Buddy pass in hand, I head for the airport on Feb 1. If all works according to buddy pass plan and divine intervention on the snowy weather patterns in the Piedmont region of Italy, I'll fly out to Milan to begin three months in northern Italy. The OM Arts School of Mission is about to launch, ready or not, and I go to set up, meet with leaders a week before the participants arrive, scope out the spiritual atmosphere, and make my way through jet lag. Many, many classes remain to written, rewritten, condensed and delivered. "And I have miles to go before I sleep, miles to go before I sleep."
From the boatyard to the Alps...this promises to be an awesome, challenging, historic, and culinary delightful time :) I am READY!!!
Let's review...I invite you to check some of my earlier blog posts to get the rich history of this region, starting with the Irish, and followed by the Waldensians. I'm very curious to plunge in more to this history, and discover what modern-day Waldensians believe and practice.
Also looking forward to meeting our 16 participants, coming from as far as Finland and Ecuador, South Africa and Singapore! They arrive Feb. 16. We begin Feb. 17.
And with more than a dozen resource personnel, coming and going from all over Europe and North America for shorter stints, we will be quite the beehive of creative collaboration. These are some of the top leaders in arts ministry, and if I don't already know them, I'm about to make many new friends.
As I said, I'm ready. Who knows what I'll encounter, but bring it on. It's time.
