Kirbys in Catania

Guila & Eliza enjoying babysitting at the conference in Enna The last week of April we had a nearly week long conference here in Catania. Jay Young, who worked with the church in Pisa in the past, came with his wife to give this conference titled, "What Do You Think about Jesus?" Of course, it was presented in Italian. The week leading up to the conference, thousands of fliers were passed out by members of the church. The conference was held at one of our member's office's conference room, because the elders thought that more people would be likely to come if it wasn't in a church. Which, strangely enough, is something that Alan and I have noticed here. I feel like in the States people don't hesitate to try/visit another church with a friend or relative, but here it seems like people don't come to church unless they are seriously thinking about becoming members of that specific church. It's understandable in a way. Catholicsim is deeply rooted ...

As Frosty the Snowman said in that classic cartoon show we are, "busy busy busy." Playing spoons (their favorite) after the devo. The youth group meetings have gotten underway and become a ritual once a month thing at our house. The kids enjoy it. We've asked different men from the church to come teach the kids a few times to a) give them experience in youth group devos for once we're gone b) let the kids get to hear from different teachers at church and c) give us a break while letting the kids hear a probably more in depth lesson since our Italian is exactly perfect. One of my students offered me a kitten, but I had to say no.   We also have started a youth group meeting for the older teens (15-20ish). We've invited the teens from the church in Paterno (30 minutes away) and they have been coming. The first night we just talked to them about things that they would like to study.  The topic of, "How to Evangelize to Friends" was chosen...

My titles make no sense. I'm not really a title person. But you can't judge a blog by it's title. Well...maybe you can. Anyways, I am such a slacker, but I resolve to get back to work on my blog. So much has happened. I am going to give you a short and sweet summary. Bear with me. We got a car! And thanks to YOU! Alan and I were overwhelmed by the love and support that you all showed us by not even hesitating and supporting our need for a car. We thought it would take much longer. We've already had it for over a month. It needed just a few small things fixed, but that's okay because we've got mechanic connections here in Italy. ;) We have already gotten to use our car in many helpful ways. For example, if it's raining, I can go do the grocery store still. Now the trip doesn't take 3-4 hours long and I can buy as much as I need and not have to think about how much I can carry back. We've also already used it to pick up students and their families ...

Being an American living in Southern Italy - Sicily to be exact, it's common to feel that I stick out like a sore thumb here. I mean, you don't even need to talk to me and Alan to figure out that we don't belong here, you just have to look at us walking down the street. Granted there are some fair-haired, fair-skinned, light-eyed Italians, but not many. Take into account that Alan and I are both pasty white, have blue eyes and he's 6'6'', and needless to say we attract a lot of attention here. :) But, I'm not just talking about looks. Italy is a beautiful country, and her people are beautiful people, and yes, on the surface their culture doesn't seem that different from American culture.  I suppose when you compare it to Middle Eastern or Asian culture it is much more similar, but it's vastly different at the same time. I'm not here to talk about the specific differences between our two cultures, but I will say that being from one culture...

Classes have been in full swing now for over a month this semester. Alan and I have 18 regular students who come at least once a week (a few want to come more than once a week and we're cool with that). :) From week to week it varies because we have a lot of students who come "sometimes" meaning when they have time. So in total, I think we have about 30 contacts who have been students at one time or another. The ones who don't have time to come anymore, we still try to see and visit every once in a while. So, our student schedule/visiting people keeps us pretty busy.  We learned recently that we have to schedule one day off a week where we don't do any classes because we started to get really tired. It's gotten a lot better since we started doing that. We have four students who are doing a Bible study with Stephano after our English classes. We also have several students who have been asking some really tough/thought-provoking questions. Several of our lesso...

Hope you all had wonderful holidays! Alan and I are back to teaching our students.  We already have a couple new ones this year, so it looks to be a busy year again. During the holiday's the churches in Catania and Paterno hosted a camp for youth ages 14-25, but the ages were pretty flexible.  Camp was December 27 - January 2.  The theme for the camp was, "In the world, but not of the world." Alan and I had the awesome opportunity to get to help out in a few different ways. Alan was the "official" photographer, though once everyone learned that we are pretty relaxed with our cameras and will let anyone use them, our cameras spend most of the week in tour and the majority of the photos were taken by the campers. Alan did have the lovely process of going through the thousands of photos taken, editing them, and making a slideshow each day.  If you would like to see the photos or the final slide show here are the links. Warning: the final slideshow is long, runn...

Happy New Year! Buon Anno! Alan with some of his fan club The first of January marked mine and Alan's one year anniversary in Italy! It has gone so fast, and yet so much has happened. The first six months we were living in Florence. We took language class for the first three months. We taught English classes at the Bible School, helped with events at the school and with VBS at the church.  In July we moved to Catania.  Almost immediately after we got settled into our new apartment, we went on a 10 day trip to Albania to be a part of their family/youth camp there. In September classes here began. We started with around 7 or 8 students.  Now, we have 24 students and I have had several text messages and phone calls over the holidays from people who want to start classes after the Holidays (which officially end here after tomorrow, Monday Jan 6). Market in Catania Alan and I love it here in Italy. We have absolutely fallen in love with the people here and the c...