Shelly
My name is Shelly and my husband, Dave, and I lead worship at Calvary Chapel La Mirada. This is my story of our calling to go to Milan, Italy…
My beginning, 1995
My first visit to Milan was in 1995 – and I fell in love with the city. At the time, I was working in the international customer service department of 3M Unitek. The customers I supported were the European subsidiaries and distributors. In 1995 I received an offer to buy round-trip airline tickets to Paris, France for $360. That seemed like a good price, so Dave and I decided to follow a dream of ours – mine to ski in the Swiss Alps and his to visit relatives in Sicily. After arriving in Paris, a co-worker/friend of mine met us and I traveled with her to Switzerland while Dave and children traveled to Sicily. I spent a week in Switzerland, then one day in Germany visiting a 3M subsidiary, and stopping for three days in Milan before meeting up with Dave in Sicily.
While in Milan I visited the 3M subsidiary and met all the Unitek workers. Everyone was so friendly and the city was beautiful to me. The Duomo had to be the most beautiful church I had seen thus far – and I visited many beautiful churches during my week in Switzerland.
The trip in Europe ended – but not my desire to move to Milan. I told Dave that I could possibly transfer my job with 3M to Milan, but Dave just did not see the vision. Of course he had not been to Milan, either.
Fast forward to 2005…
Our Assistant/Youth Pastor (Ronnie Mitchell) was asked to go to our sister church in Herborn, Germany to teach while their Pastor was at a church retreat in Austria. When Ronnie returned, he announced from the pulpit that he felt called to go to Germany. I dont have any explanation why, but when I heard him state that, I wrote a not to Dave: were going with them. After the service I talked to Ronnie and told him. His response was that Dave and I were the first people they thought of to go with them. But, Dave did not feel the calling at that time. Our place was to lead worship at CC La Mirada and for him to continue with the Monday night mens prayer meeting. Also, he was being called to teach a worship ministry class at our churchs Bible Ministry School. Of course, our place was to stay in La Mirada so I accepted that fact.Fast forward to 2006…
Dave and I were asked to lead worship at a retreat in Austria for the sister church from Herborn, Germany. This seemed like a good opportunity for a mission’s trip for us, so we said yes. We also extended our trip to include an extra week and a half so we could visit my relatives in Austria and Dave’s relatives in Milan. On the way to Milan, we stopped at CC Montebelluna since we were traveling through there on Sunday. We talked to Pastor Quam after the service, and upon his hearing that Dave knew Italian (and that we were in the ministry back home), he asked when we were coming to Italy to start a church. I was shocked and Daves response was my wife feels were called to help start one in Germany, but I still dont think so. Anyway, we continued to Milan and visited Daves relatives. After spending only a few days in Milan, Dave was able to understand my love for the city – but, alas, our vacation had to end.
After returning home, Dave could not forget Milan and asked me to see if I really could transfer my job to the 3M facility there. He felt that he finally had a calling to go there, but wasnt sure in what capacity because Ronnie was still looking at going to Germany or so we thought. Dave decided that we should also talk to Ronnie and ask him to pray with us since we all had a desire to move to Europe even though we thought theyd be in Germany and wed be in Milan. But God had other thoughts. Somehow in that conversation it was decided that we would all be going to Milan. Well have to read the other posts to understand how that came about.Now
Ive requested a transfer to Milan, but of course there are all kinds of political things that go on in large corporations. At this point, I do not have any commitment that I will have a job there, but I am trusting that God is working everything out.