Gifts...

We received a gift from one of our neighbors for Valentine's Day. This is the neighbor that lives below us and invited us into her house around Christmas time. She and her husband are very sweet people...and they speak English. Score! jk...sort of. Please pray for Emma and Alberto and their two sons as we follow God's lead in ministering to them throughout this next year.
This is what Emma brought to us a couple of days ago:


When you take the plastic off, you can tell that it's a container made out of chocolate!


And there's more candy inside!


The white candies are a candy-coated nut flavored something. I like to be as technical as possible. ;) But they're definitely good! And it was extra nice to hear the doorbell and not have the gas meter checker standing there. Not that they aren't usually nice, but you get the point!

We Got 'Em!

After standing for an hour and a half in a crowd of VERY pushy people outside a closed door waiting for it to open, the door finally opened. And even though I thought there was no way I could be any closer to the people around me, when that door opened, I was proved ever so wrong! No longer was I in a crowd of adults, or humans for that matter.

While Jason and I were right beside each other before the door opened, eight people were able to squeeze between us from the time the door opened until we were both inside. After a small outburst of frustration with the crowd shoving me into the door frame, the guard pulled me out of the crowd and asked me to wait inside the door. I thought I might have been in trouble, but when the other guard (who was handing out numbers) returned, I received the next number. Whew!

So, after one horrible day, we both have a Permesso di Soggiorno. Too bad it expires in 7 months and we'll have to return to that office. Ugh!

Breakthrough in our Paperwork!

So...remember how we had so much trouble getting our paperwork turned in a few months ago? Well, since then, we've been struggling to get a status response for either of us.

In a perfect world, 30 days after turning in the paperwork, you send a text to the number provided and within hours they text you back with an appointment time to come pick up your "Permesso di Sogiorno" (or your permission to stay card). Well, we've been texting since November and heard nothing back. Finally, we asked one of our teammates (who received her Permesso very quickly...she must be living in that perfect world) which number she sent a text to. Come to find out, the wrong number was listed on our paperwork. Welcome to Napoli! So, we sent one text to the correct number yesterday afternoon and received an appointment time via text this morning at 6am. Really??? Why did they send it at 6am? Who knows! At any rate, we are scheduled to pick up our Permesso cards tomorrow afternoon around 3:30pm. Thank you, Lord!

There are so many things about living here in this city that go against every fiber of my being. Things almost never make sense. They only make sense enough to keep you from being able to stick to a standard of substandards. Nothing is constant. Everything depends heavily on which person you are dealing with and what type of mood they may be in that day.

On a happier note, passing out the Valentine's Day bags went well. We only knocked on the doors of the people that we've talked to before. The others we left at doors. We were invited into our neighbor who lives across the hall's house. She had her son and his wife and children and another couple there at her house. We stayed there and talked to them for a while. We think the son and his family are going to be moving in with our neighbor some time this year. They all showed interest in learning to speak English and we gladly agreed to teach them. Please pray that God would begin softening their hearts and preparing them. Pray that God would grow this friendship and use it to His glory.

We love and miss you all!

Buon San Valentino!

Happy Valentine's Day!

For Valentine's Day, I decided to make cookies and prepare a goodie bag for my neighbors. Well, for those of you who do not remember, the Christmas cookie hand-out did not go over well. I was really debating whether or not it was worth the time and effort of making cookies and trying to hand them out again to get to know my neighbors. Then, I realized something. I am making this way too much about me. I keep thinking the purpose in doing things like this are to have my neighbors know and like me, but whether or not they ever know or accept me, this is about something way bigger. The important thing in doing this is that the gospel is shared. The love of Christ being shown to my neighbors is ALL that this is about and I need to fade to the background and let God be the focus. If God chooses to move in their lives through a friendship with me, I'll count it all joy. But if not, He's still made known through the Scripture on each bag. After this revelation, making the cookies was a joy.

Here's the labels on each of the goodie bags:


Cutting out the cookies with my new cookie-cutters:





Then I colored them with the glaze:





Then I iced the edges with icing:








We also put some candy in the goodie bags:





And I even had time (and patience) to make a treat for Jason:


Thank you all so much for your prayers. We love and miss you all!

Grandaddy and Return

This is a picture of us with my grandparents: Mama Sue and Grandaddy. My grandfather passed away on January 15, 2010. As Jason said in the previous post, he was an incredible man and I love him dearly. My grandmother (his sweet wife of 64 years) is still trying to adjust to life without him. Please continue to pray for her during this time of mourning.


It was nice, albeit sad, to return to the states and spend some time with family and a few friends. We have made it back safely after two flights and two trains with 7 bags. Now, I'm not against a train, but with 7 bags it's a little ridiculous. But, we made it with all of our luggage. Only one bag lost a foot. We are experiencing a little jet lag, but hope to be back on a normal sleeping schedule by the weekend. Please pray that this time of adjustment will be short.


Since we've been away, the team has grown. We now have two new girls on the team: Kala and Ellie. They will be with us until June. We are so excited to have them here with us and to be working alongside each other.

We've spent a lot of the time since our return working on polishing up our goals for this year. We are really looking forward to the things that God is going to do in this city in 2010. Please pray for our team (Charlie & Shannon, Paul & MacKenzie, Grace, Cortney, Ellie, Kala, and us). Please pray that God would work in an incredible way in each of our lives individually and show us His desire for this team and our part in His work in this city.

We love and miss you all!!

Our absense...

We left Naples (and the blog-0-sphere) almost 3 weeks ago. Emily's grandpa passed away. A lot could be said about this man! He served our country, raised the best family I know, and married the sweetest lady. He held a record on lake Tawakoni (Texas) a 62lb catfish (a blue for those of you who care) on rod and reel.
Those are a few things but the true man is indescribable so i wont try. It was a honor to meet the man and share days fishing with him over a crappie hole and at the coast. He was a man a few words so probably wouldn't like me going on about him like this so I'll stop.

So we came home for Emily to spend as much time with her grandmother as possible. She is sweet, as I mentioned, and has never mined sharing including illnesses. Emily got sick and could not get over it so thats why we postponed our return until this Thursday.