Convegno

Once a year in August the Italians have what is called Convegno... and its a meeting for any and all Churches of Christ in Italy, they all have an open invitation. Well Wednesday night the other three and I loaded up and headed to florence. Drove to the Huf villa outside of Scandicci, and started to meet people instantly. There were about 50 people that showed up ranging from nothern italy as Milano and as south as Taranto.

It was such a good spiritual uplift and opportunity to make connections with other churches.. one thing that excited me about the convegno was that there were other people closer to my age. most of my friends here are over 24 and some of them are my parents age....... weird i know. Despite the slight language barriers we managed to have some good laughs and conversations. Even thought all the lessons and classes were in Italian.... i got and understood a good third of what was going on which made me happy.

Overall the Convegno was an amazing experience i believe for all of those involved...

August Newsletter

First off i want to apologize for not keeping in touch very well lately and i have no excuse for it and im sorry.... all my supporters and my congregation... you guys deserve this. alright... so for those of you who are not really familiar with the Italian culture August is the month that everyone takes off for vacation.. Its been like a ghost town around here lately.

Well being vacation month the team and I took a trip to Rome and Pompeii. There was so much to do and see..... it was a good couple days. In Rome we of course we went to the Coloseo... pictured above. It is so big and so fascinating walking through and around it... so much history... but Pompeii is what really got me...... i said before i walked in there that "Its just a bunch of Rocks"...... man was i wrong.... this was such a fascinating place.. so historical, a place frozen in time. the thing that got me the most was the bodies....a family buried together.
You could even see their facial expressions and some of thier bones........ there is one picture that i took that is a body of a man praying......this picture amazes me but it also brings out a few questions
1. Who were they praying to?
2. Would they normally pray or is it just in an emergency situation

I also got to hang out with my italian friends on some nights....

Since our congregation isn't having church during August, we went to the Florence congregation. its a church full of sweet people.
Over all i had such a good August and i want to thank all my supporters for making this possible

New Friends

Alright!!!!!! i would just like to say that we are starting to make friends.... and it is so nice as much as i love my team and love to be around them it is nice to have someone else to talk to. In my opinion my Italian is still not very good... but i am starting to understand most of what people are saying i just really struggle with putting sentences together so that i can say what i want to say... so getting to talk with them is so good and refreshing for me someone that will correct me.

So when we went to language in June we met one a guy there by the name of Sandro, towards the end of june we went to Italia Wave you can read more about that in the previous post. But with his work schedule its hard for him to plan anything but we are still keeping contact and doing what we can. Then thanks to JaMarcus we were given a contact to a man named Patrizio. We met Patrizio in one of the squares in Prato, then met up with some of his friends and went to this hostile that on weekends is used as a place to hang out with friends we chilled there for a bit then went to a park and played soccer on a makeshift field using flip flops and the reflectors for car windshields . We had so much fun with these people.

Then the next day we went to a Birthday party with some of the friends that we played soccer with.... where we met some more friends...(its like a friends snowball). At this birthday party we had some good food prepared by an austrailian woman that is cousins with the birthday girl... and a chef on a yacht.. so needless to say the food was amazin and after chowin down water balloons start flying its pitch dark can barely see outlines... so much fun.... water flyin everywhere then we went to hang out at a pizzeria. went home rather late it was like 3 in the morning. Then Yesterday we met them at about five o clock the next afternoon and went to I Gigli which is what americans call a mall... hung out there for a while... it is more expensive here than in America and after that we went to florence or outside of florence really to this look out where you could see the whole city of florence and looked out and took pictures it was so beautiful up there .....


point of all this being is that i am super excited that we are making friends and things are starting to pick up here.....

AIMing to fulfill the Great Commission,



Evan Williams

ItaliaWave 2009

Italia Wave Love Festival is an homage to Woodstock which for the past few years has been held in Livorno, Italy.... which is close to Pisa. We started off by meeting up with our Italian friend Sandro who speaks really good english and we were driving to Livorno and he started asking questions about the church and what the differences were between our church and catholics and so the whole hour ride thats what we discussed with sandro.... you see this is amazing because sandro was raise atheist. We got the to concert and there were lots of cool bands and we got to meet a bunch of Sandro's friends who all spoke decent english and it was so much fun to get to hang out and chill with cool people and listening to good music.... the concert lasted till 1 in the morning and we were so tired by the time we got home.... thats all i really have to say about that... thanks for listening

Praise God for Young People

Yes i know im young too but you have to hear this story......
So back in March the rest of the team and I went to Houston for our challenge week and we did alot of activities with the youth group. One night i had a conversation with a particular kid named Corey Leighton, whose house we were staying at for a few nights. Well Corey is in Junior High, and we were talking and asked me a question that i didn't have the answer too nor have i ever thought about it... He inquired " Why don't Christians stand up for there faith and proclaim it.... why can't we be as willing to evangelize as people of other religions" and i couldn't give him an answer so i wonder why don't we have that tendency.... and even as a missionary apprentice i fail at this epicly sometimes by missing simple opportunities.

i have another lesson from this kid for another time but thats all i have for you right now. so remember to pray with me about having the eyes of Jesus when it comes to seeing opportunities to introduce them to the truth.

AIMing to fullfil the Great Commission,


Evan Williams

5 things you should know about Italy

So iv'e in Italy for about a week now and there are some things that i have learned that i would like to share with you.

1. Bars and Pubs are places to eat...they serve alcohol too but the main purpose is eating
2. Italians unless driving are almost never in a hurry.... and almost never on time
3. breakfast can be anywhere from 7:30 to 10:30, lunch is from 1 to 3 and supper is from 8-? whenever everyone gets tired of sitting at the table.
4. Italy is the wrong place to be if you want to see trucks.... they don't really exist here
5. Guys be careful about smiling at girls... they will think you are hitting 0n them....

well thats all i got for now so there is more to come

AIMing to Fulfill the Great Commission,

Evan W. Williams

February Newsletter

Mexico City

How does a thirty hour bus ride sound to everyone? Well that’s what we did to get to Mexico City. You may be asking yourself how you not get bored on a bus ride that is that long. I have a few answers.

1. Sleep
2. Read
3. Sleep
4. Homework
5. Sleep
6. Act like I know how to play the guitar
7. Say some random phrase like “Fat penguin” just to see who looks and what kind of conversation it will start.
8. Watch nacho libre (which is way better the second time)
9. Throw starburst at people while they are sleeping
10. Play would you rather
11. Play ISPY

But anyway enough about that there was a lot of things to see and do in Mexico City. When we first got to the pink house we were introduced to the missionaries that were living there. After we met them and they laid down some rules we headed to the hotel… well the guys anyway the girls stayed in the pink house.


On the first day we went out to a local park and handed out some fliers for a movie that they are going to show in tlalpan. It’s called the La Vida de Jesus (The Life of Christ) using the book of Luke to make a movie. They wanted us to invite everyone, and let them know it was free. Brandon and I thought we would try to evangelize a few Mexican kids that we saw at a playground, and all it took was taking out a hacky sack 1. and asking them quiere jugar? (Wanna play). I knew just enough Spanish to be able to talk to them… although I knew I that they had to be laughing at my awful accent and grammar. But we played hacky sack with them and just talked to them about why we were in Mexico, and they said they wanted to go to the movie so I gave them a flier and they said they will be there. Now that I think about it I wish I would have told them that I wouldn’t be…. We did the same thing the next day but for a different event, again I got to practice my Spanish. Hopefully I will pick up Italian pretty easy, which I want to thank Beth Hughes and Brian Conner for giving us private lessons….. back to Mexico.

There were some really cool things I got to see in Mexico.

This is one of the many Cathedrals or Catholic churches in Mexico City. This picture was taken on level ground the Basilica is actually leaning at that angle. Mexico City was built in a bowl of mountains and was once a giant lake so parts of the city is leaning and sinking because there is water under the foundations
Here is a pendulum that is hung in the middle of this Cathedral you can see how much the cathedral is leaning it started at the very right of the white tile and look where it is now. It is weird on the tile it shows the line that the pendulum has followed. It is something that we don’t see much in the states but in Mexico this is a very common sight…. To see a cathedral leaning.
This flag here is big enough to cover Row 10 in the apartment complex I live in. It was amazing…. I just wish that I could have got a picture of it while the wind was blowing it. This is in the courtyard of a palace that I will show you pictures of next.

This is the fountain in the one of the palaces we went to. This particular palace had murals all over the walls and I want you to be able to see them so check out my blog where I will have them posted. (evanwwilliams@hotmail.com)

To wrap things up I would like to say that I would love to go back to Mexico someday, maybe even for a couple of months. I love the people they were so open to talking to people, they are a very receptive people and very loving people. I miss being there sometimes, and I was only there for a few days, so I couldn’t imagine leaving if I was there for years.

Thanks again so much to all my supporters, can you believe its only two months before its time to go to the field….. its fixing to get busy around here with the trips we are going on in a few weeks. I love the fact that yall are still standing behind me. I pray for yall all the time and I hope yall do the same for me. I look forward to writing to yall again and I just want to say one more time I thank yall and love yall.

AIMing to Fulfill the Great Commission,

Evan Williams

January Newsletter

Move-In:
I was very happy to be moved in to my new apartment!!!! There was so much clutter in the house from having all the stuff of three people ready to move out. The move actually went really smooth and took me only four trips to move all my stuff and then 3 hours to put everything in its place and arrange the room the way I wanted it. I have a really neat set up my desk/ study area in my room takes up almost an entire wall. Then my bed and dresser takes up a wall, leaving the rest of the room open. I got used to sharing my room with someone and now I have a room to myself so my room seems so big.
Mission Term Orientation:
Now we have been asked to not tell future AIMers about Mission Term Orientation so if you plan on coming to AIM in the future jump ahead to the next section titled Camp Adventure Weekend/ Sunset Workshop. Ok I will start off by listing the rules that we will have for a couple of months.
1. No Driving - we have to walk or ride the bus or a bike to school (They let us drive half way because of construction…. But I’ve been riding my bike the whole way…)
2. No Texting or IM Conversations (Except on Friday evenings and Saturday)
3. No Internet (unless its email, or a site assigned by the school)
4. No Eating Out- (Drinks and Desserts only)
5. No T.V., Movies, or any form of electronic entertainment
The Sunday before our first day back at school we were given a sheet with all these rules. It told us to be at the school at 8:00… so me and the rest of my team walked to school. They had the doors locked and a white board with a time on it….. it said 8:30 so we waited and thankfully they came on time…. They took us in and had us gathered in this room. Then they introduced us to the President of Mbalal Land this strange made up country. Oh by the way they did all of this in languages other than English.
Right after they introduced the President there was a hostile takeover by a military coup. They came in with guns and took away the president. When we came back into the room they was only one or two lights that were on and we had to apply for these fake passports. I was done and in line and I was reading the application making sure I had gotten everything done….. and in tiny print and the bottom it said black ink only valid color I had filled out the form in blue ink so I had to start all over…. I was halfway through filling it out for the second time when one of the assistants started griping at me in French and ripped up my application… so I finally got it filled out and got to move on to the next part…. They stole my wallet so I got lucky that I had one of the assistants on my side and he got it back from me. So I finally got a passport and was able to just relax and wait.
Finally everyone got a passport and we met in the diner and Kris Smith (AIM Director) gave us a big long speech in Slovak… then they gave us this unflavored oatmeal… which wasn’t too bad… I really enjoyed the toast they gave us which had Vegemite on it. It was really good If you got a piece of toast that had it spread thinly, but the ones that had it thick were so salty. It was definitely an experience.
Next when we were done eating we met on the basketball court and in Slovak explain our next activity which will be something very similar to the Amazing Race… it was called the AIMazing Race. We were to work in our teams to obtain three envelopes that were spread out through Lubbock each of them had a different address and we had a time limit. The first envelope was at Kris Smith’s house, and it led to a house on Cornell Street... there are three Cornell streets. Luckily we got it right the first time, because the teams that didn’t, ended up in East Cornell which not the greatest part of town to be in. We got all three envelops but we got in eleven minutes late. We did a really good job though we were the second team in and the first team walked around for hours and found nothing.
Camp Adventure Weekend:
I got to hang out with Dustin and Adam for a couple of days which was really awesome. I miss getting to see them. It was a great weekend, we got to go to a place called carpenters church which is a place for homeless people to come get off the street and have some fun playing pool, or watching movies or just sitting around talking with buddies. On one of the mornings we got to hear Trey speak to us which was awesome… I love listening to Trey preach or teach. It was just an over all fun week end and im looking forward to the week long camp. So I can see Dustin again.
Thanks:
I want to thank my supports both monetary and prayer wise, Ive told yall this before but I consider yall to be partners with me in my Adventures In Missions and I mean it. I look forward to getting to tell yall about Mexico city next month It will be great.

AIMing to Fulfill the Great Commission,

Evan W. Williams

Family Pics

i just wanted to put up some pics of the people i love the most on here.

December Newsletter

A lot of people have been asking me from the beginning people who have heard that I’m going to do mission work “So…. Where are you going?” Until now I have had to say “I don’t know…. I’ll know at Christmas.” So here it goes after waiting and much anticipation…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… I’m going to PRATO, ITALY!!!!!!!!!! For those of who are not sure where Prato exactly is, it is in between Rome and Florence. So I hope you will take the time to Google this city. What I can tell you about it is that it is the third largest city in central Italy, only behind Rome and Florence.






But seeing as how I’m not going by myself I should take the time now and introduce you to my team.


Starting with the girl second from the right. This is Rachel Brown; she graduated at the age of sixteen and was a foreign exchange student to China. She is from Tulsa, Oklahoma, but she is one of the sweetest girls you will ever meet. So I will forgive her for the fact of her being from Oklahoma. She is so kind hearted; she hurts when other people hurt. But she can always….no let me say that with better emphasis… She can ALWAYS make people smile. It is so hard to be in a bad mood around Rachel. Rachel is like a bad mood cop and I thank her for writing me a few mood tickets. But I am so glad that Kris and Pat decided that she was needed in Italy.

Next is the girl sitting next to me. I’m sure a lot of you people remember Jessi Pope from the Australian group of AIM girls we had for four months. Well this is Kristen Pope Jessi’s cousin. Kristen is 19, and she is from Idaho…….. Of course she says it funny it sounds like (ohw-deoooo). But then again everything she says sounds funny….. she is from Idaho. One thing that I can definitely vouch about for Kristen is that she is a hard worker. She is the first to start and the last one to leave kind of person. She is constantly looking for something to do that will help people. I told her that was the way my dad raised me, and she looked at me funny and said mine too…. Bottom line is Kristen will work her fingers to the bone, thus making her an awesome addition to the team.

Next is the girl on the far right. Tracie Hunter just turned 20 on the 31st of December and she grew up in Hawaii for most of her life but for the last couple of years has lived in San Antonio, Texas. Now contrary to popular belief vegetables really are not that bad…. That is a lesson that Tracie has taught me. Most people would fault her for this but Tracie is a vegetarian. I like that fact because every time she cooks it means a healthy meal. She and her sister make a mean vegetarian lasagna… and yall are going to laugh at me when I say this but here it goes…. I like the vegetarian version of lasagna better. Tracie is very precise and logical when it comes to things…. This is something I need to work on. She likes to think things through when it comes to making decisions. Proving herself more than needed on Team Italy.

Ok those are the girls on my team….. Ya’ll were beginning to think it was me and a bunch of girls huh….. I have one more teammate.

Now the only other guy at the table. His name is Brandon Tribbett; he is the one of the two oldest in our class at the age of 24. Since Jedda the other 24 year old came after Brandon we have rightly named Brandon…. Grandpa. Now Grandpa is what you would call an easy goer. I don’t think there is anything Grandpa likes more than an empty house, a cup of hot tea, and some music playing low while he sits on his favorite couch and just chills. He doesn’t realize it or he won’t admit to it but he is one to think on a deeper level than everyone else. For him it seems that the simple answer isn’t enough there has to be some more to it. I don’t always look for the deeper meaning in things…. Sometimes my thinking is shallow but Grandpa is helping me understand that there is usually more to things than what you see the first time. He also has a way of calming me down putting me in a very relaxing mood. Grandpa will be a good roommate and teammate he will definitely stretch my mind and attitude.

Ok Christmas Break was a good break. Santa brought me this really nice 21 speed mongoose bike.... except mine is silver and black and grey and bright orange. So i guess im set for transportation during mission term. Which i will explain mission term in a later post on my blog. my parents bought me some very much needed warm clothes.

Im very excited about my team, and my field and I want to thank!!!!! all my supporters once again.

AIMing to fulfilling the great commission,

Evan Williams

November Newsletter

Wow it seems like November went by really fast. We have been really busy studying for mid-terms. I am really enjoying my classes, iv'e learned so much in just the new term. Not a whole lot happened in november.

Okay so there is something that i did that i have been wanting to do for a really long time. I got to go home finally i had been wanting to before thanksgiving. I didn't get enough time before that to go home. I was way to busy to come home. It was so good to go home though. I got to sleep on my own bed! and getting to see my family all at once again was amazing. The thanksgiving turkey was amazingly good .

Getting to go back to my home congregation was such an awesome time. I guess i didn't realize how much i missed you guys until i actually saw yall. The hugs and handshakes were better than ever... i feel deprived of this on Sunday, the ones i get at clovis are good but they are nothing like what i got at home.

Okay im totally excited about finding out about fields and who we are going with very soon. Im not sure where im going but wherever i go i think that it will be totally awesome. So please pray for all the AIMers this is totally a stressful time for us.

Again i love you guys so much.

AIMing to fulfill the Great Commission,


Evan Williams

Technological Tiedown

Have you seen any of the nooma video's.... and im not talking about the guy dancing to the japanese song... im talking about the videos that Rob Bell is talking about things in life that he thinks affects his spiritual life and tries to apply them to other people.... this particular video struck me cause it is so true and apply to my generation and most of the generation before me. This video is called noise, Rob is talking about how we are so tied up with technology that we don't have quiet time with God anymore. I have a question for you guys. At this very moment can you tell me where your bible is? How about your cell phone or Ipod? My youth minister about a month before i left asked everyone to take out their cell phones and ipods and pile them up in the front of the room.... it was a big pile. Then he asked everyone to hold up their bibles, and only about half of the kids had their bibles.... me included. It made me think " why don't i know where the important things in my life are. Since AIM i have not seen that problem, atleast not from AIMers. Iv'e done way better about almost constantly having my bible on me or close in the house or vehicle. Back to the video... Silence is important if you want quiet time with God. I took a vow of silence for two days... and if you know me at all you know that is so difficult for me, because i love to talk. Probably way to much, especially if it's something im knowledgable about, like skateboarding, and, now im happy to say im getting that way with my bible.

I want to challenge you to take some time to pray to God. My Life of Christ teacher Pat Schaeffer made this what he called a Life Assignment. Go off by yourself and pray for an hour and then go home again be by yourself, and write down your feelings and thoughts about your time..... i promise you will feel so good afterward... or at least i did....

OCTOBER NEWSLETTER

Well i was having trouble with emailing my newsletters to people so im going to try this and hope it works better.

The month of October felt so much like one big trip for me. Before i start on the Paducah trip i want to say i got my report card back and i got two a's and two b's, i was really excited about it and hope that yall will share in my excitement.

Paducah, KY where to start, where to start? Well i guess i can start with the number of 10 days through 9 states and over 40 hours on a bus.... then add no sleep night the night before.... me and a group of friends decided to stay up all night.... we left at 5:30 in the morning. I had a lot of time to sleep on the bus.... beleive it or not the floor of a bus is one of the most comfortable places i have ever slept. We made our first stop in St. Louis, Missiouri, the arch was so cool.

and i went to a museum it was so awesome. i would really love to go again sometime.

Then after that we went to Lone Oak Church of Christ for a few days. LOCoC is such a loving congregation, they made me feel like i was home again. which made me miss you guys more than i already did. I got to do my first flag presentation as an AIMer..... my first one was with the 07 class in childress. Holding the flag of a nation that is not your own, to me is a powerful thing. Just knowing that each flag represents over a million lost people.

Mike Tenero was there to teach a class about loving the lost like Christ would. He again as expected did an amazing job, he is such an eloquent speaker.

Ok so we got into a little bit of trouble while in Paducah, apparently they were under a burn ban in KY........ We did not know this, and the church asked us to burn a bunch of old broken/ unfixable furniture. Fire Department wasn't too happy but we told them we were from Texas and they left and told us to be careful.

On the way back home we got to stop in Montgomery, AL for the World Missions Workshop at Faulkner University, which had some awesome classes that we sat through. there was a lot of people on this little bitty campus.

Yea!!!!!! for buses breaking down in Dallas. Our bus broke down and by the time we left from the church parking lot and got home it was 2:00 in the morning, but the good side of that is that they cancelled school the next day so it gave me a day to regroup .

My new classes are Acts taught by Ray Young, Romans taught by Charles Speer, New Testament Church taught by Victor Ellison, and Spiritual Nurturing taught by Jay Jarboe and Our own James Henderson. Im really excited about our new classes.

Okay the most stressful time for me will start next week and end right before Christmas break..... The Directors will start the team/ field selection. I know that God will put me in a place im needed and people that are best for me to work with. So i ask please pray for me because i will definitly need the prayers.

Thats all for this newsletter but please feel free to contact me 940 \585/ 8147

AIMing to fulfill the great commission

Evan Wayne Williams

Differences in Worship

Before you turn away from this post i would like to say it has nothing to do with peoples affiliation with any churches. When i talk about difference in worship i mean that everyone has thier own ministry. No matter how little bible knowledge you have God has given you a talent that you can use to bring people to Christ. Even dancing... as James (one of the AIMers) will demonstrate in this video.

first AIM class

wow classes were pretty good and i learned so much in just the first day.... infact my brain hurts...and i am already loaded up with reading assignments..... so i can definitly use some prayers ya'll

im back

so i have totally been busy with work and other stuff. But i haved moved into my apartment and i now have a laptop so i will be able to post again. Im so pumped for AIM.

Round Two

I Got a new Vehicle Mitsubishi Montero Sport.....dont worry ill try not to wreck this one.

New Phone

I am very excited that i got a new phone yesterday....because i didnt even know i was getting one until after school.....funny story that involves Trey. i sent a mass text yesterday to 10 people including what i thought was trey's phone. My phone said that i was getting a call from Trey and i pick it up and my grandma answers turns out i had a dislexic momemt and accidentally put my grandma's number for trey's

Have you had any weird phone experiences.

I have i guess you could call it a guest blogger today....it is actually a comment left on my blog by Kai...whose story is in my post Simple invitation. But i just absolutely think that you should hear what she has to say. you might want to read the post simple invitation first.

This, is Kai.:) **for the record, there was no "husband" issue, my :husband: had been out of the picture a while back, but it is true... I had been deeply depressed and had planned on killing myself that night after eating dinner, but Derrin was so persistant that it made me feel bad to even think of saying no to him. It means alot to me now that on that day, over a month ago- he was brave enough to talk to me. I dove into the LOVE of CHRIST and I haven't looked back since. IT was GOD's timing... and I AM THANKFUL to GOD that he puts people in this world that have LOVE enough to LISTEN to his WORDS and DO as he INSTRUCTS. NOW, I am DAILY involved heavily with the LORD, and planning on going to AIM with you this August! YOU are a great person Evan, and I thank God for you daily! Please remember, for anyone who reads this, sometimes you may have the slightest "interaction" with someone and it may end up being a "life" changing event, in this case, it was not only LIFE changing, it was LIFE SAVING... Hear what GOD says, DO as he ASKS you, and please know that though you may feel a bit out of place doing so, just "showing" that you "care" may be the *ANSWER* to some much needed prayers...:)

Why Should I ?

Before i start my actual post i have a Question.......Could the World handle two of me.

Alot of times when we are asked to do something we question why. some questions we usually ask are..........
1What is in it for me?
2Is It hard?
3Does it require alot of time?
4Does it require alot of energy.

Why Should We Pray?
- Its our only Communication w/ the Big Guy...well for us to talk to Him.
-The only thing hard about it is finding the words you want to say.
- For some people it does take alot of time.
-Not anymore energy is spent than having a normal conversation.

Why Should We Read Our Bibles?
-It's God's way of speaking to us and the only way we can know what he wants.
-98% of Americans are literate.....so it can't be too hard.
-It only takes as long as you want it to.
-Well I don't know about you but it gets pretty tough sometimes to turn pages.

Why Should We Sing?
- To praise God.
-no one says you have to be good.
-I guess it could
-Not unless you really get into it.