Kirbys in Catania

Though youths grow weary and tired, And vigorous young men stumble badly, Yet those who wait for the LORD Will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary. Isaiah 40:30-31 As we start another school year of teaching English here in Catania, this is our prayer and hope - that God will renew us with new strength, energy, and ideas on how to serve His church here in Catania as well as the community.  English lessons started back this month. Alan is teaching every day except Tuesdays, which we have decided will be Rachel's one day a week to teach her students.  Alan's schedule is very full as we have many new students this year. Alan is also staying busy preparing devotionals and the next Bible Bowl material for the teens.  We already have started the youth group meetings back since our summer break.  Dinner with friends The church here in Catania has exciting news....

As I write this post, I'm sitting in our living room with our life-saver fan blowing on me a full power in this 90 degree weather with 40% humidity. At least it's not over 75% humidity like it has been in recent days. Alan and Davey having their weekly playdate with Naomi We've reached the slow days of summer here in Catania. From now until the beginning of September our work load drops off dramatically. It's hard for people who've never been to Italy to understand, but literally everything closes in the month of August and everyone is on vacation. I'm currently 9 months pregnant with less than 3 weeks to go until we meet our baby girl. So, after VBS finished (about 3 weeks ago now) I "officially" went on vacation.  Alan has a few students still who are sticking it out during the heat of summer, but many are already starting to drop off for the summer.  So now that VBS is over, Alan is busying himself with fixing up some things around our apart...

Can I write a blogpost just sharing with you all what's been on my heart (and some of what's been on Alan's as well)? Our work continues as usual. Of course we continue to ask for prayers for our contacts. A few of them are now studying the Bible more in depth (not just for the sake of learning English). So here comes a handful of honesty.  This is what's been on our hearts and some of it is just a sticky mess. Being a missionary is hard, wonderful, confusing, rewarding, fun, different, and well just awesomely difficult at times. It's not a "real" job.  In fact, we get that question a lot, "When are you guys going to come home and get real jobs? You know, grow up and join the real world."  It's always a little discouraging when that question comes along.  But we are reminded that even though this doesn't seem like a "real" job or a successful job by the world's standards, that it's still something that is important...

Happy Spring! The weather is finally warming up, the sun is shining most days, and the grass we planted in our back garden is finally growing! It's a beautiful time to enjoy and be reminded of God's creation. As usual, the English lessons continue. Alan currently has 11 active students, several of whom come more than once a week.  Many of these students have been coming for a while, but almost none of them showed any interest in truly studying the Bible until just recently. A few are starting to show some interest! We continue to pray for our students that their hearts will be open to studying more in depth. The teens of the church just participated in their first ever Bible bowl. As far as I know, it was the first one that's been done here in Italy. It went really well. They have been studying the book of Luke with Alan, and they all did well.  We also had a great turnout of church members coming to support our teens on a Saturday night! And now the adults want to do a...

If you all are looking for a long overdo update, you’ll find a short one at the end of this blog post.  For those of you who need a refresher because it’s been so long… I’m Rachel, a Christian missionary in Catania Sicily. Alan, my husband, and I have been here for three years, and we are staying on for another two years. We have a 16 month old son and another on the way.  Our main work is evangelism with the local church.  Our main outreach/mode of doing evangelism is teaching English for free using the Bible as our text.  We also do a few other things here with the local church.  But those will be included in the update at the end of the post.  Why, you might ask, are you a missionary? And in Italy? Aren’t there other countries? Haven’t the Italians already heard the Good News?  Well, my answer to you would be in the form of a question. What makes my husband and I missionaries? Is it the fact that we live in a foreign country fro...