Fall 2016 Update

October 13, 2016

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. Giulia, one of the teenagers at the church was baptized just last week. On the same day, Massimo, who is the husband of one of the members and is a friend of everyone's at the church also dedicated his life to Christ. His family and church friends have been praying for 14 years for this to happen so there was much rejoicing on the day that these two took on Christ in baptism.

We also have exciting personal news. Our daughter, Sunny Faith, was born in early August. Our son David is taking it well. He wants to hold her constantly and give her "baci" (kisses) all the time. Naturally, we've had some family coming to visit the past month and we've enjoyed the family time with them.

Giulia and Massimo about to be baptized

We are very aware that our time here in Italy is slowly (but surely) drawing to a close. As we are entering our last full school year that we'll be here, we are dedicated to bringing new energy into our work. Alan and several of the church members have been busy passing out fliers to advertise our English classes. Alan has made an updated sign for our church window, and we are looking into using social media to generate more contacts.

A new and probably pretty surprising thing has started recently. Alan has met some foreigners here who have asked him to teach them Italian so that they can find jobs here. They already speak English well. So Alan has translated the material we use for our English lessons into Italian and is teaching Italian with the Bible to these foreigners. Naturally, he has asked some people from the church to be present for the lessons to help since, after-all, we aren't really qualified to teach Italian. :)

In these days it's easy to see that there's a lot of conflict going on in the world today. All you have to do is watch the news for a few minutes or open facebook to see that people are arguing their opinions over current hot issues. It's comforting to know in these times of conflict and strife that we can go almost anywhere in the world and meet people who are a part of the family of Christ. This past week we had some German Christians visiting the area, and we enjoyed spending an evening with them. There were Italians speaking English, Americans speaking Italian and German, and Germans speaking English and Italian (and yes sometimes all three languages were going at once). How awesome is it that even though we hardly know each other and the fact that we come from different countries, backgrounds, and cultures; we can still unite together as one family in Christ! It's times like that when I feel I see glimpses of what heaven must be like. As one of the older ladies at church says whenever we have visitors that don't speak Italian, "We don't need to speak the same language to understand each other. We can understand each other through our hearts and love."

Thank you all for your support and prayers for the work here in Catania. We keep you all in our prayers as well, and we pray that we can all show the light wherever we are placed.