Adventures!
Hey Friends and Family!
As some of you know I left Rochester NY about two months ago to pursue an opportunity to partner with an organization called Adventures in Mission (AIM), in Gainesville GA, about 45 min north of Atlanta. I’ve been brought on to help develop projects sites in their short-term department (Adventures Encounter).
I think I should tell you more about me before I tell you exactly what I’m doing. If you have ever had a conversation with me you know how passionate I can become about things. The truth is I love Jesus and I am in love with this beautifully broken world you and I call home. My heart is to see people grow relationally, outside of their normal circumstances and to try things that they haven’t thought of in hopes to see an individual’s potential spark a fire in their hearts for what they are passionate about. I love people and value relationships significantly, in life wherever I have been I never remember the items I’ve bought, only the moments I’ve spent with others. Everything in my life that I hold the closest has been based on events in my life big or small, and constantly imputed into my journal. If you haven’t guessed it everything moment of life is usually connected to my heart by some event where love is very present. That explains why I love Christmas Eve with my family so much, it is a time when everyone is laughing and talking and remembering past family members. These moments have always kept my heart full and humble. For me it was never about receiving things from others but being able to look into someone’s face and seeing what love looks like in that moment. It’s funny because my mom always tells me when you love someone you give them your whole heart, and you may not even know them. For myself I believe that is the only way to live life. To give everything I have because I have seen when I am depleted at my lowest and thought I couldn’t love anymore for the pain may be unbearable, that is where Jesus has continued to stretch my heart and grown it even more. I love life no matter how bad it gets, I am still so blessed I cannot help but be grateful for this life.
Let me bring you in on what I am currently apart of within Adventures! With all my passion I am super excited to have the privilege of embarking on a variety of short-term mission’s trips within the department called “Encounter”. The team is broken into a few different roles and the one I have been placed in is Project Development! I really couldn’t be happier! I am given the opportunity to get to know people as well as connect them with passions for Jesus and then to see that passion spread all over this world! I perform a lot of logistical operations in order to provide incredible life altering relationship to develop in individual lives as they travel all over the world on our trips! The best part about what I am doing is that it is highly relational, and very intentional. The focus of Encounter is to develop and encourage strong relationships with Jesus through general revelation through His word as well as encountering Jesus through active participation in ministry. We know that these trips range from one week to a month but we believe that these trips have the potential to change someone’s life forever! This change we pray will not just come upon the participants on the trip but as well as the individuals we may have the opportunity to pour out the Love of Jesus on!
Some of you may remember four years ago I spent three months in Ethiopia. Wow it’s been that long! Those three months radically changed the trajectory of my life. I met some of the most incredibly selfless people in my life that taught me so much about my heart and what it looked like to love like Jesus. You see every year since I’ve been to Ethiopia I have read through my journals because I managed to fill four in my short time in Ethiopia…. You could say I learned a thing or two. One thing that I always walk away from after reading my journals is I am extremely encouraged by was the state of my heart. Lately I’ve been reading the book of Hebrews in the Bible, and a week ago I had one of the most incredibly intimate moments I’ve had in a while. I was just reminded how with constant out pour of my heart, the more and more I gave the emptier I “felt”. However as I was reading in chapter one God just kept affirming who I was, a person being emptied and just drained but Jesus in his goodness reminded me that “I have what it takes” and that reminder just began to build and fill me up. In saying that I just want to continue to explore my heart and encourage others to do so! I know within myself it’s hard because I have decided to ignore things in my heart that cry for attention because I feel just like every man to some degree feels inadequate at times and fears the unknown. As I begin to go on that journey of discovering what I don’t want to know about myself I naturally find myself at the most liberating place because that is where and when my heart is exposed.
Life in Gainesville has been super! I did want to let everyone know! It did start out kind of rough because on my way to the airport to fly home for Christmas I was in a car accident. Wasn’t my fault, the guy took off before I got any info, it was a fun day! But all in all I can honestly say I have never been closer to my family and thankful everyday for them! It is funny to think that something that potentially could tear people apart actually can draw them closer to one another. All that to say please support me with your thoughts and prayers and if you feel led to support me financially I’d be ever so thankful. But truthfully I covet your thoughts and prayers and may the Grace and Peace of Jesus encompass every facet of your lives!
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Twitter: biagiodellaiera
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Love you all!
