At different times as I have been here in Italy, I have struggled with the thoughts of am I really making a difference here. These thoughts have hit me hard in this last month and a half when I found out a good friend had passed away from cancer. I was saddened by the fact that because I was here I was not able to walk through this past year with her or be there for her. I mean isn't the Christian life about loving others well and walking beside them in the tough things? So as I was thinking about her and realized that our friendship, even though we only knew each other for a few years, was deeper than any I have here, especially with Italians I began to wonder what is this all for, what I am accomplishing for God, etc.
I realize that these are lies from the enemy and tend to hit me the hardest during or after something big happens. How quick I am to forget what God has done or the evidence of his hand in my life and those around me.
For example, just yesterday I was walking in downtown Bologna near the University and having this same conversation with God:
"God, look at all these students that have no clue about you and don't even seem to want to know you." "Seriously, I am the one to reach them?" "Am I accomplishing anything here for you?"
As I said this all to the Lord, I didn't really get an answer or impression from Him. Really it was as if He was just listening patiently to me like a friend recognizing that life is hard. Then that evening I was at our prayer meeting at church and began to share my thanks for a meeting with a University student on Monday night where we read the Bible together and then about our first real English Club at MySpace that afternoon where I got to talk with 5 teenage girls about God. After I shared this I was reminded of my earlier thoughts and I had to smile as God used my own words to answer my earlier questions.
All of that is to say that I can so often identify with the Israelites who say God do amazing things and then forgot them. How often do we need to remind ourselves of what God has done and is doing? ALL THE TIME and one to another.
I hope you can find this same encouragement in your own life this week!
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
SUMMER IS BEACH TIME!!!
Well, first off I must admit that it is pretty bad to realize it is now summer and the last post I made was before Christmas. I kept wanting to catch everyone up on life before writing more, but I have realized that gets me no where...so I will start with now.
I have been helping working a group of Americans that have come with Campus Crusade for Christ these last several weeks. It is crazy because I remember it was last year at this time that I had just moved to Bologna and was doing the same thing. It has been an encouragement to see how many students we have been able to talk to and hopefully some of them I will be able to follow up with in the Fall.
This past weekend several of us girls went to the beach in Rimini. It was great to lay in the sun, sleep in air conditioning and eat on a patio in the evening breeze.
Monday, November 09, 2009
Book of Hope
The biggest project that we are working on right now is for the Christmas season. Youth for Christ in collaboration with 4 churches in Bologna with handout a magazine for teenagers.
The Book of Hope (BOH) publication combines the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John to tell the life story of Jesus Christ in a magazine format. The magazine reads in chronological order and features study questions that direct the reader back into the Word. There are also sections throughout the magazine that deal with several different issues that youth deals with such as self-esteem, love, sex, friendship, facing the future, and others. All of these direct students to a part of the magazine that presents the plan of salvation so that youth knows how to accept Christ as their personal Savior.
This has been an exciting opportunity for me to see churches in Italy work together and to learn how to organize a large event. There is a lot of work that still needs to happen in these next several weeks. We have faxed 26 high schools and must now follow-up with a phone call in order to get permission to stand inside the school gates one day during the week of December 7-12 to handout this magazine as students either enter or leave school. Please pray that we can get each schools approval and support.
Attached to each magazine will be an invitation to a concert at one of the local teenage hangouts on the night of December 12. We have rented this place in order to meet students on their "turf". There is a local Christian band, called Lost and Found, that will perform and there will be a short message during the concert. Please pray that many students will come to this event and for opportunites to connect with those who are open to the gospel or searching for meaning in life. Pray also for the details of the night, organizing volunteers, talking to stores like H&M and McDonald's about being sponsors and printing the advertisments and invitations.
This event has great potential, not just in reaching teenagers with the gospel, but in getting different churches to work together, as well as publicizing Youth for Christ in Bologna.
The Book of Hope (BOH) publication combines the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John to tell the life story of Jesus Christ in a magazine format. The magazine reads in chronological order and features study questions that direct the reader back into the Word. There are also sections throughout the magazine that deal with several different issues that youth deals with such as self-esteem, love, sex, friendship, facing the future, and others. All of these direct students to a part of the magazine that presents the plan of salvation so that youth knows how to accept Christ as their personal Savior.
This has been an exciting opportunity for me to see churches in Italy work together and to learn how to organize a large event. There is a lot of work that still needs to happen in these next several weeks. We have faxed 26 high schools and must now follow-up with a phone call in order to get permission to stand inside the school gates one day during the week of December 7-12 to handout this magazine as students either enter or leave school. Please pray that we can get each schools approval and support.
Attached to each magazine will be an invitation to a concert at one of the local teenage hangouts on the night of December 12. We have rented this place in order to meet students on their "turf". There is a local Christian band, called Lost and Found, that will perform and there will be a short message during the concert. Please pray that many students will come to this event and for opportunites to connect with those who are open to the gospel or searching for meaning in life. Pray also for the details of the night, organizing volunteers, talking to stores like H&M and McDonald's about being sponsors and printing the advertisments and invitations.
This event has great potential, not just in reaching teenagers with the gospel, but in getting different churches to work together, as well as publicizing Youth for Christ in Bologna.
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