Job & Joy In Christ

November has been a full month of many things to be thankful for! It was our last full month studying with our students, before the beginning of Christmas break for them and us mid December. Of course lesson planning, praying, and encouraging our students have been at the top of our to do list this month! But here are some other things we've been doing too!

Halloween Party

We started this month strong by having our Halloween Party. We made a lot of yummy foods, invited our students and friends, set up games, and said come on over! We didn't have a huge crowd, which is definitely OK! Our living room/dining room can only hold so many people! We encouraged the children to dress up, and they did not disappoint. I'm not exactly sure what characters they were, but let's be honest, they didn't know who we dressed up as either. When you pack your suitcase for two years, you don't really think about needing a costume or outfit for parties.... and we didn't want to buy anything. Sooooo I was Minnie and Nathan was Shaggy. Gotta work with what ya got. I'll post an Avanti Italia costume picture below. Our outfits are funny. :) Yours truly was in charge of decorating and planning the games. Obviously, we couldn't have a fall gathering without bobbing for apples grown on our very own apple tree! The teenagers enjoyed that the most. They did pretty good bobbing, and also with tick-tack-toe, tossing hula hoops, and coloring! We had a little mini fall festival I guess you could say. A lot of our team was out of town picking olives for our cook Rosa in the south of Italy while we were planning. Nathan and I couldn't go this year but hope to be able to next year. Turned out that because of this, Nathan did a lot of cooking! He made snicker-doodles, double chocolate chip cookies, a chocolate cake, and a pound cake!!! He did a wonderful job and also helped me decorate. Anyways, the party was a hit and I can't wait for next year's.

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Nathan's Birthday

It's so fun when you find out that someone else's birthday is the same day as yours, at least I think so! It turns out that our cook Rosa's birthday is the same day as Nathans. The 22nd of November fell on a Wednesday this year, so Rosa was here to cook for us! She's so sweet and still asked Nathan what he wanted to eat rather than making something she really likes. Our sweet friend Zak made Rosa a pecan pie. She lovessss them and it's hard to find pecans here and if you do, they are really expensive. Our other sweet friend Rebecca made Nathan a chocolate cheesecake. Even though we weren't home for his birthday, I think he had a great day!

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thanksgiving #1

We have found the nicest company in the couple that runs Harding's overseas program here in Scandicci. Robbie and Mona were very generous and invited our group to their Villa for Thanksgiving day. They cooked for 100 people!!! Just like for the 4th of July, it was nice spending time with familiar faces, eating food we are used to on such a family-oriented day. We missed out families very much, but sitting in the hills of Tuscany with friends isn't such a bad second ;)

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thanksgiving #2

Thanksgiving #2 happened the Saturday after for our students and friends. This is one of their favorite parties that the program plans. From what I've heard, they watch American movies and see the table at Thanksgiving, and are intrigued specifically by the turkey. They took many pictures of our HUGE one.

So our team got together about two weeks before to discuss what each of us would make for the party. I found it to be very funny that we are all under 30 and for the most part, never made Thanksgiving lunch for ourselves. Our moms, grandmas, and aunts do it! I'll have to admit, I don't know how many times I texted my mom saying something like, "HELP. I've never done this before. How do I___? What do I do if Italy doesn't have____? How do I do it from scratch?" Anyways, we cooked for a week and everything turned out fantastic! As usual, I did the decorations. I got this grand idea to make a Thankful Tree. It turned out fantastic, but I traced and cut out 100 leaves........WORTH IT! The tree was beautifully filled with blessing from God written in English and Italian, which is what Thanksgiving is all about. (I'll post a picture below) I think our crowd of 120+ enjoyed the food and spending time together. Until next year my friends! :)

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A few extra pictures from the Florence American Cemetery we visited on Veterans Day.

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Thoughts

My thoughts this month are a reminder to all of our family, friends, and supporters back home. I want to remind you that we live in Italy. That sentence sounds so normal, but really let it sink it. We live here. Just like everyone else, we do our laundry. We wash a lot of dishes! We go grocery shopping. We go out with our friends, Italian and American. We are invited to friends houses for dinner. Our mission stays the same through it all. Just like yours should be, we are here to share the name of Jesus with the world just as he commanded. Yes, we do have more time to sit and have conversations around the table. That is our job: sharing. Maybe your job isn't just that. You have a 9-5 job too! Regardless, we have a command that we should be more than willing to do to save others. We are able to make that a full time job, thanks to all of you! But please remember that we live a normal life. It just happens to be in a different country with a job that most people don't get the opportunity to do. Our job and joy is sharing Christ in Italy, where we live.

In the month of thanksgiving, we've been so thankful for all of your support and love. We'd love to receive more!!! Please email us. Send us cards! A stamp to send a card here is $1.50! We love hearing what you've been doing too.

Ciao for now brothers and sisters,

Ashley