PRAYER REQUESTS:
· Please pray for 2 events at our home during December: Jake’s birthday party and a Christmas open-house/coffee. We’ve been told that it’s appropriate to invite both classes in his school, so we’re sending out over 30 invitations! (ahhhh!) We’re also going to host a Christmas coffee for people in our apartment building whom we’ve gotten to know over this past year. Over 20 people will be invited to that. Please pray strategically that the people with whom we need to invest in relationships will be the ones led (and able) to attend these events. We’re excited to see how God works in all of this and who He places in our home! Pray that these people will see something different in us and will sense that the Lord is with us, prompting their curiosity in spiritual matters.
· Please pray for the safety of Jason’s parents (Ron & Alana) and other sister & brother (Jana & Joel) who will be joining us over here in less than two weeks.
ONGOING PRAYER REQUESTS:
· Our daily circle of influence among our neighborhood, San Siro. Pray for the Holy Spirit to prepare the hearts of our friends and pray that we’ll continue to be intentional in our actions with them as we go about life here like them.
· Jake’s language acquisition – both English & Italian. (Remember that he heard 3 languages on an almost daily basis for our first year here.) We’re seeing bits of progress each week with his Italian, and the English has overall come slower for him as his brain is processing everything.
Dear Family, Friends, and Faithful Supporters,
Happy Belated Thanksgiving!! We’re happy to write that there was no earthquake this year as we had last year at this time; however, beginning on the Sunday after Thanksgiving up until now we’ve already had 3 major snows. We expect the very hot summers and the very cold winters here in Milan, but this much snow this early is a bit unusual. (It’s very unusual for a girl from Dallas!) In an already chaotic city, it hasn’t made daily life any easier.
We had a wonderful time with Jason’s brother, sister-in-law, and our little nephew. It was the first time for me and for my sister-in-law to prepare a Thanksgiving meal, but we pulled it off and it was actually quite yummy! I thought it was going to be an adventure trying to get a turkey (remember…Thanksgiving is an AMERICAN holiday), but the Lord blessed us with one that wasn’t too expensive and it even had the head and feathers already removed. We’ve heard of many others here in Italy who’ve had to take care of that at home!
It was very special getting to share the holiday with some family here in person, in addition to our old teammates Dave & Adriana who were in Italy for the week. Our oven is quite small, so we got some exercise running back and forth with casserole dishes and the turkey between our kitchen and our porter’s kitchen. Alberto was gracious enough to let us use his oven, but he still never ate a plate of Thanksgiving food that we offered him. (Italians are SO silly sometimes!! This is the same person who made us eat raw eel and pig arm at his home last year!)
I feel led to share with you the lyrics of a song that has really spoken to me in the past months. I’m one of my generation who still loves hymns just as much as I love modern praise & worship songs, and I consider this song by Newsboys to be my modern-day version of Song for the Nations. J
HE REIGNS
It’s the song of the redeemed, rising from the African plain;
It’s the song of the forgiven, drowning out the Amazon rain;
The song of Asian believers filled with God’s holy fire;
It’s every tribe, every tongue, every nation; a love song born of a grateful choir.
Let it rise above the four winds caught up in the heavenly sound;
Let praises echo from the towers of cathedrals to the faithful gathered underground;
Of all the songs sung from the dawn of creation, some were meant to persist;
Of all the bells rung from a thousand steeples, none rings truer than this.
And all the powers of darkness tremble at what they’ve just heard,
‘Cause all the powers of darkness can’t drown out a single word!
When all God’s children sing out
Glory, Glory, Hallelujah, He Reigns, He Reigns!
All God’s children singing
Glory, Glory, Hallelujah, He Reigns, He Reigns!
Can I hear an “Amen”? I sure hope so! We hope your Thanksgiving holiday was a special time to reflect on the countless ways we are all truly blessed.
Ciao and God bless,
Allyson (for the three of us)
P.S. To all of my church family at New Liberty: I sure missed being there for the big event celebrating our church’s 50th Anniversary! Please know that I was with you in thoughts. I hated not being there with you. So many of you had a big part in helping to mold me to become a person able to follow God’s calling on my life.
And to all of our family and friends attending the event this weekend for Jason’s grandparents: we’re sure going to miss that, too, and will definitely have you guys in our thoughts. Give everyone lots of big hugs from us! We’re cheering over here for you, Vovo & Vovo’.
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