A Bottle Of Peach Tea Confirmed The Next Step: Caleb Earle

A kid watches Hercules, dreams of a far-off place, and somehow that thread turns into a real life in Italy. Caleb Earl, one of our Global Year field leaders, sits down with us to trace the whole story: the first short-term mission trip that made him feel “alive,” the slow grind of learning Italian, and the moment a simple bottle of peach tea felt like God saying, it’s time.

We get specific about the work. Caleb breaks down what these Italy kids camps actually are: day camps for ages six to thirteen where families sign up for English learning through sports, crafts, and music led by native English speakers, with Bible discussions shared openly as part of the week. He also shares the unglamorous side of cross-cultural ministry leadership, from registration and schedules to volunteer onboarding, plus how COVID pushed the team to build a full YouTube camp and later plant new camps across Italy with a replicable manual and resources.

Then we go deeper into the inner life of leadership. Caleb talks marriage overseas, winter heaviness, residency bureaucracy, and what it takes to guide young adults for months at a time without trying to control their growth. We also wrestle with “religious anxiety,” learning to loosen our grip on needing to get everything right, and discovering how global Christianity expands the way we see God. The conversation closes with a big transition: sensing a season shift and choosing to move back to the United States with peace even when the plan isn’t finished.

Subscribe for more Global Year stories, share this with someone considering a gap year or missions, and leave a review so more people can find us. What part of Caleb’s story hits closest to home for you?

Transcript

Welcome And Meet Caleb Earl

SPEAKER_02 0:01

Hey guys, what's up? Welcome back to the Global Year Podcast. This is episode six, and today I got to sit down with my sweet friend and Global Year field leader, Caleb Earl. For over 10 years, Caleb has been traveling to Italy, serving at kids' camps, and pouring his life into people. For the last five years, he and his wife, Eva, have faithfully served on Global Year staff as field leaders, leading teams with so much wisdom, humility, and love. Honestly, they are some of the most beloved people on the planet, and anyone who's been led by them would probably say the same. Caleb and Eva are currently in a season of transition as they move back to the States, and it was such an honor to get to sit down with Caleb just to reflect on the years in Italy, the impact of global year, and what's next in this new season. I think you're gonna really love this conversation. So sit back and enjoy. Just why don't you yeah, just share with us kind of the the backstory of how you ended up in Italy. Yeah. Um and why, I guess why in the first place you chose to take that that jump.

SPEAKER_04 1:17

Yeah, so I um as a kid had always had a fascination with Italy. Uh no for no particular reason. But uh even as a seven-year-old, I uh in my homeschool co-op, we did a European cultures class one year, and I Italy was my favorite part of the class. Oh, cool. And they gave us this little phrase book of languages from different countries in Europe, and I was learning all of the Italian phrases at age seven, and um yeah, and uh so it just was kind of this, you know, obsession, not obsession, but interest that was always there. And so then in um I think it was my junior year of high school, one of my really good friends, Danny, uh mentioned that he was gonna be going with our church to do a summer camp in Italy on a mission trip. And immediately I was just like, I've gotta go. I there was no like need to, you know, take three weeks and pray about it. You know, it was just like I knew I needed to go. Yeah um and I immediately started really seriously studying Italian. Uh, I was like 17. Um studying Italian. Well, I was actually 16 when I was prepping, but whatever. Studying Italian, uh raising money, you know, and I went for just two weeks um with the church for a short-term mission trip to help with this summer camp. And I just I felt alive. Like that's really the best way that I can describe it is I felt alive. I felt fulfilled. I felt like what I was doing and where I was and interacting with the people I was interacting with felt significant. It felt important um and fulfilling. And um I also found a way to uh I don't know, just kind of I felt more myself in that atmosphere than I did uh here, you know.

SPEAKER_02 3:14

And of course what was it about the Italy that felt like I think it was just exciting, you know.

Building Camp And Wearing Every Hat

SPEAKER_04 3:21

I I always think about this moment that I had when I was a kid watching Hercules, the Disney movie. And uh my favorite it was my favorite Disney movie for one, and then my favorite song in it was Go the Distance. Nice. Uh and Hercules is saying, you know, I've I've often dreamed of a far-off place. Yeah. Uh where a great warm welcome will be waiting for me. And uh I I don't know, from a kid from a from a very young age, I had this desire to go on a great adventure. Yeah, you know, to go to a new place, yes, and to f figure out who I am. Yeah. And it felt like that. Like that's just the best way I can describe it. Is it just it resonated with that part of my soul that was hungry for a new experience and to go on a great adventure? Um, and so I I and I I just loved camp. It was exciting, it was fun. I was interacting with all these different people from so many different countries. Yeah. Uh, and I was seeing God move. And so I just, yeah, that first trip just set something ablaze in me uh that wanted to go back. And I did for the next couple of the next two summers, I went back on the team with the church uh just for the two weeks. And then the next year, the organization that had usually hosted camp was moving away from where we were. They were moving to a different part of Italy. And I really felt like I wanted to go back and and support the missionaries that were gonna stay and continue the work there. Uh and so I went by myself. I went for a month and a half. Um, I just reached out to them directly. Uh instead, my church wasn't even sending a group that year. So I was like, well, the only option, if I want to go and help them, you know, I know they're gonna need help because the missions organization just left. Yeah. So uh I went back for a month and a half, and uh it was just it was so fun to be there for a longer period of time and also that sense of independence being there by myself, yeah. Walking out into a grocery store and practicing my Italian and the people just understanding me and then having that euphoric feeling of it worked, like it felt like magic, you know? And so uh yeah, I I after that I wanted to go back every summer, and I went back for a month and a half, two months, it depended on the year, but as my Italian grew and as they were giving me me more responsibility with camp and trusting me with more, uh, it just felt more and more natural and a given that I would be there full-time one day. Um so yeah, we and camp was growing significantly. I mean, the year before COVID, we had 225 kids at camp with about 75 junior coaches, which were high school age, majority not religious at all. Yeah. Uh, and about 80 to 90 volunteers. Um, so over 400 people or around 400 people for that first camp or for that camp before COVID.

SPEAKER_02 6:31

Um what was your role at that point?

SPEAKER_04 6:34

At that point, um, and it's pretty much the same now today. Uh, it's hard to define, you know, in a in a in a missions project like that. It's hard to say, okay, your job is this. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, but I think generally we refer to myself and um one of the other directors of camp as program directors. So I focus uh a lot of my role is administrative. So I run registration uh for campers, for volunteers, for junior coaches. Uh I do a lot of communication with teams that are coming over to Italy and a lot of planning for the week. We I put together the, you know, the schedule for the volunteers. We work on the curriculum that we're going to be choosing, and I do a lot of the graphics too, like the logo design for the the year's theme. Yeah. I run the website and the social media, and you know, um I've been able to delegate a couple of those things this last year, so that's been really nice. But uh lots of behind-the-scenes stuff. And then when volunteers arrive, um, it's really just about keeping the ball rolling. Yeah. Because once we've built it, you know, we just got to keep it going. So uh that looks like leading cultural orientation, getting up in front of the group at camp orientation and explaining this is how the rotations work, this is how um the music time will work, you know, and kind of putting volunteers into roles. You're gonna be a basketball coach, you're gonna lead music, you're going to lead the crafts, you know. Uh so just a lot of planting.

SPEAKER_02 8:01

You help make the machine go.

Digital Camp And Planting New Sites

SPEAKER_04 8:03

Yeah. And and I even get up in front of everybody and dance, you know, which is really fun. So uh but yeah, the last five years actually, we have been uh uh planting camps. Uh so back after 2019, we did this. Well, the year of COVID, we did a big YouTube camp. So we reached out to volunteers who had come in the past and had this big long list of videos that we wanted to make and basically created a playlist for every day for a week. Yeah. And it went, it followed the same structure of the a day of camp. Uh so we had sports, we had a Bible lesson, we had a craft that they could do at home with stuff they would already have, you know, things like that. Um, and it was just a digital camp with people from all over the world that would make a video, they would sign up to make a video of basketball or whatever. Cool. And uh and it's all still up on YouTube. Uh which is and it was one of the coolest projects I've ever done.

SPEAKER_03 8:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 8:54

But after that, you know, with that, it kind of forced us to also get together some branding and build a website and stuff that we hadn't done yet. So after that, in twenty when we when my wife and I moved over there in 2021 after we got married, um, we had always we had had for a couple of years already this desire to start camps in other parts of Italy. And we started in Como with a local church there. Um, and then we started the next year in the south in a region called Basilicata. And then the next year we started in a town called Pesaro on the east coast. Cool. Um, and all those camps are still going. This will be the third year, actually, in the last camp that we've planted in Pesaro. And we have several other groups that have reached out to us about helping, and obviously we can't do all of them. So this year we built like a uh Google Drive folder full of resources and like a 50-page manual on how to start a camp. Uh, wrote job descriptions for every role in camp. And uh we trial ran that last summer with a group in central Italy, and uh so our staff didn't go to the camp in person, but we sent these materials and um and they did it on their own and said it went really well. So uh this year we're maybe gonna be doing that in Spain with the church. Uh we've sent them the material, we'll see what happens. But it's cool to see how the project has grown. Yeah. Uh and so all over all across all the camps, probably I'd say there's about maybe 500, 600 people involved if you count all the campers, volunteers, all yeah. So that's awesome.

What These English Kids Camps Are

SPEAKER_02 10:32

Yeah, it's really cool. So for people who don't know, what are what are these camps? Yeah. Like what are is it kids' camps or yeah.

SPEAKER_04 10:39

Yeah, they're kids' camps. There are the ages are usually for the campers about six to thirteen. Okay. Um, and they're day camps, so it's not an overnight situation. And then we have high schoolers who come back as junior coaches, so most of them have done camp before. Okay. And they come back to kind of give a hand and help, but we also have a program for them uh to invest in them because, like I said a minute ago, they are usually the majority of them are not coming from uh religious families or Christian families, really. Um and so we have a program for them as well. Um, but we the the big draw of the camp is that we teach English, that we have native English speakers. Yeah. So we do that through sports, crafts, and music. And um, so the parents will send the kids to the camp to learn English, really. Um, but everyone knows, like it's not the fact that we have a Bible discussion in the during the day and that we're talking about the scripture is not a secret or anything. The whole community knows. We advertise that it's you know, we'll be having discussions about biblical values. Yeah. Um, so you know, it's not some kind of sneaky, we're gonna ambush you with the gospel thing. Um, but it's uh it's still very successful because even the junior coaches, I think it's a great testament to um to what God is doing in camp because a lot of a lot of them, even though they don't really care much about the Bible stuff, uh, they will still tell you that they think it's an uplifting atmosphere and that it's it's just different and it's uh it's a happy place and they feel like they're doing something meaningful. Um and so that's really cool to see, you know, that even if they are not really vibing with with the other stuff that we talk about, they still want to be there and uh and you know who knows what'll happen with that.

SPEAKER_02 12:28

But yeah, um what are some moments um that you can think of that have been impactful to you from camp?

SPEAKER_04 12:39

From camp, from some of those camps you've done, like what are some moments that you've seen like where God has moved in someone's life or yeah, I think um seeing volunteers from all these years, I mean we have had hundreds of volunteers come through the years and to see them come and bring such energy and enthusiasm about what we're doing, and to see them step out of their comfort zone, yeah, and to um do things they're not comfortable with, you know, like speaking in front of people or uh interacting with people and uh with that don't speak their language, to see that that desire and that hunger to you know serve has been really moving. Yeah. Um and I've met some of the best people in my life. My some of my best friends and best mentors have been through camp. Cool. And I keep in touch with all of them, you know, or or most of them at least. Yeah. Uh and I think that's that's been the biggest thing is the people the people that I met through camp uh have changed my life and made me who I am today. Um that's amazing. Their friends, yeah, their friendship, yeah, and just the the willingness to walk together, yeah. Even though we're all we all leave camp and go back to different countries. Yeah, yeah.

Global Year Calling And COVID Whiplash

SPEAKER_02 13:58

You know, that's awesome. Yeah. Um well, if you could just share, I guess, how you got from you know, going on the summers doing camps to connecting with Global Year. Yeah. Just share that story, how that happened.

SPEAKER_04 14:16

Yeah, so Global Year was already in the uh the valley, the area that I was doing camp uh for many years before that. Uh so I had crossed paths with a lot of the students throughout the years. And I knew Emily and Samwele already, who were the field directors um of Global Year in Italy. Yeah. So in 20 uh 2018, I had finished college and was working for my church. And Johnny, the president of Global Year, your dad, uh had gone over to Italy to talk with Emily and Samuele about relaunching the program because they had taken a couple of years off.

SPEAKER_03 14:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 14:53

And my name apparently got brought up a lot uh because people there knew that I was uh really interested in being there full time one day, and that I already spoke full like fluent Italian at that point. So um he came back and called me at the beginning of January of 2019, and without ever meeting me in person, really not even talking to me for five minutes, was just like, so you want to move to Italy and uh help us help us start the program and you know later this year? And uh that was the part that scared me. It was not, do you want to move to Italy? Because I was that was my dream. Yeah, but it was like uh that's nine months from now, ten months from now. And uh I don't know that I can do that. Yeah, you know, it was terrifying because I don't I don't know if you ever had this experience where you dream about something for so long and it seems like okay, yeah, I'll do that one day. Yeah. But then when it actually gets handed to you, it's like oh yeah, you know, absolutely I don't know that I can actually do this. Um so yeah, I took a couple of well, actually, let me tell you the story first. But yeah, five minutes after I hung up the call with Johnny, uh, and we had said, okay, take three weeks. Yeah. Three weeks to pray about changing your life. Yeah. Um, my one of my friends, Joelle, sends me a text and is like, and she had been to camp the year before. Yeah. And she sends me a text and it's like, hey, I have something for you. Can I swing by your place and drop it off? I'll be there in five minutes. And she walks in the door five minutes later with this bottle of uh peach tea from Italy that I loved and that I had never been able to find over here. Wow. And uh five minutes after I get off the call with Johnny, she walks in the door with that bottle of peach tea. And I know that sounds like so trivial. But it's like it felt like it felt like God saying it's time. Yeah. You know, because I had thought it was time before many years, you know, the ambition of a young man who wants to be in ministry and thinking, okay, I'm gonna go home and drop out of school and I'm gonna move straight to Italy. And and I'm so thankful for people in my life that were like, no, no.

SPEAKER_02 16:58

Just wait a second. You're not ready.

SPEAKER_04 17:01

Slow it down. Yeah. Uh and so when she came in, it j it really just felt like something clicked of God saying, if you want to go, you can go. Yeah. You know? So I took three weeks to pray about it, and of course it was a really difficult decision uh because it meant leaving everything, you know, that I loved.

SPEAKER_02 17:19

Um what was your what was your life like at that moment?

SPEAKER_04 17:22

I was working uh for my church uh in in Dalton, Georgia. I was working for I was a multi-campus student ministry administrator. Okay. Um, which I loved that job. I had such a fun, a fun time doing that job. And I was a barista working for a coffee shop, which was really fun. Yeah. Um so yeah, and I just had an incredible friend group. I had really developed an amazing community in in Dalton. And so and I'd grown a lot and just really bonded with people, and I was just scared of leaving that, you know, and losing it. Um but I through those weeks of prayer just really noticed a restlessness in myself uh and a hunger for that adventure again, you know. Um and I was starting to talk to this amazing girl who uh told me you'd be stupid not to go. Uh and and we would be stupid not to try long distance. So let's give it a shot, you know? Yeah. Um and I already knew at that point that she was really special. Yeah. Uh so um we uh yeah, she encouraged me to go. Um, and I uh beginning middle of February told Johnny yes and immediately started selling pretty much everything I had. I got all my possessions down to a suitcase, a carry-on, and a backpack and live moved in with my small group leaders to save some money before I left. Uh, I went to Italy for that summer um to do camp as usual. I came back to the US for about three months to finish raising funds. Um, Eva and I were officially dating at this point. Yeah. Um, and then I went to Italy for the first time uh with a group of students in October of 2019, my first group, and I had six students. Yeah. Uh so we were there for three months. We went to Cape Verde for three months because we didn't have a visa to stay in Italy the whole nine months. So we went to Cape Verde, uh, where we already had a group of students with global year in Cape Verde.

SPEAKER_03 19:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 19:31

And we just joined on with what they were doing. And that's when COVID hit in 2020. Yeah. And so we were supposed to go back to Italy in April. Um, but of course, uh borders closed in February, and so we made the decision to just stay in Cape Verde for the rest of the year, of course, you know, because and that was also when everyone thought that it was just gonna be a month and then it would all blow over. Yeah. Um, and then at the end of March, Johnny made the call to bring everybody home. And it had been a hard six months, so part of me was like, Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_03 20:10

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 20:11

But another part of me was like, What? I I just literally gave up everything in my life. Yeah. And like, God, what are you doing? Yeah, you know? Um, I'm going back to the US, like I'm getting evacuated on an embassy flight. The world seems like it's ending, and I'm going back to the US.

SPEAKER_02 20:32

Yeah. It probably felt really confusing. It was very confusing.

SPEAKER_04 20:35

Yeah. Um, so we I was back in the US. I was with my family for a month or so, and then I moved back to Dalton. Uh, and Eva and I started talking about marriage, and I proposed in June of that year of 2020, and we really felt called to, once we got married, to move back to Italy together. Uh, so we the last six months of COVID were of 2020 was pr planning and prepping for the wedding, and Eva was finishing school, and she had always felt a draw to uh global missions as well, and specifically in Europe. She'd spent that whole summer as well in 2019 um in Croatia working with camps. So and she came to visit me while we were there in Italy with that first group. So, and just to you know, see Italy and figure out what do I feel about this place? And uh, and yeah, so she she prayed about it for a while too, um, before we made the decision to move to Italy and really felt the same kind of desire in her as well, which I was very happy about. Yeah, of course, you know, because I wanted to be in Italy as well. But I wanted I wanted her to be able to come to that place for herself. You know, I didn't want to um make that decision or or put any pressure on her for that to be the case, you know. Um I would have moved home if that's what I needed to do. Yeah. Um 'cause I just was so in love with Eva. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:58

And um that's a good thing. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I would have gone wherever. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 22:02

Um and I was of course thrilled, you know, that she was excited about moving to Italy. So we got married in January of twenty twenty one. Um we applied for visas in April and this or in February. Yeah, it was February when we applied for the visa. And this was miraculous. Um we getting a visa is tough to go to Italy, and especially to get the religious motives visa that we had. Um, but it was COVID, and so I emailed the consulate in Miami, and usually you have to go and travel to the consulate and do an in-person interview.

SPEAKER_03 22:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 22:37

But I emailed them, was like, hey, are you guys even accepting applications? Is this even possible? And they said, because of COVID, we're not doing interviews, but send everything in the mail. So we scrambled together, got all of our documents together, sent overnighted it to Miami. A week later, they asked for another document. And a week after that, we had visas in hand. Two weeks. That never happens. That never happens for our kind of visa. Amazing. So we moved to Italy at the end of April. Well, May 1st, um, four months after getting married. We were crazy. Um, yeah. We were we were we were crazy, but also it was one of the best things that we could done for our marriage too to have immediately uh, you know, a long time, like a year and a half before we had students, yeah, to just focus on being married and acclimating to living in a new country. Yeah. We had a fully furnished apartment when we got there. Um, you know, it we didn't need stuff for a wedding shower because we were moving, but we had a fully furnished apartment, so that was great.

SPEAKER_03 23:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 23:44

And yeah, so that was how we got there full time uh with Global Year. Um, we've been there May 1st will be five years since we've since we moved. Amazing. Um, we've had four groups of students. This is we're currently in our fourth group of students right now. Uh and it's been it's been tough. This living in Italy, um, you know, doing groups, it was definitely living there is a completely different ball game than just going for the summers. Yeah. Um, you know, so we've been stretched a lot, we've been challenged a lot, and we've also had some amazing, incredible experiences that so many people never get to see, you know. So we're very, we're very humble about that. Like we're very fortunate. Yeah, and we recognize that that's an incredible gift. Uh and uh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:32

Hey, if you're feeling a pull for something more, not just a trip, but a season that could actually shape your life, this might be you. And from January to June, that's January 2027 to June, Global Year is sending a small team of just six students to Port Shepston, South Africa, partnering with Genesis Hope. And that's an outreach ministry of Norwegian Settlers Church there in Port Shepston. Genesis exists to bring hope to the last, the lost and the least, serving their community through care, education, and social justice. This is hands-on everyday ministry. You'll step into after-school programs with kids, help create safe spaces for those coming out of domestic violence, serving the elderly and the sick, support orphan care, and be part of outreach through Sports and Surf Ministry. It's immersive, it's relational, and it's six months of living on mission, not just visiting it. We're only taking six students for this team. And if that stirs something in you, head to globalyear.org to learn more or to apply.

SPEAKER_02 25:44

I want to hear, so you were newly married. Yeah. Um before you went for a year and a half. What was that like? Like getting married, moving to Italy. Moving to Italy. What is that first year like, just you guys together? It was I mean, because uh, you know, when you're when you first get married, there's a lot to learn. And kind of jumping into like a I mean, you were familiar, maybe more than she was. Yeah, yeah. Um But I the thing I think about is like moving away from family in your first year of marriage. Usually there's like a lot of challenges in that. Not that there's not good things about it. Yeah. Um because you are kind of like jumping into the deep end and you gotta figure things out. Um but what was that like? Like what were some of the challenges or some of the the good things about that?

SPEAKER_04 26:41

Yeah, of course we love our families so much, and it was hard to leave. Um, and also I think it was really good for us to figure out life, just the two of us, you know. Um, and of course, you know, it was a challenge for for Eva in the beginning, uh, because she walked into a place, uh not only a foreign country, but a place that her spouse was already very familiar with. Yeah, I was already fluent, I had community, I knew people there. Um, and so it was tough for her at first to find her place and find uh you know her rhythm. Yeah. But man, she has blown it out of the water. I've been so proud to be married to this woman. She is just incredible in every single way. She learned Italian at an insane rate. I mean, I I know people who've been there for years, and Eva is just incredible at Italian. She will never she will always downplay her skill in the language to you and say that she is terrible, but she's amazing. I mean, she was fluent within a year and a half. Like, I mean, of course, there was some vocabulary that she still needed to learn and stuff, but um she's just a wonderful person and has incredible gifts and talents and um has brought so much to um not only what we do with camp, but also what we do with global year. Um she we did an intensive language course when we got there for about a week, uh, and that that helped some. Um, but we live in an area where there's not much English as well. And so she really pushed herself to learn the language. Um yeah, so it was it was of course tough to be away, but there were there were many advantages to, you know, it it forced us to depend on each other. It really, it really taught us to rely on each other and we're best friends anyway. Like we literally love working together and being together 24-7. Yeah. Uh we love that so much. Um, so for us it was just it was just fun, yeah. You know, to to move overseas and work together and be together. Um, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:02

It's great. Did you whether were there any challenges in that first year that you guys had to work through?

SPEAKER_04 29:10

Um I'm trying to remember, gosh. It feels you're like, no, it was all bliss. It was all bliss. No, I mean it it was it was a long time ago for sure. Okay, well, so there, yes, okay, now some of it's coming back to me. One was that COVID was still very much a thing. Yeah. We and when we moved to Italy, they were still doing the green zones, yellow zone, red zone, based on regions and how many cases were present in that region. So there was still a curfew, there were still masks required outside. Yeah. Um, you know, we had to have at a certain point we had to have what they called the green pass, which was basically just to show that you either had a vaccine or you had a recent test. Yeah. Um, and so it was, it was a lot of stuff, it was stuff was shut down, yeah, you know, and operated very differently than it does now. So that was kind of tough, um, you know, to move to another country and it also be not the Italy that I knew at first. Um and then yeah, I had another really good thing and now I've forgotten what it was. It's all right.

SPEAKER_02 30:17

Um maybe it'll come back.

SPEAKER_04 30:19

Yeah. Yeah. Oh, okay. Well, so I had been living for two years, two and a half years more or less, out of two bags and moving to a different place every three months. And when we moved into that apartment, we were gonna be there for the foreseeable future. Yeah. And so and we're also married and thinking about settling down and starting our home. Yeah. And so, of course, we started thinking about buying things for the home. And I had a full-on panic attack when we bought our mattress. Wow. Because it was like, well, what am I like, what am I gonna do when in three months when I have to leave? You know, it was like this feeling of being suffocated, yeah, of like buying a vase and like things that to a minimalist for two and a half years seemed very meaningless and not necessary. Yeah. Um, so I really had to kind of adjust, yeah, you know, from being a nomad for so long to settling. Yeah. Um, and in that week that I was really freaking out about it, I felt like uh God was just like, breathe, you can be here for a while. Yeah. You know, also because I had never been allowed to stay there for more than three months because I didn't have a visa. So this was the so I still kind of had this feeling of like, am I gonna get in trouble? Am I gonna get uh you know charged for ever staying? But it's like I had you know that catastrophizing in your brain. I had to really convince myself, like, no, you literally have a visa, you literally are getting residency, you can stay here. Like nobody, you're not a fugitive that's gonna be, you know. So it was, yeah, it was an adjustment of transitioning from a very nomadic transitional lifestyle to settling down for me. Yeah. Um, you know, and uh yeah, I mean, of course for Eva it was tough at first because she didn't have um the language yet, and so making friends and making connections was kind of tough. She felt like a lot was filtered through me, you know. Um and so that was that was kind of tough for her as well to kind of have her independence all of a sudden stripped from her, yeah, you know.

SPEAKER_02 32:37

Um it does feel like that, like when you go to a another country that feels unfamiliar, the language is different. There is like a and it gives you compassion too for like people who come to the US. You know, yeah, it's like this is a foreign place, yeah, different language. Like you start to understand that kind of like that disconnect that can happen. Yeah, you kind of feel like a little isolated and like, you know. Yes. Um yeah.

SPEAKER_04 33:03

And it wasn't just Eva either that struggled with that. Like it it seems like that would be a given because she was new to the country, but in reality, I struggled with a lot of that as well. You know, I was getting to know a country that I had not really gotten to know on certain depths. Yeah, I hadn't I had only spent one fall there, I had not lived a winter there. Yeah, and in the valley where we live, the sun goes behind the mountain at 1 30 at the peak. Wow. And it's people don't get out as much. Yeah, it's it's it's uh it can be somewhat isolated.

SPEAKER_02 33:32

Yeah, I was gonna say, did you ever experience that like seasonal depression?

SPEAKER_04 33:35

Oh my gosh. Our first two winters there were really, really tough. Really, really tough. Yeah, so I you know, I was navigating all of the bureaucracy in applying for residency, trying to figure out healthcare and what that looked like, trying to figure out okay, what does driving school look like at a certain point? Our residency process was a nightmare. It was really tough. Yeah, took a long time, took a year and a half before we had actual residency. Um, and so on me, as not only feeling like I'm a husband that needs to take care of my family, but also um I was the one with the Italian experience, so I should know all of this, I should have all this figured out. This shouldn't be so hard. You know, I was I had to put a lot of pressure on myself. Yeah. So I was navigating a lot of new stuff as well. Um, but it was great, it was it was helpful that we could go through that together, you know. Um yeah.

Leading Students With Margin And Care

SPEAKER_02 34:37

Yeah. It's always easier to do it together. Yeah, absolutely. It's harder to do it alone. For sure. Um, so let's jump forward a little bit just to that first year with students and what that was like. Um you but you had already been there a year and a half together, prepared for students. Yeah. They get there. You know, it's like, yeah, what now? What was that like?

SPEAKER_04 35:00

Well, you know, logistically, it was somewhat simple because I had done it once before with a group by myself, you know. And I had Emily in Samuele. Yeah. Um, back then, who had a car and could, you know, he was Italian, so I felt a lot of shelter with them. Uh so I think this the biggest struggle for us in our first year was just the feeling of we have to keep all this going, the two of us. Yeah. And uh we don't have a car, we can't drive, we have to rely on public transport, which is not very reliable. Yeah. Um, what happens if what someone gets sick? What happens, you know, like there was just a lot of anxiety that we dealt with in that first year. Yeah, as far as what projects we were involved in, it was mostly the same that it was the other year that I had students, so that was pretty easy. Um, but we we really vibe with this age group. We really love working with this age. Yeah. Uh so relationally it was good. We Eva and I do one-on-ones with them every week, um, where we just it's just a space really for them to talk to us. And, you know, if they have something to vent about, they can vent. If they need advice about something, if they just want to talk about what God's teaching them. Um, or if they don't have anything to talk about, that's us just wanting to get to know them, you know, and hear about uh their life. And um, yeah, we just we have always wanted to be available as field directors. We've that's always been our number one priority. Yeah. Um, we have certain responsibilities in regular projects and stuff, ministry projects throughout the year, um, especially during camp that we get personally very busy. Um, but in the other moments of the year, we don't take on a lot of responsibility outside of the team, me and myself and Eva. Our number one focus has always been to be available for the students um and to focus on their experience and their growth. Yeah. Um, so we we our first group was was great. It was great. Um, we all had some challenges navigating the bus, of course. Um uh, but yeah, it was uh it was a good first group. We really, we really loved them. Um yeah, I think it was just us learning how to do the job that we were doing.

SPEAKER_02 37:18

Yeah, yeah. Um was there was there anything that was harder than you expected it to be? Or, you know, maybe with the first group, maybe not, but anything that you know leading, you know, a team for a long period of time, um it's obviously different than leading people for a month, or and I know that to that point you had had some experience doing that, but were there anything that was just harder than you expected? Um you know, obviously leading and guiding young adults relationally, things like that, like any challenges that popped up.

SPEAKER_04 37:54

Yeah, I think you know, sometimes we have we have students that are coming with some baggage, you know? And and that's okay. Yeah, you know, I'm not afraid of that. No, um I think yeah, it's it's learning to I think something we have really learned throughout all of the years is to not take as much personally, you know, because we're the only staff in Italy with Global Year. And so we feel sometimes fully responsible for everything that they feel and think about what they're doing. Um, and if you know, in the first year we felt kind of insecure of like, well, gosh, they're feeling homesick. What are we doing that's not meeting their needs, you know? Yeah. And yes, of course, there's always an element to that as a field director. You should always be aware of that and your responsibility to help that. But we also had to learn this is also part of their experience. And it's healthy to to um for them to go through challenges. I'm not afraid of them feeling lonely. I'm not afraid of them, you know, being frustrated with teammates. I'm not afraid of them not being a super big fan of one of the projects that they're doing because all of that helps to grow. Of course, I want to take that into consideration and I want them to enjoy the things that they're doing, but I'm not afraid of a little discomfort. Yeah, you know, because you know that's gonna happen. It stretches them and it teaches them things about themselves. Um, you know. So I think we've just had to learn hey, don't freak out. It's gonna be okay. And they're probably gonna go through some storms. Um, but you can let that happen and you can let God work in them, you know. You're not the one that's gonna change them this year, you know, or or bring freedom to the areas that they have struggles in. Yeah. Um so I think we've we've relaxed a lot more in the in the as the years have gone by, even in the schedule. Yeah. We our first year was so structured and busy. We had every meal together as a team except for breakfast and two uh one, which was two dinners a week. We had two dinners and breakfasts free. Every other day we had meals together. Yeah. And uh we of course we had a rotation, it wasn't just us cooking, but you know, we would all take turns making meals and stuff. But every year we have shaved off a couple more meals. Yeah. Just to give ourselves margin. Yeah. You know, because I had this big insecurity of like if I'm not com if I'm not creating this home environment with them, they're gonna really want to go home because they feel lonely. Yeah. And so we've learned we've learned that we have more space and margin than we thought we did in the beginning, you know.

SPEAKER_02 40:53

Yeah. What were what was a moment or a couple moments like throughout, you know, the past several years, you know, with students that reminded you this is why I do this.

SPEAKER_04 41:10

Man, so many. I mean, I think there have been a couple of students throughout the years that they start off just struggling, you know? Having a hard time. And not because not we have not had any bad kids. Yeah. You know, not because of any really fault of theirs, but that's just just hard. It's just a it's hard. It's a hard time.

SPEAKER_02 41:35

It's always gonna be hard to just like unplug from America, go to another country. Yeah. There's always gonna be challenges. And I think what makes you such a great leader is what you said earlier, that you you're not afraid of that. Yeah, that you almost expect it. Yeah. And so when it arises, it's not like a shock. Yeah. You know, it's like, okay, let's let's face this challenge.

SPEAKER_04 41:54

Um watching these students find freedom in those things that were holding them back, you know, has been so fulfilling to see a student at the end of the year and and look at them and think, you are a totally different person. Yeah, you are totally different, you have grown so much, is just the best feeling that we could ever have. Yeah. Um, and every year, and our students will tell you this too, when we do, when we do debriefing, uh, I'm always like, I'm not gonna cry. And I always am just weeping at debriefing. I'm always a mess because we love them so much. And when I was getting ready to leave for Italy for the first time with my first group of students, I was terrified. I was like, I do not know that I'm gonna be able to handle this. And I was meeting with a mentor of mine and just expressing, like, I don't know that I have what it takes. Yeah. Um, and he said something to me that has just been my my motto the whole time I've had students. And he said, Caleb, at the end of the day, they could be homesick, they could be struggling with something, they could be, you know, frustrated with a teammate. At the end of the day, what they need to know is that Caleb is with me, that he's for me, and that he loves me. Cool. And I have I really have tried to apply that to my mindset of these students. I don't want, I'm not trying to force them to make make any decision or learn any certain lesson or whatever. I just I want them to know that I'm with them. I'm in this battle with them, I'm walking with them. I'm not some superior leader who's just telling them what to do and assigning them to a certain ministry project or whatever. They're not my employees. They're not my slaves. Yeah. I want them to enjoy what they're doing. Yeah. And I want to do it with them, you know. And I'm with you in the trenches. I want them to know that I'm for them, that I want to see them succeed. I believe in them. So many of these kids have not been believed in. So I've seen so many students who just have not had that person that sees in them what God sees in them.

SPEAKER_03 44:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 44:31

And I want them to know that I see that. I want them to feel that I am supportive of them and I believe in them. And I see that they're capable of doing things that they don't feel like they're capable of doing. Yeah. And I love them. Like I want them to feel that I love them, that I I I yeah, I can't really go into that much very much because like love is such a heavy, powerful word, but I love them. You know, I'll I I make sacrifices for them. I do I do things for them that are tiring or, you know, um maybe that aren't even my wheelhouse or that I'm comfortable with, but I love them and I I care so much about them and this experience that I'll I'll I'll give of myself. And at the end of the day, I that's all I want them to know, you know. And that goes for Eva as well. I know I'm talking a lot about myself and uh I'm you know Well, yeah, I I know you speak for her too. She's just amazing. Yeah and I yeah. She would have so much to offer in this kind of conversation. So much to offer. We miss her. We miss her.

Letting Go Of Religious Anxiety

SPEAKER_02 45:34

She says she's not here, but yeah. Um that's amazing. I mean, that that to me is really what defines a great leader, you know, somebody who is willing to get in the trenches and be there with you, hold space for people, really love people, and I and I know through that you've probably meant so much to the students, you know. I hope so. And I I mean, well, I know so. You know, it's like you do doing what you've done and and giving the time you've given, um, those students will you know take that with them forever, you know. And and you know that too from someone who has kind of almost been on their end of the receiving, yeah like you talked about earlier, the relationships that you have through camps, the mentors, the people who have invested in you. Yeah. And for me too, like I've done a gap year and I know those people along the way that for me 15 years later, yeah, I still remember. Yeah, you know. Yeah. Um and so that's it's amazing to hear, and um that makes a big impact, you know. Um what's you know, just for you like personally, what's felt uh in this journey maybe a little heavier than you expected, or like what are some things that along the way um you know with students, some things that you've had to work through in yourself, like where has God like kind of reached in and helped you grow, you know, as a as a man, as a husband, as a leader, um, from you know, year one to now. Yeah. Like what are some things that that you've seen God do in your in your life personally?

SPEAKER_04 47:33

Yeah, you know, I I grew up very immersed in ministry and in church and Christian spaces. And from a very young age, I wanted to be, I wanted to be involved, I wanted to serve, I wanted to, yeah. Um, but a phrase that was often told to me was uh you're the only Jesus that people will ever see. And I get the sentiment, I do. But what that created in me was a lot of pressure. Yeah. Of you have to have it all together all the time. You have to be the example. You have to, you know, there's no room for messing up.

SPEAKER_03 48:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 48:14

And you need to have all the right ideas about things too. Because there's not a lot of wiggle room here.

SPEAKER_02 48:21

That's a lot of pressure. It's a lot of pressure. And so I relate to that.

SPEAKER_04 48:25

Yeah, and so um, I think something that I have learned from working with other cultures and working with other people who see things differently, even within Christian spaces, who think about doctrine differently, who think about certain issues and matters of theology differently. Yeah. I have been forced to confront that religious anxiety. Yeah. You know, to realize that my faith is not an exam that I'm gonna hand in at the pearly gates and be admitted on whether or not I passed the doctrine exam. I'm not gonna be let into heaven because oh, you didn't really get predestination quite right. Yeah, you know, yeah. I I've learned to release that, you know, and to let God be a mystery, you know, and to let walking with Christ be a mystery. I've learned to embrace my humanity and to not be so obsessed with getting everything right all the time and being the right kind of Christian or whatever, because everybody has a different opinion on that. Yeah. And working in cross-cultural Christian ministry, and and especially in Italy, where the evangelical church is so small that when you're a part of a community, you don't have a choice. You don't have another church down the road that you can just go and because you agree with them more. You have to work it out with people, you have to find a way to make space for people who see things differently within your community. Yeah. Um, and of course, you know, the unifying aspect there being Jesus and walking with Jesus and becoming like Jesus. And for me, so many things have just fallen away in respect to that. You know, yeah. I've learned to just relax and just just be, just be, and just follow Jesus. And I'm not saying that I do that perfectly all the time. Yeah, yeah. I sound really conceited right now. I've learned all these amazing things and I'm so good at it. It's so well said, though. It's not true at all, but yeah. Um, I'm not as anxious about things that I used to be anxious about. I'm not as worried about, oh, where's God's presence and is why is God not speaking to me? And oh, what did I do? Yeah, I was so worried about that for so many years. Oh, I just don't feel him today. I don't know what I did.

SPEAKER_03 50:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 50:55

And I don't really think about that anymore. I don't really worry about that anymore. I like he's here. Yeah. And I, you know, I don't need proof of that. Wow. He's here and I'm I'm good, you know? Yeah.

unknown 51:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 51:07

And so I try to I try to help students with that too, because a lot of them come from those same situations, yeah. Of uh just really heavily immersed religious families. And uh yeah, I think if I can help them yeah, let it go a little bit, breathe. You know, I think that's that's the best thing I think we're offered.

SPEAKER_02 51:28

Yeah, yeah. And being you it is it's so powerful being in other cultures. That lesson I feel like is learned quickly. Yeah. Like when you start realizing, I always say like God is not American, he's worldwide, you know, and you start thinking he is, yeah. You start seeing how people are impacted by God in so many different ways and context, you know, and you just realize like, man, I've had this bubble that I've kind of put God in, and it and when you go to another country that just burst, you know? Yeah. Um, and I'm sure there's resistance in that, but it's like eventually you're just like, I have to kind of let this go. Like what I know or what I think I know, yeah, kind of has to be released at some point to learn that lesson.

SPEAKER_04 52:25

Yeah. And I I think we're also very comfortable with the students having experiences with very different kinds of Christians as well. I'm not policing, you know, yeah, what who they're hanging out with and what they're because I want them to learn how to interact with these different Christians. You know, like they have experiences with some that are much more traditional and faithfully structured, I'll say that. And others that are more middle ground, and others that are super charismatic and you know, all about spiritual gifts. And for many of our students, typically, that's very new. Yeah um, but I I always want I want them to be able to have those experiences and to be able to talk about them afterwards and figure out what do you think about this. Yeah, I don't want to tell you what you need to think about this. I want I want you to discover that through your own wrestling and going to scripture and building your relationship with the Holy Spirit.

SPEAKER_03 53:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 53:25

Um, you know, I'm not afraid of that either, of them having they need that.

Choosing The Next Season Back Home

SPEAKER_02 53:30

Yeah, absolutely. You know, to find your own footing and to absolutely really build your own faith. You need those challenges. Yeah. Like you need to face things that are uh unfamiliar and be able to like evaluate and go, okay, what do I believe about this? Or is there something new in this that is challenging me? I think those are really, really valuable things for students. So well, to kind of land the plane, this has been really, really good. Um but I'd love for you to just share like what's next for you. Um, you know, things are about to change a little bit, yeah. Uh for you and Eva. And so, you know, what's after this year, kind of what's what's God kind of leading you into?

SPEAKER_04 54:15

Yeah. Um, well, in August, uh, Eva and I just started recognizing some feelings we had been having for several months about something new, some new change. You know, I think something that's been common in in my life is a sense of the season changing, of the wind beginning to blow and the leaves changing color and the temperature dropping or raising, whatever. And through the summer, we both started having those feelings of the tide was shifting, the roots were coming up, and God was just kind of doing something in our in both of our hearts. And so we just sat down and talked about it in August of like, hey, I'm I'm feeling this, and I think I'm ready to talk about what's next for us as a couple and in our lives. And um we, over a couple of months of imagining and brainstorming and laying out lots of different options and praying and talking to mentors and more praying and every day talking. How do you feel today? How do you feel today? Uh, we made the decision to move back to the US in December. Um, and that was one of the hardest decisions that I've ever had to make, you know, because uh I have everything I've ever wanted. Yeah. And there was no after, you know, for so long. This was the destination. Uh, and so when we both started feeling, you know, that same thing and then coming together and realizing that the other one was feeling the same way and that we were unified in that, uh it was tough, man. I felt super weird. I felt super irresponsible to give up something that I'd worked so hard for, yeah, you know. Um, but once we made the decision, we just felt a piece. And it felt exactly like when I decided to move to Italy the first time, and exactly how it felt when I decided that I wanted to marry Eva. Um, it just felt right. Yeah. I don't have a massive list of signs and prophetic words and all of this stuff. You know, I we just had this knowing, this sense of like, this is right, this is the next step for us. Um, and uh we don't quite know what that's gonna look like yet. Uh so that's kind of terrifying, but uh, we're confident, we know that it's the right call. Um, and we know that God will be with us uh and that he will be guiding us and and going ahead of us just like he did before. Um yeah, it's it's exciting. Beautiful. Yeah, it's gonna be tough to leave. It's gonna be really tough to leave. Um, but I I yeah, I feel this opening in front of me. Yeah. You know, I feel this like just yeah, yeah, I don't know, permission to move forward in my life, you know.

SPEAKER_02 57:16

Well, I think that's uh I think that's the way that God has called us to live is open-handed, you know. And for you to have that sense and awareness to know when it's time, you know, like to move to Italy, to move back from Italy. Yeah. I think that's it it just shows that you you guys are living open-handed, yeah, you know, and and ready and willing to adjust and shift. And I think it's good that we l we're flexible in that, you know. Um but I just, you know, from me and Glowier, just thank you for who you are, um how you've led and served. Um, I mean, there's not many people I know that really lead the way you guys do, and and just like the quality of humans you are. I mean, you just you guys lead young people so well. And I don't I feel like there's hardly ever complaints, you know. And I I just think it's like it just says a lot about who you guys are. Um the way you I mean what you shared today, but just the way you've loved students and and the eternal impact, you know, that'll have on um those students, their families, you know. That's not even speaking for the 10 years of you know, like um, you just you guys have given your time so willingly and uh gracefully. So thank you. Thank you for what you've done and and how you served, and thanks for sitting down with me today. Yeah, it's been awesome.

SPEAKER_04 59:00

Yeah, it's been good. It's been good to reflect as well. Cool and process.

SPEAKER_02 59:05

Awesome. Yeah. That's a wrap. Thanks, dude. Thanks.