does save some gas money, reduce emissions, make me healthier, etc, etc….

I’ll see if I can get Ronnie to give you an abbreviated version of their trials over the last year. But there have been many. Blessings too, but definitely a lot of trials.

In everything we go through, I can see how Satan would want to break us down and demoralize us, cause us to want to forsake the whole idea. I don’t know what the future holds, but I believe that we continue to hold fast to what we believe the Lord has given us and move forward until we hear differently.

God bless and take care,

 dave 

I just finished up my 8th time reading through the entire bible. I have been marking them down, start and finish date since I started doing this 8 years ago after rededicating my life to the Lord. The length has varied from 4 months and 1 week at the least to just over 2 and a half years.  I have switched bibles, changed versions… read the Old Testament in Hebrew once, and this last time through, I read the bible in Italian. I used an interconfessional version last time the Traduzione Interconfessionale in Lingua Corrente [TILC] because it is written in a looser more fluid italian style. Much more like what you would hear from italian speakers today. But it sacrifices a little of the accuracy to do so… next I will read the Nuova Diodati version.. fully protestant, but also modern italian. I’m trying to do my bible reading all in Italian now so that when we get there, I’ll be comfortable with it.

I’ve also been working on metric understanding. Note I said understanding and not just conversion… everything in Italy is metric, but I don’t want to have to convert in my mind every time I do something. So for the last year I have been watching the daily weather in centigrade so that I don’t have to think in farenheit, then translate to celsius. I am starting to just know what a 30 degree celsius day feels like, rather than thinking ok, it’s 30, which is 86 F…

Same thing with height and weight. I am trying to practice thinking in terms of meters and kilos. These are very much a part of everyday life in Italy and apart from translating language, one would have to learn to think in metric terms as well. So I am trying to get a head start today.

I still need lots of work on liters though … and heat for cooking … I’m feeling pretty good about the weather temperatures, but cooking is a whole different matter.

By the way, it’s a lovely day today in Los Angeles: about 14 right now… ; )

 dave

Today while getting off the freeway on the drive home, I was involved in a small accident. There was no apparent damage to either vehicle, but I thought it best to pull over and double-check. In speaking with the woman who rear-ended me, she commented that she was gong through a lot right now because they think that their baby daughter may have muscular dystrophy. Earlier today she had some blood tests done to determine if she carried the gene since they believe the disease is hereditary.

 I talked with her for some time and because her daughter was in the car I looked in on the baby. Although it’s unusual for me to do, I just felt a strong sense that I should ask her if she wanted prayer.  As it turns out, they are Christians attending Vineyard Anaheim – and yes, she wanted prayer.

 I feel that this was no “accident”, but that God really felt she needed a little extra prayer – and also that I finally needed to step out of my comfort zone and minister to a stranger who is now a new friend.

I would ask that anyone who reads this post also keep the family in prayer. Their names are David, Claudia and Baby Katherine (Kate, 15 1/2 months) Wang. Please pray for healing for Baby Kate, but also that through this situation they will be able to minister to David’s family who is Buddhist.

 Shelly

I figured I had better get in here and write something.

The fact of the matter is that right now, there is not much happening that I can report on. I am waiting on citizenship documents from the state, but even with the application, I have nearly everything I need and still the appointment with the consulate is not until march 2008. Even then, it could be months or years before I find out if my application has been accepted and my citizenship recognized. So not much happening on that front.

Ronnie, Kristi, Shelly and I have been busy trying to get back into ministry and the daily routines of life here. Keep Kristi in prayer, given that she is having health problems right now. I won’t go into anymore detail than that.

The other thing that is REALLY on my heart is bit involved to explain, but I’ll share it and ask your prayers too. Shell and I are planning on getting citizenship, working and supporting ourselves to live in Italy. Ronnie and Kristi do not have that option, so they will need to get Visas. The problem is that none of the Visas are really available right now. We just don’t meet the criteria necessary to qualify. We were hoping for a missionary visa, and that might still happen but……. that means that an agency from Italy must invite Ronnie over, he must raise the support and our church must pledge to support him.

My own sense and desire is to somehow avoid having to raise support from people here. That means he will need to work. But work visas require an Italian company to want to hire him, then be willing to go through the process of obtaining a visa in order to bring him over. Not likely at the present time since he doesn’t work for any companies that have italian offices, doesn’t speak italian, and has no connections for such a thing to even happen. I don’t know how this will work, but I think if we can avoid having to raise support and be able to support ourselves, then we are able to function better there. We also have the advantage of co-workers and people that we interact with on an everyday basis that we can begin to minister to.

But if it was going to take God opening doors before, this will really take a miracle. If it really is God’s will, pray he will make a way for that to happen.

dave