Casa Chappell: April 2011

Now that we've told some friends and family, we wanted to share some news and prayer request for Eric and I for this summer.

A couple of weeks ago a pastor around here approached Eric about an internship opportunity for the summer.

This was great because Eric didn't have any plans yet, and while he doesn't need any more internship experience for his degree program, he did need something to do this summer.

The details: for 8 weeks he would be working 6 days a week--preaching twice a Sunday, doing pastoral visits with the pastor, and teaching an English class which the church uses as an evangelism tool.

The internship is a little unique in that it is in Milan, Italy. (http://reformationitaly.org) (!!)

The duomo of Milan, photo from our honeymoon June 2009

My work is being generous and flexible in allowing me to go with Eric for almost half of the eight weeks. I'll be working part-time remotely as Eric will be staying really busy with the work there.

The church has an apartment we'll be staying in, although I don't have much more detail than that for now.

We're heading to New York for our summer vacation and then flying out of there the first week of June. I'll leave July 1st and Eric will stay until early August.

There is a ton to be figured out between now and when we leave in 5 weeks, but we feel very blessed to have this opportunity, and would covet your prayers that finances for the trip work out (it is an unpaid internship and we are responsible for our travel and incidentals while we're there), that we travel safely, and that Eric's work in Milan will be used well for the sake of the Kingdom.

More details to come!

Eric and I just got home from a week in Chicago to work/attend The Gospel Coalition Conference. We had a great, but exhausting time!

One of the hotels that had rooms blocked out for the conference was the historic Palmer House Hilton (built in 1871). We decided to stay there instead of the hotel on McCormick Place's campus.

Its located right in the loop, and was beautiful!

main lobby

our room

The conference brought such a broad variety of people (reformed, baptist, evangelical) and the main topic of the plenary speakers was "Preaching Christ from the Old Testament". Eric's (educated) commentary was that most speakers did really well, although there were a few that didn't do justice to the topic.

If you get the chance, we'd highly recommend you listen to:

Tim Keller, Getting Out (Exodus)

Conrad Mbewe, The Righteous Branch (Jeremiah)

Matt Chandler, Youth (Ecclesiastes)

Mike Bullmore, God's Great Heart of Love Towards His Own (Zephaniah)

Don Carson, Getting Excited About Melchizedek (Psalms)

There were dozens of break-outs sessions and special events. One that we were able to attend was a live taping of The White Horse Inn, a radio program/podcast that Eric and I have been listening to for years. One of WSC's faculty members started WHI 20 years ago and we are closely connected with them at the seminary. Last minute one of the usual panelists got sick and wasn't able to make it, so Eric's preaching professor stepped in (he also spoke at another breakout session). We sat in the front row and cheered like groupies.

There was addendum post-conference called Christ + City that we also attended. Mostly urban pastors seeking to communicate the mission and encourage the leaders of urban or inner-city churches. Included in that event was Tim Keller's Generous Justice message, which was great to hear.

(Eric recently read his book, and subsequently wrote a review for Westminster's blog on it:

http://wscal.edu/blog/entry/book-review-generous-justice-by-tim-keller)

The events of the week concluded with a concert by some of Eric's favorite artists. I know most people will be skeptical when they hear this music described, so I'm just going to link up to some songs and let you know decide for your self.