WE'VE MOVED!
Visit the the new site: www.LinRoma.wordpress.com
Why the switch?
Wordpress.com gives more options (like posting pdf copies of my prayer letters) as well as picture and video options... it's just better! :) hope you enjoy (and hope to be better at keeping the site updated!) check it out!
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8331163022419026457Ciao!
It's VERY exciting to be able to write to you from my table here in Rome! It's been quite the last couple weeks, full of settling in, setting-up life, and seeking the Lord in planning and prayer for the ministry here in Rome. Check out a video we sent back to the the USA to show on university campuses asking students to pray about coming to Rome to help with the ministry. I look forward to updating you more soon!
Labels: Roma Video
Benvenuto a Roma!
I have a countdown on my computer entitled "Days until Rome," and for many weeks that number seemed so large. But yesterday I glanced at it and the number 12 stared back at me. 12!?! I couldn't believe it. So many different emotions were evoked by the number 12, and today, the number 11 seems to only bring those same emotions in stronger doses. ELEVEN days until I will be boarding an airplane for Rome. ELEVEN days until I will show my passport (with a VISA-- praise the Lord!) to the border control, ELEVEN days until I'm back in the city I love, sharing and living the Gospel I love, with people I dearly love. In short, I couldn't be more thrilled!
Meet the Team: Pictured above is the 2007-8 Rome Stint Team. So fun! Let me tell you, they all have a lot of energy. A brief introduction: (L--> R) CHRIS graduated from Miami University in 2007. We didn't know each other for most of college, but when I came back from studying in Rome he showed up at a party we had at our house. But I didn't REALLY get to know Chris until we both realized our love for dancing and he's been my unofficial dance partner ever since. I mourned the loss of swing dancing last year, so God was gracious and brought swing dancing to Rome! SARA graduated from Dennison in 2007. She loves language learning and went on a summer project with Amos a couple years back. We met briefly before, but we'll really get to know each other this year! JOEL is a familiar face. He was on the 2006-7 team with me last year. He graduated from Miami as well, and we met before classes even started our freshman year and have been good friends since. AMOS is also a re-stinter who graduated from Wayne State in downtown Detroit. He's become one of my closest friends and someone who I am so thankful to have in Rome. He's an Italian ministry machine. MATT is our team leader this year! He was an intern with CCC last year at Miami University and also graduated from Miami in 2006-7, after 5 years. Matt was a dear friend of mine in college, so I'm so excited to be leading with him this year. Not only is he so much fun, but is a man of character with a great heart for God. The there's ME (you know me) and lastly KANDA. Kanda also graduated from Miami U in 2007. I actually led her freshman year biblestudy years back, but since it was such a big study didn't get to know her as much as I would have liked-- maybe living and working together in Rome might fix that? We will also join an ICS team of 16 in Rome. These are Campus Staff committing 3-5 years in Rome. You'll hear more about these guys in later posts.
Thank you all for your prayers over the summer. I will try to post my prayer letters on the link that I've started. (Currently there's nothing there.) If you would like to be added to my e-mail list to receive my prayer letters and updates, please drop me a note at lauren.roeper@uscm.org. Please continue to pray for our team, the hearts of Italians, and our transition back into Rome and ministry. To God be the glory!
CM2007
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| CM2007-- Campus Mission 2007 marks the year when the world will meet in Korea and will be trained and sent back out to reach the world. This will be amazing. I know the video is a whole FOUR MINUTES :) but stick it out, it's amazing. Be praying for students all over the world, that they would get the finances and means to get to Korea for CM2007! |
ROMA STINT
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| Here's a short testimony from my friend, Fede. It's students like Fede who make me so excited to be doing ministry in Rome, and it's the need at La Sapienza which makes me so excited to get back to Rome in a few weeks! :) |
The World's Urbanization:
Check out this BBC Link on Urbanization. By 2050 75% of the world's population will live in urban areas. It gets me excited to be ministering in Rome. The world lives in the city-- Christians must learn to minister to the city!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/world/2006/urbanisation/
Visa Update: The lawyers have been working overtime to get us back to Rome asap. Praise the Lord, the Salerno, Italy team has received visas and will be returning to Rome Jan 10. Detroit, Houston, and Chicago have been slow in the process. I will be serving with the Miami University Campus Crusade Staff Team while I wait for my visa to come. My plane ticket is on hold and as soon as the visa comes, I'll be on the next flight to Rome. I expect to arrive within the next couple weeks. Please be continuing to pray for a quick return!
Visa Situation
Well, we sure have an opportunity to trust the Lord! I'd love to answer some questions about our visa situation.
What have you been working under?
For the first semester I and my team have been in Italy under a 90-day travelers visa. As the legal process of obtaining religious visas (and gathering the necessary case) took longer than the summer, AGAPE decided to send all Italy staff on travelers visas with promise of renewing the visas in Italy. This obviously didn't happen since we all had to exit the country at the end of our 90-day term.
What visa are you trying to apply for?
We're all applying for a religious visa. Some full-time staff with AGAPE who are ordained have been able to receive these visas.
What are you doing to get these visas?
We submitted a very well-planned and well-executed case to the consulate in Detroit. Our lawyers, hired by Campus Crusade, put together a comprehensive packet of documents. We're now just waiting to get the final results back. Italy staff are all over the country and are all applying to different consulates, some consulates have rules that other don't. For example, Chicago requires a letter from the Vatican, so they have no accepted those staff's applications. (Please pray for this problem.)
When are you planning on returning back to Italy?
After the holiday we have plane tickets for Jan. 10, 2007. The consulate in Detroit said we should know by then. We will arrive in Italy just as classes resume and students are back in Rome. Please pray that we can continue and not have to skip a beat with these Italians.
What's your back-up plan?
Well, we're not totally sure yet, but there have been many suggestions thrown out there from our national staff. We are all dedicated to ministry and to the Gospel going out to the world, so we will continue in ministry. Another foreign location was brought up, but the strain on the team would be too much, as even if we didn't get the religious visas we would re-enter Italy in March on another tourist visa. (Tourist visas are for 90 days in-country, 90-days out of country.) Most likely I would be doing ministry at a state-side university, discipling students and reaching the campus. It would also be a great platform to cast vision to seniors for international missions. We would all return to Rome and continue building the ministry in March.
And you need to raise support?
Yes! To off-set lawyer costs, plane tickets, etc, we need to raise additional one-time support. Also, the price of the euro has increased and we are asked to raise an additional $100 a month to off-set these costs. Please pray that God would provide in this area, even in the midst of uncertainty. If you're interested and able to help in this way, please email me at lauren.roeper@gmail.com.
How are you doing with this change?
To have to leave Italy and come home for Christmas was hard and good. The hard part was leaving my team and leaving the students for the month of December. The good part is that this break comes at the best time--- students won't be on campus. Also, seeing my family--- my mom as she continues to recover, and being able to help with wedding preparations for my sister Erin have been a blessing. Im also excited to staff in Indy Christmas Conference and be able to challenge students to move to Rome and help build the ministry. The limbo-stage of the visas is an opportunity to trust the Lord but doesn't come without its anxieties. I have such a huge heart for Italy and the students there. It's been so encouraging this last month as students are stepping out and growing in their faith and the numbers involved in our ministry continue to grow. We estimate that almost 500 students heard the gospel this fall! Even though Italy really draws my heart, I'm confident that it draws the Lord's heart even more. I'm sure that wherever and however the Lord chooses to use our team--- either in Rome or in the States-- that it is for His glory and for Italy's best. Please pray for me and my heart through this time!
For answers to any other questions, please, don't hesitate to email me! Thank you for being so faithful in prayer and with financial giving. Please, pray for Italy!
GOING HOME
As many of you have read in my newsletter, I'm planning a trip back to the United States for the first week of November. (Nov 3-11) My mother will be having surgery to remove her cancer on Nov 6 (please be praying!) and I have been blessed with the opportunity to be with her in the hospital. It has been a long summer and fall for both my mom and my family. But praise the Lord, she is done with her chemo treatments and her doctors are really pleased with her body's response to the treatments. They are confident she will make it through this. But nonetheless, surgery is a scary thing for anyone, and the significance of her surgery will put her in the hospital for a full week with 6 weeks of recovery at home.
Would you be praying for her full recovery and for my time with her?
In addition, I have the opportunity to visit Miami University on Nov. 8-9 to talk with current Miami seniors about Rome. I am so passionate about La Sapienza being reached for Christ and for this opportunity to challenge Miami students to partner with the ministry here.
Would you be praying for my time at Miami? Please pray that the Lord would use it to call Miami seniors He wants in Rome next year!
Thank you all for your continued prayers and financial support of me. God has blessed me in so many ways this fall, and you are such a big part of that. Feel free to email me with any questions at
Lauren.Roeper@gmail.com or
Lauren.Roeper@uscm.org. Thanks!
:::MEET MY FUN TEAM!:::
Hey everyone! I really want to introduce you all to my team! There's 9 of us: Me, Holly, Amy, LeAnne, Erin, Dan, Joel, Chris, & Amos. I've included a brief introduction and picture of each one of them... they're all amazing! :)
:::HOLLY:::
Holly is hillarious. She makes me laugh pretty much all the time. But even more than that I really love Holly's heart for people, for ministry, for her friends, and for Truth. Holly graduated from the University of Illinois with LeAnne and spent a summer doing ministry in East Asia. Holly's dedication to Italians really encourages me! She's working with our English Club with Amy and our Community Team with Erin. She's an amazing teammate and friend!
:::AMY:::
Amy has been my roommate for the last month and has been such an amazing source of support for me! She graduated from Ball State with a degree in Interior Design and when we met in April we immediately became friend. Amy's honest love for people is really fun, and I really feed off of her vision for ministry at La Sapienza. Ames is giving direction to our English Club (an entry point for students to hear the gospel and meet the Agape staff) and is directing the Prayer Team with Amos. Its so neat to see Amy and Amos making prayer a priority for our Team!
:::LeANNE:::
LeAnne graduated from the University of Illinois and has been on a summer project in Rome during her college days... that to say she has such a neat heart for Italians and ministry here in Rome! LeAnne is super sweet and such a fun new friend! She's heading up the Partnership Team with Joel and Outreach Team with Amos. I love love LOVE this girl! :)
:::ERIN:::
Erin is our only re-stinter on the team! What a valuable resource she has been in connecting with students in the ministry, helping wih adjustments, and decoding the past! Erin's the head of our Community Outreach team and Thursday night weekly meeting. She's super sweet and has such a neat ministry here in Rome.
:::DAN:::
Dan is so much fun to co-lead the team with! As the TL, Dan and I spend a lot of time planning the weeks, ministry philosophy, and leading meetings together. I'm really thankful for Dan because of his year of ministry experience in Macedonia, his love for scripture, and his great leadership abilities (and he's funny.) Dan is also a fellow Miami-Grad!
::Joel::
Out of the entire team I knew Joel the best before moving to Rome. Joel and I became friends at Miami our freshman years and were in many of the same circles in college. It's really fun to have someone to say "Hey, remember when..." with. Joel is heading up our Evangelism team and is busy figuring out new ways to share the gospel with Italian students! Joel spent a summer in Liverpool, England and in St. Petersburg, Russia with CCC... now he's learning Italian... oh, and he's on OSU fan, I know, bummer, huh.
::CHRIS::
Chris is a fellow Miami alum who I didn't know all too well in college. Its been fun getting to know him more this year. He has a funny sense of humor and is very 'go with the flow,' which is critical on STINT. Chris did a semester study abroad in Lux and had a crazy run through Rome of about 24 hours-- he's getting to know Rome a whole lot more this time around! Chris is heading up our Thursday night student meetings, and also is using his good 'ole Miami education to run our team's finances.
::AMOS::
Amos graduated from Wayne State in Detroit. I really appreciate Amos on our team for his energy-- he's always looking to the next thing and has a great attitude! He's beein in Rome before doing summers with CCC. Amos and I have a shared interest in learning Italian and he's a fun friend to practice the lanuage with! Amos is heading up our outreaches on campus and our prayer team.
Our Team! (L>R) Holly, Amos, Chris, Erin, Amy, LeAnne, Joel, Me, and Dan
STINT BRIEFING 2006I wanted to share some pictures from our STINT Briefing (training) in Colorado. Our time was amazing--- really visionary and practical in reaching the world for Christ! It was also a neat time to get to know my teammates more and to spend some time reflecting on my summer with the Lord. I learned a bunch in the teaching of the Word, got some great advice from re-stinters, and was able to understand more fully the current mininstry in Italy.
Miami University Graduates STINTing all over the world: North Africa, Liverpool, Macedonia, and Italy
ITALY Stinters serving in Florence, Salerno, and Rome. I really enjoyed getting to know these teams. I'm looking forward to working with them, relaxing with them, and doing ministry alongside them!
I'm very excited to announce that I reached the minimum amount of financial support needed to move to Rome! God is so faithful and really brought in the prayer and financial support needed. Of course, I'm continuing to raise support (its a constant process) and am trusting the Lord to increase my ministry account so we have more and more of an operating budget this year in Rome! Please continue to pray that the Lord is faithful in providing for the financial needs of our team this year.
We're leaving September 9th! Please pray for safe travel, that our luggage would arrive, our apartments would be fully functional :), and that the year would start off on a God-honoring foot. Please feel free to email me at
lauren.roeper@gmail.com or
lauren.roeper@uscm.org and I'll be sure to respond. For members on my financial team, you should be receiving my first prayer letter in the mail this week, and to my prayer team, you'll be receiving it via email. If you would like to join either of these teams, just pop me an email and I'll add you on the list. Thank you all again to your faithfulness to the ministry and to me!
30%!!The number 30 never looked so beautiful. If it was the number 0 it would be gorgeous, but I'll live :) Just kidding. I just wanted to update you all with my support status. I need the last 30% ($11,000) before the end of August. I'm leaving for Briefing on August 10, and will have limited time after that point.Please pray specifically for:
new people to share the ministry with--- this is a huge need
the 20 people that have joined my team but have yet to confirm an amount
to finish soon to enable me to spend time with my family before departureThank you all for partnering with me both in prayer and financially. You all have been such an encouragement!
Rocky Mountain HighJuly has always been a crazy month. June seems to always crawl along at a slow pace, but after July I'm always flipping through my calender trying to figure out where it went... this year has been no different. Although it flew by, a lot of exciting things have happened, a few of which I'll share.
Team Leader Training: Ft. Collins
The attached picture was taken on a hike in Colorado. On our day off a few of us took a trek up the mountain for some fresh air. It was really fun! During the rest of the week I had the chance to meet some really great people and learn a lot about leading a team, and dependency onn the Lord.
My Mom: Ann Arbor
While I was away at training some hard things were happening at home. My mom had her second chemo treatment and lost her hair. It was really hard to be away. But for those of you that aren't on my update list, my mom's diagnosis is very hopeful! She's at a Stage 3 (of 4) but the cancer is contained and hasn't spread anywhere else--- praise the Lord. She should be completely done and CURED by October/November. She's 1/4 of the way through her treatments and keeping an amazing attitude. Please continue to pray for her and email me at lauren.roeper@gmail.com if you'd like to be added to the update list (updates about once a month).
Support: I heart the phone :)
Ah yes, support raising. It's been so neat to see God provide financial and prayer support. Here's where I stand to-date:
Monthly: 905
One-Time: 9276
Overall Percent: 55%
Thank you to all of you that have decided to partner with me thus far! God is so good! I'd be fibbing if I said I'm not nervous about the last 45% (to say I'm numbers-driven is an understatement) but I'm choosing to trust God that it will come in and fighting nervousness. Would you be praying for that? Also be praying for the last $16,000ish that needs to come in before the end of August.
The rest of my summer consists of support raising, helping my sister Erin with wedding planning, team training, and prayerfully a trip down to Miami University. I'll be in Ann Arbor until August 11, then to Chicago to stand up in my friend Elizabeth's wedding, then back to Colorado August 14-20 for training with the entire Rome team. We fly to Rome the first week of Sepember.
I appreciate you guys all so much. Thanks for everything you are to me and the ministry. Please feel free to contact me with anything-- prayer requests, news, or to just say hello--- I'd absolutely love it!
A Few Hard WeeksHello Friends! Thanks for keeping up with my posts. It means so much that you all are praying for me as I raise support for my year in Rome.
As many of you know, these last few weeks have been incredibly hard for my family. A couple weeks ago my mom, Dianne (pictured left), was diagnosed with breast cancer. You can imagine how hard this news was and continues to be on my family. We're still in the testing stages and the waiting stages, but as of now the doctors have given her the "Stage 3" label and will begin chemo in about 10 days.
Please be praying for (1) my mom's appointment on Monday (2) that the cancer has not spread (3) joy in my mom's life! Even despite all of these hardships the Lord has been faithful in raising my support! Although I've been distracted, He's continued to provide both financial and prayer partners over the past few weeks. He has truly been demonstrating that He himself is raising a team, not me! I'm currently at 28% and would still appreciate continued prayers during this process.
Thank you all so much for partnering with me financially and/or in prayer. How blessed I am to have you! Keep my sweet mom in your prayers, we'll get through this!
Saying Goodbye to May!
It seems crazy that May is coming to a close. A lot has happened in the past month! Raising a team of supporters is in full-swing and it's been really encouraging to see the Lord provide both prayer and financial support for my time at Roma Tre.
Here's where I stand:
Montly Support: 13%
Special one-time: 30%
Overall: 16.7%
Praise God for being so faithful this past month in bringing in this money! It's also been amazing to have families pray for me when we've been meeting. Those times in prayer have been some of the sweetest times of support raising and I'm beginning to see this time as such a blessing for me and my ministry. Thank you again for all of your encouragement and support of me. It's been overwhelming to witness how encouraging everyone has been. I'm excited to see the Lord work in June!
Goodbye Miami
After an amazing 4 years at Miami University, I said goodbye to many friends when I pulled out of Oxford on May 7. There are many things I'll miss: my 3 amazing housemates, the amazing Bible study I lead (pictured above), and even my classes! (I kind of like studying, strange, I know!)
It's going to be an exciting transition. I'm moving back in with my parents for the summer, finding a job, and raising a team of financial and prayer supporters for my STINT year in Italy. This Blog will be my connection to you all while I'm living in Italy. I forsee posting my prayer letter, updates, and prayer requests here. Yay for technology!
Keep posted, there's more to come. I pray you're doing well and I hope we can catch up soon!
:::HOLLY:::
:::AMY:::
:::LeANNE:::
:::ERIN:::
:::DAN:::
::Joel::
::CHRIS::
::AMOS::
Our Team! (L>R) Holly, Amos, Chris, Erin, Amy, LeAnne, Joel, Me, and Dan
Miami University Graduates STINTing all over the world: North Africa, Liverpool, Macedonia, and Italy
ITALY Stinters serving in Florence, Salerno, and Rome. I really enjoyed getting to know these teams. I'm looking forward to working with them, relaxing with them, and doing ministry alongside them!
30%!!The number 30 never looked so beautiful. If it was the number 0 it would be gorgeous, but I'll live :) Just kidding. I just wanted to update you all with my support status. I need the last 30% ($11,000) before the end of August. I'm leaving for Briefing on August 10, and will have limited time after that point.Please pray specifically for:
A Few Hard Weeks
Goodbye Miami