Autumn with the Daugereaus

October was a very busy month. We travelled all the way to Sant'Agata sul Santerno, near Ravenna (northern Italy), left our kids and drove down to Chianciano for the annual Focus Conference. We spent 5 days there and were blessed with the teaching, helping out with practical work at the conference and with fellowship. Then we had to drive back to my sister's house and stayed there for two days. We enjoyed spending time with family but mostly we were excited to see Carlo, our brother in law being baptized. It was a good testimony for everybody there.

When we came back Josh attended a week at the Academy finishing a class he had started 3 years ago.

On the 31st of October we hosted a Bible Character Party. We didn't have many kids but were able to have Bible story, memorize Scripture and sing songs. Obviously the kids dressed up and we all had fun!!! There were two friends of Hannah and Benedetta and then a family came that attends church. He is a believer but she is not. Vanessa (the mother our girls' friends) was excited at the way we teach Bible stories, she said "wow that's why kids don't complain about coming to church!!!"

Last week, Valentina, an english student, has asked to start a Bible study and that is awesome!!! We will probably start next week. Pray that God can do a mighty work in her heart and her family.

We have started an english class with the kids from Hannah's class so please pray that we can get more opportunities to share the Gospel with their parents.

A wonderful news....

As many of you already know from my facebook page, we have a wonderful news: we are expecting a baby. Our due date is April 24 and right now I am midway trough my third month. We had a hard beginning in fact two days after finding out that we were going to have a baby, my sister lost hers, so our good news was embraced by sadness and sorrow. It took us a few weeks before we were able to tell her about our baby. Hannah was very shocked by the news that my sister had lost her baby. With the pediatrician we think that this was her first time really facing the meaning of death and the fear of loosing a cared one would wake her up many times at night crying and showing insecurity. We are so thankful to the Lord 'cause it seems those bad dreams or insicurity have passed after many talks and hugs and cuddles!

In August I took a class at the Academy on Old Testament Survey, it was very good to be back at school and see that I am not too old to learn yet:P For that week Josh stayed at home and took care of the girls still trying to do his job.

He also took a class at the Academy.

In August we had the opportunity to see Valentina ( one of our English student) and she came up to the Academy one day during devotion time. She is impacted by the way we live our christian life, so different from the catholic way of the law! We have offered her to have a Bible study so that we can see what we believe in the prospective of what the Bible teaches...please pray that she would be willing to read the Bible together and that the Lord can work in her heart.

This past week we had a team of 16 from the USA. They came to help us with some phisical work at the Academy and evangelism. It was such a blessing to have them, my girls enjoyed some american speaking around them (there were some older kids too) and their English kind of came back! They transformed the center working more on the layout and then did some distribution in the streets of Acireale. They were ready to do more mime and open air programmes but the weather wasn't good. The first Sunday they were here we organized an outreach picnic with the church and they performed a mime, and gave some testimonies. we had a good group of non believers that were able to hear the Gospel presentation. Praise God.

We are almost back to our normal routine, school started and slowly other activities are starting too.

Today Josh went to the hospital for a few days to do a sleep test, Hannah is wearing a soft cast, so please pray that God would give me strength for this week because right now I feel overwhelmed with all that is waiting in front of me this week. We will also be getting things ready to leave next Sunday after church for the Focus Conference( the one that our mission organizes for italian elders) and then spent a few days with my youngest sister. Her husband will get baptize the next week end. If you remember Carlo, our brother in law, after a few weeks from the marriage came to visit us in Sacile with my sister. While they were there on Sunday, they asked Josh to have a Bible study with them because they weren't able to come to church in the morning. So that afternoon after the Bible study Carlo gave his life to Christ and since then he has been walking faithfully in his christian walk, he has found a church to fit in to and is involved in it. And now two years and few months later he is going to be baptize. It will be awesome to be there and share that joy with them.

July Fun

Midway through July we left for our vacation...we went to see my family on the south east coast of Italy. One of the very first days our family wanted to go with us on a trip to Vieste a wonderful town on the Ocean with white cliffs and beautiful see. We were really tired because we had arrived the day before but enjoyed spending time with family. My uncle's family was there too and we had fun swimming and playing together.

A view of Vieste's cliff

This year because of the Soccer World's Cup Benedetta and Hannah got into the Waka Waka song that was the official song for the games. So in this picture Benedetta is showing everybody how to dance it!!!

On the way back from the Ocean we went to the woods nearby and had a picnic there. We were going to grill there but because of many fires happening in the area they were not allowing anyone to grill anymore so it was a good thing we didn't bring just meat but also sandwiches otherways we would have been starving!!

My dad and Josh

On the way back we passed by a natural area where they have lots of deer so Benedetta and Hannah were able to feed them with grandma (who showed them how to). I have to say that Benedetta was braver than Hannah in this!

While down in Puglia (the region where I used to live) we went to see an amusement park. It was a small one but big enough for our kids to enjoy the day and have lots of fun. Hannah was brave in going on rides where even momma didn't want to go. Benedetta was too small in hight for most of the fun rides so she got to spend time with mommy on the carousel and many other little kids rides!!!! She kept saying to Josh, "can we see if I am too small again?"

We didn't know they were gonna have this funny game with water so they had to play in their underware for lack of bathing suit. We could't pass it up being that it was such a hot day.

Our precious Hannah becoming older...

Benedetta in "it's all about me" pose!!!

We found caramelized apples and we couldn't pass it up either. For some, it was the second time trying but for most of us the first. As you can see Benedetta loved it even if Josh let us know that it was not a real one because it wasn't real caramel...:) well it was good and that is what counts right????

We really had a good time in the two weeks spent with my family. We were able to rest, visit and have fun at the same time.

Now we are back home in Sicily and we have already started our routine back again. There is a class up at the Academy on Pastoral Counseling that Josh is attending than next week I will take the class on the Old testament.

Thank for everything and especially your prayers.

Proud parents

July 3rd was a special day. Our two wonderful girls dressed up with tutus and had their recital in the downtown main square of Acireale. They enjoyed posing especially Benedetta and did beyond our expectations. We are proud parents and came home with a smile.

May and June

The past month was the last month of school and so we were busy with recitals of all kinds and it was for us a good opportunity to meet with parents of Hannah's friends and get to know them better. We have to say that for being new in the area we have made ourselves known and we are having opportunities to establish friendships with some of them. Mostly all of them know of our faith and people have watched us and now they are not scared of our diversity. After spending time even just sitting at a birthday party waiting for the kids to be done, I personally was able to talk with some moms and I was very encouraged when the other day a mom told me that next time she comes over to my house she wants to know more of my faith. Another mom told me that we look like the MULINO BIANCO family... that will be like saying we are like The Little House on the Prairie family... we know people are watching us and examining us so pray that we can witness first with our life to the point that they are going to want to know more about what makes our lives different from theirs.

In the pictures below you can see two dads with their kids that Josh is getting to know closely. They play soccer together, we have had dinners together. At times it is hard because our focus is to bring the gospel to non-believers but the fear is that you never know what kind of people are going to come into your home (will they have clean or dirty language around your kids). It is physiologically challenging because you want them to be comfortable and enjoy being together yet you know that they are examining you up and down trying to figure you out at the same time! But God is good. So pray for strength that is needed often, both physical and mental. We are blessed by seeing these people wanting to spend time with us and calling us good people, pray that we can see changed life in them!

Please pray also for Valentina, one of our English students, she is very open to the Gospel and wants to know more. She wants to some to church but is very busy with work and study.

Pray also for Maria Pia.

The last day of Hannah's school was a game day with one of your parents, Hannah chose Josh ( she said because he plays soccer and he would make her win!!!) and he had to sing the Italian national himn!!! It was funny and I had to put the picture up!

Our little girl had also another sport day, she had to do some games and at the end got a medal with her friends.

In May we enjoyed the visit of my sister and brother-in-law, we spent almost a week together and we went up on Mount Etna but it was soooo cold! When we left Acireale it was a decently warm day but when we got to the top we were freezing! It seemed it was snowing but had a lot of fun! Carlo got saved 2 years ago while visiting us in Sacile and this coming October he is going to be baptized. We are so proud of him and hopefully we will be able to be up in northern Italy when he gets baptized.

This is a video of Benedetta dancing in the city square. Valentina's dad played and sang in the square that day and he really wanted us to go see him. He came to church one day while we were having class with Valentina and told Josh that he had been under a christian evangelical tent many years ago and he still remembered a song. He and josh spent time playing the guitar and singing christian songs.

Cannot help but putting video up of my little dancer...she has an innate talent!!!!

Keep us in your prayer for health, a few weeks ago Josh almost passed out in church we think it was a consequence of some medications he was taking but I also noticed that we are not really adjusted to the weather. Also now is the hot season here in Sicily and he can get really hot and energy zapping!

All things God orchestrates for the good of those who love Him

This was a way a friend of mine paraphrased Romans 8:28, reminding me that God doesn't just make things work for our interest but he makes them be for it, he orchestrates them! I was reminded by this lately because one of Josh's friend from college was here with a team from his church to help us evangelize Acireale.

Ben Kreelof went to college with Josh and at one point both Josh and Ben had to lead evangelistic team outside of the US. among the choices where Italy and Jamaica. Now I don't know all the details of the story, what I know from Josh is that he gave Ben the choice and he picked Jamaica, Josh then came to Italy... and it was that the year we met.

Obviously God had planned everything and 3 years later we were engaged and then married. It is amazing to see all the pieces of the puzzle coming together, sometimes in life there may be thing that we don't understand or thing that we don't necessarily like but God has not forgotten us and He is still and indeed in control. especially in the mission field we have to remember this often because of the many trials and attacks from the enemy.

But I praise God for making Ben chose jamaica because I was able to meet my husband and I am glad God put him next to me to guide me and my family in his steps.

As I mentioned before we had a team from Lakeside Community Chapel in Florida that came to do some physical work at the Academy and to do some evangelism in the streets of Acireale. The first of May we had a picnic, before lunch the team had prepared an evangelistic program for the kids, they did puppets, told stories and sang songs. after lunch instead we had a time to share the Gospel. The team did a mime and gave a couple of testimonies and then David Standridge, the director of the missionaries, gave a Gospel message from the word of God.

we also did ministry in the streets of Acireale, we had a program for kids at the park, we were able to tell a couple of stories with the Gospel message and leave some literature.

the kids program at the picnic on the 1st of May

a moment from the mime on the 1st of May

evening mime in the main street of Acireale, there was a good size crowd and good conversations about the Gospel. Pray for all of those that listed and talked after the mime, that the word of God can continue its work in their hearts.

kids ministry at a primary school

In the evening instead they did mimes in the main roads of Acireale. there is a place where people just walk back and forth and the mime stopped them and they were able to watch and then have some conversation with the people of our church. I wasn't there because it was late in the evening so I stayed at home with the kids, but Josh told me that there were many people and you can see it also from the pictures.

Lakeside team

Benedetta and Hannah really enjoyed having American speaking friends and that helped a little their English since they are loosing a bit of it. They also enjoyed the mime that they learned some of the parts and played doing the mime at home. I think this for me is the nicer part: to see your own kids be involved and wanting to be involved in what you do.

Last month we had a couple from Perugia. They were here with us and since they have been church planting in Perugia for many years they have been able to encourage our team and the believers on the subject.

During those days we were also hit by another car, we were able to fix it sooner than last time, but it is hard with one car, a friend let us borrow his scooter for the days that our car was at the mechanic but Josh had to do a million trips to bring the kids to school and then get up to the Academy to be with the team....

(Hannah with the elmet ready for Josh to bring her to school on a friend's scooter)

Pray that the Lord provides for another small car or scooter or something... besides a bicycle:)

Pray for our health, Josh's surgery from last year didn't go very well and now they have told him he should get a new surgery...

The kids are doing fine and as time goes by we are able to make more friends with their friends parents, so pray that the Lord would also gave us opportunity to share the Gospel to them and to see people coming to Christ.

Pasquetta

The day after Easter we had a picnic up at the Academy, there were people from church along with friends and contacts from the book table.

Josh took many pictures and put them together in a video.

As I said in my other note, we had a program for kids and lots of food!!!

Enjoy the many faces that are part of our ministry :)

Easter holidays

family picture

Hannah and Benedetta getting ready for the kids program

my dad playing soccer with Hannah

Hello friends,

we were so blessed to have my family here last week. My mom, dad, brother and sister all came down to spend Easter us, it was a good visit even if short. We had a blessed time. They arrived Saturday morning and we were invited by some people of the church for lunch. My dad had met this couple last time he was here and he kind of liked them. So we went over there and towards the end Maria, the hostess shared her testimony.

On Sunday morning we all got ready to go to church and I was supposed to ask my dad to come with us but before I could talk he was ready to come with us...it was sooo amazing!!! and because it was easter Sunday the message was about the necessity of the cross and the resurrection.

On Monday we had a picnic with people of the church, my dad helped grilling and as somebody said he felt comfortable. They were here only for these three days but I am sure my dad had many opportunity to hear the Gospel message and to feel the love of the bride of Christ. So please pray for him and his salvation, that the Lord may open his eyes and his heart.

During the picnic we also had a program for kids and I loved working with the kids and teaching them a bible story and songs... I have to say that my body is growing old but I am still a kid inside and so it's a wonderful thing to work with kids and jump and run with them!!!

the kids ready to listen to the story

singing a song

The English school is going and right when I was discouraged from the results, the Lord seems to have given us a new insight...university students!! Follow us more and you'll know as we develop more practical ideas and outreach in this area.

In the meantime you could be praying for the evangelism that we will have at the end of this month with the help of a team from the states.

more family pictures

My sister with Hannah and Benedetta

This is a video of Benedetta singing a song that she learned at school. It is actually so cute the way she pronounces some words. We took it during the Easter Holidays while my family was here for a visit.

our girls in a love moment

Hello everybody,

I am back! This month was kind of interesting since Josh was in the USA for a week attending the Shepherd's Conference. It was a blessing for us considering that the trip was completely paid, a supporter paid for Josh to be there :)

It was a good time for Josh to study and learn from MacArthur, S.Lawson Jerry Wragg and others, a time to marvel and grow. On the other side of the Ocean I was taking care of our girls, driving around Acireale (my biggest phobia) bringing the girls to school and other activities. We thank the Lord because He took care of us during this time, towards the end of the week the stomach bug hit our house, so I was stuck home with Hannah that wasn't feeling well. Even in this situation the Lord blessed us with a sister in Christ that just moved near our house and was able to get some medicine for us.

Josh and Phil Johnson

Josh and Giuseppe, a coworker here in Acireale, both at the Conference

A choir at Grace Community Church

So Josh is back now but the sickness is moving around our family, so please pray for our health.

Last week we had a group from Agrigento, a town near here, they helped us doing distribution and going at the exit of high schools to distribute invitation for an evening program at the church, the movie showed was the one on Jim Elliot's life. I couldn't go because Hannah was not feeling well.

The group from Agrigento with their special blue t-shirts, on them it is written "saved to serve"

the team sang some songs for the church

The team also performed a mime on Sunday after the potluck

The past months were spent trying to become friends to the parents of some of Hannah's friend in order the share the Gospel to them. We have also tried to be active in their school life. We are gonna be able to teach English in another district of Hannah's school up in Pennisi, the town where the Academy is. Also a private school has me teach there once a week. I teach 21 little kids and at times it is so crazy but it is good to get to know some of the teachers, to show them first we are different and then letting them know why. One of the ladies at this school, a Montessori school, is a little older than I am, has two kids and is divorced. In her eyes I can see sadness and I pray that God opens the door to share the Gospel. Her name is Grazia.

Pray also for the English school, we are suppose to start this coming week, but for some reason there is something that doesn't work, we don't have as many students as we normally do.We teach at the church building and it seems like an hindrance to the people, so please pray for wisdom and that we can just find ways to get to know people and have opportunity to share the Gospel.

Thank you for all your prayers.