More Birthdays...more amazing Italy :)

Hey Everyone!
It's been a while and things are SO busy. With classes ending at the end of April, things are getting crazy! But so amazingly fun and God is just SO good. :)
I think I mentioned the bible study I am helping with in Valvasone on Mondays. Maureen and I started a couple weeks back and yesterday we had our third meeting. With all three ladies still there...and one more came! It was SO exciting. Now if I haven't explained, these ladies are unbelievers, they don't read their Bibles and basically only believe Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. They don't think that the Old Testament is relevant at all. We decided to do this study on the book of Esther, and to my surprise, they had NEVER heard or read the story of Esther. In fact the Bible Stories I've grown up with are totally new to them. So we began the study, and now in our third week everyone is coming back, everyone is comfortable to share, really thinking about it and have asked to extend the Bible Study past 4 weeks!!! It's been amazing. God has been so good to use me to speak Italian words, I've never even heard before. haha! We are so excited! Maureen and I close the door as they leave and just begin to pray together, thanking God for His providence. He is SO good!!! Some of the ladies are so excited about it that they said, "I read the whole book I couldn't wait!!" (Because we are going chapter by chapter). And a friend of Maureens' in Florida is doing a Bible Study on Esther too and when we told the ladies in our study they got so excited, now the two groups are praying for eachother! Also, my Bible has like notes on the bottom, extra things, maps and such, and everytime I share something from there they are amazed that I have a Bible that gives explanations, or that these things really happened in history. We are watching the Bible become a reality to these women and it is such a privelege to watch! So please continue to pray for them!!! Mirella, Liliana, Mikela, and Clara, such sweet ladies who are very close to my heart!
Also just a note:
Last Saturday March 21st was my brother Georgie's 25th birthday. I just wanted to wish him a belated Happy Birthday and say How much I love him! :) He is the best older brother I could ever ask for. He has always been there for me, and I've loved getting to grow up with him to see him grow up from a Ghostbuster to a godly husband and now father. :) He's seriously one of my best friends and I miss Him SO MUCH! His love for music, and the way he uses the talents God has given him is so encouraging to me. I love you Georgie!
Second, today is Miss Hannah Marie Walti's 16th birthday! My little sister, for sure. I just have to say that seeing her today and talking to her today, how God is growing her to be a young woman with a heart after him. To see her maturity these last few months has been amazing. God is truly using her and working in her heart. :)
Well thats all for today! Love you all and miss you SO much!

Birthdays and Bowling.

This was a pretty crazy week. On top of classes we had a missionary group from North Carolina here and we have been helping out with them this week. Also, Friday was Abby Walti's 6th birthday party. It was a blast...17 screaming little children...so much fun! :) The neat thing was a lot of their parents stayed and Mr. Walti got to share the Gospel with several of them. Also that night we had our ESL bowling night, we invited our students out and had a blast! There are so many great relationships developing with them, it's going to be hard to leave. These are just some pictures from the Friday! :) Love you all!







On the left is Sherry one of other teachers and Alessia a student. Then you know me and Beebers...:)

Smile...You're on Candid Camera....:)

So this is a picture post...:) yay! I finally have good pictures. We had a St. Patrick's Day Party in our classes on Tuesday, complete with Irish Coffee (ok no whiskey, we just used green gelato!), green clothes and Leprauchaun bowties. Our students love hearing about things we do in the USA, so we let them read the history of St. Patrick's Day to practice English and learn some new words. They thought the word Shamrock was crazy....and kept trying to translate it into Italian...we had to explain that is comes from an Irish word. But they all had a blast. I love my students! We gave them paper shamrocks in class with the verse "Declare His glory among all nations..." Psalm 96:3. We aren't really supposed to share about the Gospel in class, but we worked the verse in with how St. Patrick was a missionary to Ireland and he shared about God to them. It was neat. :) Well here are the pictures, the first is of our Advanced Class, the second is our Base class and the third and fourth are our Intermediate Class, and the last picture is Sherry and I teaching about the Shamrock, with me translating. Yikes! and all of them are Tuesday-Thursday Udine classes. :) Enjoy! :)

Where to start...

Ciao!
It's been a while, but I have been crazy busy! Between teaching, meetings, class prep, and getting to know students outside of class. It's been crazy, but amazing! :) My Italian is definitely improving, so thanks for your prayers. The other day I was able to have a full conversation about the Gospel with our neighbor, it was such a blessing, I had Italian words coming out that I don't know where they were coming from, except for the God leading me and giving me the words. :) It was really neat.
I've been meeting with students, and getting to know them. All of them are Italian and super sweet. They all want to know why I am here for long, and it's a great way to share the Gospel, I let them know exactly why I'm here...to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with Italians. I've had some great conversations with them. It's so hard here because of the Catholic church, one lady told me that in America it's easy to convert to Christianity, but here you have to be Catholic it's tradition. This is how so many of the people here think. Either you are Catholic or you are an Athiest, there is no in between.
Classes are going great. I love teaching and the students are SO much fun. They love learning and love hearing about our lives in the United States. It's amazing how God has given me such a love for the Italians. His love is so sweet, it's unfailing and endures FOREVER. He is the only one who can satisfy the need these people have. They are so empty, when you first meet them, they seem happy and joyful, but the more you get to know them the more the facade falls and you see how much they need a Savior, how desperate they are. The other day I was in Valvasone, walking around, and I saw this Catholic Funeral Processional, first the car with the body and flowers, than men holding a cross, then the Priest then like 100 people, all going through town on the way to the cemetery. It was so sad, you could see the emptiness in the eyes of the people, praying for their dead, not knowing that it is too late for those who have died, but that there is hope for them. Also the bells rang all day long, people pay to have the bells rung for when a person dies, the longer they ring the richer the person and the more likely they are to get out of purgatory. It's so sad. Please be praying for the people here!! They are so lost.
Well I have to go, but I'll leave you with a couple pictures!

On the left: We had a day of park ministry with the students from SBI.
On the Right: Part of the ESL team (missing Bethany) and two of my friends from Valvasone The rest are pictures of the fantastic ESL team. :) At Becky's birthday party, clockwise, it's Bethany, me, Becky, Sherry and Maureen!