Giving Thanks
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 meet new people, get new students, and eventually share the Gospel with them through our English classes or by encouraging them to study with Stephano in Italian as well.
We celebrated Thanksgiving on Nov 29th. We had a total of 19 people (including us). Initially I was really reluctant to do a Thanksgiving meal this year since Davey was only 7 weeks old, and Alan and I are both already exhausted from lack of sleep. However, some people who came last year asked us if we were doing it again, and they seemed really excited about it. So, I admit, I reluctantly told Alan that we could try to do a meal this year if he was up to it.
Well, I'm glad that we did it even though it was a lot of work and was totally exhausting. It was fun for us to share this American holiday and traditional meal with friends and students. Some of our students told us that this was the first time they would eat at an American's house, and they seemed really excited about it! We had a great time talking, laughing, eating, sharing traditions, and just spending time together.
We've been in Italy almost two years now and we've made lots of cultural faux pas since we've been here. It's part of the learning process. Anyways, we learned something else this Thanksgiving that I can't believe we haven't picked up on before. Apparently, Italians don't eat broccoli raw? We had a dish for Thanksgiving that included raw broccoli and it was a shocker to them. They told us that they don't eat raw broccoli here. They did for Thanksgiving, but I still can't believe Alan and I have been here for two years and are just now figuring this out.
This last month of the year is also going to be very busy. Camp here in Sicily starts on the 27th, and Alan and I are in charge of games again this year as well as teaching the class for the youngest kids. So we're trying to prep for that in our spare time.
I taught one class this month when Alan was sick for a few days. It was a bit of a struggle, cause Davey decided to be really fussy during that hour. Fortunately, Stephano was there and he was free so he took Davey and held him while I taught. As he's grown, his schedule has become more predictable, but it still varies quite a bit. Since it's almost Christmas break, I've just decided to start teaching again in January. Hopefully by then, his schedule will be more predictable and I'll be able to schedule classes around it.
Thank you all for your support and prayers! We'll be thinking of everyone back home during this holiday season!
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 meet new people, get new students, and eventually share the Gospel with them through our English classes or by encouraging them to study with Stephano in Italian as well.
We celebrated Thanksgiving on Nov 29th. We had a total of 19 people (including us). Initially I was really reluctant to do a Thanksgiving meal this year since Davey was only 7 weeks old, and Alan and I are both already exhausted from lack of sleep. However, some people who came last year asked us if we were doing it again, and they seemed really excited about it. So, I admit, I reluctantly told Alan that we could try to do a meal this year if he was up to it.
Well, I'm glad that we did it even though it was a lot of work and was totally exhausting. It was fun for us to share this American holiday and traditional meal with friends and students. Some of our students told us that this was the first time they would eat at an American's house, and they seemed really excited about it! We had a great time talking, laughing, eating, sharing traditions, and just spending time together.
We've been in Italy almost two years now and we've made lots of cultural faux pas since we've been here. It's part of the learning process. Anyways, we learned something else this Thanksgiving that I can't believe we haven't picked up on before. Apparently, Italians don't eat broccoli raw? We had a dish for Thanksgiving that included raw broccoli and it was a shocker to them. They told us that they don't eat raw broccoli here. They did for Thanksgiving, but I still can't believe Alan and I have been here for two years and are just now figuring this out.
This last month of the year is also going to be very busy. Camp here in Sicily starts on the 27th, and Alan and I are in charge of games again this year as well as teaching the class for the youngest kids. So we're trying to prep for that in our spare time.
I taught one class this month when Alan was sick for a few days. It was a bit of a struggle, cause Davey decided to be really fussy during that hour. Fortunately, Stephano was there and he was free so he took Davey and held him while I taught. As he's grown, his schedule has become more predictable, but it still varies quite a bit. Since it's almost Christmas break, I've just decided to start teaching again in January. Hopefully by then, his schedule will be more predictable and I'll be able to schedule classes around it.
Thank you all for your support and prayers! We'll be thinking of everyone back home during this holiday season!
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