Kirbys in Catania

December is already here! That means Alan and I have almost been here for two years already. Time is flying. This past month was full of many firsts and lessons for us. We are learning how to work our schedules around a one month old. It's been difficult but fun. I'm also learning that I can function on very little sleep. Would have been helpful if I'd had this ability in college. Alan spends days down at the church building with his scheduled lessons. When he doesn't have lessons he just sits down there and works on other things. Several times this month he has had people come in asking about our lessons and taking our number. A couple new people have started lessons with us (us being Alan), and we will see if we get any other new students from these contacts. Also, one of our new students and another student who Alan has been meeting with for some time now, are starting to study the Bible with Stephano this week. So again, we always ask for prayers that we can mee...

Happy Fall! This is my favorite time of the year. We haven't updated you all in a while, but as you read this I'm sure you'll soon understand why. In August, Alan and I took 2 weeks off from teaching classes since most of Italy goes on holiday for the entire month of August. Most of our students had cancelled for that month, and we decided to take advantage of the much needed break. However, the last day we taught classes before the break, I fell at the beach (where we would go for a quick morning swim for some exercise each morning). I landed on some rocks as it was the beach with large lava rocks, and hit my 32 week prego belly directly on it. I started having some pain later that day, and it continued into the next day so my doctor had me go to the hospital to just get a check-up. Turns out while I was there that I started going into preterm labor. I spent 10 days in the hospital on different iv medications to try to stop the labor. After I had maxed out on the thera...

I titled this blog "New Family" because: 1) there have been two weddings this summer and 2) we have a new family member in Christ. If any of you religiously read my blog, I'm sure you remember that on several occasions I have asked for prayers for one of our students Davide. If you don't read the blog religiously, don't worry, I'll give you a background story. Davide and his family Somewhere around January, Alan was at the church one morning when a man walked in and asked him about our English classes sign and also what kind of church a church of Christ was.  Turns out this man, Davide, has a job where he uses English every day. He said he would like to come and practice his English with Alan and study the Bible. Lessons started, and it became quickly obvious that this guy was searching for the truth. He was raised Catholic like most other Sicilians, and immediately jumped in and started asking serious questions about the differences between "our...

The day after VBS ended, Alan and I flew to Rome, took a bus from there to Ascoli, and met Titus and Joele who gave us an hour ride from the town up into the mountains of Meschia for camp. We actually arrived a day after camp had started, but better late than never, right? This was our second Italian camp experience. There are many similarities and many differences between camp here in Italy and camp in America. Probably, the main difference is that they rent a structure that has several dorm-type rooms. So the kids all sleep inside the main building instead of out in cabins like many camps in America. The structure of the day is fairly similar, though maybe a bit more relaxed here. Here is a typical schedule to give you an idea: Morning Devo 8am: breakfast 9am: morning devotional all together 10am: 1 hr Bible classes divided by age groups 11-12:45: organized activity time (arts & crafts, chorus practice, and theater) 1pm: lunch 2pm: 1 hr "rest" time i...

I've had several people comment that it's been a while since I've posted. I apologize. This summer has been absolutely cram packed, crazy, busy! Instead of cramming a whole bunch of goodness into one post, I'm splitting it into three posts. Summer Time Part 1 Last time I blogged, I told you all that Alan and I were busy prepping for VBS. Well, the month of June we dedicated most of our time to finishing the preparations. We were still teaching our classes as well, so between teaching and working on vbs we were at the church from morning until night most days that month. The theme was "The Armor of God" taken from Ephesians 6:10-18. We decided and the elders agreed that it would be ok to try to spread VBS out over three days (in the past it's been a one-day experience).  So we had VBS June 26-28th. The first evening we covered the belt of truth and the breastplate of righteousness. The second day, the kids studied the shield of faith and the s...