When you get this note, I hope that you will be able to sit, take time to thank the Lord for what God has done through you. You have invested in our family and the ministry here in Italy for almost 24 years! You have prayed and God has faithfully brought about His purposes in our character and in the lives of the Italian people. It is a good spiritual exercise for me to reminisce and remember the details of the past and how specifically the Lord answered your prayers.

Perhaps this year unlike any others will bring me into a deeper love and understanding of His great gift of love. The family will not be home this year and so for the first time Dan and I will be in Rome without them. Do not feel sorry for us. Yes, things will be very different and the choice to serve and give will perhaps take more conscious effort. Yet at the same time I want to stop, ponder, and just be quiet before the Lord.

"The Lord is my strength...
I trust in him with all my heart.
He helps me and my heart is filled with joy.
I burst out in songs of thanksgiving." .Psalm 28:7.

How thankful I am for His word, for the gift of living with a man who loves me, for showering me with the blessing of daughters who follow Jesus, for giving me a son-in-law who cares so deeply for Larissa, for extended family and friends who communicate their love, for Italian coworkers who teach me what it means to sacrifice.
What a privilege to belong to His family! Thanks for letting us be part of your life.

Alice & Dan