Missionary trip to Italy is an incredible experience for Omaha woman

By Becky Uehling

NLT Publisher

It was bittersweet for Kalyn Hanson when she returned to the United States on Aug. 6 from serving as a missionary in Italy since May 15. Although happy to be home, Hanson was also sad to leave the people and places she came to love over the summer. 

Hanson, 25, served in Sicily, Italy for three months with the Engage the Crisis program established by the Antioch Church of Texas. 

Originally from Elsie, Neb., Kalyn now resides in Omaha where she attends Way Point Church, an Antioch church plant. Throughout the summer Kalyn, and the other missionaries from Way Point, ministered to refugees flowing through that the island from countries south across the Mediterranean Sea on their way to other parts of Europe. 

After training in Amsterdam for a week, the missionaries left for Italy where they stayed in housing provided by the Antioch Church, and were guided by the church’s planters, Josh and Rachel Ballard, who have been in the country for three years. 

After getting to know the area well, the team began their daily mission of fanning out through the city, introducing themselves to refugees and also to the locals, getting to know them and searching for an opportunity to share the gospel with them. 

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