When I first wrote about us going back to Italy I promised to answer some questions at some point. Some point has arrived. Here are answers to some of the questions we have been asked and some that we know will be coming. 

Where are you going and where is it? We are headed to Salerno, which is about 30 minutes south of Naples.

Why are you going back? If you are a follower of Jesus, then you are sent to someone. For us, that someone is Italians. Our question for you is to whom are you sent? Is it your co-workers, your neighbors, the people in the apartment complex down the street, college students? And what are you doing to be part of their lives?

Why don’t you want to stay and minister to people in America? See answer to the above question.

What will you be doing? We will be working with a church plant, Nuova Vita. We will also be heading up a team to reach out to university students at the University of Salerno. 

Will you be by yourselves? Nope. We will be working alongside Justin and Abbey Valiquette. They are pretty great and we can’t wait to work with them. 

Do you have a sending organization? We are currently applying to go with Great Commission Ministries. 

Are you being sent out by a church? REVO church is our sending church, which means they pray for us, encourage us, maintain contact, and support us financially. 

How will you be paid? We will rely on monthly donor support. If you would like to support us click on the donate tab at the top of the page. 

Where will you live? We don’t know yet. We will find an apartment when we get there. 

What did you do with all of your things? We sold most of it. If it won’t fit in one of twelve bags, then it doesn’t get to go. We will have to furnish our apartment when we get there from top to bottom. 

What will you do about the kids schooling? We will send them to public school. Going to school with Italians will help them learn the language, make friends, and acclimate to the culture better than homeschooling. And honestly, it’s not in my DNA to homeschool. 

If you have any questions not answered here, please ask! We love talking about what we will be doing.

Ciao,

MacKenzie

Dear REVO,

Paul and I had an opportunity a couple of weeks ago during the services of each campus to address the church one last time. I opted not to say anything for a couple of reasons. I really didn’t know what I would say. More importantly, I felt like anything I would say would take away the focus from God and put it on us. Wesley and Paul did a great job at keeping our focus on whom it should have been. 

But there are things that I want the people who make up REVO to know. Please excuse the format that I am using but it seemed the most efficient way to reach you all. 

It is rare that a person can say being a part of a group of people have made you better. REVO, you have made me better. I have grown and matured in my walk with Jesus, in how I view the world, and how I approach life since being a part of REVO. Thank you.

When we first moved here three years ago I didn’t really know anybody. I was still dealing with the awfulness that is morning sickness so I wasn’t able to meet people for a few weeks after we arrived. To be honest, it took a little while to fit in and find my place because of it. But you, church, welcomed me and lovingly helped me find my place. Thank you. 

You have loved our children with incredible abundance. Thank you. 

There are a few groups of people I’d like to address. 

To Elizabeth, Shana, Linda, Lauren, Cary, and Leigha. You were all so gracious as I attempted to lead that group. You challenged me, pushed me, encouraged me, loved me, and stretched me. You helped push me closer to Jesus and I don’t know that I ever would have read the entire bible in a year without you. You are all so dear to me. I love you. 

To the Wednesday night couple’s group on North Campus. I never would have thought a group of people could connect so quickly. I am still amazed at how it happened with all of us. Some of my favorite times in the last few months has been sitting in a circle hashing through hard things with you all. One thing that I am sorry about in leaving is that I do not feel that I have had enough time with you. I love you. 

To Erin and Heather. Thanks for making it safe to be vulnerable and for helping me see my sin and how to change things that need changing. Some of the most significant and gospel-centered conversations I have had occurred sitting on a couch sipping tea or coffee with one or both of you. I love you. 

To the Sunday Lunch Bunch, both past and present. Words fail me…almost. Thank you for coming over to eat lunch with us each week and invading our lives. It was a most welcomed invasion. Trying to figure out how we would all fit at the table and then trying to carry on conversations while the kids were constantly interrupting has been something I look forward to each week. Thank you for being a consistent part of our lives for the last three years. I love you. 

That’s about it, I guess. I have loved, absolutely loved, being a part of REVO. It has been something special to see it from the being until now. I will miss so many things, but most of all I will miss you. 

Much love,

MacKenzie

There are lots of hard parts of leaving. The sadness that accompanies packing up a home that holds so many memories. Saying goodbye to people. Finding new homes for beloved pets. Lots of things are hard about it. For me, though, the hardest thing is not the actual leaving. It’s what happens after I leave a place, a people. 

Life will continue to happen, for me and the people I know, whether we are in each others’ daily lives or not. Knowing that I will not be present at different things that will happen in the lives of my friends and family is so hard for me it is almost unbearable. I’m not sure if this is something that is difficult for all who move overseas or for all who just move away from people they love. But I can tell you from experience, it is so incredibly hard being on the other side of the world and missing things. 

I will miss birthday parties; children I held as babies when they came home from the hospital losing their first tooth, starting school, going to prom, and graduating; deaths; births; Sunday lunches; seeing friends fall in love and get married; hanging out watching football; playing games with a group of close friends; Christmas mornings with family; gumbo and bread pudding and stews in winter. 

I could go on and on with all the things I will miss out on. And it’s hard. I find myself already becoming jealous at the thought of friends hanging out with other friends because we aren’t around anymore. Of friends who come over on Sunday for lunch going somewhere else for lunch. I’m jealous of the new volunteers who are working in “my” room on Sunday instead of me, loving babies that I Iove so much. 

But change is part of life. Always has been, always will be. No amount of me not liking it will stop it from occurring. 

So I press in to the One who is never changing, who is constant and steadfast. I try to learn from Him what steadfastness looks like and how to be that myself. I will cling to the only One I can cling to who will never leave me, never move on. And when I cling, I find hope. I find rest. I find peace. And I find that in the moments when I am sad or jealous that I am missing so much I get a glimpse of the bigger picture and understand that every missed moment is worth it because He is worth everything.

Even the missed moments. 

Last night I received a wee gift from a dear friend. It is a beautiful three leaf clover necklace. My friend gave it to me with the stipulation that whenever anyone asks who gave it to me I had to tell them, “My Irish friend.” This I will gladly do. 

When she pulled it out of the box and gave it to me I was overcome with love and how much I will miss her stories and her hugs and her smile and her quiet humor. 

This is only the first. The first in a series of goodbyes to come this week. We leave Winston-Salem next Saturday to head back South to spend time with family. And while I am so excited and chomping at the bit to get this journey started, I am heartbroken. 

One would think after all the change and moving I have done since moving to Texas over ten years ago that I would be used to saying goodbye. But it never seems to get easier. Only harder as I age and increase in the knowledge of the value of friendships. 

I read the following verse on a friend’s blog several days ago:

“And anyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.” Matthew 19:29

The promise in this verse is so great. But it’s the first part that had me thinking as we drove home last night after I received my precious wee gift. Jesus KNOWS what and who we are leaving. He names them, which to me indicates he knows their importance, their significance in our lives. I find that comforting. He knows how hard it is because he did it. He left his heavenly Father to come to the earth that was his footstool. He left his mother and brothers and sisters to accomplish the mission for which he left heaven. 

So, as I enter this last week in Winston-Salem, one which will be filled with goodbyes and leaving, I take comfort in knowing my Lord did it too.  

I’ve been absent for a while. A long while. I’ll catch up on all the things that have been going on soon but for now…have you noticed anything different? 

Yep…I gots myself a new do. 

I decided a while back the blog needed an upgrade. So, after about a year of trying to figure out what do to…I finally got it. You’ll notice that this blog is through wordpress, not blogger, and that it has a new domain name (www.mackenziemdavidson.wordpress.com). I’m really excited about the different features this blog has. There’s a section where you can learn why we are going to Italy. There’s a section where you can contact us. And the granddaddy of them all…there’s a section where you can donate to our work. The content of the posts will generally remain the same. I’ll write about what we are doing in Salerno, how ministry is going, how the kids are surviving better than we are, what God is teaching me, and so on and so forth. 

I have always tried to be honest in my writing. I don’t want to paint a picture that is not accurate. Life is not always pretty. It is messy and hard and there are bad days. There will be plenty when we land on foreign soil. So if you want to know the messy details of life, both good and bad, in a foreign country, then I hope you will keep coming back to read about our upcoming adventure. 

There are a few people who helped me along the way of getting the new blog up and running and I want to give them the shout out they deserve. 

Stephen Wright, thank you for helping me with technical things. I was lost and frustrated until you walked in and made it look so simple. Thanks for being patient, for the visit, and for being one of those friends both Paul and I will still have in 20 years. That goes for Ally as well. 

Erin Etheridge, famously known as The Fierce Beagle, thanks for pushing me, encouraging me, spending time working on a blog that we ended up scrapping, telling me it was ok to have dreams and to go for them, for dreaming with me, and for telling me I can do it. I love you tremendously. 

And lastly, to Paul for not telling me I was silly or naive to have such big ideas and dreams for myself. Thanks for always being my rock. I love you. 

People showed up today.

At my house.

And they did amazing things.

About a month ago my friend Bre called to tell me the guys from our rGroup wanted to fix up the backyard as a surprise for Paul. After I finished sopping into the phone, Bre and I found a date that would work.

So today….

Bre and Nikki brought me all kinds of wonderful flowers and pots to put on the deck.  My deck now has color. See?

Nikki’s finance, Travis, is an arborist. He was in charge of getting all the dead trees down. Heave ho, Travis!

Mark was in charge of hauling the debris to the road. I failed to get a picture of the  mountain of debris in front of our house. But so that you have somewhat of a mental picture…I can’t see the house across the street. That’s how high the debris is piled. I exaggerate not.

This is Cody, Mark and Bre’s son as he proves he is master of the ax. Can you handle…

 the power that is behind this swing?

 I think not….I.Think.Not.

 

 See…I told you there was swinging.

 And ladder climbing. I am pretty sure Lil’ Paul went around drinking any open Gatorade he found in the yard.

 There was lots of laughter.

 And playing in dirt.

Below is a video update of Chase and Kelley’s adoption. They are almost there everyone! So very, very close.

Check it out! You too can help make a difference in the lives of two children.

I have been striving. On my own. Trying to figure out what is coming. What is around the next bend and the one after that. I have been filling myself up the last two weeks with worry, anxiety, trying to find solutions to things that haven’t happened yet.

Yesterday, my pastor spoke about how less is more. Less of me means God can have more. If I pour out all of me, He has more room to fill me up.

This morning, I read a blog by a friends who, going through a different situation, was more or less struggling with the same thing. She wrote “Be still – cease striving – and know that I am God.” Words that I needed to hear. That I needed to believe. Cease striving. Know that I am God. Not you.

A few minutes ago I heard Jeremy Camp’s “Walk by Faith.” Some of the lyrics are below.

I have a job besides the job of mother, house cleaner, chef, launderer of clothes, and bather of children that 9 months ago consumed my life. I guess most of you know that I work of Forsyth Technical Community College…you also know that since starting said job I have done little in the way of blogging. Blogging takes time…and time is something I am constantly running out of.

Here’s a brief catch up on the last few months though:
Caleb got teeth, learned to crawl, started eating big people food, learned to walk, can high five and throw a touch down signal up in the air on command.
Lily has more hair than I care to comb out at night with tons of sticky stuff tucked away in the curls that are comsuming her head. She is also a caring, funloving little person who loves to be tickled.
Paul is in an undisclosed country…for the second time this year.

This leads me into lessons I learn while Paul is gone. The first time I can remember paul going away for several days we were still in Italy. Lily was still very small and Paul and our then supervisor, Charlie, set off to go to the east coast to a Hill Song conference thingy. In case you didn’t know, I am a person who is, by nature, fearful and dramatic. I create scenarios in my head and then become so overwrought by emotion that I am a heaving sob of a mess curled up in a fetal position on my bed. So, needless to say when Paul left me for all of two or three days I was a big fat mess…until I read Psalm 34:4, “I cried out to the Lord and he heard me and took away all my fear.” That one verse calmed me, soothed me, comforted me. It continues to be a verse I cling to.

Paul left for the before-mentioned country on Sunday and fear and dramatic scenarios began to creep back in. As I journaled last night I asked myself, “Do I trust God in things when I don’t know what is going on?” You see, Paul had a little hiccup on his journey and I won’t hear back from him until he gets back to the US. This has the potential to create worry. So I ask myself again, “Do I trust God even when I can’t be there, when I can’t see, when I have absolutely no idea what is going on?”

I guesst that is the question of the week.

This is a story out a duck names Fred. Fred lived next door with her family of humans to a friend of mine. Fred was a good little duck. She never bothered a soul, just minded her own business going to and fro in her fenced in back yard.

Fred spend her days basking in the warmth of the sun on her back porch, on rainy days swimming in the rain filled back yard, and chatting with the other neighborhood animals about all the gossip and ongoings of the humans they lived with.

One bright, clear day Fred and her human went to the pond at a nearby park. Next to the park was a field, where a donkey named Gabby lived. Gabby was a nice enough little donkey, but she could be very bossy and did not like others getting too close to her field for fear they would try to take some of her delicious, sweet grass.

Fred’s human thought that Fred might like to chat with Gabby since it had been a while since they had seen each other so she picked up Fred and sauntered up to the barbed fence.

Gabby, however, was not happy at all to see Fred because the last time she saw Fred, Fred had told her she was looking a little thick around the middle and she should maybe consider laying off the sugar cubes and eating more oats.

When Gabby saw Fred at the fence she hee’d and haw’d as loud as she could. Fred was startled and tried to fly away but her human was holding on to her too tightly and when she went to fly away….she broke her neck. Yes, she broke her neck.

Gabby, feeling terrible at causing the death of such a nice little duck tried to console Fred’s human, but to no avail. Fred’s human was unconsolable.

Later that day, all the animals in the neighborhood were notified about the tragic events. A memorial was held and Fred was laid to rest. A memorial was put atop of grave to remember the nice little duck who basked in the warmth of the sun.

*This is based on a true story however some liberties were taken. I wanted to share it because I thought it was funny in an odd way because who has ever heard of a duck dying from breaking her neck while trying to escape a donkey that was hee hawing at it?