December is Here

December is here...Wow that happened fast! We feel like we blinked and November passed. This past Thanksgiving week was full of really wonderful things...even if we did have cereal for our Thanksgiving meal. ;)

On Thanksgiving day we had a small party at Justin's work. The students were able to have samples of the typical Thanksgiving meal we share in America and they learned about the history of Thanksgiving. Then on Saturday we helped teach the English club that I mentioned in the last post. We had three new guys come and the students seemed to enjoy learning about Thanksgiving. Our main focus throughout the two hour session was on being thankful to God for everything we have. We hope day-by-day and week-by-week we can continue to build friendships with the students at Justin's work as well as the students that attend the English club.

Our last Thanksgiving event was on Sunday. We had a Thanksgiving Dessert tasting. We made many apple, pumpkin, and pecan pies and invited the whole community. Justin and I came early and had appertivo (finger foods) with some of the people at church. About halfway through our appertivo a lady walked in. We had met her at an English film night in October. She is from Jordan and she has lived in Italy for several years. She saw the invite and wanted to learn about Thanksgiving. She brought her husband who is Italian. Justin and I spent about two hours talking to them. Our time with them was really nice and we talked about a wide variety of topics.  One thing that really made Justin's night was that her husband had worked in America several years ago. He had been to Valdosta, GA and spent a good bit of time in Jacksonville, FL. Many of you may or may not know, but Justin was born in Jacksonville and lived there as a child. So it was great for them to talk about Jacksonville and connect over the things they both had seen and experienced there. We exchanged numbers with them and we plan to have dinner with them in the New Year. Please pray for our contact with this family. Pray that our friendship would continue to grow and that we would be used a vessels for the Gospel in their lives.

We hope and pray that everyone had a happy Thanksgiving. We will be coming for a short stateside visit in December. We are thankful to our families for helping make this happen and we are excited to pass that time together celebrating our King.  We hope to see you soon!

Love,
Carli & Justin