Remember Remember the days of November

Brownie Sundaes for the kiddos

Okay, so if any of you who read my blog are British or have ever lived in England, you'll know I stole my title from the famous quote, "Remember remember the 5th of November."  Quick history lesson: November 5th is Guy Fawkes day in England. He tried to bomb parliament, but was stopped.  Since then the British celebrate this by having bonfires on the 5th and burning scarecrows, which are supposed to represent Guy Fawkes (I imagine you can figure out how he was put to death).  Anyways, it was one of those things about England that I haven't forgotten.

I cannot believe that November is almost over. I am so behind on updating. Bear with me.  There's lots of things for me to include in this post.

The girls really liked it! Can anyone say "sugar high?"

Watching the movie.

Alan and I invited the young girls from church over to our house for an afternoon.  At the time, there was an American family here visiting Rina and Stephano, and their two kids came as well.  We had brownie sundaes (completely new experience for them because they don't have brownies or really sundaes here).  They loved it.  We watched a movie and then played games.  Alan and I really enjoyed getting to hang out with them, and it got us thinking to try to maybe start some kind of youth event/Bible study at our house once a month or so.  Unfortunately, we've been busy since then and haven't really purused this idea further, but we intend to.

We celebrated Thanksgiving on the 15th of November.  Yes, we know it was early, but our friend Peter who does the same work that we do, but is up at the Bible school in Florence, came to visit us that weekend.  We thought it would be more fun to do it while he was here.  It was a blast! A bit chaotic at times in the kitchen, but it was a lovely time.  We had 21 people for Thanksgiving.  It was a great mix of people.  About half of them were from church, and half of them were our students and their families.  Everyone seemed to have a nice time and (thanks to my delays in the kitchen) had plenty of time to talk and get to know each other. I have never cooked for so many people in my life! We were fortunate enough to have been able to acquire a real American turkey and ham and several American ingredients that were needed to make the traditional sides.  There was a feast, and I think the most interesting dish for all the Italians was definitely the sweet potato casserole. 

So my kitchen fiasco was that I have a really tiny oven.  There's only room for the turkey, see.  And, well, the heat only comes from the top of the oven.  So I've finally figured out why everything I make ends up really well done on the top but raw on the bottom. Even with rotating the turkey, it still took twice as long to cook.  The meal was over an hour later than what I told everyone, but nobody seemed to mind.  We had a great time talking, and after the meal everyone shared some words telling us what they were thankful for.

S'mores night!

Alan and I had wanted to invite some homeless people that we have become acquainted with to our Thanksgiving.  In particular, there is one woman with a small son who Alan has gotten to know fairly well since she stays outside a grocery store near the church.  She has a husband, whom we've never met.  However, she's disappeared recently.  We haven't seen her in several weeks.  We figure she's moved onto a different place, but we aren't sure.  However, just in case you all weren't aware, there are a lot of homeless/poor people here. Most of them are illegal immigrants.  Sicily is the first stop for many people who come by boat to try to enter the EU.  And these people are truly homeless or live in really sad conditions. It's difficult to see so many.  Alan and I have made small relationships with a few who we see on a regular basis on our walk to church.  Could you all pray for us in this?  We need wisdom in how to help these people and show them Christ's love.  For now we've just been trying to build some kind of relationship with them.  However, it's difficult at times because several of them don't speak Italian very well, or they speak well and you start to get to know them and they disappear....so we'll see what happens.

Peter was here for that entire weekend.  We really enjoyed having him come visit. While he was here, we spent a lot of time at other people's houses and we had people over to ours as well.  We had some of the young adults over one night to try s'mores (the first time for all but one of them), and then after making a random run to grab some pizza, we had a lot of fun playing phase 10 (a card game).  It was such a nice night to get to know our friends even better, and we really enjoy each and every time we get to hang out with them.  It is such a blessing to have them in our lives.

Of course, Alan and I continue to teach classes, and try to advertise our classes.  I would ask that you all pray for one of our newer students.  She has only been coming for three weeks (she and her children came to our Thanksgiving dinner).  She has been searching for a place where people are trying to follow the word of God and not just a church that spouts religion.  She's really excited to be studying the Bible with us in English, and then she also studies with Stephano after our English lesson.  She comes twice a week right now and her Bible studies with Stephano sometimes last several hours.  She has a difficult, personal situation that she is dealing with and we would ask for prayers for her, and of course all of our students and contacts.

Phase 10. We had a lot of fun!

Alan and I have some students who are artists.  They play instruments, make jewerly, refinish future, etc etc.  We run into them in downtown Catania frequently as they are selling their wares.  One night they invited us to this place where they give drum lessons usually.  Well, this night they were giving lessons on...I don't know how else to describe it...circus things.  It was fun. We kinda felt like big kids as we tried to learn how to juggle, learned some tricks with a hulo hoop, and watched the others practice with those flame sticks and other things.  

One of my students and friend just recently moved to Holland to try to find a job.  She also was very interested in studying the Bible.  I bring this up to mention what a small world it is out there, and that God works in mysterious ways. When I found out she was moving to Holland, I realized that she is going to the same city where a couple that Alan and I met in Albania live.  They have been in contact with us since the camp in Albania because they are interested in starting up some type of program at their church that we do here.  I just think how neat it is to see how God weaves our lives together. Because Alan and I were blessed with the opportunity to go to Albania, we were able to tell our student about this couple who could help her with the transition to Holland and with studying English and the Bible.   

In regards to local news, Mt Etna has erupted several times in the last month.  A new crater opened, and has been very active.  We've seen videos of lava rock falling up in the small villages closer to the top.  We've seen smoke billow out of her during the day when we were walking around downtown Catania.  Last night, Alan and I finally saw lava spew out of her! We were on our way home from church, and bam...there she was shooting lava high into the air.  All the Italians that we've heard talk about it say they've never seen her explode so strongly and shoot lava so high into the air before.  She went on for 6 hours last night.  Alan and I were dropped off at home, rushed in to grab our cameras, and we ran (literally ran) a mile down Via Etnea to piazza burgo where we had a better view of Etna.  You can't see Etna directly from our aparment because of all the tall buildings around us. We stayed down there for at least an hour just watching and taking photos.  It was the most amazing sight. I will definitely share some pictures that Alan took.  It was worth the blisters that I got from running in my boots.  Hope you all enjoy the pictures.

Alan took this photo from piazza burgo

We hope you all had a happy and relaxed Thanksgiving.  We miss all of our friends and family, but we are so thankful for all of you and the support, love, and prayers you send our way.  Please continue to pray for our students and contacts that their hearts will be open to God's word and his love.  Also, please pray for us to continue to have the energy to work hard and find ways to show this community the love of Jesus.