Prayer Request

I haven't forgotten about continuing to update my blog about the trips I've been on. That will be finished by the beginning of next week.

Right now, I have a prayer request for my Christian family out there.

It's 3 am here and I was supposed to be working on a paper for my writing class, yet I find myself in tears because my heart aches at seeing one of my friends walk away from their relationship with God and having to step back and watch them go down this destructive path.

It breaks my heart how this world can shake and break apart a person trying to find themself, and especially from a Christian perspective. One of my biggest fears in coming to Italy was what would happen to my faith. God has blessed me with such a strong relationship fairly early on in my life and the fear of losing that and what would happen to that haunted my heart quite a bit before I left. The Monday before I left, I broke down in tears sobbing at my bible study group and told them how terribly afraid I was of what would happen to my faith here in Italy. Even in making my college decision I kept at the forefront of my mind "Would the deep relationship I have with God right now be safe in this environment?" I researched thoroughly at each school that I got into the Christian organizations and activities available and I made an effort in contacting at least one person from each group at each school via email to ask them about their program and what it was like being a Christian on their college campus. Over the past few years, I had witnessed quite a few of my friends falling astray and getting sucked into this world and satisfying only the desires of their flesh once they entered college. I also heard so many stories and could see the actions of these young, vulnerable kids just trying to find themself and often getting distracted by the wrong ways to find yourself. I saw this, heard this, and was impacted by this, and I knew I did not want that for my Freshman year experience.

When I got here to Italy, the first few weeks were absolutely some of the hardest weeks I have been through in my life. I was so excited to be in a new environment, with new people, and a fresh blank slate to start from. I jumped right in and started making so many friends, but unfortunately I jumped in the main stream and got completely swept away by giving into my human nature. So of course, after a couple of weeks of trying to put God on the backburner (because really there was nothing I could do about it in Italy... or so I thought) my Spiritual nature started making a fuss and I knew I couldn't do this tug of war with satisfying my flesh or satisfying my heart and what I was truly made for. As it should be, God won, and I started to get back on track.

I have been continually amazed and unbelievably grateful for how much God has worked in my life already while being here in Italy. I was so afraid that being away from a Christian family and praying and reading on my own and occasionally talking to people back at home wouldn't be enough to stregthen and grow in my relationship with God. I guess this would've been one of those times when God would laugh at my ignorance.... :)  I could go on for hours and hours about everything that has happened to me here in Italy and how certain things have changed and strengthened my relationship with God and I am undoubtably a personal testament to God's Almighty power and ability to do what He wants where I am willing. I always knew I had to keep my heart open to God throughout this experience and as we sang in choir, "he never failed me yet!"

Bringing this entry full circle, I am so grateful and humbled by the many ways God has blessed me in protecting and strengthening my relationship with Him during this period of transition and trying to find myself. My experience here in Italy very easily could have completely destroyed my relationship with God and I could have very easily just chosen to follow the desires of my flesh and human nature.

This friend that I'm asking you to pray for is having almost the complete opposite happen to them and it breaks my heart and makes me angry that this world can do this to such good people. This friend has been going down a crazy path, really with only the intention of trying to find themself, and they've ended up truly "crashing" along the way. There were times where they accepted God's help in getting back on the right path and started to head down it again, but because of the previous "crashes", they received deep wounds and scars and are now not only trying to find themself but also figure out how to heal those pains. And all the while, not having a firm foundation of a strong relationship with God to work from.

As this person's Christian sister, I am saddened and frustrated as I would be if any one of my close and dear Christian brothers or sisters started to fall astray and then just give up. This one in particular has left my in tears though tonight.

I fully believe in the power of prayer and I know that God has a plan and a reason behind everything. Please pray for this friend tonight, but also for the thousands and thousands of college students out there trying to find themself and getting dragged down by this world and kept away from the amazing plan God has for them. These are my brothers and sisters, and for some of you, your sons and daughters. Regardless of how you may feel personally about a person, we are all God's children and He loves us all so very much, and because God lives in us and we are to be His light unto the world, we have to break down those personal grievances and pour out that love to the lost, broken, and weary. Even if it is just through prayer.

In His name,
Lizzie